|
Aerick's Story
Aerick is a recent exile to Puddleby. The official reason
for his banishment was the crime of raising a militia and inciting
a town to rebellion. However, the truth is quite different.
Aerick lived and grew up in a small town (or a large village,
depending on how you look at it). It was a hunter gatherer society,
with gardening to supplement that which grew naturally. The
custom was that the women gathered plants and maintained the
home while the men hunted. Unlike many cultures, although there
were clear gender-defined roles, neither was considered better.
They were accepted as complementary roles that played on the
strengths to provide the best insurance for survival of the community.
The village elders, chosen from the wisest in the town led
to community. The elders still led their normal lives; it was
an honor and a privilege to serve, but a great deal more work.
Aerick's parents were both good citizens who were respected and
looked up to, but neither demonstrated any exemplary qualities.
As is typical in such peoples, the young learned by following
their elders. For those following hunters, one important stipulation
was that the child could not be present for the kill. This was
because taking a life was a sacred act and a personal bond between
hunter and hunted.
Due to this belief, Aerick and a band of friends would follow
a hunter for a ways into the woods, and then have to stop following,
and occupy themselves in other ways. Wrestling and other friendly
combats were employed to the vast entertainment of all. Aerick
was never the oldest, biggest, or strongest, but children generally
followed him. People said it was because he was so smart, but
there were those smarter than he was who also followed.
In time, as the friends grew, contests remained their major
entertainment. As they aged, they had ever-increasing duties,
and so could not venture as far into the woods to play. They
began completing their chores as quickly as possible, then meeting
in a nearby field to have their matches. As they grew, their
fascination with the military became more and more prevalent.
They began using weapons - no true weapons, but fallen saplings
used as quarter staves or clubs and small rocks. Aerick also
began organizing them into groups to combat each other. Generally
he gave the side that he wasn't leading twice as many of the
'warriors,' in an attempt to make the teams almost even, but
his brilliant skills usually overcame even such extreme obstacles.
The elder's reactions to these war games were fairly positive.
They were proud of what the children could do, as when they
came of age, it would help protect the village in case of attack.
While they were concerned that not enough effort was being spent
by the children completing their assigned tasks, they were unable
to find fault with the completed chores. They also did not approve
of the injuries that became more and more frequent, as the children
became bigger and rougher.
Occasionally their contests took a rough bent, and Aerick
almost lost some of his friends when they got an arm broken by
a staff or were knocked unconscious by a rock. It was in a terrified
panic that he would rush back to town and beg a healer for assistance.
These events challenged his personality. He had wished to be
a great warlord, to command armies to glorious victories, but
the sight of his friends lying in pain, unable to help them,
made him consider being a healer.
When Aerick was not quite come of age, a division of Mobius'
army rode into town. The commander demanded that the elders
come speak with him. Aerick later learned that other towns in
the area had taken up arms against Mobius and the army was there
to crush any other rebellions they could find. When asking the
elders whether any such activities were taking place, the elders
pointed out that the only 'militia' they had only fought itself.
The commander ordered that this force be assembled. The children
were gathered together to show the officer the extent to which
this village did not raise armies or rebel.
Aerick, unaware of what was going on, thought his group was
being shown off. He proudly stood at their head and waited.
The commander first told them that if any tried to run, archers
would shoot them. This unsettled the children, who had been sheltered
from death. Few had even been trusted with the sacred bond of
hunting animals. The commander then announced, loudly and clearly,
that the Emperor Mobius did not permit armies, militias or rebellions
in his lands. His men advanced as a body. The commander stated
that the Emperor Mobius did not make exceptions. With this,
nearly a hundred trained soldiers fell upon just over a dozen
children. The soldiers didn't even draw their weapons. They
beat the children to death - but not all of them. Aerick, they
threw over a horse 'for their later fun,' and several others
they left broken on the ground.
As Aerick watched them fade into death, he was trapped, unable
to do anything at all. Two soldiers held him, and he received
only a few punches to the face and stomach, and a kick to the
leg. As he was forced to watch, his friends, one after the other,
were slowly and painfully killed. His parents were found and
butchered. Buildings were set on fire. The commander announced
that that was the result of rebellion and rode off. The villagers
had never lifted a hand, even as their children were slaughtered.
It was some time before he learned that his destination was
to be a dungeon, where he was left to rot. Aerick spent well
over a year there. In that time, his body collapsed into a weak
and fragile figure. That dungeon still haunts him, and sometimes,
when he is quiet, he can still hear the screams, echoing madly
through his mind. To this day, Aerick cannot long stay with
dark, enclosed spaces, and few even of his friends know the mental
terror that greets him whenever he steps into the Hive, or other
caverns.
After his time in the dungeon, he was told he was being shipped
out. Aerick's joy at being let back into the light was intense,
but even in his relief, a thought nagged in the back of his head.
Why? Why not kill him? Why were they wasting time, money, and
resources to exile him when they could just run a sword through
him? This thought occupied his mind for much of the trip to
Lok'Groton. The answer dawned on him at long last. They wanted
him to carry on the message of what they did. They wanted him
to let others know that rebelling was not an option. He was
being set up as an unwilling messenger. At that time, he decided
that he would be a messenger indeed. He would carry a message
of Mobius, but not the one they wanted....
They had cast the first stone, and the fruits of their actions
would be returned to them a thousand fold. This he vowed.
|