Arkadi Spektor has never had to wonder how the legacy of Ustlav's darkest days can cast their shadow over a man's life. He need only look in a mirror.
From his earliest days, Arkadi knew he from different. Once his father Sergei had been mayor of their small town, he knew, not now he was a near outcast living in a too-empty house. The other children would flee from Arkadi, or chase him away, or most disturbingly sometimes bow and scrape for his favor. And no one else seemed to shy in pain from cloudless days.
As a small boy his father would say just that his mother was an exceptional woman who suffered under a great curse, which is why she had left him in his father's care. Only when he was older did Sergei speak haltingly of the beautiful witch of the night that claimed both him and the town as her play thing. Of the heroes who with sword and faith broke her hold and sent her fleeing into the darkness once more. And of the knock on the door, months later, altering him to a crying babe on the step.
There were many sleepless nights where Arkadi wrestled with his hungers and uncertainties. Was he damned by the taint of undeath, or was there hope for him. Was his mother only a monster, or was she a still a woman who wanted a better life for her son. Unable to find answers on his own, he at last resolved to seek out the Mendevian crusaders who had once before liberated his home town.
At first, the crusaders were taken aback by the appearance of a youth of such obviously tainted heritage applying for training. But the sincerity of his words won them over, or at least enough that he was allowed to remain where he could be carefully observed. In between his normal studies Arkadi was often asked to serve as a test case for explorations into the poorly understood dhampirs. Even the famous Professor Lorrimor was called in to assess him, and the two remained in infrequent contact afterwards.
In his years of training Arkadi won some friends and earned more enemies, a continuing pattern from his childhood. The teachings of Iomedae were a great comfort to him, as was the promise of using blade and prayer to bring salvation to shadowed Ustalav. His final tests were completed only recently, and a planned return home was interrupted by the sad news of Professor Lorrimor's passing. The reunion with his father was put off in order to accept the invitation to the Professor's funeral.
