Tristan Lidu's page

About Tristan Lidu

Lidu diaries --- Hosted by carborundum

Before she was born Tristan Lidu’s father visited a powerful soothsayer. The wise woman spoke of the accomplishments that his eldest child would achieve, and the power and glory that his child would accumulate, but also the terrible price his child would pay and sacrifice to accomplish these goals. Walkeen Lidu was told his child would help save the world. He decided to name his unborn child Tristan, which meant “sorrowful”, in honor of the future sacrifices his son (and perhaps future ruler of Sasserine) would have to face. He was surprised and greatly disappointed when ‘his’ first child was a girl. Tristan was his daughter without any doubts, but he secretly hoped that his wife had somehow chokehold him, and his future son and ruler was still yet to be born. Mab gave birth to two more daughters before Walkeen finally gave up on the soothsayer’s visions.

Tristan was six when the sea princes where nearly wiped out by the scarlet brotherhood and Sasserine reclaimed its freedom. Her father may have played an important roll in overthrowing the last of the sea princes’ forces in Sasserine but he soon fell out of favor with his uncle for reasons that were never fully explained to Tristan. Walkeen was sent to look after family business far outside of Sasserine. Whenever he returned he acted distant towards Tristan; as through she was somehow a great failure or disappointment in his life. Mab on the other hand was distant to everyone. Much of Tristan’s early life was spent in the refuge her great uncles library.

When Tristan was eight she was sent to live at the House of the Dragon. There Tristan excelled. She was constantly head of her class and a favorite of her teachers. When she was ten she made the mistake of bragging to one of her older cousins about her accomplishments and the praise she had received, “you’re a Lidu,” the young woman had said, “What do you think they’re going to do? Fail you? They’d pass you even if you were a complete dunce, as is, I’m sure even you’ll graduate with merit or something,” Tristan was shattered, it was though all her achievements where instantly stolen from her, and although Tristan later realized that her cousin was either mistaken or just being exceptionally cruel, the incident taught her a very valuable lesson on humility. Tristan vowed to never brag or speak of her accomplishments again.

Then came the moment that would forever shape Tristan Lidu’s life: One night, a few weeks before her 13th birthday, Tristan awoke and discovered that the forbidden book room in the library was open. Normally this door was sealed and only members of the witch wardens or the alumni of the House of the Dragon were allowed entry (even then under the supervision of one of the librarians), but with no one guarding the door, Tristan’s curiosity got the best of her. Many of the books were useless to her, written in languages she didn’t yet read or fully understand, but the smell of ancient leather was exciting to the young bibliophile. Tristan pulled down tome after tome to flip through their ancient pages to examine their contents. Then, on a dusty shelf in the back of the room, she made a surprising discovery: one thin volume had somehow slid behind the other books on the shelves. The mysterious book may have been hidden there, undiscovered, for hundreds of years. Tristan carefully removed the book, dusted it off, and scanned its yellowed pages. It was written in abyssal, a language she was only just beginning to understand, and although she didn’t fully grasp the contents of the pages, Tristan knew that something profound was happening as she read the book. Tristan awoke the next morning somehow back in her own bed and in her own room. She was unable to remember how she had gotten there. For a moment Tristan imagined that she had dreamt her late night trip to the forbidden book room, the entire event had simply seemed too fanciful, but as she pulled back the covers to rise from bed Tristan discovered the ancient volume laying next to her, under the covers of her bed.

Tristan’s mood and attitude changed notably over the next few months. At times she seemed wracked with depression. At other times she seemed almost crippled with ennui. Her instructors simply chalked it up to hormones, her body was going through massive changes, but biology was hardly the only source of her psychological strain. Most nights Tristan was studying the forgotten tome that Tristan now knew as the Necronomicon. The dark secrets buried within the ancient tome were undoubtedly corrosive to her young mind.

Tristan not only graduated at the top of her class, but at the age of sixteen and eight months, she was also one of the youngest graduates in the school’s history. Her life outside of the house of the dragon was far from secure however. Unbeknownst to Tristan the Witchwardens and Dawn council were both forbidden from offering her a position until her eighteenth birthday by her great uncle Worrin. Instead Tristan was sent to apprentice under an old friend of Worrin’s, Blenak, of Blenak’s bazaar. Secretly, Worrin Lidu hoped that Tristan would mater alchemy and rise through that guild to become its head, but Worrin’s plans weren’t meant to be, somewhere across town, the murderous plans of a unruly son would soon propel young Tristan Lidu’s life in new, and unexpected directions . . .