In the mountains outside of Nibenay, there exists an ancient ruin. Deep within that ruin is a sealed vault. A small cabal of men have guarded that vault since there was water in the Silt Sea and verdant greenery across Athas.
The mantle of leadership of this cabal has been passed from man to man in a secret unknown ceremony. The veteran leaders of the cabal are called Tava and they are masters of psionic disciplines both martial and mental. They choose one amongst them to be their voice and provide singular directon. That current man is Su-Tava Morkai, an elder human psychic warrior of great wisdom.
Villagers in the nearby area (and even those from far away who have heard of the legends) bring their children who diplay psionic aptitude to the Tava, in hopes that they will take them and train them to perfect their discipline. Most of the applicants bring gifts of food, water, seeds or herd animals. Most are turned away, but every so often a promising individual is kept and trained. And more importantly to the family, fed and watered ... their survival likelihood increasing dramatically over the harsh Tableland villages or under the thumb of the Sorceror-King led urban sprawls.
This is how Cristaph came to join the Tava ... unceremoniously dropped off by his mother once he demonstrated the ability to manifest a solid blade with his mind when attacked by a rogue kank as a small child.
He was accepted, trained and taught. From combat arts to unlocking more than just latent psionic talent, he spent time training physically and listening to the Tava Masters teach their history and wisdom of the centuries of bygone guardians via story and parable. Like other parts of Athas, there are no libraries, but there is no lack of education as stories are taught and learned and passed on.
For thirty years, Cristaph, trained, stood vigil, meditated and pondered existence, but never once did he doubt his singular purpose in guarding the unknown treasure and force for good from any and all who may wish to take it. Bandits, rogue defilers and ex-templars had all taken a chance during those three decades, but all were turned back by the ever-vigilant Tava warriors.
Until one evening ... an enterprising psion, a relative of one of the guardians who was turned away as a child, riled up a tribe of wild thri-kreen and in the chaos, via methods unknown to Cristaph slipped past the warriors and opened the vault.
Although the psion was cut down before he could enter it, the damage was done. The vault was empty, cleaned out generations ago by Nibenary himself once he learned of it. Turns out the cabal had quite a survival dependency based around the arrangement and the myth and since Nibenay was in and out fairly easily with nary a word to anyone, the Tava Masters were able to cover it up and keep it that way from the guardians themselves.
Cristaph, along with some others, felt betrayed and the sense of overwhelming loss of focus and ideology was too much. Burdened with a sudden sense of imprisonment, he had to get away from the ruins that had become his home. The Masters didn't stop him when he grabbed his sack and waterskin and left.
Unfortunately for Cristaph, crisis of identity and a desire for freedom matter little to the deadly Athas environment and before long he found himself dying of thirst in the desert. He collapsed under the stress one evening and awoke to find himself in a free slave village, having been rescued by the villagers on patrol the night prior.
Counting himself lucky and thankful for the second chance, Cristaph stayed on to aid the village as repayment for his life. But their xenophobia and rule-heavy leadership are beginning to chafe on his desire to be freed from duty.
