Vaysh's page

Craft (Cooking) +6, Diplomacy +10, Handle Animal +6, Knowledge (Arcana) +7, Knowledge (Planes) +3, Knowledge (Religion) +3, Spellcraft +9, Use Magic Device +11

1 Craft (Cooking), 2 Diplomacy, 1 Handle Animal, 1 Knowledge (Arcana), 1 Knowledge (Planes), 1 Knowledge (Religion), 2 Spellcraft, 1 Use Magic Device

Acrobatics +0, Appraise +0, Bluff +5, Climb -1, Craft +2, Disguise +5, Escape Artist +0, Fly +0, Intimidate +5, Perception -1, Perform +5, Ride +0, Sense Motive -1, Stealth +0, Survival -1, Swim -1

Craft (Cooking):Vaysh has studied under Missus Svetlana Leveton to become a proficient cook.
Diplomacy: Vaysh is strong in her beliefs, and generally convincing.
Handle Animal: Vaysh worked with the animals back on her family’s land.
Knowledge (Arcana): Vaysh is learning smatterings from her experiences in the real world and interactions with other casters.
Knowledge (Planes & Religion): Vaysh's knowledge of Religion and the other realms are from the stories told to her by Heart.
Spellcraft: Heart recognized her natural talent, and so trained Vaysh in the use of her magic.
Use Magic Device: Vaysh's magical connection to the other plane has given her great skill with magics, both known and unknown.

The close of the Shining Crusade long ago saw many changes in the world, the most widely recognized is the defeat of the Whispering Tyrant and the foundation of Lastwall. An ancestor of mine, Bellacrus, the founder of my bloodline was involved in those battles and served with a very powerful warrior. My ancestors company did not disband after the war, nor did it stay in Lastwall, they instead traveled the lands to ensure that the taint of the Whispering Tyrant had been cleansed, at least they did for a time.

Five years after the end of the war Bellacrus found himself in Absalom with his company, the leader of their company was preparing for the test of the Starstone. Iomedae succeeded at the test, when she emerged she looked to those who had traveled with her for so long and fought in the war. She knew that these men and women’s hearts were pure and devoted to the cause; the Goddess of Valor laid down a duty for her company, to spread across Avistan and guard against the festering of evil, knowing that she would come to their aid if they were to find it.

The company fell into counsel and spoke on the commands of their officer. Days later each of them left Absalom with different destinations, while some of them would travel for a time together, each knew that in the end they would be alone in the land that they would watch over and protect as Iomedae had instructed them.

Bellacrus came to the rolling hills and rich soil of Rostland, the northern most colony of mighty Taldor. Bellacrus swore fealty to the Aldori, becoming known as Bellacrus Aldori. Over the years he rose to prominence in the region and became a lord of Rostland, acting with kindness and benevolence to his subjects but responding to dangers within the land quickly. Bellacrus married and had children, passing both his fief and his sacred duty on to his child.

The children of Bellacrus have all been marked with the sign of Iomedae; a birthmark resembling a sword with a star burst around the hilt. This sign of Iomedae’s faith has kept my family strong with the mission that we were laid down with so long ago, and for countless generations we continued with our divine mandate, as well as with the ruler ship of our fief.

The lands of Rostland have always been prosperous, making excellent farm land, and the ancestral lands of my line are no different. This has traditionally made Rostland an appealing target for brigands and raiders. My ancestors have always been strong in the defense of these lands against these aggressors that seem to surround Rostland. Long ago a threat arose that Iomedae had sent Bellacrus to watch for. Issia, Rostlands neighbor to the North, surrendered to a warlord of the East; with honeyed words they turned his aggression to the richer lands of Rostland while they accepted his foreign dominion. The Dragon Blooded Tyrant found in the heart of Rostland the heart of warriors willing to fight to protect their holdings, in the end, however, my people were crushed under the might of his armies. Even after the defeat of our lands, my ancestor and the bearer of Iomedae’s Mark, stood strong against the invasion, retreating to Skywatch with other staunch defenders of Rostland. Our conqueror raised the entire stronghold, leaving a smoking and charred ruin as the only memory of Rostlands struggle against his rule.

Our line came close to ending that day, but before my ancestor had journeyed to Skywatch he bid farewell to his bride. The two of them only lay together once, but the union was blessed by Iomedae and our line continued on past the destruction of Skywatch.

Rostland was humbled, but still struggled against the will of its new lord. No longer was open resistance to his plans possible, but within the heart of many Rostlanders a fire burned, yearning for a day when they would be able to do something to right the wrongs of this time.

Years later, long after our defeat by the Dragon Blooded Tyrant, his bloodline and the ruling family of what was now known as Brevoy disappeared. The Rogarvia’s, the family of the Dragon Blooded Tyrant, held our lands from us for two centuries; one day they disappeared without a trace from our lands. I was just a child when this happened, but I have learned my history of the subject.
Hope burned anew with some when the Rogarvia’s disappeared from the land. The Suratova’s, opportunistic vultures who had so long ago felt it better to surrender than to fight for their lands, knew the laws of Brevoy and found ways for them to claim control of our lands once again.

Suratova quickly expanded its control over Rostland, as Issia put up little resistance to their control. House Suratova used honeyed words once again, this time promising those who would ally with them power. There was no war this time, there were no battles for the bards to sing of, there was politics.

My family found itself out of favor with the ruling Suratova’s, and we had our ancestral lands stripped of us; something that not even the Rogvaria’s had done. As I have grown up, I have seen the coiling serpent Suratova wrap itself around Rostland threatening its deadly poison to any who do not bow to them.

When my family became dispossessed from our ancestral home we journeyed to the southern border of Brevoy, where the control of Suratova was not as strong. There we struggled against our surroundings to make a life for ourselves. My father, not wishing his children to grow up without proper education and knowing that his sacred duty called him away from home, spent a great deal of his remaining wealth on materials for a ritual to Iomedae. He called upon her to aid him with a proper tutor and guardian for his children in this wild land. Iomedae sent Heart, a being of pure divine energy and radiance, to guide us.

Father left soon after that, to speak against what was happening in Brevoy and find allies that he could. After that I did not see my father very often, though he visited from time to time. The rest of us learned about life on the frontier during the day while we worked, and about so much more at night under the tutelage of Heart.

The my two brothers and I imagined ourselves to be the great heroes of Heart’s stories, we would play and romp through the fields with Heart trailing behind us. Whenever Heart was near, we all felt safe from anything.

The years passed, and there was little change within Brevoy. The Suratova’s had the land in a stranglehold and tensions continued to mount as war between Issia and indentured Rostland became less of a question of if, and more a question of when.

Last fall father returned home for a few days. He spoke with me, eldest of his children and inheritor of his legacy, he told me that he was traveling to the Stolen Lands on behalf of Rostland. When he spoke to me, I knew that something very serious was going on; his tone and demeanor betrayed no information of his mission or intent within the Stolen Lands. He informed me that if he did not return that Rostland would be at serious disadvantage in the coming war. The next day he was gone and headed to the south.

I took to a vigil every night to watch for father’s return from the Stolen Lands. A mile to the south of our stead there was a large rock that provided a view of the lands surrounding our family home. After work was finished, I would walk to the lookout and stay there for an hour past the last sliver of light searching for sign that father was on his way home. I watched as fall gave way to the rains, and then biting snow. The rock became covered with snow and its exposed surface provided no protection from the chilling wind, but still every night I would travel in my heaviest cloak and without light of my own watch for sign of my father. It was one such night when Heart came out to the rock to tell me that father would not be returning.

I immediately began preparing for a journey to Restov, there someone would be able to tell me what father had been doing heading to the Stolen Lands. I looked to my family and told them my intention was to find father, one way or another. Only with him would I return to them. I told my brothers that they were to stay and protect our homestead with Heart, that Iomedae would guide my search for father.

I am proud of my home, though my homeland has been taken from me. I was born in the southern reaches of a land known as Brevoy on maps, though that is not the name of my homeland. I am a Rostlander born within the borders of Rostland, a place that has been swallowed by Northern aggression and trickery. It seems that I can do little now to release my lands from the hold of the Suratova’s, but I am working towards that end as Iomedae guides me. I have shed no tears over the disappearance of the tyrant Rogvaria, though I believe that it is but another crime the Suratova’s have committed. I look to the South for signs of my father and aid Rostland while I do so, always trying to follow the teachings of Iomedae and her servant Heart.

Vaysh is young and hopeful for the future. Despite the environ that she has grown up in she still looks upon the world with some innocence. Though she does not trust the Suratova’s based on everything that she has grown up believing, she is incapable of striking at them with malice until she has proof of their wrong doing. A mission to the Stolen Lands to try and secure them for trade and spawn a Rostland friendly nation seems an ideal mission in her mind. Vaysh holds the faith of Iomedae close to her heart and tries to live up to the values of Iomedae, though she has not experienced irredeemable evil and so does not have the resolve to fight against that yet. She still believes in redemption and favors the use of the carrot over the use of the stick.

Vaysh hopes to find her father alive, though she believes that what Heart has told her means that he died in the Stolen Lands. She wishes to restore her family’s lands in Rostland and separate Brevoy into its two parent nations, though if she is only able to aid Rostland through actions to the south and securing the border she accepts that. If her destiny is within the Stolen Lands she hopes that she can make a home for her family there.