Cassandra didn't know her parents. She was raised as a priestess in a temple to the gods on the island of Iblydos, essentially Golarion's Ancient Greece. The people of Iblydos are polytheistic and worship a pantheon of gods with strange names like Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis, although current scholars from Absalom believe that these are just names and aspects given to the deities of Golarion (like Gorum, Cayden Cailean, and Erastil, to name a few). At any rate, Cassandra was a priestess of the gods, but did not know the gods. She was not a cleric; the gods did not speak to her, guide her, protect her. Despite her lack of connection with the divine, or perhaps because of it, Cassandra became a great Seer and prophet. Her fellow priestesses had the Sight, of course, but Cassandra's gift was different. She could pierce the veil of the future as easily as a tailor would sew a needle through a piece of cloth. People throughout Iblydos came to her temple to hear her forecast the future. Although the beginning of her life was a mystery, she was content with the present. Until one day... the gods spoke. Cassandra awoke that fateful morning prepared to spend the day prophesying in the atrium of the temple. Instead, she found her head clouded with voices, dozens, hundreds of voices, all speaking at once. She grasped her head with her hands and collapsed onto the ground as a wind without a source whipped through her bedroom. The pain and confusion was indescribable. Then, suddenly, the voices spoke in unison, saying one word: "Brevoy." Cassandra suddenly was overwhelmed with images of a far away land, a vast kingdom, nobles and royalty. The images swirled in her kind until they stopped on a man and woman, dressed in expensive-looking, colorful clothing... Who looked just like her. No one on Iblydos looked like Cassandra, with her bronze skin and black hair, but this vision... This man and woman.. If not her parents, Cassandra decided, they are at least her people. She would leave the temple for this Brevoy place (wherever it is) at once. Of course, things would not be that easy. Priestesses at the temple lived a good life. They were fed, clothed, and sheltered, they were adored by the people seeking mystic wisdom. But these luxuries came at a price: evidently, they could not quit being a priestess and leave the temple. This became clear to Cassandra when she began to walk out of the temple immediately after her vision. She was stopped at the entrance by a large beast of a man who looked like a savage barbarian wearing fancy clothes that did not at all for his character - Yannos. She knew this man, or at least knew of him and had seen him around the temple grounds. He was the merchant that took care of the temple's finances. Why would he care if a priestess left the temple? Yannos spoke in a quiet but threatening voice to Cassandra. He made it clear that he owned the priestesses. Their prophesying was an excellent business venture, and Cassandra's in particular brought in vast amounts of gold to the temple's, and Yannos', pockets. Cassandra and the other priestesses, Yannos said, were his slaves. They argued aloud until Cassandra decided she had had enough, stopped talking, and tried to walk past Yannos to leave the grounds. Yannos hit Cassandra in the face with a powerful backhand, knocking her to the ground. While Yannos muttered something about Cassandra learning her lesson, the voices in Cassandra's head began shouting louder and louder, it was a cacophony of sound, then suddenly, quiet, except for a single command: "He stands in your way. Remove him." Wind howled around Cassandra, her eyes began to glow, she felt a surge of strength pass through her. Near her on a plinth near the temple steps was a gigantic ceremonial warhammer, cast in bronze, said to represent the weight of the gods and their divine judgment. It was much too heavy for a woman of her build to lift, but yet... the voice in her head was adamant: "Pick it up." She did. Yannos screamed and drew his shortsword but it was too late. Cassandra roared as she swung the hammer into Yannos' side, leaving him sprawling on the ground, alive but unconscious. As suddenly as it began the battle fury left her, leaving Cassandra astonished at what she had done. She took the warhammer and attached it to a strong leather strap on her back, and left the temple for the docks. Her next stop would be Brevoy. Months later Cassandra arrived in Brevoy, desperate for a way to get in touch with the nobility in Restov... to get in touch with her family. But, at least in Brevoy, a commoner like Cassandra would not be granted an audience with royalty, at least not until she had proven herself loyal to the kingdom. Undeterred, Cassandra answered an advertisement looking for adventurers to explore the so-called Stolen Lands and to eventually establish a fledgling nation in that territory. |
