Today's entry is a bit of a downer and will be divided into two parts. This is one of my player's backstory (which was 50 pages long so forgive me for giving you an extremely condensed version of it), and it seemed like the best backstory to introduce the world to ya'll, so yeah, strap in and enjoy!
The Pact with Hades |
Ara was born an affair from the Duke of Galanodel, a rich and vast elven kingdom, with a commoner, a bartender named Lia. After only 11 years living with his mom, in secret, the Duke sent his man to retrieve Ara, his only male heir. Despite having his life turning to the best suddenly, Ara never enjoyed the noble life. His half-sister, Lira, was always trying to prove herself better than him, in hopes to make her father waver from his decision and make her his only heir, but always she failed, old man Quarion was too stubborn and too focused on keeping tradition that he would never in his right mind name a daughter heir to the throne.
After decades of pretty much just having to attend lessons (or trying to avoid said lessons), Ara saw something he never expected coming: Quarion promises his daughter in marriage with the elven kings' only son, Ilphas Damyar. Ilphas, being the sole heir to the royal throne, was pretty much good at everything: The best swordsman in the kingdom, the best looking young adult in the kingdom, the best poet in the kingdom, bloody hell he was the best elf alive of his time. And Lira deeply fell in love with the idea of being important. Of being Queen. Of being needed. And so they started courting, but her younger half brother, the annoying brat he was (according to her), also wanted to meet Ilphas, who was about his age, and would be an important member of his family in the future, should everything go according to plan.
What he never expected was to fall in love with Ilphas, and for the boy to return said feelings for him. For the next years, the boys would spend a lot of time together: Writing poetry, songs, Ilphas trying his best to make Ara learn a single thing about history. Or geography. Or mathematics. Or swordsmanship. Or anything really!
However, it all changed on one fateful day: There was a ball promoted by the Duke of Galanodel in order to make his daughter's marriage official to all elven kingdoms, but Ara wanted to stop it, to make sure the marriage would never be official, in some hopes that he could be the one marrying Ilphas. Deep down he always knew it would be impossible, Ilphas was the sole heir to the throne of the kingdom, and so he would be obligated into marrying a woman, but that didn't stop him. Ara convinced Ilphas into dancing first with him at the ball, and not with Lira, and that created such a scene between the three of them: Lira called Ara every single gay slur possible, and proceeded to gaslight him to the entire ball, saying he was using magic to charm Ilphas into leaving her for him. To Ara's downfall, Ilphas played along with Lira, which forces Ara to leave the ball in tears.
Later that same night, Ilphas finds Ara crying by a lake near the castle, and tries to understand what was his logic, since he knew that they could never be official because Ilphas had a duty with his family, with the kingdom, and with Ara's family, into marrying Lira. Ara suggested they both could run away and fulfill their dreams, to be wandering poets and bards, living life fulfilling people's hearts with love and hope, while Ilphas scowls at him. "Of course you would run away from all of this. This is all you know what to do, isn't it Ara? You only know how to run away."
The worst part, Ilphas wasn't wrong. Ara ran away from the kingdom, from noble life, the next morning. Adopting his artistic name, Lucean Area, he spent his next decade working as a wandering bard, bringing joy to those who would hear those beautiful piano ballads he would play. One day, he receives a letter, from his biggest fan, who is eager to hear a response from him, after bombarding the man with compliments. Lucean, who never had such a devoted fan before, answered the letter, and the two became friends. The stranger would always compliment Lucean's newest songs, poems, and presentations, while Lucean would pay special attention to him, writing him back in hopes to meet this stranger someday. He just never expected this stranger to be his ex-lover.
When Ilphas wrote him about who he actually was, Lucean was in tears. In the letter, Ilphas made clear the worst mistake from his life was to leave Lucean and try to live a life that wasn't meant for him. After years without him, he realizes that the only thing he truly needs is to be with him, damn it be the royalty, his father, and Lira. Ilphas also proposes Lucean should meet up with him, with a carriage arriving in the town he was living in just in a few days. Lucean could not be more heartstruck. His only wish finally realized, Lucean hopped into the carriage, and inside, there was Ilphas. Looking just a tad bit older, but still with his golden hair, his green eyes, and his confident gaze. Lucean fell into his arms the both of them talked the entire carriage ride. Or that would be what Luycean wanted.
See, the boys failed to realize one thing, my dear reader: Ilphas wasn't as sneaky as he thought he was. He never knew that, someday, one of his servants would betray him and warn his bride, Lira, that he was planning to escape, and, even worse, to escape into her little brother's arms. Lira wanted revenge. She wanted to teach Lucean a lesson, so she hired a hitman to kill Lucean in front of Ilphas, to show him that he was her's for life. What she didn't expect, my dear reader, is that the hitman would horribly fail their mission, and, instead of killing Lucean, they killed Ilphas.
Now, Lucean was alone in the mountain-side, with a crushed and destroyed carriage, both lover and driver killed by the hitman, who fell into the ravine of said mountain-side. His hands completely filled with his lover's blood, while he holds Ilphas' lifeless body close to him, trying to somehow cheat death, and bring him back to life.
"You wish to bring him back? I can help you with that." A voice proclaimed from behind him. Covered in black garnishment, the god of the dead, Hades, appeared for the boy and proposed him a pact. He would bring Ilphas back to him, and, in exchange, Lucean would steal a particular family heirloom from Quarion and Lira, an heirloom that Hades has been meaning to get for a few centuries, but he could never persuade any members of the Galanodel family into giving it to him. But family never mattered to Lucean, so he accepted the pact, but, before he could even start his adventure, he woke up in a dungeon, stuck there with some commoners and an extremely palled woman called Leuphora. What could this mean? Where will this lead him? Questions like this fill his mind.
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