Character History
An Excerpt from Jooms' Personal Journal
The only time I ever remember being truly
happy was before I was eleven years old. My life was good. My mother and
father loved me and treated me to every luxury affordable to them. My brothers
and sister were also very happy. Our lives were akin to a faerie tale in many
senses. My father was not a king, a prince, or even rich, but he was very
financially able.
Shortly after my twelfth birthday my mother
began to act strangely. She began staying in town until late with no account
of where she had been. Father assumed she was having an affair and though
this disturbed him greatly later he would wish that this had been the case.
This behavior worsened over the next several
months. I vividly remember it all. She ceased to cleanse herself, comb her
hair, or change into an unsoiled frock. "She looks like a wild woman," our
neighbors could often be heard to mutter. Inside a ten-day she went from being
mildly delusional to a full-blown psychopathic maniac. The clergy refused to
believe it to be a possession of any sort. Even though they would stand behind
their grand marble altars and preach out about evil and it's "taking root in
men's souls," they did not believe their own words. Or did not care enough.
Indeed no one believed she was anything more than a lunatic that needed to be
locked away for her own safety and those around her. This sentiment was
reinforced by a mandate from the lord-constable and mayor. This commitment, as
fate would have it, arrived one day too late.
Our money was nearly gone and our house had
been sold by father to pay for the priests solemn prayers and pious blessings
that he swore would help. We now lived in a small squat three room dwelling in
what father used to refer to as the slums. The interior looked as though we
belonged to some weird religious cult. There were holy symbols etched in all
the walls, holy candles and incense on every shelf (and constantly ablaze).
Food lay forgotten, spoiling, and uneaten in a dozen places and twice that
dried or dripping from the walls. Strange idols and good luck tokens sent by
family members made mom's room look like some bizarre shoppe of unusual
antiques.
It was a blustery, chilly day and I was
running an errand for my father. He refused to leave mother for even a brief
moment to get more flour and bread, because mother needed his constant attention.
Who knows, but this proximity might have been the final straw. Upon my return,
I found my parents home surrounded by city guards and onlookers. After shoving
my way through the throng, I managed to just get inside the front door before a
guardsman grabbed me by the cloak. I know I only saw a mere glimpse over 37
years ago before I was yanked back outside, but that image was forever ingrained
in my memory and my nightmares.
I saw five burly guardsman holding down my
mother as she was being tied with a stout and already fraying rope. One yelled
outside for someone to call for spell support from anyone. The interior was
splattered with a dark red mosaic pattern. The unusual artwork seemed to have a
life of its own and moved accordingly toward the floor as if seeking to escape
through the front door of the building. Indeed it did have a life of it's own,
my father's. It was his blood. The screams of my mother, the yelling of the
guards, and the commotion of the surrounding townsmen flooded my mind and nearly
my vision as well. All of this was secondary to the centerpiece of this macabre
scene, which was my father's half eaten decapitated head on a plate at the dinner
table. Nearby lay his old rusted militia sword fouled with crimson stains
consistent with a deadly campaign.
I was taken to an orphanage until I became
eighteen years of age. For the next six years, I spoke only to the librarian
and then it was only questions on "demons." How do I fight them? What made
them the way they are? Why do they want us? How can I destroy them? I became
more and more obsessed. I could only drink holy water or white wine. The nuns
that controlled our environment could not afford to waste holy water upon a
stubborn youth that refused to drink normally. After nearly twenty trips to the
infirmary for severe dehydration, they relented and allowed me white wine with my
meals. My mind repelled all liquids for my remaining childhood. Holy water and
white wine were the only substances pure enough to not be a vessel of demons.
Upon eighteen years of age, I was released into
the world to embattle "demons" and save humanity as I was unable to do for my
mother (or father). My life was devout, dedicated, and boring. Training,
knowledge, preparedness, and desire did not make more of their ilk threaten the
world than normal. After several serious encounters, I decided that the "real
thing" was farther and fewer between than had I dreamed. So, I changed my angle
of approach. I no longer sought them out to kill them and remove them from our
plane. I now sought them out to control them as they would control us. There is
something that they need from us that will probably forever be beyond our
understanding, but we can turn the tables and hunt them for their power. To leash
and control them, is to no longer FEAR them.
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