Nelthilta

[EndOfTheLine]

My name is Nelthilta but this was not always so. In my homeland of Kara-Tur I went by the name of Wu-tai "The Scorch". This is the tale of my past, present and future.

Both my parents were practitioners of dark magic. They seized their power by igniting the dormant blood of devils flowing through their veins. They were ambitious, powerful and infamous. They had established themselves as leaders of a powerful cult worshiping various arch-devils. They had earned the respect, hatred and fear of many, including the lord of the province in which they lived and operated.

There was an uneasy understanding that the cult was allowed to operate and the lord would turn a blind eye. This uneasy arrangement was turned on its head with the coming of Avanaxis, the gold scaled dragon of the north. The lord of the province had garnered the dragons favor in some way and had asked her to become the protectorate of the province. With the lords blessing, this "goodly" dragon had begun to enforce her ideals upon the populace, installing peace with an iron fist. No one dared to confront the lord for fear of the dragons wrath. Soon, Avanaxis had commissioned the construction of a great monastery wherein a new order of monks were born. These monks dressed in golden robes and directly served Avanaxis with utter loyalty. They were specially trained to combat devils and their worshippers and were gifted with the knowledge to become virtually invulnerable to all forms of dark magic. These monks dedicated their lives to hunting down devil worshipers and practitioners of dark magic.

The devil worshiping cult that my parents had ruled over for so long was eventually assaulted by the order of the golden scale. The monks destroyed the dark shrines and slew many of the cultists. My parents managed to escape to the largest of the outer islands of Wa. It was here that they conceived a child, a baby girl. It was also here that they used their powers to bind a group of pit fiends and other minor devils in to their service. They returned soon after to the province with their newly gathered fighting force of devils.

Avanaxis, the mighty dragon and supreme guardian of the lords lands rose up and unleashed her righteous fury upon my parents army of devils. A vicious battle ensued that resulted in the destruction of the provinces capital city. My parents were ultimately defeated and slain that day and the devils were eventually destroyed or banished back to Baator.

Avanaxis was deeply wounded in the battle and lost the use of her wings. The dragons heart was also punctured, a vicious wound that she would never fully recover from. She rules the monastery and the golden scale monks to this very day. Both herself and her order hold an everlasting hatred for all practitioners of dark magic and worshipers of devils.

The golden dragon soon after turned her back upon the lord and his lands were lost to neighboring invading factions. Avanaxis did not lift a claw to help the lord and instead retreated to her monastery where she remains to this day with her order of loyal golden scale monks.

What became of the child? She was rescued from the burning rubble of a collapsed building during the battle between devils and dragon. The child was adopted by a fleeing refugee and was taken far-far away to the city of Kul-fah.

[EndOfTheLine]

The great city of commerce, Kul-fah. This was where I grew and matured from a child into a woman. This was where I first learned of my dark heritage. My destiny would be bound to the foreign planes of existence, to the nine hells themselves. This connection flowed through my veins, ready to be ignited. The refugee who had saved me from certain death had turned out to be a loyal acolyte of my deceased parents and perhaps the only surviving cultist to escape the conflict. He taught me about my past, my parents and my destiny. His plans for Kul-fah and myself were ambitious, to raise me as an icon to be followed. A new leader for the rebirth of the cult. From the ashes of the old would be birthed anew. He had the plan and I had the right blood. He took the name of Je, "The Reaver" and I was given the name "The Scorch".

Our own cult of worshipers were formed and we chiefly dedicated ourselves to the arch-devils Belial and Fierna respectably. We ourselves were to become a strange reflection of our own patrons. I became the figurehead of the cult and the official leader. However in truth I was actually quite powerless. I had the stronger connection and command of hellish magic but politically I was but a child. Reaver stood behind me, commanding me and controlling me. I was inexperienced and lacked the confidence to command the cult without his help. He wrote the rules and issued the commands and I spoke them. He weaved the web of power throughout the cult. All the higher ranking cultists knew who truly ruled, the Reaver. I began to feel trapped and siphoned as the Reaver began to keep me confined in my own chambers. In many ways I became a prisoner. I wanted to leave. I was denied. My relationship with the Reaver soured and turned ugly. He was unwilling to allow me to leave as to do so would surely hinder his grant scheme and cause havoc among the cults hierarchy.