Role

Chapter 1

My mother was a drow priestess and my father a Imperial merchant and
both devoted to Lord Enlilth. My earliest memories were of worshiping
at the small shrine in the back room of our house near the middle of the
Imperial lands. I remember the small green jade seal depicting a raised
fist clenching a bag of coins on the one side of the altar, and a
beautiful scepter, perhaps a foot in length and made from real silver,
on the other. From the roof I could just glimpse the magnificence of the
Palace in the distance. I remember fondly my father giving me the coins
and allowing me to hand them to the Centurions who guarded our safety.
My parents, though strict, taught me well the lessons of life and law,
never sparing the rod to help me learn from my mistakes. I will be ever
thankful to them for those lessons, and the love that was behind every
strike. I shaped who I am and without their love and caring, I would
not doubt just be another mindless soul, traipsing along for scraps in
this world. Their love gave me the drive and the confidence to know
what I was destined for.

It was fall, and I in middle adolescence, when my family's stature was
increased significantly. The lawless band of brigands and fools known
as the Outlanders brought their filth and chaos into out structured world
in an attempted assault on the Palace. The Empire fought them back
with ease, and as they retreated, one of their members collapsed in
front of the house next to ours, famished for food and water. It was
then, that their young child, no more that eight approached the filthy
beast, a human of some kind, and instead of drawing a blade across
his neck as any good citizen would do, he gave him a sip of the water
he was carrying in his cup. The man started up again, but got no more
than a few steps before the Blades cut him down. However, we could
not let that infraction go unpunished. My father immediately reported it
to the Blades and Centurions that were present adding that no doubt they
intended to shelter him until it was safe for him to pass. The family
was stripped and flogged and we were rewarded with their land which my
father always liked since it was slightly larger than our plot. We
combined the land and built a new home with an outdoor shrine to Lord
Enlilth, the largest of any of the merchants, with a new jade seal and
much larger scepter. With our influence enlarged it was then, that we
heard the rumblings from the Palace itself.