Alathea, Pelor's Paladin

Joann was the daughter of two wealthy politicians of the town of Dayport. Her mother Tesa, an aristocrat human and her elf father Gamaliel, fell in love during diplomatic exchanges between the elf town of Elandil and the lords of Dayport. They live happily until a bunch of conspirators, servants of Vecna, gave a coup d’état. Tesa and Gamaliel were killed but Joann was spared because the Vecna’s followers wanted to give her a good use. They change her name to Iluda (deceiver in portuguese) and then train her in the arts of treachery and deceit. Beautiful and charismatic, Iluda became a perfect spy and a subterfuge master. Many lords fell and minions were recruited because of her, until her mission in Belvenia started.

Iluda was commanded to deceive and seduce Desmond, one of the lords of the city of Belvenia. As always she started gaining his trust in order to betray him and then let Vecna’s followers obtain Desmond’s soul. However, fate has a different path traced for Iluda. Desmond was a sincere, optimist, intelligent, wise and compassionate man. Not knowing the reason, the whole time Iluda spent with him started to become really enjoyable. Little by little, Desmond’s light started to illuminate Iluda’s heart, to the point she didn’t need to pretend she liked him. But the day appointed to overthrow Desmond approached quickly. Without a clue of what was happening to her, Iluda gave many excuses to delay the attack but Vecna’s followers became impatient and decided that Iluda had spent with Desmond enough time and had already gave them all the information necessary to proceed. Finally the day arrived and chaos filled Desmond’s palace. His servants and friends were killed and Iluda was commanded to take away Desmond’s life so Vecna’s minions could obtain his soul. Therefore, she approached his well known room with her dagger ready, but the unexpected happened.

She found Desmond pretty calm and even glad to see her. Iluda felt how her stomach rolled and a strange pain afflicted her chest. Desmond smiled at her and she felt a warm feeling through her cheeks and an urge to smile back, but she knew she needed to kill him quickly. “I know why you are here, beautiful Iluda”, Desmond said. “You were the one who sold me to those thugs, right?” Shame and anger filled Iluda and she didn’t know what to say. Desmond then approached her and touched her hand. With his eyes filled with a peace and a feeling Iluda barely remembered, he proceeded. “Lonely and beautiful Iluda, if you could imagine how deep my feelings are for you…”

The shame was now overcome with rage and Iluda turned away bewildered. How could this man be talking about love when she was about to kill him? Surely it was a weird trick to persuade her to preserve his life. However, another part of her was in blissful joy, “Desmond loves me, he really does.” Ambivalent, Iluda mind started to debate. “No, he doesn’t love you, he hates you and is begging for his life, come on Iluda, kill him. You don’t want him to know your secrets! Besides, your heart is filled with darkness. No one would ever love you”. “But his eyes, his voice, his smell, I can barely breathe when he is around, still his smile is enough to make me forget that the world exists.” “That pain must end! He doesn’t love you! How could he! You betrayed him and you are about to kill him!” “So what is this joyful feeling?” “You aren’t happy! Your heart is breaking.” “But I love him!”…

Unable to continue with her internal fight, Iluda turned back to face Desmond and swiftly stabbed him in the chest. The warm blood covered Iluda’s hand while Desmond fell down slowly. Iluda then caught him in her arms and kneeled with him on the cold floor. Blood poured out from Desmond’s mouth as he tried to smile again. His eyes were calm and filled with love. “I love you dear Iluda, plee… please forgive me. Forgive me for not being strong enough to save you.” Then, with his last breath, Desmond lifted up his hand and touched Iluda’s cheek, “Lo love you”.

Iluda’s eyes began to prickle and an overwhelming pain filled her. She wanted to scream, but didn’t find her voice. He should have hated her, despised her and cursed her for her betrayal. Instead he smiled at her and caressed her. He even died telling her “I love you”. And she murdered him. The pain was now more than she could bear and it found her voice and eyes. In despair she wanted to die too and follow Desmond to the afterlife. But she knew she could never go after him. She was too tainted, too wicked to even imagine a happy life with Desmond in the afterlife. So she wept out loud and cursed the day she was born. She then pled to the gods for another opportunity. She wanted a new life and promised wholeheartedly to become a good person whose Desmond would be proud of. She cried and wailed until she finally fell asleep embracing her beloved.

The next day, she carried Desmond body and took it to the temple of Pelor so he could be buried. At least she would save him from the Vecna’s ritual that would make him their slave forever. After the funeral, the priest told her that Pelor had a message for her. Pelor had revealed to the priest that a beautiful half-elf would come with the corpse of her beloved and commanded him to say to her these words: “Pelor heard your prayer and he wants you to become his paladin. Moreover, he said that your name is Iluda no more, but Alathea because with truth you will defeat evil”. Again, tears filled the eyes of Iluda as she followed the priest to her new home near the temple.

Meanwhile, Vecna’s clan looked for Iluda but since they couldn’t find her, they assumed she was dead. However, during all the time of her training as a paladin, Alathea revealed a lot of secrets of Vecna’s followers and many of them were captured. In vain, Vecna’s followers tried to find the traitor because Alathea could not be detected while living in the temple. Pelor would hide her from them. Finally, after years of training, the final ritual was made and Iluda became Alathea, Pelor’s paladin.

Her first assignment was to retrieve a sacred relic from Ivalice that was going to be brought by a company of clerics. She was supposed to meet them at the Stornway keep and escort them to Belvenia. While waiting for them, she would become a guard of Stornway and would help out in whatever she saw fit. Unfortunately, instead of clerics, a horde of orcs showed up and attacked the keep and now she fears the sacred relic had been stolen and lost forever.

In addition, the day Alathea left Pelor’s temple, the Vecna’s followers finally could identify the traitor’s identity. Alathea gained then a price for her head among Vecna’s followers. How she could dare to reveal their secrets! They sent Kakia, one of Alathea’s former companions to kill her. Kakia really admired Iluda and her capacity to betray and exploit the darkness in the hearts of people. She looked upon Iluda as her model and now she felt deeply disappointed. How could Iluda become a servant of a pathetic god as Pelor? Iluda was a fool and Kakia will make her pay for her betrayal.

To be continued…

Introduction

Hello world!

I started this blog because I would like to share with everyone the adventures and misadventures of my Dungeons and Dragons character. It is really fun to write her feelings and thoughts and how the adventure is seen through her eyes. So many things had happened so far and maybe you would enjoy hearing about everything too!