Autel 'Vadamai

Autel 'Vadamai is a Sangheili swordsman and former kaidon of House 'Vadam on Rahnelo. Born with severe albinism, his lifespan was expected to be short, difficult, and unremarkable. Instead, Autel overcame his physical shortcomings by attuning himself to his keener senses and honing them in combat training, an arduous process that took up much of his childhood and culminated in his rise as kaidon at the cusp of adulthood. Having earned the title of blademaster upon defeating his predecessor, Autel held the position of kaidon until he was deposed by his father and forced to flee Rahnelo. With a crew made up of his mate, newborn daughter, and loyal friends, Autel spent the middling years of the as a fugitive before he accepted a deal with , and served as a SeccoonataLeader of a Seccoona unit until the prompted him to side with alongside his estranged father.
==Biography==
===Early Life (2512—2531)===
Autel was born in the frozen hinterland that made up the State of Vadam's coastal region, encompassed by the snowy mountains stretching across Rahnelo's northern hemisphere. Like many in the local clans, Autel's egg was incubated to improve survivability against the frigid climate, though he was noted to have hatched prematurely relative to the other newborns at the time. Frail from birth, near-blind, and unable to withstand even moderate exposure to sunlight, Autel required a great deal of nurturing during infancy, more than the Vadam Keep was willing to provide. Before long he was placed in the care of his mother Fayta, a seer and a devotee of , and was raised in the wintry mountains surrounding his village of Ra'kai. Under her guidance, Autel learned to read and write in both the modern and traditional dialect, and learned much about Sangheili history and culture before the Writ of Union bound their people into the San'Shyuum's servitude. By the time he reached the age when his cervical scales receded, Fayta sent him to live with the Vadam Keep, recognizing that he was healthy enough to no longer depend on her.
Although Rahnelo maintained a tradition of allowing children to grow up knowing their fathers, Autel's standing as the son of the famed Thel 'Vadamee granted him no favour among his keep; quite the opposite in fact, as his physical deficiencies led others to believe he would never make an ideal warrior or even live a long life. As a result, he was largely left to his own devices and given next to no attention by most of the others within the keep. During this time Autel would frequently sneak out of the keep after dark, finding that he missed his mother and the quiet upbringing he had grown accustomed to. It was on one of these nights that he met Fira 'Demal, a restless youth from a neighbouring keep. The two of them became fast friends after Autel managed to redirected a colo stampede that Fira had accidentally startled, narrowly herding them away before they could trample through Ra'kai. The incident also earned him the attention and respect of Ka'nar 'Demal, Fira's uncle and the elder of his keep, who took a keen interest in Autel in contrast to the Vadam Keep's perpetual indifference.
An exception within the clan itself was Autel's uncle Jido, the Captain of the Guard. Though no one had explicitly instructed him to do so, Jido patiently and tirelessly trained Autel in the ways of the swordsman. Under his tutelage, Autel learned how to wield the ria'kun, a traditional energy blade invented by the keep's founder, and although Autel struggled at first to keep up with the other children, Jido did not relent on imparting onto him the importance of discipline, and the distinction between relying on natural talent versus hard experience. His perseverance eventually yielded results as Autel discovered ways of attuning his hearing and smell to compensate for his poor eyesight, a method he developed himself as Jido could not give him much advice on the matter. By the time Autel reached adolescence, his skill with the blade was unmatched by any of the children in his keep, and he was able to spar against adults with the form and precision of a seasoned veteran.
As he grew older, Autel became increasingly adverse toward the Vadam Keep's ambitious kaidon, N'von, and the excessive number of young males he was sending to the Covenant's least survivable battles against humanity. The Harvest Campaign became a particular point of contention, with many Rahnelans believing that their warriors were treated as more expendable than their brethren from Sanghelios. The culmination of his frustrations came to a head in 2531 with the news that Fira had been put on a conscription list and was due to be shipped out. In response, Autel challenged N'von to a duel, and the kaidon arrogantly accepted, presuming that a near-blind albino would be no match for him in a one-on-one fight. Though N'von proved a worthy opponent, Autel leveraged his lack of restraint against him, meticulously inflicting a shallow cut on N'von's body for every conscript he had sent to their deaths as a means of baiting him. Filled with a righteous fury, Autel waited until his kaidon begged him for mercy before finally granting him relief by removing his head. The Vadam Keep recognized Autel as their kaidon that very day, although his victory was saturated by concerned whispers that his age would make him easily to manipulate.
===Tenure as Kaidon (2531—2535)===
Ever aware of the precarious nature inherent to his station, Autel took lengths to surround himself with allies to deter potential dissidents. Through his longtime friendship with Fira, he built solidarity with Ka'nar, Fira's uncle and elder of the Demal Keep, and also pledged support to the Cazal Keep, seeing its resourceful architects as the best means of improving infrastructure within the State of Vadam. Amidst his new connections was Ceyla 'Cazal, a keen-eyed engineer who was initially resistant to cooperating with him and was often nowhere to be found. It was not until he discovered her secret project beneath her keep, a DAV-class corvette she had painstakingly assembled herself, that he was able to make any headway with her. Realizing that Autel did not intend to out her or seize the ship for himself, Ceyla eventually grew to trust him, and over the next few years their relationship blossomed into romance. Deciding to forsake the traditions surrounding his status as a swordsman, Autel married Ceyla in 2534 with all of Ra'kai present to witness their exchange of vows.
==Analysis==
===Personality and Traits===
Autel's priorities shifted during his exile, tending to the needs of his crew and raising his daughter Vena to the best of his ability while constantly remaining on the move in space. His curiosity about the nature of the Human-Covenant War eventually led him to investigate its cause, finding that his accounts of humanity largely differed from the Covenant's claims of their supposed cowardice and heretical ways. This led to him confronting the Prophet of Truth at High Charity in 2542, where the Hierarch candidly admitted that the war was a political matter and not merely the mandated crusade it appeared to be. The two of them made a deal, with Truth easing the conscription rate on Rahnelo in exchange for Autel and his crew serving as his secret black ops hit squad. Though his missions would sometimes bring him into conflict with human targets, Autel respected them as adversaries and often advised his crew not to underestimate their mettle.
==References==
Category:ZOD Characters