Helana Eketria Schwarzejäger

The Divine Herald's True Form

Laura Schwarzejäger

*"From this point forth, this young lady is no longer Father’s Helena, but instead, she is simply His Lordship’s Sword. Although this young lady is not incredibly happy about being His Lordship’s Sword, it seems to be enough for this young lady to continue living. This young lady was able to bask in this much satisfaction thanks to you, Father, for having given birth to this young lady, so how could she not possibly express her final gratitude? Please die painfully. Failure of House Schwarzejäger, this young lady is happy that she was able to kill you."*
— Helena's final parting words to her birth father.

## History

### Prologue: A Flightless Bird

Lucius Ambrosius Schwarzejäger was a man of god, and in Amaria, to be a man of god was to be a man of terrible ambition. Lucius had been born the fraternal twin of Viktor Schwarzejäger, part of the main branch of the Schwarzejäger family, and as he was so often of saying deep in the night, when liquor had loosened his tongue "only 30 seconds away from being lord." Throughout his life, Lucius had deeply resented his brother, bitter that were it not for the whims of luck he would be leading the family. As a rather forward thinking follower of the Ravager, Lucius was quite fond of attempting assassination after assassination on his father, seeing no dishonor in trying to correct what he saw as a clerical error in the weave of fate. Yet his brother survived, time and time again, and the bitterness of Lucius only grew greater with every failure. Lucius was not a man without saving graces however, he deeply loved his wife Laura Schwarzejäger, and it was often up to her to comfort him when his schemes inevitably crumbled underneath his brothers luck and skill. To Lucius, Laura was his everything, and when her pregnancy came, it was his greatest joy, nothing could solidify his place within the family more then a strong male heir. So he held her hand through the entire process, and when she grew sickly, he hired the greatest healers that his meager wealth as a second son could afford.... When she lay on her death bed, healing having proven futile, and her eyes weary with pain, he made a simple prayer, the first request he had ever made to the god he so admired. "Please save her." Unfortunately for him, the Ravager was a god of survival of the fittest, he did not reward failures. Laura Schwarzejäger died on Pharast the 1st, her soul eternally passing into the hands of the god to which that month was tied, and Helena Eketria Schwarzejäger was born. She was named after her grandmother by the physicians who dug her from her mother's corpse. Her father was in no state to do so himself after all, this had been his greatest failure.

Sigra

To say that Helena was a disappointment to her father would be a rather large understatement. To her father, she was a curse placed upon him, not only the woman who had killed his beloved, but also the final death sentence to his ambitions, a female heir. Useless for anything but marriage, as was the tradition of house Schwarzejäger. Ashamed and disgusted by this child, Helena's father refused to take care of her himself, foisting her onto a lowly dwarf servant by the name of Sigra De Ceremar, and all but disowning the child. It was with only the protection of an aging and powerless woman that the young paladin began her journey into this world, and it was the womans stories of the ancient Skyseekers that first taught her of heroes and what it meant to be one. Her adoptive mother did everything to raise the small human child well, trying to keep her safe from the world outside that seemed so cold and hostile. Though they were always poor, and many a member of the town would seek to torment them, after all what could be sweeter for a frustrated peasant on tax day then to attack a member of the house without protection, they persevered. Helena learned her moral code from that woman, and from the Skyseekers of her dwarven tales, and it was with tears in her eyes that Helena at the age of nine swore at her adoptive mother's death bed, that one day she would bring a Sky Citadel back to the people that had treated her with kindness. Her adoptive mother passed with a frown, knowing this girl would not be safe alone, but hoping that the flame she kindled in her would stay alight.

A young Helena in the Library

Though her years with Sigra had always been a desperate struggle for survival, there had been some comfort in those days for Helena, comfort that was soon to end as the girl found herself without even the meager protection of an old servant. Helena was a beautiful young girl, clearly taking after her mother, and in a small island full of men that saw her no one would protect her, there was very little she could do to stay safe. Without the little money her mother gave her, she took to scrounging within the forests of the island, searching for what small prey she could hunt, or rare flowers that she might trade to the merchants for scraps. At nights, she took to staying within the islands small library, teaching herself how to read in a painstaking process. Helena loved books more then her life itself, in a quite literal sense, and her escapes into the fictional worlds that lay scattered throughout the library were all that truly kept her going in those cold days. It was in these books that she lost herself in the lives of heroine's in distant lands, battling desperately to save the ones they love. It was in this book that she was a clever queen, fending off evil with a stroke of a pen and a witty repartee. It was in these books that Helena could imagine a life different then her desperate struggle, which in a way made her bitter life all the more acerbic by the contrast. For about a year, Helena managed to survive in this fashion to reach her 10th birthday, taking the occasional beating or robbery in stride as she ate just enough to keep herself alive. She had an oath to keep after all.

As Helena reached her preadolescence, her features started to crystallize, and it became obvious to those around her that she was destined to be a great beauty when she was older, very much like her mother. For most young noblewomen this would be a blessing, but to Helena it was a terrible curse, for as her beauty grew, so did the appetites of the men of the island, and... her father. For as Helena was doing her best to stay alive, her father had been stewing in his hatred, his obsession with the memory of his father, and as he watched his daughter grow so close to his beloved Laura from afar, he began to feel entitled to take that beauty for himself. After all, she had ruined his life, that meant she owed him her own. So ran the thoughts of this twisted failure, and so Helena was forced to live a life of vigilance, foisting off attempts to take her at every turn, with her father as the most active participant of the islands men. Where Helena had once read to sink into fantasy worlds, she now read to keep herself awake during the long knights of the Isle of Black Moon, reading until eventually her hateful enemy sleep forced her to lower her guard. She learned to run at the heavy sound of men's feet, and she learned to hate the snow that prevented her from hiding within the relatively safe forests of the island. She learned to close her eyes when her father eventually found her, and her back was to a corner, and she learned how to keep her mouth shut, so that the slaps would stop. She learned that screaming was pointless, nobody cared about her.

The next day, only halfway into her 10th summer, she approached the merchants which stopped in their great ships at black moon isle, and offered herself as a slave, for nothing could be worse then life upon this island.

A Caged Bird

It was months later that Helena found herself at what to her was the end of her journey. The young girl was tired at this point, the ship had been cramped and her chains heavy as they sailed, but they had given her food and allowed her to sleep unmolested and for that she was eternally grateful. Though the sailors did give her the occasional rapacious look, she was at least by blood, an Amarian noble, valuable merchandise that would lose value if touched too much, so they withheld. Now she was in a large fairground, sitting alone in a cage as she stares down at her lap, wondering what sort of horrible fate awaited her, and knowing that whatever it might be, the truth was worse. Such was her karma.

### Chapter 1: Leap

Helena welcomed the first of Pharast, her 11th birthday, with a bowl of warm gruel and a bucket of tepid water, it was her day to be auctioned, and the masters wanted to treat her. Brushing her hair and washing her for the first time in days, they dressed her in fine clothing, and put a book in her hand to symbolize her literacy. Then it was off to the block. Helena's eyes where empty as she climbed the stairs to the wooden platform. For this girl only lived because to kill herself would be to willingly violate her oath, and that was not something she could bring herself to do to only person to ever show her kindness in this wide world. She hoped that whoever bought her would kill her quickly. She sat there in wide room for a long time, looking out at the crowd as the piece of property, herself, was described to the consumers. Idly she wondered how much she would fetch.

The girl's memories fade out their, the auction went on for quite a while, with multiple people coming to inspect her throughout its length. The faces and grabbing hands flowed together like some sort of perverse collage, at some point it difficult to recognize those before her as people, and she slipped into a strange half dream, where a gaggle of pig faced men poked and prodded at her, the aristocrats oinking as they laughed. She awoke to a scene of absolute devastation, a burnt ruin surrounding her as a shadowy figure loomed over her, a cocky smile on his face, and a twinkle in his dark eyes.

## Allies & Enemies

**Allies**