Yannathar Oghmanyte Most Beautiful

Yannathar at an early age understood she was different from most of the initiates. Looking in a mirror, it was pretty obvious. Sister Alosha was the first to call her ‘Most Beautiful’ sarcastically, because she was so ugly as a child, her dark red skin and horned head an abomination to their god. There were other races in the convent, but non cursed with the ancestry of demons like she was.

She was always given the worst jobs, scrubbing floors, diggin the gardens, heavy lifting. She learnt to cook in the kitchens below the citadel and the heat never bothered her, she could handle hot plates and water unaffected. ‘Demon child’, ‘Most Beautiful’ the initiates would whisper at her. .When officials of the church visited they would hide her away or send her on jobs where she could not be seen. Out of spite Yannathar learnt to read and write and when this was discovered she was put to work in the library copying texts from dawn till dusk.

The only joy she had was the singing. Initiates and sisters prayed through song to their God for up to five hours a day. This was her one happy place. The words she changed in her head to fantasies, stories and adventures. But the songs wrapped around her soul and gave her strength.

She was 14 or 17 years old (who knows) the first time she saw a man. It was a Lorescribe of God, come to visit unannounced. The sisters hurriedly hid Yannathar away, but the Lorescribe noticed the dark red horned girl and was intrigued. The sisters reluctantly presented Yannathar to him and though surprised Yannathar found talking to him interesting. He asked  questions and treated her like a person, not a slave.

He left and Yannathar began to wonder what life was like outside the walls of the convent.

About a year later another visitor came to the convent in the spring, this one again unannounced, but very different to that last person. One of the sisters’ brothers, he came to visit for a day. Yannathar was fascinated with the man. She was not allowed to meet him, but she secretly watched the siblings in the garden talking.

He played a tune on a musical instrument and Yannathar was smitten. It was light and airy sounds floated on the air, and he sang a song about a bard, whatever that was and his adventures with a band of heroes. Without even knowing Yannathar had begun to sing and her voice slid into the man's song countering,  seeming to melt into it to make it more than it was.

The man, lost in the moment, played and sang and the two of them made a duet of beauty and wonder. The sister sat mesmerised and as it flowed to an ending all three of them blinked and  the moment was lost.

Yannathar ran. But there was no one chasing her and it seemed the sister did not tell on her.

A week later as she was working in the far end of the garden a voice called to her from the wall of the Convent. It was the singer.

Calaban visited secretly once or twice a week for a couple of months. He talked of adventures and the wider world, of places and peoples beyond the walls. He gave her a small flute which she hid away. Taught her songs and tricks of a bard which she picked up as if born too and much to Calabans hidden chagrin she was actually better at than him. He said he would take her away from this place and show her the world and together they would become the greatest bard troupe in all Faerun. And then he just stopped coming. No word, no goodbye.

There was a note sent to the sister a few weeks later. Yannathar didn’t know what was in it, but the sister screwed the note up and cried for a few days.

Yannathar almost ran then, but jumping the walls and leaving was harder psychologically than she thought.

Summer was in full bloom  when the Convent sisters were in an uproar, Loremaster High Avernius was going to visit the Convent on his way to Waterdeep. Preparations were made and now the sisters had everything scrubbed to divine standards. As the caravan of dignitaries could be seen coming up the road Yannathar was told she would work in the kitchens, sleep in the kitchens and not come out till the highness and entourage had left.

On the evening of the Loremasters' visit though, a pair of agitated sisters came for Yannathar. Without words she was ushered to the bath house and washed and cleaned up, put in a clean, new initiates robes and ushered up into the Convent proper with no idea of what was going on.

After certain words are spoken and intentions made clear Yannathar distracts him with a voice throwing trick Calaban taught her, head butts the Loremaster High Averius in the face, her horns, it seems actually good for something, breaking his nose and his cheekbone. She straight kicks him across the room launching him into a wall where he breaks two ribs, then she casts another trick taught her and a sudden loud ringing noise, painfully intense, erupts right in the Loremasters left ear. Already winded he struggles to clap his hand to his ruptured eardrum. The two guards outside the door have heard these sorts of sound before coming from the Loremaster’s room and ignore it.

Yannathar grabs Loremaster by the hair and slams his head into the wall till his eyes roll up unconscious. She slams it a couple more times just to make sure. She climbs out the window and shimmies down the stone block wall without a problem, runs to her room, grabs what few things she treasures and then is into the garden, over the wall and away, she knows not where.

Yannathar's Rifting

Yannathar's Songs