Ezebell

## Lore

**Part 1**

"Bad things happen when I'm around.
Whether I want it or not."

Neil Prachett, excerpt from<Black Omens>

In the Church of the Morning Star, children are very important. We adults are fated to leave this world soon, but the children are our heirs to future. That is why the Church founded schools across the Hinterlands and takes pride in properly bringing up children.

But every year, some children are born bearing special "signs". These children are carriers of Dark Blood. They often possess superhuman abilities or bring about terrible catastrophes. We don't know why these things happen, but some say that the gods that turned their back on this world left some their powers behind for their own followers but those powers had unfortunate side effects on mankind. The Morning Star has Saintesses heal these poor children every night, so that they won't fall victim to the misfortunes that come with the tainted power.

Yet, there are those among us adore and praise the Morning Star, but have not learned how to love others as she does. They refuse to accept anyone who are even the tiniest bit different from themselves. As can be deduced these people do not hesitate to abuse the aforementioned unfortunate children, both physically and mentally. Because of these vile, despicable people, these poor children meet heartbreaking deaths at times. Such was the case of Ezebell.

The childhood of Ezebell Roxane was unique, to say the least. Ezebell's mother was Lady Tremaine Roxane, mistress of the Tremaine Manor and one of the Church's benefactors. Her husband and Ezebell's father, Geoffrey Roxane, was an archeologist who studied ancient ruins. To the public's knowledge, he was reported missing on the day the 12 Knights appeared and generally considered dead. Lady Tremaine Roxane inherited everything after her husband's disappearance, and donated one of the manors she personally owned to the Church of the Morning Star, which earned her great respect within the church. It seemed that she would now live out the rest of her days in peace under the protection of the Church, raising her only child Ezebell.

But on the 4th year of the Morning Star Calendar, Lady Roxane was summoned to the Inquisition. She was accuse of attempting an evil ritual using her own child, Strangely, she remained silent throughout the trial, not answering even one question. Eventually she was found guilty and executed. Ezebell was found with scars all over his little body and remained at the hospital. Left all alone in the world, the newly orphaned boy was sent to an orphanage under the Church.

Ezebell began to display strange behavior, attributed parity due to his mother's death and partly due to the rituals he had been subjected to. He would become greatly frightened and hide at the sight of adults, mumble to people who weren't there, play with cards while looking in the mirror, or even appear to try to fight something invisible. But that was not the end of his troubles. It was hard to call it all coincidence; everyone who approached him met with accidents.

Fires broke out at every orphanage in charge of him, and caretakers were always tripping and falling, or getting hit, or something or another. Doctors that examined his body would cut or stab themselves with their own medical instruments. Other children that tried to prank him got badly hurt, getting caught in their own traps. All these "accidents" happened too often, too many times.

This led to speculate that Ezebell was cursed. Perhaps the late Lady Roxane planted something evil within him, and that something harms the people around him in order to protect its vessel. Saintesses at the orphanage sternly ordered that no wild rumors should be spread. Lest it bring harm to poor Ezebell. But despite their efforts, something terrible happened to Ezebell. Late one night, he left his bed and flung himself out the window when everybody was asleep and could not stop him.

Did he lose his will to live because of the bad luck that followed him? Or was it the people that ostracized him that finally snuffed out this child's last night? No matter the reason, it was enough to drive him over the edge. Luckily, it had snowed the night before, and the cards that fell from his pockets at just the right moment provided a cushion for his body. Ezebell was not badly hurt, but the shock from the fall caused him to enter a coma. Saintesses took him to the infirmary to help him, but every time someone laid so much as a finger on him, "accidents" occured, and so, no one was able to do anything with him. Three days later, he awoke. But his soul and spirit were destroyed beyond repair.

And no one knows what became of him after that day. Because nobody has any idea what happens to a child that could not be cured by the Church. Only one thing remains clear. Ezebell will go down in records as the first child who rejected the Church's warm embrace and sought to destroy himself.