Yandril Val'zajar

## Yandril the Disillusioned

The young Lord Yandril Val'zajar was the third son of the Val'zajar family, born to opulence and decadence without the burden of responsibility facing his older brothers. The lavish negligence of the Val'zajar household and the willingness of others to indulge Yandril in his youth simply because of his father's affluence and blessedly good looks amounted into a young man of arrogant disregard, selfish desires and an unfortunate irreverence to family, dignity and social etiquette. Perhaps then, the incident that occurred in his hundred and ninth year, upon the eve of his name-day celebrations was bound to happen. As wine was consumed, wealth was flaunted and many eligible young women from dozens of noble houses flirted with Yandril in the hopes of catching his eye. He in turn, let them paw at him, hungrily trying to gain his favour and stake their claim upon his form. The evening likely would have amounted in yet another evening of party and earnest debauchery had the young master not laid eyes upon the ethereal beauty of a young lady from a lesser noble house. In Yandril's eyes, he had to have her. He had never wanted something so eagerly and his greed and drunken aggression saw him have her, again and again, entirely against her will. He did not mind her protests, they encouraged his roughness, until eventually, she stopped screaming, for his hands had been too tight upon her frail neck.

Exiled from the family estate in Zin'Azshari, Yandril moved with his mother, Enyse, and new-born sister, Lora, to the far south, as far away from the capital, rumours and scrutinizing eyes as possible. For gold can make a broken body disappear, but it cannot dispel the questions that arise when the body is found in a shallow grave days later. Arriving in Shala'divh, Yandril's father funded the creation of a modest manor for the three to live in. In order to avoid suspicion, his father invested in the creation of a settlement near to the moonguard fortress, enticing others to venture south and build around the new manor. Whilst many speculated the Val'zajar had something to do with the girl's death, nothing could be proven and Yandril escaped persecution in the uneventful south. The isolation did serve a purpose, for as he became more disassociated with the gentry of the inner empire and spent his long listless days caring for his baby sister whilst his mother worked upon the newly formed city council, he began to hate himself. Disgusted with the things he'd done, he wished he'd been punished. And the longer he went unpunished, the more he began to hate his family.

Years of self-loathing and self-harm amounted to nothing, and as the decades passed he endured purely to look after his sister. Curiosity did not claim him as information from the capital became scarce, nor did the sky turning foul for so long and as the Sundering rocked the world, like most in Shala'divh he was taken completely by surprise. His mother died in the cataclysmic event, helplessly crushed beneath a falling pillar, but he managed to protect his sister from a similar fate.

In the aftermath of the Sundering, as the dust cleared, and the skies and seas settled, Yandril was one of those most deeply impacted in his mind by the devastation. Hopelessness plagued him, riddled his heart and seeded paranoia in his eyes. He horded food for himself and his sister, became suspicious of others and locked their home up tight. Only one person successfully reached out to Yandril, and pulled him from his stupor. The famed chanteuse Shelwynn Voidbloom, beautiful and talented, she had been the guest of another noble family that did not survive the Sundering. Spending all their time together, Yandril began to fall for the singer, his love complete and self-sacrificing. He played easily into the cunning woman's hands. When the time came, he sent his sister away on the boat that would leave Shala'divh, tired of her attempts to separate him from Shelwynn. He in turn remained, allowing her to whisper into his ear without interruption as she indulged in the linger delights of his dwindling wealth. His hatred began to return without the presence of his sister, and soon Shelwynn was introducing the young lord to Ephendrax, a priest and undertaker at the temple complex and together the three began to conspire. If supplies were dwindling, they would help reduce the number of mouths to feed. After years of bloody and brutal fighting upon the small island, those that remained finally began succumbing to starvation and magical withdrawals. Yandril had become sickly and might have died peacefully in his sleep, had Shelwynn not smothered him with her pillow just to claim the remainder of his food stocks.