Alarith (Player Character)

## Alarith the Leader

### Backstory:

A noble in name only, Alarith has been rewarded with a noble title of his own for his temporary administrative role in a frontier town, Kassia, during a local period of crisis that coincides with a magical phenomenon that wiped out the majority of nobles and mages. A time without any news or trade, with every road filled with bandits, goblin camps, and malevolent extra-planar beings slipping through the dilapidated walls of reality.

Cut off from the greater Empire, the town faced utter destruction in the face of the calamity, yet it prevailed through no small amount of sacrifice, diplomacy, and policies by Alarith, dealing with internal matters and external problems with the same mantra keeping him and the people going: Kassia Must Survive. His ruthless efficiency in administration and intolerance for corruption has resulted in many remnants of the Empire's administration losing its remaining influence over the town, allowing for far more flexible magic use for survival by the people and bureaucratic mess to occur less due to interfering powers within. And yet, it was nearly not enough, even with the spreading of the magical arts.

Through each law and action, he sacrificed more and more of his conscience: Food and ambient mana rationing, forced prison labor, oppressive guards, even usurping the words of now absent gods, blind as they were in the broken reality, in order to provide false hope for the masses as the death bell tolls. Through it all, he constantly tries to convince himself of the necessity, justifying his actions even as his family began to say otherwise, slowly growing distant and estranged from him. This did not help, as Alarith slowly gets consumed by his work, even sleeping in the administrative building for most of the time. And seeing what he has seen, of the grittiness and being directly responsible for the lives of the lowliest of laborers, distanced him even more from the views of his old noble family.  Pragmatism made way for his growing need for more labor forces, for the town is at stake and he knew that he would need everyone, no matter who they are, to do their parts, culminating in the former second-class citizens of the town rising to a prominent position, and whose industriousness has played an important role in weathering the metaphorical storm. This, however, did not endear him to many people, especially those who had prior to the Calamity, sought to exploit the cheap labor forces of the dwarves.

His anxiety reached its peak when the Calamity reaches its climax, where reality was at its weakest, unable to hold all that lies beyond away. Soldiers were conscripted, and all mages were called upon for magical support, both in combat and in logistics. The worst that affected him, however, was not the eldritch being that they faced, but the decisions and desperate measures that he have committed for the sake of the greater good, many of which led to his compulsive obsession with micromanaging human resources and sometimes sudden bursts of rage when situations are too dire. The result is an odd mix of antipathy when lives are spent on proven necessities, but disgust when lives could've been saved easily, had it not been for fixable mistakes.

In the end, as the final days of the Calamity draws near, he came to a realization that he could not stay, at least not for long. His power came from merit - or, at least the perception of it, he thought - and he had burnt too many bridges through his temporary reign. His family despises him, and far too many minor nobles within the town conspire against him. Potential angry acolytes of Gods that he stole the role of faith from could come after him, along with a myriad of other enemies he had made. In the end, the choice was simple.

He left on a smuggler's carriage days after his recognition ceremony, looking back at the war-torn but still standing strong town of Kassia one last time, and went as far away as he could from the product of his mistakes and regrets.

Somewhere along the way, he remembered tales, stories of heroes that bards sang songs about. A bit of digging led to the discovery that most influential figures in history often started out as adventurers, those that do good, actions that shook the world to their metaphorical foundations. Perhaps it was a desire for redemption that prompted him on this path, nonetheless, his mind was made, and so it goes...

## The Book of the Ends Opening

Two young children wander through some stony ruins and down some stairs leading into darkness. Upon the walls lie depictions of bloody battles, symbols depicting the gods and portals upon it. Upon a pedestal before the children lies a sealed tome. They walk up to it and open it. The book flies open and starts flicking through all its pages. Suddenly several portals appear and out fly some ethereal wraiths attacking the children. One named Kolba tries to stop the book whilst the other, a child named Alarith, fights off the wraiths. Kolba is unable to stop the book using stones and nearly dies to the ethereal wraiths. Alarith rushes up and tosses the book through a portal, this causes them all to slam shut and the two make their way to the exit as the wraiths follow them. The two fall unconscious at the small rocky exit to the tunnel as a voice says “Over there"