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By Steve Turney

Many years ago, as humans reckon, the gray elves Celbrindel and Aniel were born and raised in Onlor. They met and fell in love and took up a life together. Eventually their passions led them on many adventures to the far away lands of Jerranq. Shortly after they came to the lands of the Near Coast they were blessed with a son they named Velicleas.

There they met a young Aasimar and follower of Ularinn the Sun God. He was a baron who held a small keep in a vale near the border of the Untamed Coast. He was a good man, a wise ruler and loved by all his subjects. Celbrindel and Aniel were also taken with him and decided to settle for a time to aid the baron with his troubles and to raise their young son in this beautiful place. In time, like in so many stories from the War of the Gem, tragedy would come.

In the best of times the Barony was threatened with raids from the Lost Kingdoms, and these were not the best of times. It was still many decades before the War of the Gem, but the Deceiver's plans were long, slow, and subtle. Although no one knew it at the time, the raids were in fact becoming probing attacks. The enemy was searching out routes that would allow large armies to move quickly to the south, and they found the vale of the Barony perfect for their plans.

The Deceiver's plan was well thought out. The short-lived humanoids were still gathering the full might for a war decades in the future. In the mean time, those warriors who would not live that long could be spent in critical spots. While never intended to destroy or conquer, they did wear at the finances and knights of their target, so that when the hammer blow fell there would be much less initial resistance. Celbrindel and Aniel would fall in one of the cruelest of these raids lead by a demon that would cause them all great suffering in the long dark time to come.

The Baron adopted Velicleas as his own. Later the Baron would raise a family of his own. While his sons and daughters grew, the Barony withered under the constant raids that the demon was leading. Never enough drive to drive the Baron and his people out or to conquer the land, but always enough to drain his treasury and reduce the number of men he could keep under arms. In time the stress and wounds from fighting the dark thing would claim the Baron's life.

But such is the long life of elves that Velicleas was still young and passed into the care of his adopted brothers and sisters. He was still too young to fight when the first invasions that started the War of the Gem came and the Deceiver's armies flooded the Vale. Many died that day; he was one of the lucky survivors. Guarded by the strong arms of his adult siblings, he was able to flee the vale.

The War of the Gem is recounted more fully in other places, and the exploits of Velicleas's adopted family, while valiant, were no more so than countless others of that time. At the end of the war the family was able to reclaim the Vale but their nemesis, the demon who had caused them all so much loss and suffering, fled and hid deep in the earth, escaping the agents of the gods who came forth at their awakening.

The last two survivors of the Baron's family, not including Velicleas, consulted an oracle. The mystic laid out two paths, one would stay in the Vale and rebuild it, while the other would go to far away to Onlor and begin the long hunt for the wretched demon that had caused so much pain. Velicleas, now a young squire in the service of Ularinn, was chosen to go to Onlor with the youngest bother and search for the demon.

In Onlor, Velicleas and his "brother" sought out any sign of the demon. However, it had hidden deep in the earth for fear of being discovered. For many years it would sequester itself in the dark, plotting and gathering followers for the time when it would venture forth to sow its evil again.

With the failure of their initial search, Velicleas and his adopted brother began a more passive search strategy hoping to lure the demon out of hiding. This waiting strategy left them with more time on their hands. The brother would marry and begin to raise a family. Velicleas, who had finally matured and become a paladin of Ularinn, began to search out the elves to see if he could find relatives and learn more of his past.

If at first the elves found Velicleas to be unusual, he was after all a paladin in service to Ularinn, they also felt it was his choice to make and raised no objection to it. Velicleas, raised by human nobles, was at times bewildered by his kin folk, but as he spent more time with them his understanding of their habits grew he began to fell more at home.

This is the time when he first learned of sorcery. Slowly, it crept into his mind and he began to feel the magic in his own blood begin to awaken. Velicleas was going to have to make a choice soon and although he knew he would never turn completely away from Ularinn, he began to imagine a new future for himself with the power that began to burn in his soul.

This is the end of the story of Velicleas's early life. He is ready to step from the profession of his adopted family to the calling of his true family. He is torn between the search for his family and the search for his nemesis. He is beginning to learn and understand the arcane powers of his heritage. Even though he has not mastered them yet, he will no doubt do that soon as he begins to devote more time to them and less to the devotions of paladinhood.

Of recent, Velicleas heard an interesting rumor about one of the known minions of the demon in the town of Leaf Port. But that tale begins another story.

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