2491
Lothiriel's Notes
TehLulu
The End of the First Week :: :: I arrived in a land which is apparently referred to as Oren, after several months of travels from the old town with the Orks which raised me established, after the fall of their main city over a dec ade ago. There has been a number of people willing to take me in and show kindness to me, though I chose one above the rest as he had the most to offer me, in exchange for an equivalent deal. But I should perhaps point out that I am not allowing my more...astute thought capacity be known to those around me. In truth, when I first arrived, I noticed almost immediately that I spoke strangely and out of place. I can read and write just fine, perhaps better than most, in part due to all the books of my Mother' s which were salvaged when the main city fell. I would spend years pouring over these tomes, memoriz ing their every word, learning her writing style. And so I arrived in Oren with a dialect style which makes many others believe I am "dull in the head ," but with a head on my shoulders which is more intelligent than I will allow people to give me cre dit for. Why am I acting the fool, as it were? A simple learning experience. I cannot act intelligent, consid ering I am entirely ignorant of this land and all that is held in it. And people seem more willing t o teach someone whom they believe to be utterly lost in the ways of their world. So I will pretend that I am, for the purposes of learning, and others as well.. :: My current "guardian" as it were, though I suppose he is more of an employer, is a High Priest by th e name of Everard. In exchange for me performing menial chores and tasks around his housing, he has begun teaching me how to speak and act proper, as well as providing me room and board. He apparently wishes to teach me to act like a "Proper Southeron girl" for whatever reason. Finding out what exactly he thinks he is grooming me for is one reason I continue to play dumb with him...th at, and the fact that I genuinely do need assistance learning how to speak properly. My writing skills are fair superior to my speaking ability, in part from the fact I am mostly just c opying my Mother's writing style, and in part from the fact that the style of speaking the Orcs arou nd me used is firmly engrained in my skull now. So, we shall see where my studies with the High Priest lead to. :: Another curious faction I have met in my first week is what is apparently a group of robed and cloak ed individuals. I haven't learned who or what they are, but I saw Everard speaking with one of their associates in a brothel. Their associates do not wear the same robes, but apparently work with them. I do not know if Everard was aware of that, as he left suddenly before one of the robed figures arrived. Out of curiosity I stayed behind, to try and figure out who they were or what their purpose was. I continued to play dumb and they didn't seem to mind me much, though I wouldn't be so brazen as to ask them what their purpose was outright. Best not let them know too much about my capabilities, I figure. They do seem to be a particularly sadistic lot, thrashing out at nearly everyone they meet. That is another reason I stayed quiet...best not bring their excessive wrath down upon me. After enough observing (and obtaining some gold from Valon...which I must admit, I rather enjoy), I left them and returned to Hightower Manor. I'll continue observing and hiding my more prominent abil ities until it is prudent to reveal them. :: :: The End of the Second Week :: I may have been a bit too revealing with my skills to those robed figures, but it has brought me no harm so far. A close associate of mine had two of them over to speak with him about something...they spoke in hus hed toned and I was not able to hear. I did find it odd when one of them demanded raw, rather than cooked, pork. Though I found out a like ly explanation for that later. A few people have told me in whispers that there is word of revolution on the way. They are unhappy with the current King, but I know nothing of this land's politics, so I will not interfere, merely l isten. :: I returned to the strange base near the dwarven capital again, following around one of those robed m en. I had a good look around, mostly out of curiosity....curiosity as to why they did not stop me. They captured people, to ransom off or use as servants, but not me. Why? Why was I permitted free access to these things? The one in black robes with grey trimmed gave me a likely explanation. He said he served someone named "Iblees", a word which, if I recall, the Shaman forbid the other Orks to speak in my presence. He has some degree of magical powers, gifted from who knows what. And he claims his mission is to take over the world and purge it of non-believers...a common trait of nearly any ruling organization, royal family, religion, et cetera. He seemed to over estimate my abilities as I had presented them. I spoke with him in length, using proper words and showing my more intelligent capacity...perhaps that was a mistake. He apparently will not harm me as he has some sort of use of me. I suppose I will keep quiet and fin d out what that use is. I am, admittedly, quite curious. :: The End of the Third Week :: I met someone interesting. He appeared in a flash of blinding colors, suddenly while I was in Alkhaz ar. But apparently he did not mean to warp to me, but to someone named Bell. He was then informed she was deceased, apparently killed by someone called a Sage? After he learned the news he turned to me and introduced himself as the Arcane Mage, after we had pl ayed word games with each other for a bit. He apparently wished to scan my mind for some odd reason, and I allowed it. Not too far into the pro cess some sort of magical...rebound, I suppose, occured, and the connection was broken. He pondered and spoke to himself for a moment, then offered me a job as an Arch Mage in the Mage's Guild. I'm....not sure why, to be frank. :: He showed me his Mage's Tower and his extensive library, countless books waiting to be read and sort ed, and I was more than happy to do so. He also gave me something. A set of journals, belonging to the woman who held my seat before me, Lad y Bell, the one who was apparently killed. I have been reading them as of late, and they are quite interesting. But there is so much else to read as well. I spent a bit more time with the robed figures. The one in grey, Vex, who calls his title as Prophet, gave me many books. I deposited them in the Mage's Tower library...I will have to go read them later. Some of his comrades find it odd he allows me in his base so freely. He says he finds me useful...bu t I have done nothing of the sort yet. I wonder what plans he has for me....? :: Several Weeks Later :: I have not been as diligent in keeping these notes as I had hoped to be. I have met with the undead again. They have not yet killed me, which I find a good thing, admittedly . However, I may have arranged a deal which may backfire on me if current evidence is correct. I asked him not to destroy the Guildhouses in all the cities. I showed him their locations. He agreed, but didn't ask anything in return....yet I insisited that if he needed something he need only ask, such as equivalent exchange is. I wonder if being indebted to him so gives him some sort of...other wordly hold over my person? I will have to be more careful from now on. :: I made the deal believing that the undead were a necessary evil, part of the balance. Now I believe I was wrong. I have been visiting this lands Orks, in Krugmar, as of late. It brings me back to the days of my childhood and makes me somewhat happy to be around them, though they act different from the Ork Nomads I once knew, the ones who raised me. Their Warlord, Mogroka, has apparently been searching for a concubine, or something of that sort. He bought an enslaved elf girl for that very purpose, which enraged me. That is the one thing I cannot allow others to do; the slavery of another living being is never acce ptable. Killing and death are necessary parts of life, but to make one suffer the yoke of another's rule.... it is too much. But the Warlord did not keep the girl. He let her go, for some reason. I have been going back to speak with the Orks as of late, including himself. :: Now we get into the new information I have acquired. The Warlord has many associates, many spies working throughout the four kingdoms. One of these he calls his "Shadow." An elf in stature, he is rather cagey about what he really is. But from him and others the Warlord learns many things. He claims Alras is an undead stronghold, corrupted to the core... He claims there are undead worshippers high in the dwarven council... And he claims that Oren is run by a shadow government with Undead at the helm. All this worries me. The corruption is more widespread, as is the taint, than I thought. I am cutting off any contact with the undead. I was using their ignorance of me to my advantage, to spy on them, but I now believe it is too dangerous to continue doing so. They tainted so many people, caused so many deaths. Even the Warlord made mention of the loss of my predecessor, Lady Bell, to the undead. I cannot allow myself to become a victim of their rampage across Aegis. I will avoid contact with them at all costs now. I need to speak to the Warlord again. There is some secret he is hiding which I believe may weaken him, wear on his soul and cause him to possibly become susceptible to the taint.