Paladin's New Alliance

[JaeEleutheria]

Ariadne Amon

The last he was spotted, sources say, was somewhere near Solace. This wouldn’t surprise me as I heard that many things evil were going on around there. Not much shocks me anymore. All I knew about him was that he was a Blackguard of Druega in the Varanite army, and took to the raping and torture of many elven women.

One of which, was my mother.

I was left on the doorstep of the temple of Nanna-Sin in Dasar with a well-crafted note when I was but 3 months old. The note is my only knowledge of my heritage. My mother was an elven prisoner in a Varanite camp, my father the man who brutalized her and raped her, among others. If there was one sliver of a thing honorable the man had was to allow me to live, to not kill my mother when I was in her womb.

Sometimes I wished I had just been a lowly half-elf orphan and not had it known that my father was a Varanite among the other children.

It would have been preferable for me to have grown up not ashamed of who I was. The priestess who raised me seemed to have hated me, consistently pointing out my human failings and blaming my boyish attitude of desire to fight instead of being a proper woman to show how I wasn’t grateful and that I was doomed to be like my father. My cursed father. It upset the priestess that I refused to be married, that I had devoted myself to the servitude of the gods… and most especially, not hers.

How could I serve a god whose servant responsible for my life resented me and consistently told me that I should not exist.

(She was the only one in the temple who treated me like this. As I had grown older, and when I had started on my journey of being a paladin, I met a very pleasant priestess, a paladin of Nanna-Sin, who treated me very well, attributing that being a half-elf wasn’t a bad thing as her girlfriend was also a half-elf).

Since the day I devoted myself to Erra, I had been strong. But now he is telling me that he has no use for a paladin but Ishtar would gladly have me. She offered me removal of my chastity vow, as my 30 years were up. I am no longer bound. And she has told me in order to serve her, I must first find my father. This is my last quest as a paladin of Erra and my first as a paladin of Ishtar.

And thankfully, she is happy with me enough not to tell me that I must mate (although celibacy is not encouraged by many others of her devotees). Erra on the other hand was pretty pushy. I feel must more at peace serving a goddess of Ishtar’s renown. I devoted 30 years to Erra, but apparently what I gave wasn’t enough. I am a paladin, a pure-bred warrior; I have no time and place to take care of offspring.

I will still carry his sword…

And to start off on my quest to find my father, I must first speak to the Champion of Ishtar, Delenia, for guidance.