Chapter 1
Thylo was born into the simple life of his species living off the land in a small village on the far South lands of Cyritia. Due to this lifestyle, they didn't have any currency. There was no need for such things when you could just as easily trade for what you needed (they rarely needed much the land couldn't provide). He would frequently play The Predator & The Prey (hide and seek known to us) with his young peers. Though skilled in both roles, it's his perfected skills of playing the role of The Prey that would change his life forever.
One evening in late Fall, Thylo and a small group of friends set out to play The Predator & The Prey. His first role was of Predator. After some time he found all his Prey. His second game (and last unbeknownst to Thylo) he was Prey. On this day he came across a small ditch in the woods he did not recognize. Had it been there before? He did not know, but it was the perfect spot to wait quietly. He took brush from nearby trees and bushes to cover himself up with. He waited and as he waited time went by. He fell asleep.
The Predator had successfully found all his Prey except Thylo. They checked all of his previous spots but couldn't find Thylo. They concluded he must have went home as it was getting late and the sun was due to set soon. The boys walked back to the village.
Let's take you back 3 years in a town far West of Cyritia called Zanlu...
Saint Lysin preached in Zanlu most of his adult life. When he wasn't preaching he would study in the arts of sorcery with a local academy. Lysin thought this would bring him closer to being one with his maker. An early morning, while preparing for his service, he felt the presence of something dark come over his alter. A dark fog surrounded him and within seconds it had vanished. Lysins' body lay motionless on the floor but breathing. When Lysin awakes hours later he has no recollection of the mornings events.
The next few days Lysin becomes less and less himself. The town notices the preacher's odd behaviors growing from strange to sinister. Lysin no longer gives services and the townsfolk nickname him Preacher of Sin behind his back. Yes, his nickname is short for Lysin and of course his recent behavior and renounce of the Gods. Not long after he renounces the Gods, he vanishes.
Over the span of the next year his sorcery skills are sharpened and he grows curious of his limits. He begins practicing new spells on fresh corpses he calls hosts. He manages to extract small fractions of his soul and attach them to his hosts, but all attempts fail. Everytime he tries, he loses that fraction of himself. With smaller amounts of the Preachers' soul the dark essence slowly takes more and more control, but the Preacher is none the wiser.
Over the next year he uses all he has left of his soul and the dark essence takes over. The darkness uses its ancient knowledge and cracks the mystery of resurrection that Preacher of Sin never could. He focused on soul extraction but never could figure out how to remove parts of the darkness. That was the key ingredient.
By the end of the third year since leaving Zanlu, Preacher of Sin will have an army of undead men, women and animals alike. The lead warriors of his army consists of ten undead knights known as The Knights of the Undead Army. With the army in tow he moved East. The Preacher of Sin is no more. The King of Sin is here and soon darkness will fall on Cyritia.
Back to Thylo...
A branch cracks nearby and Thylo awakes from under the brush he lay upon himself for hiding during his game of The Predator & The Prey. He discards the shrubbery and looks towards the direction he heard the noise to see the backs of what appears to be walking skeletons and zombies. That's impossible of course because these creatures are mere bedtime stories to frighten young Lightfoots and Stouts from adventuring out past curfew. He stands up and walks back to Cyritia.
As Thylo approaches Cyritia he notices it's silence to be out of place. No dinner bells sounding. The absence of laughter from the younger Lightfoot and Stout children alike playing chase. His gut drops and his heart turns cold as he walks slowly into Cyritia.
Thylo walks between two homes into the main communal area of his village and drops to his knees heartbroken, distraught and shocked. In the middle of the village were the bodies of men, women and children (Lightfoot and Stout alike). All slaughtered and dumped in the center well. The well was overflowing with their bodies. He snaps out of his emotional collapse in a panic. Whoever (or whatever) did this could still be here. Watching him and waiting.
He picks himself off the ground and immediately searches for a weapon close by. Being a small, peaceful village there was rarely weapons present or nearby. However, he did find a pitchfork nearby and grabbed it in a flurry of mixed emotions. He began searching the entirety of the village for any signs of life or the perpetrator (or perpetrators) who had left his home in bloody disarray. After hours of slow and steady searching, he found no survivors or foe. He realized his close encounter with dead was sure luck. Being slaughter, himself, was close.
Thylo spent the next three years taking manual labor to a new extreme. He buried his fellow villagers within the following weeks. He spent the rest of the three years trying to grow crops and survive all by his lonesome. He barely made it by every year. Thus wasn't the way he wanted to live, so at the end of the third year he packed up every ounce of food he could and set out North for greener pastures. Thus beginning his bumpy journey into adulthood.
For the span of four years Thylo travelled North; stealing at night, scavenging for edible fruits and vegetables & hunting small game with snares and traps during the day. Scavenging came naturally to him but hunting and stealing was a new survival technique. He didn't necessarily like to steal from anyone so he mainly stole from those who would be better off.
At the end of the fourth year Thylo found himself in the rather large city of Vienhem. Over the next few months his hopes were higher than ever. The amount of "clientele" skyrocketed compared to the villages and small cities prior. However, it was more risky here. Being a bigger city meant higher chances of failure and being caught in the act by any of the hundreds of bystanders amongst the crowd.
However, when Thylo did score something of value he would take it to an underground market just outside the city gates and sell it to Yul. Yul was a human of about six feet tall and just shy of two hundred pounds. He claims to be in his late twenties. Thylo would have put him closer to his early forties but humans age so randomly in their features that it was difficult for him to judge accurately.
Yul was known for his dark humor and sarcastic personality. To the average person he was disturbed. In a way Yul began his life in thieving when he was born; stealing his mother's life during childbirth. His father was left to raise him but he was a drunken fool with pennies to his name. So as soon as Yul could walk, his father taught him everything about stealing from the more fortunate. As soon as Yul turned fifteen he took his knowledge and fled for the cities to grow his wealth. And that is exactly what he did. He started his climb by hiring his friends to help steal with him on a higher scale and sell items in the underground market. After a few hard years he became that man he used to sell his wears to.
Thylo got to know Yul very well over the next two years. So well that Yul began mentoring the young lightfoot. In no time at all he had Thylo leading a small group of thieves throughout the city and in some cases beyond city walls. The group of misfit thieves had it all figured out. That is, until one particular evening before dusk.
On this particular evening Thylo didn't have any big jobs so he wandered the city alone pickpocketing unfortunate passerbys. He managed a watch or two on the East side of the city and made his way to the North side to try his luck with some of the local vendors. When he arrived on the North side of the city the vendors were few and far between. Most had already packed up and headed in for the night. Thylo saw no real profits to be made from the current options left open. He decided to pickpocket one last person and call it quits for the day.
He kept an eye on the crowd searching for his next (and last) target. Amongst one of these groups he spotted a man of medium height wearing almost all black. Thylo reckoned he wasn't from the city and would be an easy pick because of the lack of awareness this man had of his surroundings. Vienhem could be somewhat overwhelming for those who visited from beyond its walls and Thylo made sure to always take advantage of these poor souls. He approached the man in black from the front and ran into him as they passed. As Thylos' body weight leaned all in for the hit, the man grabbed his wrist. Thylo was our best.
And this is where the young Lightfoot's adventure truly begins. For the man he tried to best was on a quest of his very own.
