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Description
Asterith Dragonclore, a druidess, a gentle soul in general... A light in the world, yet strangely haunted by shadows and nightmares. A skilled healer, but not beyond picking up a sword or a bow and arrow and getting involved in a battle if she finds herself in the middle of one. She was born in the middle of a fateful battle, indeed. That was when the city of Malaska, royal capital of Aratan, was in the process of falling to the reptilian Kraken and Garger hoards, invading from the North East. Her father the king died while attempting to defend the city. Before the Kraken invaders took the palace by storm, the newborn princess was smuggled away, by the Druid Arrizard. Arrizard later became her master and mentor in the mystical path (though he gave her to be raised by a tribe of wild gypsies in her earliest years). Raised in ignorance of her royal pedigree and kept safe from the usurper of the throne, she was brought up in the wilder and remoter parts of the land. She learned both from the books in the Druid's hall, and from woodlands and rivers, cultivating both intellect and natural intuition. Arrizard brought her south, when she was seventeen, to take word of a new and more terrible threat from the north, a demonic hoard loyal to the dark lord Serpion. The vanguard of this dark army overtook them at the town of Berghost, where Asterith had her first taste of war. At first she was kept busy evacuating and tending the wounded, but soon she was compelled to join the fray herself, as a fighting-retreat from the town was organised and a fortified camp established on the opposite side of the river. There she learned of her heritage. (She had been wounded and her life was saved by the blood of her previously unknown half-Kraken half brother, Alastor, born after the unfortunate Queen Galrina of Aratan was taken captive by the Kraken king, following the fall of Malaska.) At Berghost, also, Asterith encountered the Knight of Esa, Odo Pagnus. Odo's arrival turned the tide, temporarily, recapturing the town for a time until an even greater demonic army arrived to assail it. Asterith was sent on by Arrizard to Gaiapolis, across the lake, the capital of the southern realm, where she was to warn of the general threat from the new enemy. At the great temple she delivered this news to the high priestess Ayriana.

Odo escaped from Berghost with the help of a dragon, and took part in another battle, at Sulisas (north of the lake from Gaiapolis), where the southerly advance of the dark horde was checked. Asterith was there to nurse the wounded Odo back to health, and to play her harp soothingly at his bedside. When Odo was summoned by his Order to give an account of his actions at Berghost, Asterith accompanied him back across the water to Gaiapolis. She testified to the tribunal in his favour, sure that no-one could have done more, and that the ultimate loss of Berghost was not Odo's fault. (Some of the towns defenders has been lured away from the battered walls by a feigned retreat, in disobedience to Odo's instruction to remain there. Odo had been obliged to go out to rescue his people from the ensuing ambush, and succeeded in this before being overwhelmed himself. The demon general who captured him had tried to entice him to join them, promising him great powers and presenting him with a seductive demon female who could take on Asterith's beautiful form, but Odo had refused and resisted, managing to decapitate the demon general before making his escape.)

At the tribunal, it seems the deputy Master of the Knights of Esa, Esraal, has it in for Odo, but thanks largely to Asterith's impassioned support and endorsement, Odo is exonerated.

Asterith is subsequently lodged at the Grand Commandery of the Order of Esa, where she hopes to learn more about the demonic foe by consulting the famously extensive library there (a library, however, from which it transpires the relevant books have vanished). At night she is troubled by more nightmares of fiends, and her fearful cries bring Odo Paganus to her side. They become lovers, despite their sacred vows, and when this is discovered by corrupt elements within the Order it is used a pretext to send Odo into exile and probable death at the hands of the Gargers, who are disturbing the Eastern borders. When the High Priestess is marginalised and Esraal, now Grand Master of the Knights of Esa, begins to impose a tyranny, involving widespread purges of people accused of being in league with the dark enemy. Asterith departs and seeks Odo, who was last seen delving caves where the Gargers live, and to which they had taken many human captives who had never been seen again. Odo has rescued the captive Kreysta, but it is only with Asterith's help that they survive an ensuing confrontation with a great hoard of Gargers. After this adventure Asterith and Odo return towards Aratan, but they are intercepted by the blackguard Maulric. While Odo is distracted fighting the dark knight, a winged Prykon swoops from the sky, snatches up Asterith, and delivers her to the domain of the Dark Lord, in the demonic realm to the far north. Asterith is dragged into Serpion's mountain citadel, encountering the very demons from her terrible visions. What fate lies in store for her and whether Odo can rescue her... well, I'll get back to you on that.

Description
Asterith Dragonclore, a druidess, a gentle soul in general... A light in the world, yet strangely haunted by shadows and nightmares. A skilled healer, but not beyond picking up a sword or a bow and arrow and getting involved in a battle if she finds herself in the middle of one. She was born in the middle of a fateful battle, indeed. That was when the city of Malaska, royal capital of Aratan, was in the process of falling to the reptilian Kraken and Garger hoards, invading from the North East. Her father the king died while attempting to defend the city. Before the Kraken invaders took the palace by storm, the newborn princess was smuggled away, by the Druid Arrizard. Arrizard later became her master and mentor in the mystical path (though he gave her to be raised by a tribe of wild gypsies in her earliest years). Raised in ignorance of her royal pedigree and kept safe from the usurper of the throne, she was brought up in the wilder and remoter parts of the land. She learned both from the books in the Druid's hall, and from woodlands and rivers, cultivating both intellect and natural intuition. Arrizard brought her south, when she was seventeen, to take word of a new and more terrible threat from the north, a demonic hoard loyal to the dark lord Serpion. The vanguard of this dark army overtook them at the town of Berghost, where Asterith had her first taste of war. At first she was kept busy evacuating and tending the wounded, but soon she was compelled to join the fray herself, as a fighting-retreat from the town was organised and a fortified camp established on the opposite side of the river. There she learned of her heritage. (She had been wounded and her life was saved by the blood of her previously unknown half-Kraken half brother, Alastor, born after the unfortunate Queen Galrina of Aratan was taken captive by the Kraken king, following the fall of Malaska.) At Berghost, also, Asterith encountered the Knight of Esa, Odo Pagnus. Odo's arrival turned the tide, temporarily, recapturing the town for a time until an even greater demonic army arrived to assail it. Asterith was sent on by Arrizard to Gaiapolis, across the lake, the capital of the southern realm, where she was to warn of the general threat from the new enemy. At the great temple she delivered this news to the high priestess Ayriana.

Odo escaped from Berghost with the help of a dragon, and took part in another battle, at Sulisas (north of the lake from Gaiapolis), where the southerly advance of the dark horde was checked. Asterith was there to nurse the wounded Odo back to health, and to play her harp soothingly at his bedside. When Odo was summoned by his Order to give an account of his actions at Berghost, Asterith accompanied him back across the water to Gaiapolis. She testified to the tribunal in his favour, sure that no-one could have done more, and that the ultimate loss of Berghost was not Odo's fault. (Some of the towns defenders has been lured away from the battered walls by a feigned retreat, in disobedience to Odo's instruction to remain there. Odo had been obliged to go out to rescue his people from the ensuing ambush, and succeeded in this before being overwhelmed himself. The demon general who captured him had tried to entice him to join them, promising him great powers and presenting him with a seductive demon female who could take on Asterith's beautiful form, but Odo had refused and resisted, managing to decapitate the demon general before making his escape.)

At the tribunal, it seems the deputy Master of the Knights of Esa, Esraal, has it in for Odo, but thanks largely to Asterith's impassioned support and endorsement, Odo is exonerated.

Asterith is subsequently lodged at the Grand Commandery of the Order of Esa, where she hopes to learn more about the demonic foe by consulting the famously extensive library there (a library, however, from which it transpires the relevant books have vanished). At night she is troubled by more nightmares of fiends, and her fearful cries bring Odo Paganus to her side. They become lovers, despite their sacred vows, and when this is discovered by corrupt elements within the Order it is used a pretext to send Odo into exile and probable death at the hands of the Gargers, who are disturbing the Eastern borders. When the High Priestess is marginalised and Esraal, now Grand Master of the Knights of Esa, begins to impose a tyranny, involving widespread purges of people accused of being in league with the dark enemy. Asterith departs and seeks Odo, who was last seen delving caves where the Gargers live, and to which they had taken many human captives who had never been seen again. Odo has rescued the captive Kreysta, but it is only with Asterith's help that they survive an ensuing confrontation with a great hoard of Gargers. After this adventure Asterith and Odo return towards Aratan, but they are intercepted by the blackguard Maulric. While Odo is distracted fighting the dark knight, a winged Prykon swoops from the sky, snatches up Asterith, and delivers her to the domain of the Dark Lord, in the demonic realm to the far north. Asterith is dragged into Serpion's mountain citadel, encountering the very demons from her terrible visions. What fate lies in store for her and whether Odo can rescue her... well, I'll get back to you on that.