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Lyanna

Memories of a Healer

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I don't know why everyone likes to write about big, grand topics, like wars and the birth of the world. :) Anyway, here's just a short story, about my character:

 

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Memories of a Healer

 

I have never told this story before. It is painful to me, even after a century of good memories to balance it. I tell this now, only under great duress, because of the coming of the Orchans to our cities and shores.

 

My mother, Linnix, was an Elven healer of great renown in Tirnwood Vale. She was one of the very few healers at that time who broke the traditions binding Elf to Elf, and made our magical healing powers available to all the races. She was cut off from the majority of our race because of that, but she persevered. Even when my sire died while pursuing a boar, she continued to heal everyone who came to her, irregardless of the cost. Her fame spread far and wide, as humans, dwarves, and other races came to ask for her aid.

 

One day, a group of strange people appeared. I did not know it at that time, being only a young elfling of less than 40 years, but they were some of the first Orchans Tirnwood Vale had seen. They were miners, some of whom had been terribly hurt during the collapse of a cave in the Crystal Caverns. They had heard of my mother, and made the long trek to Tirnwood to seek her aid, bearing their injured comrades on rough stretcher. My mother, as usual, assented, and began to heal their wounds.

 

I was in a little room, away from the main hall, playing with my flowers at that time. The intervening door was slightly ajar, and I used to peek through at the visitors that regularly arrived. I was always proud to know that my mother was so loved by everyone who came. Intrigued by the strange faces and manner of speech, I paid closer attention to the Orchans than usual. I caught them looking at my mother with admiration and something else, which I couldn't fathom, in their eyes.

 

Finally, the last of them was completely healed. The lead Orchan thanked my mother politely, and turned to leave, only to slam the door shut against the outside. Another Orchan grabbed my mother and covered her mouth. She was not able to scream. Horrified, I watched, stunned into immobility.

 

My mother was an extraordinarily beautiful elf - even by our standards. I saw what the Orchans did to her.

 

I also saw what they did to her dead body, after they were finished.

 

...

 

At last, when they left, I gathered the remains of my beloved mother, and fled Tirnwood. I ran as fast as I could, not knowing where to turn to or where to go (for remember, we were ostracised by our kind). I don't remember much of that hurried journey. I only knew an overpowering fear that the Orchans would come and take me too. I took numerous boats, just trying to get as far away from them as possible.

 

Finally, I ended up in Portland. It was night, and I quietly left the city behind me, still carrying my mother's remains in a little bag. I buried her in the countryside, under a patch of Blue Lupines. They were her favourite flowers.

 

I think her spirit still lingers there. Every time I visit my mother's unmarked grave to harvest some of the Blue Lupines, I find that I can collect more than one at a time. It is almost as if my mother was still helping me to carry on her task.

 

I heal others of all races freely now, just as she did. I do it in memory of my mother, Linnix - the greatest Elven Healer I know.

 

But never again will I have anything to do with Orchans.

 

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Edited by Lyanna

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I think this would be a good story to add to a "diary' somewhere in EL if you ask me.

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I would agree on both accounts.

 

It would be great for smaller stories, or journals/diaries to be implemented. It would add a great depth to EL that other games lack. There is a thread on the roleplaying forum filled with personal stories that could be made into journals or other things.

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I would agree on both accounts.

 

It would be great for smaller stories, or journals/diaries to be implemented.  It would add a great depth to EL that other games lack. There is a thread on the roleplaying forum filled with personal stories that could be made into journals or other things.

179114[/snapback]

 

Yeah! Maybe something comparable (conceptually) with the zillions of books that you can find around in games like for example Baldur's Gate. They are useless from the practical scope, but, sometimes, when you are bored or you just want to be online but dont feel like playing more actively, you can sit around and read a little story or something just for fun. I like the idea. The only thing would be to add some more ids for objects and the text (since the rest of the material is already available AFAIK). That shouldnt be difficult.

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Also would be great if each town had either a library or a house of records (like tirnwood). That way diaries and such could be stored there.

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Just to support the new Storylines initiative. :P Can't believe it's been nearly three years since I wrote my first story for Eternal Lands.

 

-Lyn-

 

 

Memories of a Healer II

 

During the Great War, our peace was shattered. The comfortable, pleasant life that I had been leading in Portland as an assistant to an apothecary shop was destroyed when Mortos' army invaded and sacked our coastland. I saw my mother's grave desecrated by the stamp of wild men and orcs - that accursed race that was kin to the Orchans which had raped and killed her all those years ago. Our city guard was unable to stop them. Weeping, I boarded the fleet that had been organised to evacuate the civilians from the town amidst the shouts and cries of the soldiers who died so that we could escape.

 

The last picture I had of my home was of the city going up in flames.

 

The passage across the ocean was horrendous. We were cut adrift from any hope of safety - a thousand or so civilians aboard a hundred ships, with no home to return to and limited food supplies. Children and women used to cry themselves to sleep at night, as storms raged outside the battered hulls of our refugee ships.

 

When plague broke out amongst the lower decks, the captain of our ship asked me to assist in combating it. I readily assented, requiring work to keep my thoughts occupied from the gloom and despair that pervaded the ship. Quickly, I set to work, visiting the sick, creating curative potions with what limited items we had, and exhausting myself every day by expending all my healing magics until I was drained. It was a ragged, heart-breaking journey. Every day, I lost another patient. Every day, the food became lesser and lesser, and we all grew gaunt with hunger.

 

Desperation set in. My greatest enemy, death itself, was slowly taking away the people I cared for one by one. And I could do nothing to stop him. My greatest weapons - food, shelter, security, and hope - were all stripped away from us.

 

By the time we came into sight of the shores of Tirnym, I had caught the plague myself.

 

I remember little of what followed. Antalya, the human woman who had assisted me during the voyage, told me later that I had been feverish and delirious, often babbling about Orchan cruelty in my sleep. I could recognise no one. However, she also told me that my patients gathered around me in a show of care and support that was unprecedented.

 

"It was amazing," she said. "Each and every one of them took turns to watch over you, even when they were sick themselves. They loved you, Lyanna, and wanted to repay the favour."

 

It was at Tirnym that I recovered, along with the rest of those struck by the plague. The presence of our great Goddess Aluwen was sufficient to banish all death and disease from us, and we regained our strength. When the final battle came, I was far away from the frontlines, helping to care for the sick and elderly at the south port. I had had my fill of slaughter and bloodshed. However, I too was witness to the cataclysm that tore Tirnym apart and ended the war. No one in the region could miss the earth-shaking sound and the sudden stillness that ensued. But more than that, as all Elves knew, the presence of our Goddess had vanished.

 

For one agonising moment, I had thought Mortos victorious, and our beloved Aluwen destroyed by forces unimaginable. But that was not to be. A still, small whisper in my soul told me that our Goddess was still alive, but merely bereft of all her powers in the mighty struggle that had taken place. It would be many more years before she would regain sufficient strength to manifest physically once again.

 

...

 

As the remnants of our surviving peoples scattered across the lands to rebuild their lives and homes, I pondered my course. The home and place I had made for myself in Portland was gone. My employer had been killed in the war, and many of my clients had lost their lives. I briefly considered trying to return to my mother's people in Tirnwood Vale, hoping that perhaps our shared sorrows might create a new future for us. But that was only a brief dream. Having lived in cosmopolitan Portland for so long, I could no longer remain in the quiet solitude of the Vale and be content.

 

It was Antalya, my erstwhile aide, who gave me the answer I was searching for. She approached me, telling me that she and her husband were planning to join a caravan to rebuild Corren Town, and that they could use someone of my healing talents to help take care of the minor ills and complaints along the way.

 

I saw then a useful occupation for me, and a purpose for my life. I could travel the lands, freely assisting the rebuilding efforts and healing the sick and the wounded along the roads. I would require no pay but the thanks and gratitude of others, as those on the ship had demonstrated. My fight with the plague on the ships had taught me that there was much I still did not know about disease, and I meant to travel the world in search of knowledge to increase my understanding of the healing arts. How many more could I have saved if I had only known what the most effective remedies were? One day, perhaps I would visit the great magic libraries of the world, and aid in the research efforts to discover new cures for the problems that afflicted all of Seridia.

 

But for now, my course was set. I would be an itinerant Healer, and travel the roads to aid the sick, the wounded, and the weak as they began the great task of restoring order to the Lands.

 

-Lyn-

Edited by Lyanna

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Thanks, Beorn. :wacko: I always loved my character Lyanna, who I placed as a bystander in major events. What I wanted to show was that good stories could be told about simple people as well, not just heroes and heroines. Common folk, not setting out on grand adventures to change the world, but just trying their best to get by. And sometimes they fall to weaknesses and things that are too much for them too, just like the plague, and the death of her mother. You don't need to be a great adventurer or a powerful wizard to have a good story told about you. :D

 

-Lyn-

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Omg, I absolutely loved it! Make sure you write some more :P

 

I am currently working on my own... But it will be a while before it's finished:)

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