Soveliss Lathalas

"'We are the chosen ones, we sacrifice our blood, we kill for honor.'"

Backstory
My life started as many do, a simple birth to a simple family. We lived modestly, a habit I keep to this day. During my upbringing my parents instilled in me a sense of right and wrong. I was taught that good people deserved good and wrong people deserved nothing. These lessons were brought to an abrupt end some short time before my parents were found dead, an apparent suicide they said. Shortly after I was exiled from my home, sent out to live or die in the wild. I was never told why, or by whose authority this was done.

I spent decades wandering from one town to the next. I could use my elven blood to my advantage as I was close enough to looking like a human adult that most assumed I was, and I didn't correct them. There are many dangers on the road, not the least of which are bandits and roving raiders. I learned that if I was to live I had to defend myself. Using what basic training I was given before my exile I managed to drive off many murderers and thieves.

It was after one such encounter in an alley just off a merchant's block that I was found by my mentor. A Gladiator named Duer, or by his title The Caged Flayer. He took me in for a time and with him I refined my fighting prowess. Eventually I joined him in the Arena fighting as a Duo. I took to the bow primarily though I also used a greatsword on those occasions that called for it.

I spent close to a century plying my chosen trade and was by Duer's side as he passed away from old age. Some time after his passing I was approached by representatives of the Army. I had earned some small amount of renown in the arena and they were looking for men to fill out the ranks. Some Orcish tribe had been raiding the outskirts of the local Lord's territories for a while, but recently had burned down an entire village leaving no survivors. They were farmers, ranchers, fishermen, innocent children and laborers who deserved no such fate. What could I do but agree to go with them?

I was bypassed basic training and assigned to a veteran squad comprised of people like me. 'Adventurers' they called us, 'Heroes' even. Those who volunteered to face danger to save those who couldn't save themselves. Never did I feel my soul sing to me as much as when I passed by those who I fought for and saw the admiration in their eyes, heard their praises and thanks grace my ears.

We were led by a Veteran Mercenary named Akmen Ratislav. He was previously the leader of a company called the Flaming Pheonix. They saw success and defeat in many battles. He was a bitter sort, not given to much talk aside from battle plans. We fought side by side in many skirmishes with bands of orcs and I have never seen such a burning rage for their kind as I saw from him. I later learned that his company was wiped out in a battle that went particularly badly for those who were paying him.

Finally the time came and we received the call. Scouts had managed to find the primary orc encampment and we were to join the main forces and make a final assault to push them out of our territory. They were in a canyon, the camp was crawling with them and the smell hit us all before we got close. We pushed in hard and fast, archers covering us from the canyon walls and the small amount of war machines we had available launching flaming pots into the camp. The fight was long and hard. When night fell and the only lights were the burning tents and ramshackle buildings of the orcs, when we were exhausted and wounded, when the last of the arrows were fired and the ground was littered with the dead and dying. That was when the rest of the orcs came back.

We had underestimated their numbers, they had outsmarted us and kept their camps dispersed to hide how truly large the threat was. It was a slaughter beyond what I could describe. The first signs of trouble that those of us in the camp had was the slams of the archer's bodies falling into the camp. They were being pushed in by the new arrivals, alive or dead. They poured in from behind us, carving into the wounded first. Then they reached our back lines and our fight became something else. Desperation spread quickly, the chain of command fell apart. We had only one option, flee further into the canyon. I told Akmen as much. Our numbers were depleted, our wounded outnumbered those still healthy not to speak of our dead. Akmen would hear none of it. We pressed on, following his lead and his energy, fueled by his hatred.

We made our stand in one of the half burned huts. By the looks of it, some kind of crude healer's hut. I don't know how long we fought, the night stretched on and the bodies only stacked higher. The sounds of battle began to die down around us. I could only assume we were the last of the soldiers left alive, or at least still in the camp. Orcs swarmed the hut and piled in from the holes in the walls. We killed until our blades broke, then we killed with anything we could get our hands on. I saw it first, a way out of this death trap. The orcs were avoiding a certain avenue that led to the hut. We could break down a wall and make a run for it. I pointed it out, begged for Akmen to give the order to leave. I saw the words in his eyes before he spoke them. We weren't leaving until every last orc lay slain before us.

I made the decision then. I was not going to die here and I was not going to leave those who fought with me here either. I gathered the others and we left. I took those who could walk and we carried those who could not. We broke apart that wall and dropped into that avenue where the orcs would not. It was a mass grave for their own dead. Decomposing bodies and discarded waste piled high around us. We fled that night, directly disobeying our leader we had followed for 3 years. We ran deep into the canyon as fast as our wounded could manage. I can't clear from my mind his last words as we evacuated the building. Cowards, traitors, treasonous backstabbers, all manner of screamed accusations of our crimes. I will never forget, however, the look that we received from Akmen. The pure burning rage at our departure. It was in those eyes that I could believe that he was the Flaming Pheonix.

He stayed there, but I don't think he died there. Some months later during a reconnaissance mission to that same canyon I found the same hut where we had made our stand. It seemed that after that battle we had sufficiently depleted the orc numbers that they moved on. They didn't have enough left to fully persecute the war. They left the camp intact and the dead where they lay. I never found Akmen's body. I don't know where he is now, but I hope to never see him again.

After it was all over, the last of the orcs chased off, our company was dismissed. Given our final pay and released from service. I took up wandering again, though this time with a purpose. I learned in that war that there are those who cannot protect themselves, so I will. I cannot save everyone, but I can help those around me. I yearn for those same looks of admiration, the same gratitude and praises. Such is the path that my life has taken, and I will continue.

Rumors

 * Some claim to know why Soveliss is exiled from his home, even that his family was killed for some nefarious plot.
 * After action reports confirm that the body of the Mercenary Captain, one Akmen Ratislav, was never recovered though his last known location was confirmed by multiple eyewitness accounts.
 * Talent scouts from the Gladiatorial Guild were asking about Soveliss shortly after his departure from the Gladiator life.

Player
Kingsly (Left Server)