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Parents |
Owen Diamondwood
Kyra Eldredae
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Height: 5' 8"
Hair color: Warm auburn and falls in loose curls
Eye color: Jade green
Race: Half-Elven
Marital Status: Once married to Callan Blackthorn and had one child, Mira Blackthorn
Background:
Task Diamondwood was the daughter of Owen Diamondwood, a human soldier turned blacksmith, and an Elven woman named Kyra Eldredae. Kyra was the only female of the royal house of Eldredae and as such was about to br married off to another Elf Lord to increase his ties to the royal family. Kyra, being headstrong, refused the marriage and bolted. She soon found herself lost in the NeutralLands and stumbled onto Owen's village by accident. The two of them fell in love and were married, Task being only one of many children.
But happiness is rarely left unshattered, and in the Diirlathe, Emperor Nargus Blackthorn IV had set his sights on the Elven lands to the south. Rather than take them by force, his chose to send in his best assassin, his son. Araxmarr, in the guise of the eldest son of Eldredae began silently insuring fatal “accidents” and disappearances. In a few short years, only the ailing dowager queen (who was lingering at the edge of death because of Araxmarr’s activites) remained in Eldheroth, the Elven capital. Two lost heirs remained, Krassc, who had vanished decades ago into the Sand Sea and Kyra. Kyra's whereabouts where discovered, and Rax was sent to the NeutralLands to hunt her and her children down.
Task's eldest brother, Rias, and other men in a hunting party later find a half-elven youth huddled in a field near the burned out remains of a small village apparently attacked by Araxmarr. The boy was the sole survivor and was taken back to the village where he finally tells of his family being attacked and slaughtered for sport by the Black Dragon General. The youth himself was Araxmarr and the actual ‘boy’…Callan…had been breakfast thousands of years ago. Enkara LeSevern, knowing ‘Callan’ for what he truly was and knowing why he had come there, took him in to finish 'raising' Callan as her own son, believing one should keep their friends close, and their enemies closer. Callan and the young Task became friends soon after...all part of the game. She was approximately 10 years old, human standards, his false form being approximately 15 years…and eventually, Callan is apprenticed to Owen...he seemed to have an odd gift for a half-elf, he had complete control over fire and was able to forge DragonSteele…a rare ability and a even rarer talent for one so young...
But Task herself possessed an odd talent...unknown to her...she had the Gift of SoulHealing, an Elven gift of the Eldredae elves that had not surfaced in generations with the exception of Kyra, an ability so rare and so strong, it could tame a dragon's heart...or heal its soul. Task loved Callan for what she thought he was and over the years, her love healed his divided heart, the Silver in Callan winning through the darkness of Nargus' influence and shadows of the Black in his blood.
Over the years, Callan found he could not go through with the slaying of Kyra, and most especially, Task. He had fallen in love with her, and asked her to marry him. To all but Enkara, Callan was but a half-elf and the marriage was greatly looked forward to..by all but Owen, who suspected Callan to be a hybrid at the least…but certainly not Araxmarr in truth. In a final visit to the Keep, Nargus sniffed out, quite literally, the relationship Callan was having with Task and shortly thereafter the Emperor of the Diirlathe set out to finish the job his son could not…and in the process left not one single survivor in Task’s village, including his renegade heir…Araxmarr…known only as Callan to Task.
The Fates however, and one meddling priestess, Enkara, ensured that Callan’s fate was not final. He was imprisoned for a time in his own Illinsaad, the assassin’s amulet, which was found and carried by Task all the way to the Keep. There, Nargus died by her hand and in time, Callan was set free and resurrected by the love Task discovered she still had for him, Black Assassin of the Diirlathe or not. They were married on a lakeshore near the Keep by Enkara, and had almost 2,000 years together before Task withered and died. In later years, it cames to light that Nargus’ mate, Ina’htas had arranged for her own assassin to slowly bring Task to death….
The assassin’s hand did not bring the final blow, however. In an act of mercy and love, an answer to Task’s own plea for release, Mira herself, barely 650 years old at the time, took her mother’s life. The wound at Task’s throat was healed post mortem, the bloodstained linens burned by Mira’s loyal Orsha Une, and thus began Callan’s long slide into Madness and his even longer crawl out of it.
But that is another story, one that begins over a century later in the Silver Dryad on Whispin….
The Gardens:
There are times when the moons shine just so…or the mournful cooing of doves and the sounds of their wings make one think they are not alone when in the Hanging Gardens. A stray breeze becomes fingers affectionately ruffling hair, the patch of warm sunlight on ones shoulder feels like the touch of a hand. These are not tricks of the mind…but truth. The Gardens were once a place of horror and blood, death and agony. Many long years of cleansing and healing were poured into the Hanging Gardens by Task, and in time, they became a wonder of the world of Aerdon. Green and growing things flourish there, a fountain of clean water sparkles where a pool of drying blood once lay. The long years of bringing spiritual cleansing, joy and beauty to the Gardens ensured that Task lives on. She can be found in the quiet of the Gardens, the scent of the flowers that bloom there, the warm breeze lifting over the mountains from the desert…she is always there and while she may no longer dwell in the soul of Callan Blackthorn, she will never leave her precious Gardens.
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