Editing Missekai'd: A Cortex Genre Mashup:Nameless (section)

==Background==
Once upon a time, there was an idle noble that loved adventure. He had the best teachers, was good with a sword...and had an accomplished bodyguard that compensated for his many mistakes. He traveled the kingdom questing and helping people. One day, his group came upon an old, dilapidated temple on a mountainside in an unexplored area of the kingdom. A search turned up nothing, but the group camped nearby. The noble decided to take a look around the old temple while the others rested, and cleaned the shrine of cobwebs and debris. The task was more arduous than he expected, and he fell asleep in the shrine once he was finished.

The noble's dreamed of a faceless person of indeterminate gender, standing in a graveyard. The figure told him, ''"I am the keeper of the Forgotten Dead, those who died unknown and unmourned. I am the only one who hears their laments, of tasks left undone and final words left unsaid. You are the first in a long time to come to this place, yet you know nothing of loneliness and obscurity. You bask in praise and glory, calling yourself a hero while the forgotten suffer in silence. Are you a hero?"''

"Yes, of course! I could have lived a life of luxury, but I am out in the world, helping those that can't help themselves. It is my privilege and my duty."

''"You gain nothing from this, then?"''

The noble replied, "I do so simply out of the goodness of my heart." Yet in his heart, he wondered whether he chose a good path out of duty, or something else.

The figure replied, ''"We shall see..."'' He woke up shortly thereafter, but did not attach any import to the dream.

Two days later, the group came across a vicious monster. Unprepared for the assault, all of them were killed...and the noble was the first to die. The spirit rose unseen from the body as his companions were being slaughtered. One by one, they died...and their spirits moved on. Only at the end did the noble notice that he had not moved on, and neither had the group's porter, a muscular woman he had never really noticed before. The noble asked the porter, "Why are we still here?" The porter did not know. "My brother lives in poverty. The rest of our family has passed on, and I was hoping to make enough money to give him a chance at a real life. Now, he won't even know I am gone."

The noble was preoccupied with his own death, but years of adventuring had ingrained his response. "I'm here to help." There was a sudden lurching, and then the noble sat up...in the porter's body. The noble felt the burden of the task, and realized that the Forgotten One had done this to him. He crept to his own body and took the pouch of gold, then snuck away before the monster spotted him. Whispers from the porter lead him to a village, where he found the brother and passed over the gold. "Take this, for your need is greater than mine." The brother was grateful, and prepared a fine meal. They ate together, and then the noble sought sleep. As he lay down...his spirit left the body. He saw that though the brother would be sad, he would remember his sister and see that she was properly buried. It was comforting, and the noble looked forward to his own passing. Surely someone would find his body, and he would be remembered for his deeds.

Then there was a sudden lurch, and the noble was pulled into another of the forgotten dead, to complete a task for them. Again, and again, until the noble couldn't even remember their own name. This had to be a curse - to lose all sense of self and only exist for the purpose of others. One way or another, this nameless noble would find a way free. Nameless learned many things over the years, including the manipulation of magical force - something tied to the spirit instead of the body, that could be carried with them. It made the tasks easier, but offered no solution for the curse. Sometimes, they failed in their task, and that failure was a wound carried by their spirit, only cleansed fully by continuing to help others. The tasks given could be delayed, but death would eventually come and that burden would strike Nameless like a sword.

Then, one day, as Nameless had just left a body, the ritual struck. They were left adrift in a new world, unseen and unable to help others, for the curse was not native to this place. It was a long period of silence, barely able to perceive the physical world, and they feared they would go mad. Finally, a body presented itself, and Nameless did not resist the pull.