Editing Landsoftheblacksea:Main Page/players/khriya dami (section)

=== Part 1 === 
It was in the Nine Maidens where Nïól met the man who would become Khriya Dami’s father – Yara Sepp Addu-Suk-Bey.  Yara Sepp was a Baku, hailing from that brutal land to the south.  In his youth, he had been the epitome of a Baku warrior – a berserker in battle, who had purportedly killed four armed opponents with nothing but his hands (and teeth, if the tales were to be believed).

But Yara Sepp had lived in Blackport for many years now.  An important member of the Addu clan, he had been part of the Baku who negotiated with The Sovereign of Blackport after the last ruinous attempt by the clans to take the city nearly a decade ago.  As part of the truce, Yara Sepp was given to The Sovereign, along with many soldiers of the Addu clan, by the Addu chieftain, to serve in the armies of Blackport.  In return, the Baku clans received steel weapons, food, and other materiel needed to wage their endless wars, which were with each other when they weren’t with their neighbors.

The Overlord had found Yara Sepp both loyal and competent.  He had promoted him several times within the ranks of the Army – from the officer over the Baku levy, up through the ranks commanding mixed forces, until he was finally made a General of the Armies of Blackport – one of three such individuals, and the only one that was not sourced from either the Shadow Watch or the Iron Guard.

Due to his military rank and patronage by The Sovereign, Yara Sepp was a noble of Blackport.  Nobility in the city was a function of what one had to offer to The Sovereign – certainly coin was a factor; but power – military, political, or magical – were also paths to the inner circle, influence, and a position that could sip from the vast rivers of wealth that flowed into the Sovereign’s coffers.

Yara Sepp had taken a wife – a human woman, beautiful, of Baku lineage – who bore him only daughters.  He took a second wife – this one also human, but of Vulkul descent, with pale skin and red hair.  After another daughter, his second wife bore him a son, who could be his heir and carry on the proud name of the Addu-Suk-Bey.

This son was four years old when Yara Sepp met Nïól – and was instantly smitten by her.

Nïól, for her part, certainly found Yara Sepp attractive, even in the throes of middle age.  But more importantly, she saw a path out of the dissolute and aimless habits of the Black Elves – a path to a comfortable and safe life, as the wife of Blackport nobility.
Alas, she found it was not as she had hoped.  Yara Sepp offered her the role of consort, not wife.  It would bring her the comfort and safety she desired – but not the status or power.  For her or for any children she might conceive.

In the end, she took the offer.  It was not the end state she desired – but it was far, far closer to it than her position dancing and singing at The Nine Maidens.  And who knows – perhaps fortune would favor her as Sepp’s human wives aged and withered, while she remained young and lithe.

Khriya Dami was born two years later.  While she could not take her father’s surname, and could never be accepted by the Addu-Suk-Bey of the Baku due to her mixed race, she enjoyed a comfortable life and wanted for nothing that money could buy or that power could obtain.

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Khriya Dami grew, and as she did, Nïól introduced her to more of her elven heritage; she was instructed in the use of arcane magic, which her mother was fairly skilled in.  They visited the small temples and shrines that the Black Elves had erected – usually in a building that looked otherwise from the outside, or accessed through secret passages that led down to the beginnings of the vast and terrifying Undercity, the city beneath the city of Blackport.

Some rituals were performed in the out of doors.  For these, they journeyed out of the city walls, to the village of Devil’s Horn, so named for the spit of land that stuck out into the bay.  The Horn was home to more gnomes, halflings, and elves and half-elves than anywhere in Blackport, with the possible exception of Darklane.  She even saw a few dour-faced dwarves as they walked through the dark streets towards a large wooden altar on a hill with a clear view of the stars above.  

It was during one of these visits that she felt the call.   

As she watched the priestess of Tha’unäyul Néngä – commonly referred to simply as Néngä – chanting the prayers and listening to the response of the faithful, she suddenly became warm.  She looked at her arms, and it seemed that they shimmered with a weird, purple-white light.  Looking around, no one seemed to notice anything strange or odd – it would seem that only she could see the glow.

Similar things happened over the next year – but only in the shrine of Néngä, never when they prayed at the temples to the other gods.  
And finally, one night, the priestess – a beautiful wood-elfess named Ärauith – spoke to her after the end of a ceremony.

“Khriya Dami, my love – how long must Néngä call to you before you act?  She speaks to me.  She has cast her gaze upon you, and would have you as her own.  Will you not answer?”

Nïól gave her blessing after some consideration, her only condition that Khriya Dami’s obligations to Yara Sepp overrode all other considerations, mundane or celestial.  

But Yara Sepp’s needs were minimal, and Khriya Dami was able to study and train with Ärauith, and learn the mysteries of Néngä’s faith. 

And what mysteries they were.

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