“I was born after the cataclysm, into a small band of Valkan'Vi. We lived in the honeycombs of a cave system, to the north of the former lands of Sylvandar. “

”While lost in the despair of being hidden from the stars, my clan was fearful of what the sky might hold after the clouds had vanished. The elder folk became insane with the separation from sky, and the confinement of cave walls. They forbade all, except the diggers who gathered roots and shriveled nuts, from going out of the caves. Some of the children born after myself have never known that we were people of the stars, they believed we exsisted only in a world of stone encasements.”

”Eventually the diggers did not return. One by one they disappeared, and it was said the sky swallowed them. My mother did not believe this, nor did she believe that they would abandon the clan. She told me about the times before the cataclysm and how our people poured over the stars, like elves over the pages of books. I, like a fool, shared this with other young ones in our home, and she was named a traitor. The elders tossed her from the caves and left her to fend for herself. “

”With the diggers gone we had no one to find food for us. They forced the children to go out since we were the burden of the clan, born into a time when we should not have been concieved. We did as best as we could, knowing little to nothing about the lands. When we were unsuccessful, we were forced to choose. For each time we returned empty handed, one of the elders chose a child to kill. It was better to eat meat of a child than to eat nothing at all. They believed they were solving two problems at once. Being one of the oldest of the children I was responsible for each death. The elders became ravenous for the flesh, and seemed to gain knowledge of the world outside by eating it. I could no longer stand it and convinced several of the children that we must seek out lives elsewhere, no matter what beast we may encounter. We left to gather food, and never returned.”

”Some weeks later we found my mother. She had been held captive by men, and was chained to a crumbling stone wall. From there she could see the night sky and read the things to come. She warned me not to stay there, else I would be bound too and forced to read the stars for the greed of men. I hid during the day and watched her by night. Some nights she was able to gleen information, and others she could not. On those nights she cried in anticipation of the beatings to come. One evening I awoke to find her head had been slammed profusely into that stone wall, and her lifeless body still lay chained. It was then I decided to take a part of her with me. I ate her brain and she spoke to me. “

”Her words burned into my soul. She gave all of her mind's eye to me in that moment, and I still hear her guiding me today. I cannot yet read the stars, but I know there is a way.”

Garet listens intently to the story. When it is finished, he speaks in a very soft voice,

"Your story saddens me greatly. The Valkyn'vi are know to be a fierce people slow to anger and quick to wisdom. We live in truely taxing times when such as these are driven from the stars into cannabilistic squaler. It is also intriging that you say you were born after the cataclysm. To the best of my recollection the cataclysm took place near 5 years ago. I endevor to get more accurate readings however, time seems to be still distorted in some manor. "

"The answer may lay in the history of your people. It is possible that you were 'Born' into this new phanterra but not as an infant. According to your peoples own telling of your origin there may be some Valkyn'vi that lived in an ethereal realm called "Mysterella" I believe it was. Mayhaps you and your entire clan were pulled from that realm into fleshly bodies. It would explain some of the other odd Valkyn'vi stories I have been hearing. It would also make sense that you may not be able to remember your life in Mysterella because of the tramatic journey here. In fact, time and thought may be different there and not even translate."

"Let me see if I might have the creation story of the Valkyn'Vi in a book somewhere. I know my grandfather wrote of it."

He turns and rummages through a trunk...

"Ahhh, may I offer you some food while I search it out?"

He offers a plate of dried apples and walks over to another trunk and starts rummaging. After about ten minutes he returns

"Ahhh....here it is...It says this story is according to Pa’To’lak grand oracle of Fate and was told to my grandfather circa 990 ce,"

Garet begins to read,

"The firelight played about the Grand Oracle’s face. The wrinkles that covered his once perfect visage now were home for dark shadows which added to the mystery in the old man’s eyes. The room grew still as he rose to his feet and began to speak in a low harmonious voice."

“The creation of the Valkin’vi is rooted in the ancient society of the An’dar. The An’dar were a peaceful people who relied heavily on magics. One day, the High wizard, ruler of all the An’dar, was strolling along a path through a lush forest with his true love. The winds suddenly picked up and a storm cloud blew over head. A torrential down pour commenced. The wizard and his companion were drench. The wizard’s true love grew angry with him and said ‘You are a great wizard yet you can not keep the rain from ruining my dress.’. She ran off deep into the forest.”

“The wizard decided then that the only way to win back his true love was to show her that he could master the skies and the weather. He spent long nights trying to devise a ritual that would allow him to control the weather. One night, while researching the ritual, a chilling wind blew through the library. All the lights in the room blew out. Even the magical ones ceased to throw forth light. In the darkness a small globe of brilliant blue light appeared and began to grow larger and larger until it formed the shape of a young man.”

“The young glowing man introduced himself as Mistriale, a messenger from a people known as the Valkin. He told the wizard that he had heard of his plight and was willing to offer him a deal. The Valkin possessed the ability to control the weather and to interact with both the physical plane, the plane of the An’dar, and the empyrean plane, the plane of the Valkin. The problem was that the Valkin lost the ability to reproduce and their numbers were dwindling. The Valkin agreed to control the weather if the wizard would create more Valkin. The wizard agreed and was given a scroll with the ritual upon it.”

“The next morning, the High wizard gathered together ten of his top advisors and cast the ritual upon them. The advisors were wrought with anguish and pain as their physical bodies were stripped away and they became glowing figures which soon disappeared. Mistriale materialized before the wizard and told him that the ritual was a partial success. The beings which were created were not Valkin like they expected. The newly created creatures were not as powerful as the Valkin and they could not appear on the physical plane. The new creatures were given the name An’Valkin’vi, the low Valkin.:”

“After the first partial success with the ritual, the Valkin still agreed to control the weather if they were supplied with more of these new creatures. The Valkin used the An’Valkin’Vi as slaves. They forced them to control the weather and to build a grand city from which the Valkin controlled the An’Valkin’Vi. After a few years, the amount of volunteers to undergo the ritual dwindled to nothing. The An’dar were forced to use their convicted criminals for the ritual. During these years, another interesting discovery was made, the An’Valkin’Vi could reproduce. The An’dar, upon discovering this, stopped creating more An’Valkin’Vi and began trading other items with the Valkin.”

“The years that followed were years of slavery and oppression for the An’Valkin’Vi. They were forced to work day and night to either control the weather of a plane they could never even visit or building palaces that they were not allowed to enter. They were forced to live in cast off homes and find their own food. During this time, the An’Valkin’Vi also began to multiply. Soon their numbers dwarfed those of the Valkin. This realization that they out numbered the Valkin spawned the first An’Valkin’Vi rebellion which came to be known as ‘The Slaughter of Sirocco Tower ‘.”

“The Slaughter of Sirocco Tower was the darkest hour of An’Valkin’Vi history. Over five hundred An’Valkin’vi rebels were destroyed in less than a few minutes. It was then that the An’Valkin’Vi realized that the Valkin could only be killed by special means. A means that the An’Valkin’Vi did not know. All seemed lost. The An’Valkin’Vi felt helpless like a gnat in a hurricane. They dredged through generations of slavery, oppression, and squashed rebellions. To curb further rebellions, the Valkin would systematically destroy An’Valkin’Vi in order to keep their numbers down and more manageable. Mothers would wake up to find their children slaughtered in the night. Wives would wait up while their husbands body lay undiscovered in a gutter. Thousands died like cattle at the hands of the Valkin.”

“The Valkin were a long lived race. They were also endowed with great powers, including eidetic memories. One Valkin in particular did not like the acts of horror and destruction that haunted his memory. He was the one who first approached the High wizard. He became known as Mistriale, Father of the An’Valkin’Vi. He saw the An’Valkin’Vi as his children and his responsibility. He did not like the way they were treated by the Valkin but he could do nothing about it. He was of very low standing in the kingdom and held no sway with the council or the king. The others did not see the An’Valkin’vi as equals. They viewed them as beasts to be bought, sold, and tended. On several occasions Mistriale pleaded with the council to let the An’Valkin’Vi have their freedom but it was to no avail. It was on one particular day of pleading that Mistriale was laughed out of the council chambers. A moment that was burned in his mind. A moment that would shape history forever.”

“Mistriale, after being laughed out of the council chambers again, grew angry. He went home and called an An’Valkin’Vi woman to his library. He asked the woman to take a message to the rebellion leader of the time. In the message, Mistriale, gave the secret to killing the Valkin and a key to the grand palace gates. The An’Valkin’Vi immediately gathered a mismatched army together and formulated a plan of attack. A plan to shrug off the chains of slavery once and for all, and kill ALL the Valkin. A message was sent to Mistriale to thank him for the secret and to assure him that he and his family would be spared if they hid in his library during the attack.”

“The message was intercepted by a Valkin council advisor. It was too late for the Valkin to save themselves or prevent the attack. In a fit of rage, the King and his council waited for Mistriale and his family in the library. When they arrived, The council set upon him and bound him and his family. They then forced Mistriale to watch as they tortured his family to death. Then, they began to torture Mistriale. Just as the council was about to kill him, the An’Valkin’Vi burst into the library and killed all of the council members. Mistriale was spared, the last of his race to be allowed to live.”

“The rebel leader was put into power as king and used the grand Valkin palace as his own. He was a goodly king and well liked by his subjects. His first order of royal business was to abolish the name An’Valkin’Vi for it meant the low Valkin in the tongue of a people they never saw. Instead, it was declared that they shall be called Valkin’vi, the little storm. He also declared that the kingdom shall be called Mistriallia, after the one who lead the people out of slavery. Mistriallia prospered in the years that followed generations went by and soon the Valkin’vi were populating most of the empyrean plane.”

“Life was peaceful and good in Mistriallia until one day, when the people who once created the Valkin’vi, began to play with magics far beyond their abilities. A ritual meant to open a gateway to other realms so that the overcrowded from the physical plane could find more land to colonize turned to disaster. The ritual was interrupted by a group of squabbling little beings. The immense magic was released unchecked onto the face of the physical plane and some seeped through the partially open gateway and onto the empyrean plane. Thousands of Valkin’vi were changed into fleshy forms and ripped from the empyrean plane and thrown into a strange place. A place the people called Phantera.”

“We Valkin’vi live here still today. Holding on to our traditions and waiting for the time of ‘The Returning’. The time when all clans and traditions will unite to open the gateway to our ancestors. The time is near. Hold onto your traditions, remember the prophecies, and may your destiny guide you home to Mistriallia.”