Tal was born in a way most normal people wouldn't have been able to imagine; born from a Demon father, and a human mother that took refugee among the human population of northern country known as Dethaal. The country was small, and hidden among the mountains. The people there were hard at work staying alive, constantly blasted by brutal winters, the summers being their one place of refuge. A common phrase among the people of Dethaal was, "Praise the Sun." It was common that the sun was hidden through most of the winter, shrouded by an overcast sky; so when the sun finally revealed itself, it meant that the day itself wouldn’t be the normal bitter cold they were used to, the summer’s being the warmest and prettiest, a month or two of melting snow, the ground beneath sometimes being given enough time to be spotted.
Tal wasn’t like the other kids, and he began noticing that when his strength grew unlike everyone else. His parents knew that one day they would have to explain to him who he was, and that he wasn’t like the others, but they feared the opinions of the people around them, so the secret remained hidden, up into the untimely death. The village was in a feud with a nearby family, and tensions rose. Tal was only nineteen when the raids started, and week more and more people died. His parents decided it was best not to get involved in the works of humans, so they sat away in their homes while the villagers fought for their lives. Tal and his friends banded together as a child fighting force to help defend, and though his father and mother frowned upon the idea, they never stopped him. To stop him would be to go back from what they moved away from in the first place. They came here to be free, free from the demon kings and slavers, free from the chains that bound them in Hell, and to hold him back, would only be applying their own chains upon him.
The kids fought bravely, but to no avail, the attacks where ruthless, and something else was there, something was helping the men. Tal and his parents could feel the new presence. At this point, his parents intervened. They jumped into the final moments of the battle, but who they were fighting, was not human. There was a Demon there; a Demon named Luther. He had followed them from Hell, tracking down Tal’s father Haran. “His crimes in the Demon world cannot go unpunished,” he stated as he confronted Tal’s father. After hearing what his young son, Tal, was doing to the attacking villagers, creating his own child army and being the “natural” born fighter he was, Luther investigated, knowing that they were hidden somewhere in this region. Searching for years, he had finally found him, but the time had made his parents weak, and Luther only grew more powerful. Tal was clueless on what was going on, but what he did know that Luther, he was powerful, powerful enough that when his father attacked him, he was able to fend him off with ease, his father’s sword slow compared to Luther’s. Tal’s mother, Lilian, ran in to help, but was ran through, the sword piercing her chest, slicing out through her back, white feathers exploding from behind her as the blood soaked steel dripped into the snow. Haran ran forward, taking the advantage as he attacked Luther, Luther pulled the sword from his wife’s chest and defended himself, thick red blood pooling into the snow. Tal ran over to his dying mother and she smiled up at him as she looked toward Luther, then back at her son. She placed a hand on his shoulder and told him, “You’re the link between two enemies, you’re the symbol that a peace can be found.” Tal was in tears at this point as she began to stand up, clutching the snow, then muttering in a strange language. A blue light began to swirl around her as strange symbols filled the air, then with a sudden flash, she was moving with great speed towards both Luther and his father. With a blinding flash, white chains shot out from the snow, gripping Luther and Haran as they were chained towards the ground. Luther was in shock, but Haran only smiled. Haran towards Tal as he sat in the snow, then yelled towards him, “Be free my son!” With a flash, both were yanked into the ground, a fiery pit beneath them as they were both dragged back into hell. Tal’s mother stepped over to the pit, and then with tears in her eyes she blew him a kiss before stepping into the pit herself, the fiery doom beneath them disappearing into the ground as dirt filled its place, the snow where it was having melted from the heat.
The village was in shock, as was Tal. He had so many questions, and so did the village. In the end, the village survived, the survivors being few as they gathered among themselves, their homes lost. It was time for the village to move, get out of this forsaken region and move somewhere where they could flourish. The overcast sky of the final winter day separated, the sun beamed down on them, Tal specifically. Little did he know, Tal was in for an adventure of a lifetime; Luther’s face engraved into his mind as he vowed to find him and seek answers.
There was a port city just south of Dethaal, one where they could find a cheap ship to take them to Aleris. They’ve heard rumors of the immortal kings, and the stories that the region held. Jobs were opening up regularly, and it would be the perfect place to start a new life. With that, Tal ventured on, growing into a young man through the journey, learning life lessons as he did. Upon reaching the port of Hinewai Harbor, Tal waved to the men and sailors that took care of him. They all saw what had happened, and they all knew Tal wasn’t behind it. They too wanted to see for themselves answers to what had led to that fateful day. Wishing him the best of luck, and the brightest of suns, they watched as he stepped off with what coin they could spare onto his own journey.
