Ariese: Created page with "==The Early History of Lord Alexi Kholodov, Baron of Arginmarl, Devoted Cleric of Hlyn== ''As Recorded by Amalia Elekthon'' The Hlynite disciple and Baron of Arginmarl was not always so blessed, and in fact seemed doomed to encounter much suffering even before birth. Alexi's mother Annessa grew up and lived in the dravic port city of Ablemarr working as the clerk of the local tax collector. Every other season a dravic oligarch would come with a large escort to the reve..."

2026-04-12T22:02:18Z

Created page with "==The Early History of Lord Alexi Kholodov, Baron of Arginmarl, Devoted Cleric of Hlyn== ''As Recorded by Amalia Elekthon'' The Hlynite disciple and Baron of Arginmarl was not always so blessed, and in fact seemed doomed to encounter much suffering even before birth. Alexi's mother Annessa grew up and lived in the dravic port city of Ablemarr working as the clerk of the local tax collector. Every other season a dravic oligarch would come with a large escort to the reve..."

New page

==The Early History of Lord Alexi Kholodov, Baron of Arginmarl, Devoted Cleric of Hlyn==

''As Recorded by Amalia Elekthon''

The Hlynite disciple and Baron of Arginmarl was not always so blessed, and in fact seemed doomed to encounter much suffering even before birth. Alexi's mother Annessa grew up and lived in the dravic port city of Ablemarr working as the clerk of the local tax collector. Every other season a dravic oligarch would come with a large escort to the revenue office and collect the governments portion of the cities revenue for transfer to the capital. During Annessa's employment at the tax office Rachmon the Regal oversaw the mid year rotation for the revenue collection of Ablemarr. The corrupt oligarch took a liking to Annessa and wooed the clerk into an affair. After three years of this relationship Annessa became with child and sent word for Rachmon requesting to take residence with him in his manor. The oligarch denied any affiliation with the child and used his power to all but blacklist the now heartbroken dravoness. Thus into the filth and enmity of port city slums, Alexi was born.

A strong child from the start, Alexi was a charismatic leader for the slum children at first, but as soon as the young minds were capable of prejudice Alexi was ridiculed. To fuel the young dravon's reproach of Alexi was not only his bastard origins, but the form of his spikes. The noblest of noble dravon are always commended for the grandeur of their spikes, but poor Alexi had just a straight line of nubby protrusions down the middle of his spine lending his appearance to that of a malnourished human. Constantly berated for his human appearance and illegitimate conception, the dravon fled with a heart of contempt at the age of 19.

Alexi traveled the continent of Letier as a migrant worker grudgingly using the connections offered by his dravic heritage to traverse the placida in search of a power with which he could return to Ablemarr and bring justice to those who had persecuted him in his youth. He joined up with a small troop of outcast workers and went west with them following their employment through the seasons. It was a rag tag group of individuals, mostly Genasi and Dravon numbering 12 in all with Alexi being the thirteenth. All along his travels Alexi still nurtured his desire for retribution which grew rapidly as a result of the teifling employers' further mistreatment of himself and the other workers in the company. After a few years of labor his ingenuity and charisma paved the way for him to become the supervisor of the small troop of outcasts and dealt shrewdly with their employers, trusting nothing but the fruit of his own labor. At the age of 27 Alexi had a run in with a particularly wealthy teifling who had cheated one of his few human laborers. Enraged Alexi went to him and demanded recompense for which the wealthy teifling accused him of assault and had him thrown out of the city. He then turned to the human and nearly struck for taking such an offense in stride. Taken aback by their leader's outburst the small troop of workers asked Alexi to leave them. Alexi then took his share of the money he had earned over the years from their savings and left them with a small fortune in his pockets. He bought a weeks passage on a ship at the local port and sailed north to Haelink.

Upon arrival Alexi went to a nearby Eladrin town in search of livelihood, but because of his cold demeanor it was difficult for the him to mesh with the Ximenian culture of the Feykind even as he learned their language. He wandered the forest northward to near the edge of the forest and eventually took up residence in an encampment known as Ovmek. Originally a dwarven foothold in the Feyland during the now much quieter land disputes between the elves and dwarves, the king of Haelink was content to leave Ovmek mostly unchanged after gaining control over the area as an act of homage to the loving Ximena. The outpost has a different look to it compared to most other towns of the forest due to its dwarven origin, with a mildly defensive stone wall surrounding an inner area and many of the buildings stand built of stone on the forest floor rather than the more common wooden tree dwellings of the Fey. In this town the elves live in a tense but fruitful peace with a small community of dwarves and Alexi was able to find work here as a gatherer for an elven employer by the name of Faelnir.

While working in the woods Alexi came across an old wayshrine to the verogod Nemo. Overjoyed by the thought of the lord of justice helping his plight he began to supplicate daily at the shrine, and did his best to rebuild and maintain it. Alexi constantly prayed for the retribution of the strong and powerful whom he held that because of their strength they inherently prey on the poor and weak. He specifically pleaded for the Lord of pure justice to grant him vengeance on those who wronged him in Ablemarr including the father his mother never mentioned. As days passed he slowly gathered and formed stones to fit the altar, and even though neither brute force nor precision were ever strengths of his, the shrine was finally rebuilt. As he place the final touch, an ornamental gold scale, upon the altar, Alexi finally felt like things were going to get set right. To celebrate the completion of the altar and further magnify Nemo's power, Alexi took a short pilgrimage to his Godspike and partook in a ritual Baptism of Reincarnation under a stream of Justice, bringing some of the verogod's power upon himself. It was however with his return that his true fate would unfold.

It was a perfect morning the next time Alexi strolled through the woods on the way to his daily rite at the shrine to Nemo, and there was neither a cloud on the sky nor a breeze under his cloak. The dravon was puzzled by the stillness of the air, but put it aside since these things can never really be predicted anywhere on the Letier. As he turned the corner he noticed that another individual sitting cross-legged before the shrine. The figure wore an old tattered traveler's cloak, much like the one Alexi himself had on, which concealed a massive shape under it which appeared to be strapped to the back of what the dravon could now identify as a human as he drew closer. Confused at first, Alexi grew slightly pleased by the thought of a companion in his dedication to Justice, as he approached the person spoke and began to rise. "Ah, you've arrived.... Good," She said, and her words were muffled as if they weren't able to easily reach Alexi but still somehow echoed in his mind as if they were never spoken at all but merely thought. Taken aback by the voice of who he was sure to be a man based on the object concealed under her cloak, he suddenly noticed that her golden hair was gently flowing without the aid of the wind and as she stood her cloak whirled about her as if caught in an eddy. Leaves began to jump from nearby trees and began to cycle through their seasonal coloration at an incredible rate as they were assimilated into what became a small vortex centered upon her. This was magic unlike any Alexi had ever seen or heard of before and as she turned to face him he began to worry about her intentions for meeting him there. Now facing him, her ruddy, weather-beaten face was a sight to behold, and was flushed as if from windburn or extreme cold. Her cloak whipped back to reveal an old chainmail tunic adorning her and Alexi could tell just by a glance that the scars on her strong arms were not just for show. Lightning blue eyes, full of terrible power fixed the dravon in his place even as her mouth curved into a soft smile. "Fret not, child," The woman spoke to him in common, though in an old and archaic sort of way that one only reads in translations of ancient scripts. As the danger in her eyes diminished the whirlwind around her seemed to strengthen, and though the situation seemed impossible Alexi felt slightly more at ease. The woman continued. "I am impressed greatly by your dedication, yet saddened that it will ever fall on deaf ears and a cold heart. What is it you seek in your supplications?" After a moment Alexi realized he should answer, and struggling to find the words he finally stammered, "I....only ask that....justice be served." She replied, "Justice is indeed a worthy endeavor, but only if motivated by the noblest of causes. I see naught that is noble to be gained from your justice." The flustered dravon was singed by this assault on his hard work and newest hope and exclaimed, "Well, what else can I seek?!" She smiled and turned toward the altar which appeared less and less impressive as she approached it. From behind the altar she turned back to him and, reaching under her cloak, revealed an enormous shield crafted of black marmaron which she brought above her head with both arms. "What you desire is not justice,"She said as the wind around her suddenly stopped and her eyes grew ablaze with blue light, "Seek instead the Light of Honor!" With the last word she brought down her great bulwark and smote the altar creating a blinding flash of light so bright that Alexi had to turn away and was rendered sightless for a moment afterward. When the world began to blur back into vision Alexi saw that the altar had been completely destroyed and the golden scale he had placed on it was flowing down the front in a molten mess. He hastily scanned the area for any sign of the women and in desperation he cried out to her, "Who are you?" though he already knew well the significance of this encounter. A voice echoed in his mind just as before saying, "My name holds little importance. That you should identify yourself is what is now crucial. Go in the light, for Honor strive, the needy serve, and the weak protect. Only then will manifest your true identity." As her voice faded from his mind a splash of water landed on the molten pool in Alexi's crumbled monument to a false sense of redemption, and looking up he saw a mountain of water bearing down on the forest from a northwesterly direction. A fleck of light slipped across the steaming hunk of gold and Alexi notice that it had fallen into the shape of a crude escutcheon and seemed to be exuding a blue-white glow. Snatching it from the rubble he was hardly surprised that the metal that was white hot moments ago was now cool to the touch, and as a cold spray washed over Ovmek the newly born acolyte of Shieldmaiden Hlyn sprinted back to the town and began his work for the great protectress.

As he was running through the woods Alexi felt the ground shake underneath him, and heard the crashing of a thousand timbers being rent in two by the lake that had been tossed into the forest under the influence of the chaos that plagued the now departed Verogodess. The air grew dank with the smell of lake water as an erratic rain of splashed lake water fell on the old dwarven fort-town, and Alexi pushed his limits to finally make it to Ovmek just as the first wave of flooding washed over the walls and leveled a swath of buildings on the north side of town. Water filled the streets and encumbered Alexi's oxygen-deprived legs causing him to trip and fall forward into the wash. He struggled to grab a nearby fencepost before the current could carry him out of town and rising up from the muck of the first wave he ran onward to meet the second one. Bending under the stress of the waters one of the larger Feycherry trees which was home to a few families of elves slowly splintered and began a descent directly on course for the residential area of town. Filled with the passion of Hlyn, Alexi gripped his golden artifact and thrust both hands at the falling arbor with a great and desperate bellow. Suddenly a great white flame was flung from the golden escutcheon and burned through one of the greater limbs and sending it to the ground harmlessly outside the walls of the town. As the tree crashed onto the stony walls a large limb broke free and began hurtling towards a fleeing mother and child at deadly speeds. "Watch out!" the dravon cried in earnest, and just as the branch bore down on the woman a great ethereal shield deflected the splintered sharp end of the branch away from her head and caused the woman to instead be struck in the leg by a much greener portion. Alexi breathed a short prayer of healing for the woman and hurried to aid any survivors housed in the fallen Feycherry. By the time he had stabilized and evacuated the victims in the tree, Alexi could see the tail end of the flash flood slide out of the town, and under his leadership a clean up operation began.

After his uncharacteristic compassion and assistance during the disaster at Ovmek both the elves and dwarves were struck by the newly changed dravon as he became more involved and open as a member of the town. After a few months Alexi bought a small shop and converted it into a shrine-clinic where he acted as a healer for the city and offered shelter to the poor, the needy and road worn travelers. Three years passed as Alexi's charisma skyrocketed with the local people; some dwarves joined his clinic as Hlynite followers which allowed Alexi to delve more into the historical and religious studies involved in the Church of the Protectress. In his thirst for knowledge the dravon learned the language of the ancient scripts and also read the draconic tomes of the many dragonborn followers of Hlyn and it quickly became apparent to him that there was more to be learned outside the small town of Ovmek. It was with this in mind that Alexi journeyed off after a handwritten annotation that mentioned a Vault of Hlyn to the north near Dragonborn territory. He left the shrine-clinic in the hands of his friends at Ovmek under the leadership of his first pupil Borik and the devoted priests there who still lend a helping hand to any that ask. So it was with a curious mind and a willing heart that Alexi the Dravon cleric of Hlyn arrived in Fallcrest at the age of 33 where he came across a young human, Vyse, and agreed to assist him in a seemingly small endeavor.

And after all this; his adventure was only beginning....

(for further documentation of the life of Lord Kholodov see the Journals of Captain Vaeru)

Alexi - Revision history