| Dracorion |
09-15-2012 02:58 AM |
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What's that? 2X CHARACTER REACHAROUNDDDDD
BackstoryBackstory
Jubal was born to disgraced House Tepet, specifically a patrician offshoot of the House. Jubal was the firstborn of his family, though his father managed to sire seven other children before his death at the hands of Fair Folk. Throughout his youth, Jubal took care of his siblings, until he Exalted, his mother presented him with his father's falcon familiar as a gift and he was whisked away for higher learning. He graduated from the House of Bells some years later, and being expected to put himself to use, he joined the Wyld Hunt.
What he saw was other Dragon-blooded ruthlessly striking down men and women, some barely older than his brothers and sisters, for the sake of wiping out Anathema in the East. Jubal had never paid much attention to the Immaculate Doctrine, and though he knew what they were supposed to be, what he heard was people yelling in rage, seemingly justified, that they were being murdered for the crime of enlightenement.
He couldn't handle it, and might've gone mad if it weren't for the companionship of Tomiko, his falcon familiar.
Jubal voicing his reservations was starting to bother his superiors, so after some time of service in the Hunt, they approved his return to the Blessed Isle. He enjoyed returning to his brothers and sisters, even as he secretly wondered if any of them could become Anathema. But no, they were too pure for that.
Still, a young Dragon-blood couldn't be expected to sit around the Isle forever doing nothing, and Jubal didn't want to go back to the Hunt. He managed to acquire a cushy temporary position: the Realm was launching a new ship with an all-new crew on their maiden voyage, along with two Dragon-blooded officers, as a test of everyone's skills. Cynis Layoro, a Wood Aspect who had been placed in charge thanks to her family connections rather than any personal merit, and himself.
Their job was simple: collect tribute from two Realm satrapies in the West, the Neck and Wavecrest. In particular, the satrap of Wavecrest had reported that sailors from a small island in the west of the archipelago called Tofanis had been trading in black jade. A deposit had clearly been found by the islanders and hadn't been reported to the satrap to be factored into the tribute, and they and the crew were to investigate it until they found the deposit and force the islanders to start paying tribute.
The journey was without incident and the ship eventually arrived in Tofanis, after making a stop in Wavecrest. They had been instructed to tell the villagers they were preparing for a Wyld incursion and needed to rest on their island for some time, until they found the jade. During their stay, Layoro was content to laze around and let Jubal deal with ordering the crew around.
It wasn't long after their arrival that Jubal met a pretty mortal girl with long black hair named Mara. She was engaged to another man in the village, and Jubal was too principled to whisk her away, but the two became fast friends. She admitted to him that she only accepted the man's proposal because she lacked other options in life, though she wished to leave her home island.
Then Jubal made a mistake. He publicly asked Mara to join him for a chat one night, and her fiancée misunderstood and confronted him. Jubal told the man, Joren, that he had no ill intentions toward Mara, though Joren wouldn't believe him. Jubal told his men to subdue Joren, and that's when everything went to hell.
Joren turned out to be much more capable than anyone had given him credit and killed a number of Jubal's crew, forcing Jubal to knock him unconscious. Just then, Layoro reported that they had found the jade, and when she saw Joren, she assumed the villagers were committing treason. And as much as he tried to argue, Jubal couldn't convince her otherwise.
Layoro ordered their men to set fire to the village and kill any who tried to stop them, and Jubal simply did his best to stop villagers from throwing their lives away. Still, he felt he had to do something good in all this, and he offered Mara her chance, to come with him as far as the Neck, so she could see the rest of the world like she wanted, and she accepted.
The islanders didn't take to the burning of their village peacefully and fought back, and Layoro decided to cut their losses and retreat with Jubal, Mara, and the surviving crew back to their ship. They sailed away from the island of Tofanis, and Layoro insisted they head for the Neck as scheduled. She had become frustrated with the events at the island and Mara's stay on their ship and grew reckless about their route, with the crew being too inexperience and unwilling to stand up to her to point out the dangers.
On the fifth day after their departure from Tofanis, the ship was suddenly beset by a terrible storm, nearly hurricane-level winds, that threatened to tear it apart. A storm mother was taking her rage out on the ship, and even if anyone realized that there was nothing they could do.
When Jubal woke up, he found himself on a piece of the ship's wreckage, with Tomiko pecking insistently in his ear, having washed up on a deserted shore. No one else was around, and when Jubal put himself together, he found his way to Gullwing and realized he was in Abalone. He stayed in the town for some days, trying to keep his identity hidden as he searched for any survivors. None turned up.
During this time, Jubal's thoughts went back to Anathema. He had barely seen Anathema show a much reckless disregard for life as Layoro, and he wondered again if they were really demons.
After waiting in Gullwing, Jubal made his way to Gateway to see if any of the ship's crew had turned up there, again trying to hide his identity. Somehow, he had been filled with great shame to be a Dragon-blood. If nothing else, he swore never to stand by and let someone commit injustices with such reckless disregard like Layoro had done.
He heard no news in Gateway either, and from what he could find out, no survivors had been found on other islands. Jubal considered going back to the Blessed Isle, but decided against it. To his knowledge none of his siblings had Exalted, and even if they joined the army, they couldn't face as much danger as a Dragon-blood would. With luck, they would be safe, so he could put off a family visit for now. Instead, Jubal decided not to report his survival, and to stay in the West. There were questions about Anathema and Dragon-blooded he wanted answers for, and perhaps he could find them among the many islands of the region, and the mortals, Gods, Godbloods and Dragon-blooded that inhabited them.
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