Lady Vanndania, A Paladin's Tale Sometimes, I have vague, faded dreams of soft music and light and laughter. During these dreams, I feel an overwhelming sense of joy and belonging. I see great tree spires reaching to the clouds outlined by beautiful, verdant sunshine. Colorful arrays of exotic birds fly overhead creating the perfect picture of serenity. Then the scene changes........ The sky is concealed by dust and flames. The sounds become those of people, MY people, wounded and dying. The music becomes a cacophony of metal ringing and war cries. I hear my own voice chanting prayers and pleading for help from my deity Heironeous, God of Valor. The answer to my prayers comes as a searing pain in my head, and followed by blackness....... Forgive me; my name is Vandania, Knight of the Eldritch Order. I’m sure I have both a last name and a home, but I couldn’t possibly tell you of either, for I don’t remember them. You see, some time back, I awoke on a strange shore in a suit of broken and tattered armor, grasping a sword hilt with one hand and the symbol of my Deity with the other. I am not even certain that Vandania is my true name, but it’s sufficient for the time being.I am a High Elf who started my career as a Holy Warrior, in other words, as a Paladin. My ascent into the Eldritch Knight Order began back then without my knowledge. In fact, I didn’t even know such a thing existed. In a daze i found myself wondering about the land for days until I happened upon a small town of Baka, wherein, I met the first of my knew friends,Quazzibar. Quaz and I, in an effort to help my memory, undertook a mission for the town Mayor that we thought may jog some semblance of my former abilities. It started as a seemingly simple quest to retrieve a signet ring, stolen from the area's Barron. It had been lifted from him by some lizard-like creatures called Kobolds during an ambush, who ultimately fled into an ancient cave. It all went well for us until we discovered that this cave opened into a large underground complex. The further we went the worse things became. We managed to recover this ring and return it, but then everything went awry.Turns out, when we got this ring, we raised the ire of a rather powerful foe. Naturally, we had to return to the complex and we knew we had to enlist more help. Unfortunately, bravery was in short supply. Now, elves and dwarves never really got along too well, but as fate would have it, the only help we could muster was in the personae of two dwarves; the siblings, Torgga and Tordek. As a rather unsettled, we four headed into the caverns to make our own place in the annals of history. Our new mission was to eliminate the Kobold Clan that had taken residency in the area and were terrorizing the outlying farms. As we pushed onward, we discovered that the clan was under the command of a relatively powerful Shaman. As this Shaman fell, he hinted that this was just the beginning. Indeed it was. As we moved to the next, the enemies and missions got more difficult. Soon we found ourselves matching skills with the undead, were-creatures, a guild of thieves, and large scale curses. In the midst of all this, we learned of a much larger threat to life as it is. Additionally, we learned of ancient orders of elite heroes. One being the legendary Dragon Riders, and another less known but very elite called the Eldritch Knights. At this point, I was still only a Paladin. I was, however, interested in learning more of these new orders. Still unknown to me, my journey to the order was well underway. Our missions had now taken a rather grisly form; we had unwittingly started on a great quest to save the region. It wasn’t until we reclaimed the Great Storm Forest from a curse of misdirection and entrapment that everything began falling into place. We learned of friends who were now foes and artifacts of order that were now missing, which allowed long sealed-away evils to now break free to plague the land once more. The most notable was a forgotten Archmage, by the name of, Luthor Zanderogen. I was awarded the title of “Eldritch Knight†after defeating one of his lieutenants in his Forest Tower in the forest. As of now, I still know naught of my past.......