A Bard's Eye View

Section I: The Journey Begins

Darkmoon Chaos Day, Year of the Hearth

Uncle Mallandry says that writing one's feelings in a diary heals a troubled soul. Uncle Hetharil says that the discipline of putting thoughts into concrete form in a journal keeps the mind nimble and the memory sharp. Since I have need of both healing and a sharp memory, I am beginning this journal as they suggested. Chaosday is the day of my birth. It is also the marker of many important events in my life. Today, therefore, is the most favorable of all times to begin it.

According to my uncles this journal is to be a record of my life's story. All Bards are storytellers. It seems fitting, therefore to start this diary with the story of my life up to this time.

My name is Sheer'An. I am a First One, or as the Humans call us, an Elf. I was born in Briarwood, a small village in the Autumnwood, one of the three major forests on Cel'mystry. My father, Ger'An Simplepleasure, was a Master Bard of Newblood descent. Newbloods are children who are sired to strengthen First Ones' bloodlines lines by mixing them with acceptable human blood.

Ger'An was very fond of his First Kin; fond enough to keep their clan name after they died in the plague that swept through his village. When he was old enough to seek his fortune, Ger'An journeyed to the city of Zenithmoon. He used the tokens his parents had left him to study at the Conservatory of Music there. My father was blessed with a great deal of musical talent. His insatiable curiosity made him a man of many skills. He graduated from the Conservatory as a Master Bard. He is one of only a handful of students in the last thousand years that has done so.

It did not take Ger'An long to achieve a considerable amount of fame in Zenithmoon. He lived the good life for several years. Then certain indiscreet actions, the nature of which he would never reveal, forced him to leave the city both quickly and quietly.

He roamed Cel'mystry for more than two hands of years after leaving Zenithmoon. From Dawnlight's snow capped mountains to Twilight's decadent splendors, he sampled the bittersweet delights of life on Cel'mystry. In due course, his travels brought him to the Autumnwood.

It was late in the autumn nether when Ger'An arrived at our village. The snows had started early that year. Since the weather made traveling any farther a dangerous proposition, he decided to winter in Briarwood. That was when

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