Artemesia Family
House Artemesia
The fairly new noble house of Artemesia has its main estate, the Villa d'Artemesia, atop a small hill in Commonyr. It is said that the family has a deep history, despite its relatively little-known acts among the nobility. My first tale, whether true history or not, explains how the Artemesia family came to be.
Common Origins
A small family of herbalists once inhabited the northeastern regions of the East Continent. They were called "Wormwood", after a plant of the same name. For generations, they simply made herbal medicines for the townsfolk with whom they lived. This all changed by the seventeenth Wormwood generation. A young and ambitious son was born to the youngest Wormwood male and his wife. He was named Jeherad, and at the time of his birth, a heavy windstorm passed through the village. The elder of the family, who was in attendance at the birth, foretold that this boy would be the winds of change for the Wormwood clan.
Twenty-one years after Jeherad's birth, a passing hero of the land was looking for volunteers for his army. Having long been bored with the life of an herbalist, Jeherad took what little supplies he could carry and joined the noble's growing ranks of militiamen.
Having fought through numerous battles, Jeherad soon distinguished himself as a reliable soldier and an unstoppable survivor. In addition, he bore a striking resemblance to the noble whom he served, a feature that would become useful in future encounters with infiltrators who wished to kill the noble.
After ten years of fighting as one of the noble's men, Jeherad was promoted to captain of the squad, and indeed, after ten years, Jeherad was the only one who had survived since that day the noble called for volunteers. What was more, the noble presented Jeherad with a bright silver medallion, purified and polished such that it glowed white, and forged and shaped into the form of a tree. The noble told Jeherad that it was the family seal of the Artemis family of minor nobles. Jeherad was given the rare honor to become accepted as an adopted brother to the noble, which the commoner, overwhelmed, fell to his knees and eventually accepted.
The story of Jeherad says that he married one of the noble's sisters after he proved himself worthy of nobility. For all intents and purposes, he was no longer Jeherad Wormwood, but Jeherad Artemis. In accordance with his new identity, he changed his name to Jared Artemis, and he had two sons by the names of Nathan and Lorn.
Nathan followed his father as a warrior, and became a hero of the land, whereby he also died a hero of the land. Lorn focused more on the paperwork associated with being a noble. His actions in the background, along with Nathan's valorous deeds in the public eye, cemented the status of the former Wormwoods as nobles.
Alchemical Secrets
Nathan had no children, although he did adopt one of the Wormwood children as his own, to promote the eventual integration of the commoner family with the noble family. It is said that the day Nathan arrived to receive the infant, an earthquake occurred in the distance, but the tremors were felt even in the village. The elder foretold that such an event meant that the boy would grow to someday shake the earth that he would be forced to wander for many years. This newborn, adopted when Nathan was already 40 years of age, was given the name Samael, and, due to the nature of Nathan's military career, the boy was sent to the care of a young couple whose family was associated with the Wormwoods for many generations.
The young man was an alchemist who was the latest in a long line of alchemists. His wife was rumored to be an elf, from the lands further east, but no one ever ascertained the truth of the matter. The two were given the task of raising the young Samael.
Three years later, Lorn and his wife, Micah, had a son as well. They named him Jared, for the child was born on the same day as Lorn's father. At this time, the oldest surviving member of the original Artemis family formally declared that the name be changed to Artemisia, a name that also referred to the Wormwood plant, that also retained the name of the former noble house. The members agreed, but suggested that the spelling be modified slightly to reflect that such an integration had not been completed yet. And indeed, there were still Wormwoods living as peasants and Artemis who refused to associate themselves with those they thought to be vulgar mixes.
Two years after the birth of Jared, the wife of the only child of the noble Artemis family gave birth to a son, whom they named Garret.
Samael Artemesia, Born of Common Blood
Here commences what is known about Samael Artemesia, who was raised by the alchemist Lawrence and his wife, Marissa.
As a boy, Samael would often run from his studies and play with the peasant kids, often partaking in mock duels and coming home with scratches where the wooden swords managed to cut. Although his caretakers were never too happy about that, the boy displayed a natural aptitude for the concepts of alchemy, to Lawrence's surprise. But the boy was not content with learning about mixing various chemicals to make new ones. He wanted to test his skills with the sword, and to become a well-known swordsman one day. He convinced his father, Nathan, to send him to a fencing academy, and Nathan complied. At age fifteen, Samael was sent to the continent of Atamara to train under the best teachers of the Cagilan Empire.
Five years passed extremely quickly, and Samael was making steady, but slow progress. Frustrated at his slow pace of learning, he enlisted in the empire's army, hoping that the fast pace of battle would sharpen his swordfighting abilities. After a few months of marching troops around, and fighting, Samael came to the conclusion that the confusion of the melee was a very poor method to train his skills, and often taught him bad swordsmanship. One day, without informing anyone, he hitched a ride on a traveling merchant's caravan, to seek a life of pure adventure.
He arrived in the Ash Sea Islands, where he was imprisoned almost immediately. The archpriest released him, but warned him never to even suggest that he was a noble. Samael was rather frightened and unsure at this point, for he would now be forced to play the role of a commoner. Returning to the Empire would make him look like a fool, and he was sure none would ever accept him as a noble anymore. Thus, Samael purchased a dagger from the local blacksmith and set off across the islands, through grassy fields of wild beasts, dark caves of large monsters, and haunted battlegrounds where the restless undead roamed. While trailing a horde of undead in Mapo, Samael encountered a champion, whose strength he had never seen before. The ferocious undead parried every single one of Samael's attacks, and was quickly overpowering him, when the young man decided to simply dodge all attacks. The tactic, surprisingly, worked, and after six hours, the undead champion's rotting corpse could no longer maintain the strain of swinging a sword, and so, despite the unholy magic that kept it moving, the body failed and crumbled. Samael took the undead champion's shiny armor, which he uncreatively dubbed the Armor of Mapo, and later presented it to the archpriest who freed him. He also took the sword, which, apart from the armor, was the only other item that was not rusting away.
Shortly afterwards, Samael was imprisoned within Tara by a passing noble. But this time, the judge was very generous, and in fact, recognized the efforts of an adventurer for keeping the undead and monster population low. The judge offered Samael a chance to join Tara, and after thinking about his options, he decided that he would probably be safer from abuse by nobles in Tara.
And so, Samael faced quite a bit of adventure in his next five years in Tara. He managed to slay a few small dragons, some griffons, a lot of wolves, as well as the ever-present undead. However, there was one incident that Samael would not forget.
While chasing after a group of undead, Samael encountered a magic-casting champion. As he was inexperienced with combating magic, Samael was easily overcome, and things looked quite bleak. As it happened, though, the undead champion did not kill Samael. It, and later, Samael would find out it was actually a she, instead wanted Samael to discover the truth behind her murder. This involved him searching out quite a few bandit camps along the way, until he finally discovered the one who killed the formerly living magician, and learned why such an act was done. That was all very interesting, and Samael really cared less about the details, except that, after the undead mage fried the bandit, she thanked Samael by forcing him to the ground and...let's just say that's around the time Samael discovered that undead also have genders.
Strangely enough, that undead mage would later accompany Samael in his journeys, and the adventurer's knowledge in alchemy, coupled with the mage's spells, made the undead woman appear more human-like, allowing her to mix with peasants so long as she concealed most of her body.
Other than a few more dead wolves, bandits, goblins, and various forest beasts, Samael had very few other highlights of his adventuring career. He defeated an undead champion who dropped a shield of anti-undead, which he found very amusing, because the undead champion that wielded such a shield was defeated when Samael pushed the shield into the undead. He presented this later on to the dictator of Tara, Manxy Watty. With the dictator's recognition, Samael was very close to becoming a noble again. He only needed one more recommendation, and he achieved this by finding Ucdauh's Breastplate of the North off an undead barbarian who had once come down from the frigid northlands. He presented this to the general of Tara, Hakki the Pain, who would later become Samael's liege.
By then, Samael had gained much more swordfighting abilities, and he was ready to pursue his goal of becoming a great swordsman. The undead mage is still living with him, if you must know.
Jared Artemesia, Jeherad's Successor
Lorn and his wife tried to entertain Jared by sending the servants to play with him in the gardens, the boy seemed to like the library most of all. In fact, he would often stay inside the library when he was given free time off his studies, and read books about history, philosophy, theology, and physics. When he turned twelve, he entered into an informal apprenticeship with Lawrence, although his parents were not too accepting of the idea.
Lawrence found Jared to be an excellent student, whose aptitude for alchemy, although not as sharp or quick as Samael's, was still above average. And Jared was a dedicated student, which Samael was not. For the next five years, Jared would work as Lawrence's apprentice, learning secrets of the natural world that he would have never gained from only reading books. When he turned seventeen, he asked Lawrence to formally break the apprenticeship so that he could fulfill his responsibilities as the official Artemesia heir and representative, to join the army of Fontan and thus formally enter into the nobilty. Lawrence sadly agreed, but in order to keep the love of knowledge alive in Jared, the alchemist's wife, Marissa, who still appeared to be the same young woman from twenty years ago, joined Jared and became his scribe and companion.
The transition into formal nobility would have been harsh for Jared, had it not been his fortune to become a student of the Minister of Finance of Fontan, Elberan Carnes. Under the then-count's careful teachings, Jared was able to become a competent noble. For several months, Jared was able to live happily and gain new knowledge, until Nathan was killed fighting a group of monsters.
To honor his uncle's memory, Jared reluctantly declared himself a hero of Fontan, and took on a new fury in battle. However, his natural tendency towards silence, towards introspection, and a preference of action over talk, still remained. As a noble of Fontan, Jared was caught in many of the events that hit Fontan, such as the mad duke Gregor's secession, the equally mad duke Alexi's secession, and the many chaotic events from the Krimml incident. As a then-knight of Greatbridge, Jared was recognized as an enemy of Fontan due to Alexi's secession, and in order to convey his allegiance to Fontan, he disarmed all 47 of his highly trained soldiers and exited Avamar until everything was cleared. In order to prevent this from occurring again, Jared took an offer from Elberan Carnes, who was then the duke of Ashforth, to become a knight of the ducal city.
Jared had never thought that he would ever leave Fontan. He had sworn himself to defend it as a hero to his death, but times change, and enemies change as well. He had once heard about a traitor named Hamilton Vita, who was very vocal and critical of Fontan before he left for the Confederacy. Due to the nature of war, Jared never cared to understand the details of that, and simply accepted the words of his fellow nobles, and saw Hamilton as an enemy. However, the man returned to Fontan after the Confederacy was destroyed, and despite initial hostility, Jared came to realize that Hamilton, and indeed, all the other former Confederates, were no longer enemies. And so, after a few talks with Hamilton whereby he realized that his ideas were quite similar to the "traitor's", Jared decided to change his view of Hamilton as an enemy.
There had been an incident soon afterward where Hamilton's hands and tongue were severed, and Jared acted, whether out of whim or fate, to help Hamilton. He called on the services of Lawrence and his alchemical knowledge, as well as a secret that Marissa had long concealed, and his own somewhat dark secret, to repair Hamilton's body. Seeing as how his place on Fontan would be jeopardized if anyone knew the aid he gave to Hamilton, Jared agreed to follow him to the Far East, where they now reside in Ohnar West. Though Hamilton has since risen to some position of power, Jared has taken the chance to finally leave his past behind, and along with Lawrence, the dog, and Marissa, has taken up a quiet life.
Garret Artemesia, Gold-plated Lead
The youngest of the current generation of the Artemesia family is Garret, born to the last surviving male heir of the former Artemis house. As a child, Garret was afforded the best nobility could offer. He had the best tutors, the best living arrangements, the best care. But he was rather critical of the way that his family shyed away from the Artemesia house, thinking that they were vulgar half-commoners. Garret believed in progress, and believe that those who did not move forward from tradition would be consumed by archaism. At the age of seventeen, the nobly-raised Garret moved to the Far East to make a name for himself in the Republic of Lasanar.
It was some bad timing, as soon, Esorp Motab, the duke of Akanos, seceeded and formed Ohnar. He joined Esorp, and after a few interesting exchanges between assassination attempts and the chaos from the split of even more of the republic, Garret became baron of Upasael. However, he soon received a letter from Jared about the call for ambitious and able knights to aid in the taming of Dwilight, and so Garret chose a life of excitement over a life of privilege, and took the ship to Dwilight, where he joined the realm of Shadovar.
It was a police state, but an efficient one. Garret quite liked such an idea, although there would often be food shortages. On one expedition to gain food, Garret traveled far to the northwest to Golden Farrow to negotiate for food, where he encountered a rustic beauty named Nina Tai Bluelake. Though she was a commoner, Garret took a fancy to her, but could not say so lest his status be compromised. He instead left silently back for Shadovar.
It would seem that fate would have Garret always join realms that would come under chaos. Shortly afterwards, a group of former colonists who were under the agreement of helping Shadovar, led by Matthias Rider and Katayanna Ogren, rebelled and overthrew Shadovar. Garret found such treachery initially revolting, but after finding refuge in Morek, decided to forget the ordeal, and focus on his skills as a trader. If the new realm of D'Hara that came from the islands would provide a greater opportunity for trade, he had no objections.
Garret made a trip towards Pian en Luries to the south, passing Balance's Retreat along the way, to map the most effective land route to the other realms, and, secretly, to find the adventurer whom he heard was last seen around Pian en Luries lands.
