Clarke Family/Alden Clarke
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Alden Clarke
Syri shai jholi shia si mys eisi vololaendraer sai pai shia saes.
Shi shai jholi shia si pandraes eisi pystaer sai pai shia si eizi.
Alden, like his cousin, is an outcast. His family doesn't truly accept him for his impure blood. His mother was a Clarke, his father an Elf from Sirion. Well at least he is half Clarke. The only one who treated him normal was his half brother, Paxton. When his brother decided to set out into the world Alden left Sirion to join him. They were supposed to travel to Atamara together, funny how things never work out as planned.
A day away from port the ship got caught in a vicious storm, during which Alden was thrown overboard. He was saved by a fisherman in Norland. He was brought up in the Viking army during the war with Barony of Makar. He fought with the army for a few months and saw true heroes emerge. When Eston intervened in the fight Alden went south to meet up with his half-brother in Minas Ithil.
He brought with him the Viking fighting skills he had learned and put together a group of men that rivaled any other. Well over one-hundred battle hardened men whose power was measured in thousands. They fought with the same ferocity as their Viking leader and had many victories. In the most defining of all those battles Alden and his men stood alone defending Minas Ithil's ally, Falasan, from a Darken taskforce. Alden and his men repelled against the combined might of four other troop leaders.
After the fighting was over and peace settled in Alden said goodbye to his brother and set sail for Beluaterra and the realm of Enweil. Those were dark days indeed. The undead waited just outside the walls throwing themselves against the gates every morning. Such a desprate sichuation can bring out the worst in people and so it did for Alden. It was were that he meant Kayne2, leader of The Chaos Requiem and the shaper of Alden's future. It was strange to see a man like Katne2 fighting the undead when he could easily me mistook for a member of the hourd himself. Tales spoke of Kayne2 where ever you went. Some called him a vampire, others the Undead King. Weather those things were true or not it was very clear that Kayne2 had a dark power at his disposial and dark secerets that spoke of it. Under the guideance of his new master Alden had learned some of these secerets and he learned of the power of Chaos. He was then sent away by his master to wait.
Old Rancagua. Alden simply went to fight. He never went out of his way to meet anyone. He helped bring about the fall of Rancagua, the fall of Avamar. He became an infiltrator to replace those who had been lost during those battles but he was forced to put down the dagger and take up the sword again. He led his troops to helped reclaim Old Rancagua after it was lost in a rebellion to former Avamar loyalists, and helped bring Oligarch to it’s knees. It was then time to rebuild so he led his men across the countryside rebuilding towns and slaying monsters. When the army was to prepare to move out he didn't have the will to.
It was one thing to see a man killed, it was another to see a man you knew and trusted killed. That’s the problem with leading men into battle, somewhere along the way you meet them. He told his men to go home to their families. There he was sitting upon a cliff holding a letter from his cousin in his hand, unsure of what to do. His family’s home realm was calling to him. He wanted to go home. But going home meant going to war, it meant leading more men to their deaths. Alden then stood, drew his sword, and threw it into the sea. He would not watch anyone else die fighting for him.
He then drew his dagger. Clearly elven made, it seemed to flow like it was part of his hand. Among the fine etchings there was an elven inscription that read:
Syri shai jholi shia si mys eisi vololaendraer sai pai shia saes.
Shi shai jholi shia si pandraes eisi pystaer sai pai shia si eizi.
Which in the common tounge meant:
Those who live by the sword are privileged to die by them.
We who live by the dagger are doomed to die by the axe.
Falling to his knees he began to pray to Loki for blessing in the life he was about to take up. Not waiting for an answer he then rose and broke in a run for the city, stopping first at the tax offices for some "funding", and made his way to the docks. He chartered a ship to take him to Nighthelm, Alden was finally going home.
When we think of home we think of a loving place of acceptance. That’s what most people have, and that’s what Alden thought he was going to find. When you live through the changes you almost never notice them or you just accept them. Well when all you have to go off of is a ten year old memory of a place the differences stick out like a light in the darkness. Of course in the minds of most of the members of Nighthelm Alden was like a dark blot against the light. Acceptance was a long shot for an infiltrator in Nighthelm. Not waking up on a ship seemed like it was going to be hard enough with the way he was spoken of.
The first person to speak to Alden very politely called him scum and basically told him the only reason he was allowed here was because of his cousin. Talk about a warm welcome. One would think you could expect more from the "great and honorable Senoske", and it only got better for him from there. It's nice when the first word you hear from the council is a threat of banishment, there are prisons that treat people better.
This was his home and he was treated worse that some of the realm's enemies. Alden no longer let the other nobles know what his thoughts were, instead he sent out his messages in elven and let his cousin decide what he would translate for the others.
If everyone was having trouble understanding him they shouldn't have pushed him even further away. That is what drives men mad, having only themselves to depend on and talk to. The madness was already starting it's work on Alden, already he could feel himself slipping away. All he had was his cousin, but Artemis had enough of his own problems. There was no one there to catch Alden and he began to fall into the blackness of his own heart.
The army wanted nothing to do with him. Quite a switch for Alden from the hand in hand relationship he had with the army of his last realm. But this could work for Alden too. With this realm's great mistrust of infiltrators one would think that Alden would be kept on a short leash yet it was not so. By denying Alden a rank High Marshal Sarig had made a grave mistake. Without a rank Alden was no longer subject to the chain of command, and not oblagated to take orders form the High Marshal.
