Ealla Karaske
My name is Ealla (Ay-la) Karaske. My father is Browin (Bro-in) and my mother is Thisame (Tea-sah-may) Karaske. My family have long been Sea-farers who voyage from continent to continent and sea to sea as merchants, traders, smugglers, spies, pirates, etc. We do whatever is asked of us essentially as we are members of the Steward's Conclave. My father is the Captain of a ship named The Warblade's Helix. My mother is actually his first mate and I am a part of the crew both on and off the ship. Our ship is our home essentially, but we do have a small area that is located in The Iron Islands that has belonged to the family for generations. However, you can't really live there, but that is a story for another time. The story I have for you today is about an ancestor of mine from long ago and the journey I will set out on because of them.
I guess I should start by telling you that the Steward's Conclave has been a long-standing guild on Ethoria for thousands of years, and my father once told me that at least a few members of the Karaske family have always been a part of the Conclave since its inception so to speak. This is because an ancestor of ours, Riarza Karaske, was the daughter of the Conclave's founder Treyton Saunnell. Now most people wouldn't really think any of this matters as these people were alive thousands of years ago. So what do they actually have to do with me? Well, to start with, I am the spitting image of Riarza I guess, like I could be her twin. Supposedly there has never been anyone in the family that has looked as much like her as I do. This has always puzzled me, and I have been curious for a long time as to why I look so much like her.
However, there are also strange legends surrounding Riarza that have been told amongst my family over the generations. One such legend is that she was considered a very powerful being. The term used most commonly in my family's stories is that of a Planeswalker or Realm Strider.
When I was a little girl, my father would tell me bedtime stories about Riarza, or I would hear them from other family members when we would go visit distant relatives that made their home on land instead of out at sea. Though I always thought these stories were just that, stories. They seemed so fantastical because of the otherworldly magic Riarza could wield and how her and her companions were so much stronger and more powerful than others living at that time. The legends also tell of the chaotic times that Ethoria was going through and that Riarza and her friends were always at the forefront of the chaos trying to protect the plane and all those who inhabited it, especially those times that they were the ones to blame for the said chaos.
A few years ago, though, I was exploring a cave in The Iron Islands that belongs to my family and the deeper I went into it, I started to see carvings depicting some of those same stories that I had been told as a child. I saw drawings of what I thought were me at first, but I soon realized they were actually of Riarza. I started to wonder if maybe the legends were actually true and if so what happened to the others like Riarza and why aren't the Planeswalkers or Realm Striders now. What happened to make those types of powers disappear?
Well, in order to answer those questions, I have decided to set out on my own for a little while. It is customary for every Karaske to go on a year-long journey around the time they reach the age of majority anyway. This journey is a way for us to search out our path and decide whether we will continue to sail on the open waters or to plant our feet and start a life inland. However, I intend to search for the answers of my ancestry and what happened to the planeswalkers or others like them and why there aren't any around in our time. In order to find a place to start, I sent out messages to some of our contacts in the Steward's Conclave as well as other relatives across the plane asking about ancient artifacts that may be tied to otherworldly magics as well as ruins that may have ancient texts or writings about once-powerful beings that used to protect the plane. I received an answer a couple of months ago about ancient ruins located near a new mining town in the Southern area of Primval. There is a rumor that a set of Bracers, which match the Bracers that Riarza used to own, as well as some ancient writings were found deep inside those ruins. My parents will drop me off near The Iron Islands, where I will then journey on my own to the Southern tip of Primval and then on to the ruins.
