The House of Solana is a proud and noble bloodline that produces heroic and powerful knights, paladins, and warriors in every generation. They live in Alderheart and are known throughout the land for their goodness. Each one awaits the day the wind would bless them with it’s touch. My name is Nuray Solana. I was born in this bloodline and I have been wind-touched since birth. I am the covet of my family. We are Strigs, owl-people, and my feathers are patterned with the way the wind blows under the nightly moon. Because of this, my parents were thrilled. They foresaw a mighty destiny in me and believed I would become a great hero of legend.
Starting the day I could walk, my parents placed a weapon in my hands. I was put into training immediately that I may defend myself and others, and become a great warrior like my ancestors. My mother wanted me to be a knight like her. My father wanted me to be a paladin. I trained hard to please them and every day I was taught to rely on my Wind-Touched blessing. The wind is what guides my family. We follow it to those who are in need. No matter how hard I trained, I could not put my heart into my lessons and it did not help that my sister humiliated me at every turn. My older sister. She wanted to soil my favor with our parents. She hates that I’m wind-touched. She straight up told me she wished I was dead. I just wanted us to be friends.
I’ll never forget the day I first heard a troupe of song and dance. A traveling caravan came to our proud neck of Alderheart and graced us with beautiful music and stories of adventures. I fell in love with the harp, the drums, and the flutes. It gave me more inspiration and hope than training with a sword had ever done. I decided that day that I wanted to be a musician and storyteller like the leader of the troupe; however, I made the grave mistake of telling my parents.
My parents just stared while my sister laughed. She laughed so hard that tears rolled from her eyes. I don’t lie to them and they know it. So, when my parents heard the words out of my mouth, nothing came to their beaks. My father then told me in a calm and icy voice to go back to training. They made me train until late in the night as if they were trying to train my new dream out of me. But all they did was break my heart. I was not allowed to speak of the traveling troupe. I was not allowed to sing or play an instrument of any kind. My parents became stricter with me and I was forced into a routine schedule to keep me on the path of warrior. I cried myself to sleep at night. My parents’ discipline only made me hate fighting.
It was sister who was my saving grace. Though I know her reasons were selfish, I care not. She slipped into my room at night after hearing my sniffles through the walls. She bundled me in her arms and actually started to sing. It was a song about the Wind and how it guides those who school upon a winding path. I wanted that life. A life of freedom upon the open road. Not knowing what laid ahead and no schedules to maintain. My sister then gave me something wrapped in bundled cloth. It was an ocarina. One that was supposed to be presented to me when I was marked Wind-Touched. I had the cloak, the symbol, but my parents forbid the priests from giving me a wind played instrument. I cradled the ocarina and was going to hide it, but my sister encouraged me to leave. Sneak out in the midst of night and begin an adventure on the open road. As foolish as it sounded, I knew it was now or never. My parents would take my ocarina away if they ever knew I had it. So, my sister helped me pack and I set out into the word.
I challenged myself at every turn and I never share that I’m from the House of Solana–I will be known for my heroic tales and become a leader and a warrior in my own right instead of piggybacking off the legacy of my family. I followed the wind to my next destination and I discovered a troupe of bards. I learned from them. Learned to play my ocarina and their instruments. As we journeyed, I learned how to make instruments of my own. I crafted a harp, a drum, and failed to make panpipes, but one of the bards: Swifty, a gerbean, gerbil person who I consider a good friend, made it correctly for me. We parted when the Wind pulled me away and I traveled from tavern to tavern, playing music and singing stories for coin. The Wind then called me to Meadowfen and I played in the tavern for a couple days. I didn’t know why the Wind wanted me here until a task was presented me to and I gained the company of three unlikely friends.
It is with them that I travel and explore and adventure! We’re on a noble quest to save all the land. However, I’m terrified of the place this quest deems we go. My friends don’t know who I am or where I come from, but I’m afraid they’ll find out. Our journey begins with a letter back to Alderheart.
nikki diekemper 