From the very beginning, it was clear something was different with the youngest daughter of simple farmers. Nanyral Vendralia shared nearly nothing in common with her parents or siblings, no physical attributes that might note her genetic ties with them. Despite being the runt of the family, she grew far bigger and stronger than any of her sisters, and even her brothers. Her unnatural development was met with fear and suspicion on the part of her father, and despite protests from her mother, Nanyral was exiled from the family, sold into slavery rather than keep her around.
As far as servitude went, Nanyral got off easily at first. After being processed and given a relatively clean bill of health, she was assigned as a domestic servant for a local official. The job consisted of carrying out demeaning tasks for nobles, serving fancy food, cleaning auspicious mansions, and making sure to look like she enjoyed doing so. It didn't take long before young Nanyral's performance began to suffer, and her owners had to chastise her. Their attempts at motivating compliance escalated as Nan failed to satisfy their expectations. By age 11 she was being beaten when she disappointed her owners, first with palms, then backhands, closed fists, and finally rods and belts. She took them all stoically, barely even registering the maltreatment. At first her steadfastness in the face of the beatings made her owners think she was merely stupid, or perhaps entirely submissive in demeanor. But the truth was noticed by her owners' visiting nephew, who saw how she met the gaze of anyone administering discipline, unwavering and unbowed. This nephew took it upon himself to buy her and take her home with him.
At this new place she was treated well, given good food and even a small party for her twelfth birthday. The event was surprisingly large, with a lot of guest and visitors. Nanyral met a friend, another kid her age, a little boy who didn't speak much. After spending the day trying to get to know him, she was put in a large, dirt ring, lined with seats filled with spectators. Both she and the boy were given sticks. And then they were told to kill each other. It took a while for the reality of their situation to set in, and they were pelted with rocks until they finally started to move. The first few blows were halfhearted, extremely hesitant, as though hoping this was all a big joke. But the strikes that landed were real; Nan took a hit to the face that sent her head spinning, and then her new friend was above her, weapon in hand, ready to finish her off. The world went red at that point, and she lost herself to a blurry haze of violence and pain. When she next was able to think, she found herself sitting atop a bloody mess of what had once been another human being. Her chest shook with every rasping breath, and the smell of spilled organs clung to her along with the gore generated by her uncontrolled frenzy.
For quite some time after that, Nanyral went through life completely numb. She was treated well until she had to fight, all of her opponents other children. Some of them were used to the system, veterans of other duels. Most were new to the ring, and they usually didn't last long. They fought with all sorts of weapons: sticks, daggers, rocks, sometimes just their bare hands. The life of a child gladiator absorbed Nanyral's awareness, and she lost herself in just focusing on surviving one day at a time, regaining her strength between matches and fighting for her life during them. She killed or maimed countless others, but she couldn't spare a thought for what she was doing, her conscience knew it would drive her to the edges of sanity if she considered it. So she retreated inside the recesses of her mind, moving as though on automatic. This went on for four long, miserable years, and Nanyral became something of a champion amongst the slave fighting community, being bet on the most frequently by those who gained a perverse pleasure from watching children murder each other.
When she turned sixteen, Nanyral was once more given a birthday party. Like the one that initiated her into the ring, this one was special too. There was another celebration, complete with dinner and sweets, and gifts like clothes and even some jewelry. And then came the fight, though it was no ordinary event. That day was her coming of age battle, where she and another sixteen year old were made to duke it out with clubs to see who got the right to go on to the adult leagues, and who had lived to see their last birthday. The brawl was long and painful, both sides frantic and brutal with their fighting, showing no mercy or restraint. Eventually Nanyral got the upper hand, but as she sat there on top of the other girl, her club pressed into the soft flesh of her neck, slowly crushing her opponent's windpipe, something happened. Amidst the animalistic glint in the girl's eyes, Nanyral saw something she hadn't known in a very long time: fear. She saw all the terror and suffering she had caused, every fight and every kill rushing into her mind at once, blasting through the wall of impersonality she had erected around her identity. Those twin windows into the humanity she had left behind closed from asphyxiation, but Nanyral slid off the girl, collapsing to the ground next to her, leaving her unconscious but still alive.
That single demonstration of mercy did not sit well with her handlers, and they demanded she finish off the defeated girl. She declined multiple times, and finally just ignored their screamed commands, at which point she was dragged out of the ring by her hair. In front of all her birthday guests she was beaten savagely, worse than any fight she'd been in due to her refusal to defend herself. After receiving multiple broken bones and vast bruising, the fact that she still refused to kill the other girl enraged the drunken men further, and her violent abuse turned sexual. She was raped repeatedly, painfully aware of every second, unwilling to surrender or give in despite how horrible her life had become.
It was then that the world seemed to stop. The men laughing and yelling at her fell silent, and out of the crowd stepped a woman, more beautiful than she had ever thought possible. The woman walked right up to her, standing in shining silver armor with a magnificent bow across her back. She knelt down next to Nanyral and softly kissed her ragged cheek. With the warm caress came a power and vitality surging through her, blasting her mind as the restraints of mortality slipped away. The radiant woman stood up slowly and offered her a supportive smile. Then, with two words, she faded away into silver mist. The words echoed through Nanyral's mind as the scene seemed to resume, "Happy hunting." No one else appeared to have seen the wondrous event, and they were still intent on raping and beating Nanyral. She killed them all.
For several months after that, Nanyral lived on the run. She was too far into the Realm's area of control to be retrieved by the Silver Pact, and yet too far out to be targeted by the disorganized Wyld Hunt. But she couldn't escape their attention forever, and one close call left her wounded and hiding. She used her shapeshifting abilities to avoid her pursuers, taking on the form of a German Shepherd to elude the Terrestrial Exalted in any way she could. But she couldn't run forever, and without any goal or guidance, Nanyral would have been hunted down and slain. She was already beginning to suffer the effects of chimerism, the lack of moonsilver tattoos leaving her dangerously exposed to the Wyld taint from her powers.
Salvation came for Nanyral at the hands of a particularly brave retrieval pack, risking the severe danger to themselves to venture into a Realm tributary to rescue the new Lunar. They found and observed her long enough to determine that she could be salvaged, and it was just as they had come to the decision to go through with their plan that the Dragon-Blooded found her. The Lunars in the pack were Sun King Seneschals and they quickly joined the fray, leaping into the battle without a second thought to do some damage to the Wyld Hunt. In a bizarre turn of events, Nanyral managed to provide key assistance to the others in spite of her novice status, delivering critical blows and taking hits that would have crippled or even killed a normal young Lunar.
When they managed to escape back to the Wyld, the loremaster sponsoring the retrieval pack was stunned by the tale the other Lunars told of her bravery. Her initiation into the Silver Pact was anything but normal, because when asked about her life before her Exaltation, Nanyral could only respond with 'I don't remember.' During the first few months of her new life, she had completely forgotten the old, a gift from Luna to free her from the horrible memories of her childhood. Then in place of additional trials, the tale of her valiant performance against the Dragon-Blooded was recorded in her tattoos.
After her initiation, Nanyral sought out the retrieval pack that had rescued her. Most of them had gone their separate ways, but the two core members still remained: Rami, an older No Moon Caste Lunar and major proponent of the Sun Kings Seneschals ideology, and Mally (Bringer of Malicious Darkness), a Midnight Caste renegade Abyssal. Mally had first met the Lunar community while under the authority of the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears, following orders to infiltrate the Silver Pact in order to gather useful intelligence on them and find a way to stave off a Lunar assault. But her goals changed when she encountered Rami, who had once been bonded with her Exaltation in a past life as a Solar. They realized that the connection between Solar and Lunar mate transcended even the soul-corrupting effects of Mally's tainted Essence.
With no other friends or acquaintances in the world, Nanyral decided that she would go with Rami and Mally for fostering and training. They took her back to their home base, a powerful Abyssal Manse Mally had been given by her deathlord upon coming to Creation. The Manse had been designed to foster a small community of mortals for the owner's amusement, keeping them alive in shadows that obscure them from the outside world. Mally killed the previous owner while still loyal to the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears, and supplanted him as the leader of the death cult that had developed around the Manse. Rami had been urging Mally to grow the village into a real society, and she used it to teach Nanyral some of the tenants of the Thousand Streams River, along with tutoring her in the ways of the Silver Pact and the principles held by the Seneschals of the Sun Kings.
At the same time, Mally handled her martial training. Neither of her mentors were warrior castes, but they had seen more than enough combat to introduce Nanyral to the basics, and after that they let experience be her teacher. The three of them set out to harass the Wyld Hunt, striking against the Dragon-Blooded whenever they could. They suffered setbacks, scrounged up victories, and grew tighter as a group because of it. With enough time they had all saved each others' lives many times over, and blood-debts quickly became obsolete and unnecessary. Their relationship was forged in battle, and Nanyral felt like nothing could stop them. She was wrong.
Their exploits could only go on for so long before they earned the ire of a full-fledged Wyld Hunt. They always researched their targets first, scoping them out carefully before making any moves, but even experienced Exalted can be tricked, and the combat pack was beset by a well-prepared ambush. The fight went downhill rapidly, more of a slaughter than a real battle. Rami was killed during the ambush, though she didn't even realize it. She kept fighting through her mortal wounds, cutting a path through the dragon-blooded for the group to escape, though it was too late. Mally had suffered grievous wounds that pierced her armor, and she had to be dragged away, thrown over Nanyral's shoulder as they fled back to Mally's Manse. Rami succumbed to her wounds on the way, Mally lived long enough to give some final words of advice but died before they could reach the Manse. Nanyral brought them both back, buried them, and then found herself suddenly alone. She hadn't foreseen losing both of her guides in one fell swoop, and she had no real task of her own to pursue.
The only things she had left were the artifacts passed on to her, the Manse that she now owned, and the people living around it. In spite of Rami's efforts, they still lived in bleak darkness, following the beliefs of their old death cult as they waited for the blessed release from cursed life. Nanyral knew she wasn't wise enough to really raise a civilization from nothing to self-sufficiency as the Thousand Streams River required, but she felt she owed her former mentor to put her lessons into practice. And so she turned her energy into cultivating a more hopeful philosophy and social unity, renaming the village and those who lived within it, the 'Silver Warren,' replacing the religion of suicidal hopelessness with one of positive energy. She disbanded the sanctioned, ritualistic human sacrifices, rid the small town of its Underworld themed decor, and began to spread the message of life and loyalty above all.
It took her a good three years before she could crack the haze gripping the townspeople, but luckily most of the more fervent followers of the death cult 'removed' themselves from the scene, thus limiting their influences in the new society. Nanyral lead her Pack as their Alpha, and everyone benefited from the partnership. The people experienced happiness and satisfaction for the first time in many generations, and Nanyral learned much about relationship and friendship in the process, developing social skills she had missed out on during her tumultuous upbringing.
They were some of the best years of her life, but of course they couldn't last. There's a reason Lunars don't stay in one place very long, and why, if they do, that place is beyond the edges of Creation. Those who could search the Loom of Fate used it to track Nanyral down. Although far outside the territory of the Realm, the Manse was not near the Wyld, and Nanyral didn't know about the importance of hiding out of the Loom's reach. One day during a walk outside of the shadowed realm surrounding her town, she was beset by a pair of Dragon-Blooded seeking vengeance for a slain member of their sworn brotherhood, who had fallen at Nanyral's hands during her time struggling against the Wyld Hunt. Although she won the battle, it was a close call, and she realized her presence near the town was a danger for the inhabitants.
And so with a heavy heart, she set out into the world once more, leaving behind her beloved Silver Warren to search for guidance and direction, someone who could continue her training or a cause to provide purpose that she has yet to discover.
