Aytha Softiron & Linny, The Scholars
“I began as a touring wanderer, and ended up more important than I ever wanted to be. If I knew better, I’d have just stayed at home!” -Aytha on her adventures
‘To where peace was ungiven, shall it be renewed. In the light, the servant is set free. May you find your ancestors beyond Faian, and though I cannot follow, may we be united at the dawn of reunion. Linny, Kobold Servant of the Softiron clan. Friend to Aytha.’ -Ancestral Marker of Linny in the Softiron Catacombs
Aytha Softiron was a UDH (United Dwarven Holds) member of a large and important family in the central mountains, whose massive estate owned countless mines, business arrangements, and even held prestige for warriors and captains who fought in the Pendland Pout War, whose family had cadet branches in the colonies there. Aytha was a younger member of the household, who took an academic interest despite her parent’s wishes, and eventually joined an order of recorders. Aytha’s academic interests blossomed into an interest in the old Kobold religion, of missing cultures and peoples such as dragons. Aytha eventually got patronage from an odd (and foreboding) source who sent her on a mission to record the sickly dragon in Kolfugar.
It was during the journey to this sickly dragon that Aytha would meet Linny, a slave in a caravan who was of considerable help to Aytha. Linny was unique, being a daughter of fleeing kobolds during the 1st Servile Revolt in Vag-Rumbard, being Illuminated and highly educated, but due to ending back up in dwarven lands had remained in servitude. Linny’s expertise in Kobold language and customs gave Aytha insite while traveling across Kolfugar, and allowed her to translate for the half mad and depressed elder dragon locked in Koldfugar’s prison temple. During their time making translations and writing in Kolfugar, the two would hear news of the rise of Refugar, and Aytha wanted to be the first dwarf to study the resurgent Kobold religion and more sane dragons who dwelled with them.
Aytha’s journey truly started trying to break into Refugar, whose strictly hostile attitude towards dwarves made it difficult for Aytha to come to terms with. Stuck in Cusnova for over a year, Linny convinced Aytha to seek up in Roasam to earn Refugar’s trust, having heard rumors of their involvement. Aytha and Linny approached the Roach King for help, who agreed to help if they would serve in his court for a year as a translator and recorder, working with a Refugar kobold recorder also stuck in his court. Aytha eventually was brought before a strict council, and with Linny’s aid and charisma, was able to secure a tour and protective entourage to explore and record Refugar’s many new wonders, and horrors.
Aytha’s writings on Refugar created a whole subgenre of interest, as Aytha showed disgust and dismay over the treatment of dwarves in the country. Yet, her writings and conversations with the dragons who lived as living Gods for the kobolds would prove to be a major hit amongst the higher class of dwarves in both the UDH and Vag-Rumbard, a ‘Dragon Fever’ overtaking many dwarven nobles. Although their relationship was tense while in Refugar, Linny stayed with Aytha and continued to be in her service, especially after being rejected from joining the country when she refused to give up her Illuminated faith. When Aytha was forced to leave the country after a point, the two were traveling back when they were kidnapped by their previous patron, revealing himself to be the infamous warlock Aythuak Redgem, a Crystallian of Vag-Rumbard.
Not much is known of Aytha’s stay in Vag-Rumbard, but what is known is that she and Linny were prisoners who escaped and journeyed in the depths of the imperial country in disguise. Their writings on traveling in the backroads would become widely known as the Black-Red Road, a several year long journey which encompassed parts of the 2nd Servile Revolt and other major political developments in the empire, a book still banned in many dwarven holds due to the unsettling writings on the country’s treatment of its poor, destitute, and non-Dwarves. Aytha and Linny would eventually escape into the UDH, but were ambushed by Aythuak. The skirmish would claim Aythuak’s life, but would mortally wound Linny who would perish in Aytha’s arms.
Aytha returned to publish her books and writings in the UDH, becoming famed as a scholarly adventurer. Although she would live in the lap of luxury due to her works and be rewarded with many honors, Aytha was said to have a sorrowful mood for the remainder of her life, and did not speak or do much outside of her clan’s estate. Aytha would eventually return to Refugar, helping to open the doors to the country for adventurers and allies, while also normalizing relations between them and the UDH, her books having built a strange community of treasure seekers and culture enthusiasts interested in the Kobolds. Aytha was said to cause considerable controversy by having her companion and servant Linny interred with high honors in the family vault, and given an Illuminated burial, a controversy which is said to have sullied her reputation amongst the dwarven elites.
Category Screenshots / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Female
Size 1024 x 1024px
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