Nagash Ur-Thaddin

'Twas a chilly night upon the emerald plain that I made my way to the Armen's tavern. The crowd was all the same, but for one man, of peculiar dress and queer face. Over a foaming mug of cream broth, I inquired as to from whence hailed he.

"From? I am from many places my friend. I journeyed many times on a caparisoned mare in my youth to Umma, Nikul, and Murgak. When I was a man, I made war on the Aeolians of the Cyclades, conquered the Fossuls of Mathagartha, and patrolled the peaks of Kish with a band of blades. I saw the gilded fountains of Mafann, drank from the River Aldu which the Elves call Brightwave and the Dwarfs spit in as it carries its watery load from the dark depths below the Mangals. I married a fair haired Alduran girl from the villages of Kanax, then lost her when Ornos fell to the Fethians. In sadness, I journeyed to the mount of sorrows, the place that the ancients call Gol'adatha. But glory took me once more when I beheld the elder ruin of Pharaxes, and my heart grew to love the war crafts once more, and my sword grew to thirst once more for the bronzed necks of the natives of Nush even as my shield longed to feel their sleety arrows. I lorded a host of ten-thousand blades over the stones of Ornos. I slew more men than there sit stars in the sky, when Sin has made her journey ere the horizon. I found the Lost clay pools of Axos, and laid beside the mad queen of Varna even as she made vile sorceries upon the wind. Upon the ashfields of Ranna I made battle upon the Fire Serpent Qalix, and smoking from his corpse I wrenched his ruby eyes to fill my coinpurse."

Hereupon he supped deeply of his mead.

"Alas, my fortune was stolen from me when I next traveled to shaded Elotha, and from there I found myself in Safanna, Memnon, Banana, and then great Maljinn herself. Among the thousand fountains I took up the Ascent. I gained the courtyards, fooling the guards with a stolen nobility, and came within a swords fall of the Empress herself, or one of her illusions. I took a ship from there to Mondatha as a bodyguard to a glass merchant, and found myself next in muddied Kasam among the wurm ridden plains. I found wisdom among my madness and folly at the Salemite Spire in the Gorelands, and among many towered and tiered Orsailles I found new purpose in a scholar named Tamina."

Whereupon he glanced over at a petite maiden sitting down the bar from him.

"Now I find myself in the inn of Oghmal, town of teak, ginseng, and turquoise, temple of bronze and lapis. To learn with my beloved why I left my birthright, my beloved sunshine city, of Eleras. Do not ask me where I am from, for the world is thine mother, and thy feet a father to thee. Ask me where I am going, and maybe then I will pause and tell of my wishes and the true matter of my soul."