Nightshade
Orphaned at an early age, Alexis Montjoy was raised her foster brother Blackwolf in the town of Delucia. Blackwolf�s father, the clans chieftain, had died the year prior and the mantle was passed from father to son. It was a duty Blackwolf held in great honor and took very
seriously. Equally did he take to the role of raising his new sister. She was introduced to a scribe by name of Hargrave who took charge of her training in the ways of magery. The scribe became the
father figure Alexis never knew, and her foster brother could not fill.
It was why both took it
hard when Alexis became very ill, teetering on death�s door.
The clan�s healer work tirelessly tending her trying to bring her from
her sickness. In the end the healer had
succeeded, but not without a cost.
Alexis� nature had grown steadily darker. As she grew Alexis, found
herself getting into deeper and deeper trouble. As a young teen, the girl left the Lost Lands without
goodbyes and entered Britannia. She wandered the streets of this city or that
stealing for food, doing whatever it took to survive. It was not long before she
was recruited by a young organization known as the Dark Tower. It was here in
these dark chambers that Alexis became to known as Nightshade, alchemist,
poisoner, and assassin. She learned
fast, to the surprise of her supervisors, even seemed to relish her work. Years
past and Nightshade grew strong and quick. Her soul grew darker and darker.
Neither
Blackwolf or Hargrave, stopped trying to find the girl that they had
raised. When word of reached Blackwolf of his sister�s whereabouts, it
devastated him. Something within him died. He knew that as clan chief it fell to
him to carry out justice on her. He knew it meant
his sister Nightshade must die. It was a betrayal to his heart that never
healed. It was at the insistence of Nightshade�s childhood playmate Jatarri,
that a reason for Nightshades change was found. Jatarri was daughter to the
clan�s healer. Begging her mother to help Nightshade, to find some way of
saving her. What the healer found was more terrifying, and also sealed
Nightshades fate. The healer had learned that when Alexis was so near death, she
had become possessed by a lhiannon sidhe (pronounced:
lan-AWN- shee). Known mostly through legends and folklore, the lhiannon
sidhe were malevolent fey spirits that haunted the living feeding on the misery
and pain that they caused. Knowing this was of no consolation. For even though
it explained Nightshade action were not her own, the spirit was immortal.
Nightshade could only be freed by death when the sidhe would leave to find
another body to serve as host.
Nightshade�s life was
still condemned to death.
Unaware of these discoveries Nightshade took up
residence in the town of Haven. It was there she that she had been dispatched by
the Dark Tower, to observe and report the actions of Tider Lilly, Havens
emissary for The Dark Warden.
The Dark Wardens were a
new guild in the service of the light, which was growing fast in power and in
numbers. Too fast for the taste of the Dark Tower.
Despite the sidhe�s or the Tower�s influence, Nightshade
and Tider grew to become friends. Nightshade
was drawn to something in Tider, something
missing in her own life.
Perhaps sensing the wavering loyalty of their disciple the Dark Tower
ordered Nightshade to assassinate Tider Lilly. Without question or hesitation
the assassin slipped into the night air to meet her target. Not much is known
about what happened that night.
What is known, is that in
the end, Nightshade took her own life.
Nightshade woke later in
the home of Tider Lilly. Tider had use magic to bring her back from the grips of
death. It had seemed that the sidhe
had fled when its host died. In truth the spirit had become trapped in
Nightshade's body laying dormant needing to grow in strength before it
could take control once more. With
very subtle suggestions, the sidhe influenced
Nightshades fears and doubts. Soon she was on the road again and alone.
Fate is a strange master.
It has a reason for every turn in ones life, though we may not see the why at
the time. So it was that for Nightshade, when she found herself
constantly running into members of the Knights of Steel. So she began
traveling with them and in no time was befriended by them. The is no force that serves the light that does not have a
shadow that follows it. For the Knights of Steel, this shadow was known as the
Crimson Triad. Their leader was an evil creature, named Darkfire, a creation of
a dread lich lord.
Upon their first meeting,
Nightshade felt unexplainably drawn to the man. Both terror and desire filled
her being. What she did not realize was that the lhiannon sidhe that lay dormant
inside her, was feeding off the creatures evil and was rapidly growing stronger,
and worse, was growing more in control. In the course of a month the sidhe had
nearly full control again. The Knights of Steel were helpless to save her.
Hope came when in the
form of a message, and a plea for the Knights to meet with Nightshade�s
childhood friend Jatarri. The young elven
woman had grown to a fine druidess, and had assumed her mothers role in the
clan. Having heard of the sidhe reappearance Jatarri
brought to the Knights what they had hoped for, a possible cure.
Armed with the knowledge
she supplied the Knights were able to capture and perform a ritual that drove
the sidhe from Nightshade�s body. Nightshade was born again into the light.
Like a child learning to walk, Nightshade had to learn control of her life and
her emotions. Finally she was free.
Struggling
with feelings of guilt and remorse for her life under the sidhe�s control,
Nightshade learned the art of healing. For
her it was both therapy and atonement. Though her friends told her that her past
was not her fault, that it was the sidhe�s influence that made her do the
things she did. To Nightshade it mattered little.
Her hatred for the evils
in her past grew to extremes, as she constantly drove herself to greater perils,
trying to atone for, as she saw it, the unforgivable. Then one day as she
traveled through the deserts of the Lost Lands, she encountered a strikingly
familiar face.
It was that of her own.
�Hello dear sister,� her
mirror said to her. � I have been looking all over for you.�
At first Nightshade
believed that she had gone mad. But when the truth hit her, madness seemed a
kindness. The sidhe was back, and in a body that so closely mirrored her own it
was nearly impossible to tell one for the other. The sidhe began to terrorize
the locals and the Knights of Steel alike, placing the blame on the real
Nightshade. In desperation Nightshade was once more on the run. She knew that
the sidhe was only interested in punishing her. If she ran, the sidhe would
follow. Having nowhere else to turn Nightshade returned to her old mentor
Hargrave. He welcomed her
as if she had never been gone.
Nightshade is now hunter and the hunted. Two twin sisters, one born of light, the other of darkness. Both in an eternal struggle to destroy the other.
