Revision as of 18:10, 20 September 2026

 

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Reference text ( Maintained text, used as reference ) :
Notes: (Salazar, 2026-09-20)

Filira Matia Member of the Nobles' Assembly

Royal Historian Member of the Royal Academy of Yrkanis

Royal Kitinologist to the Court of the Karae

former Royal Ambassador to all Nations

Karavaneer Follower of Jena

Founder Member of the SKA Sanekinion ten Kitina Aremei

Youth

Salazar Caradini never speaks about his past, but the surviving birth registers show that he was born in 2506 to a soldier and a florist. When the same year Bravichi was burnt at the stake for heresy, together with many other Matis academians, Salazar's uncle, after whom he was named, was amongst them. His father then brought his wife and the little baby to a reception camp on a Matisian island - once set up by the late Karan Yasson - before returning to join with Karin Yrkanis' troops. The family never heard from him again.

So Salazar grew up in a small camp named Rosilio, where he first learnt to read and write with the help of his uncle's books - those which could be saved. There he showed a natural talent, while his education in the art of hunting or any kind of craftmanship was way less succesful. He showed some promise in healing magic, though, which came in pretty handy when the teenager finally, after the slow and painful withering of his mother, packed his uncle's books, left the reasonably small and rather lonely island and had himself transported to Yrkanis by the Karavan.

First Steps in Matia

The experience of first seeing the capital of New Matia must have been quite overwhelming to the young Salazar, and we can be pretty certain that he tried to soak in all its beauty and wonders through his amber-green eyes. Wearing only the rags of a refugee, and rather crude self-made weapons made him almost invisible in a city peopled with the beautiful, the proud and the wealthy, wearing impressive living armour, shiny jewellery, and weapons like nothing Salazar had never seen before. He also marvelled at the Zorai, the Fyros, and the Trykers - people from nations he had only read about. His favorite place was the Royal Arboretum, though, and he could be seen there sitting in front of the Rotoa for hours - when he wasn't seen outside, trying to catch something to eat, or offering his services to those willing to pay a run-down, but fairly pretty youth, whose quick tongue masked both his status as well as his upbringing. When he had no other opportunity Salazar sneaked into the beloved Arboretum at night and slept there on the floor.

Frustrated about his lack of talent regarding craftmanship and trade, and the absence of opportunities to make use of most of his real qualities, by a stroke of luck he met Aigen, a hunter and prospector whom he had met before in Rosilio, where Aigen had received his training. Aigen hired him on a long-term base as a healer on his hunts and for his digs, bought him a Mektoub and paid for some reasonable clothing and weapons.

Not too long after that, he run into another, somewhat extrovert Matis while training around Yrkanis. This one, named Taure, offered Salazar a look at the Kitins - the young apprentice had met various predators before, but non-agressive, vegetarian Kipees were the only Kitins he had seen, so Salazar agreed to accompany his cocky new friend to the Tunnel of Woe - only to be scared out of his wits and being overrun by a Kitin Patrol. Taure, who went down with him, thought the experience jolly good fun, though, and offered him provisions, security, safe trecking to the capitals of the other three countries, and a roof over his head - a membership in his guild. So Salazar said good-bye to Aigen, as for the first time since he arrived at the mainland, he had a proper place to sleep. Not his own yet, but the guild hall; still, Salazar became a member of the Malignus Germanitas. He finally had a home, and a slightly crazy surrogate family. He had no idea that the peace of mind he found would last long only a few years.

The Temple Wars

In the years that followed, Salazar hardly managed to become more than a mediocre healer, not least because his guild leader, Taure, and his wife Schnee were travelling extensively, leaving him behind. He instead discovered the library in the Royal Academy of Yrkanis and tried to make out his own reasoning in life. Salazar didn't grew up very religiously, and from the notes by his uncle he could see that the latter had had some distrust in the Karavan. Occasionally, he took a ticket to Pyr and spent time at the bathhouse, where he struck up rather casual acquaintances, or he met Ayronil—a high-ranking Matisian officer of the Fyros guild Silnerdrachen, with whom Malignus Germanitas had forged an alliance—at Collix's bar. Most of the time Salazar strolled through the Majestic Garden, though. He could sit for hours watching Bodokin roaming Psykopla Knoll. He could not remember if his mother told him when he was a child, or if he simply made it up, but Bodokin, for him, was the watcher over the woods, the one real forest spirit, and he always left quickly when hunters appeared to struck him down, tears in his eyes. Bodokin would reappear, of course, like the homins do; wasn't that proof that he wasn't just a simple, if beautiful, wondrous animal? At other times Salazar would sit at the top of Tower Bridge, looking over the Knoll of Dissent, a region still too dangerous for him as a healer to explore on his own, although he had once managed to sneak through it to rescue his trusty Mektoub up in Hidden Source, where he and his fellow guild members had had an unfortunate encounter with some Kitins, leaving their mounts behind.

Salazar had been 23 years old when in 2530 both the Karavan as well as the Kamis announced their intention to erect shrines, sanctuaries for Jena and Ma-Duk. The Matis, of course, supported the course of the Karavan, the Zorai and Fyros backed the Kami, while the Trykers favoured both. The Higher Forces created the possibility to travel to various places in the Old Lands to mine the materials needed for such a major undertaking. The plans, though, first lead to a race between Kamists and Karavaneer, and then turned into something much darker. The Kamists had been the domineering religious group on Atys for quite a while through the sheer number of followers, and aside from the prospectors they brought to the digging grounds, and their guards and healers, they also brought fighters to force the Karaveneers away from their digs, killing their guards and healers and often even the Karavan guards at the main camp, and escalated the thing into a religious war. The Karavaneer tried to stand their ground, but were mostly overcome by Kamists without number, driven by bloodlust, and the grounds became spotted with the sap of their victims. The Zorai Sorenal organized a peace demonstration attended by pacifist homins from both factions and all nations, including Ayronil and Salazar. However, the peaceful sit-in—whose participants were unarmed—was overrun by Kamists; they killed every Matis and Tryker they found, mocking and desecrating the fallen. For many, this was a traumatic experience. The number of Trykers involved in the construction dwindled dramatically, and many Matis, too, grew frustrated and dared not return. Salazar was deeply shaken yet continued to provide whatever aid he could—he was the last remaining member of his guild, and at times the only person still traveling to and remaining at the Karavan camp in the Almati Wood, forced to watch as Kamists exploited the land within sight but out of range of the defensive fortifications, all while mocking him. The race was lost. Every principle of civilization had been shattered. Temples to Ma'Duk were erected in New Trykoth, the Fyros Desert, and the Witherings. The Matis barely managed to complete their own sanctuary in the Majestic Garden, and the horrific carnage that had sprung from a noble ideal left wounds that were slow to heal—not only among the Karavanians but also among pacifists of other nations.

A Voice of Reason

(to be continued)