Azan-Re

[HouseOfLament]

(This leather bound journal is written in Tyrian.  It's obviously an Outlander script but could remind the astute reader of Kalidnay's.)

It is strange that I feel cursed.

I find myself in a land of plenty.  Water falls from the sky every day.  There is so much metal they use it instead of ceramic as currency.  Even their beggars have enough water and iron to make a noble jealous.  Food is found so easily that no one can starve.  All Barovia is as the Crescent Woods between Nibenay and Gulg.  Any person who is industrious and not a fool can live long enough to become an elder.  It is especially true if one stays inside at night for the man-eating predators of this land are thankfully lazy and docile during the day.

Their King is called a Count for all the abundance is his and only he has the right to tally it.  His dominion includes a city, many settlements and all the places between.  There are signs his law is enforced especially in the places between, putting his power above even the Sorcerer Kings.  He is the eleventh in his mortal line just as great Tithian is the first of his name.  I have seen his personal fortress and it puts Kalak's Ziggurat to shame.  The splendor inside is surely beyond my imagining!  Beyond even my King's!

I would have died a thousand deaths for King Tithian I, the greatest man in all Athas!  It was he who freed Tyr's slaves -- and me.  It was he I served as Templar and I served him true.  We were not granted magic like Kalak's Templars and so Hamanu's agents thought us weak.  But they were always surprised we were incorruptible.  They could not begin to comprehend our loyalty for we served freedom itself.  Everything I did to them was for freedom itself, mine above all.  It was with great pride that I was selected to carry one of the obsidian orbs when the Crimson Legion marched to Urik, that King Tithian knew my name and trusted me to tell him of the army's movements.

Now I have no purpose.  I simply survive and it is too easy (not that it was easy at first.)  The orb is inert, great King Tithian does not hear my words.  I am told outsiders are not worthy to serve the Count.  He will never know my name.  My life no longer has meaning and I would gladly trade all the abundance around me to have that back.  This land of plenty provides everything I want while taking everything I need.  It is like crawling over many dunes in anguish and thirst only to find the saltwater marshes.  Is this place more cruel than Athas or have I gone mad?

I pray to Tithian I find a way home that I might slay Urikite dregs in his name.  O great King, slayer of Kalak, giver of freedom!  It is said the task is impossible but you have done the impossible, you who have crushed an immortal under your heel -- you who have given death to the deathless!  I beg that you grant me your limitless ambition and guile.

[HouseOfLament]

It is difficult to tell whether I visit the nearby beetle nest for the challenge or the warmth.  I went there with Daciana who previously lead me to the school in Krofberg where I began to learn the local tongue.  We nearly met our deaths deep into the nest where we found an aggressive, fire-breathing breed.  She proved herself as strong and capable of survival as any Athasian.  Later I learned she is from Barovia and this came as a surprise for some reason.

Most of the people I have spoken to were taken here by the Mists.  I do not mean to suggest most people in Barovia are Outlanders, that would be a lie.  Instead it is more accurate to say that the natives and the Outlanders are different castes with little need to communicate beyond the exchange of their metal coins for services and trade goods.  The distinction is not as clear as it would be between a slave and a free man.  In Barovia these two castes think themselves better than the other.

It concerns me there are so many of these Outlanders and that so many have given up on returning to their homes.  My own cause to fight and die for freedom itself is true enough to keep me stubborn.  There have been compelling arguments to give up.  That Tyr will defend itself without me and that the world will continue without me.  That purpose can be found here as well.  That I am fortunate to be in this land of plenty instead of a dying world.

The people who say these things were aimless in their past lives, just as I am aimless now.

I have met two Outlanders from a city of doors that sits atop a great spire.  It is said much of the many worlds is known in this place and that a door will go from their Sigil to Athas.  It is the best lead I have.  Even though they are mages I have agreed to protect them on their search for their and now my own way home.  Any man, woman or Were who tries to hurt them will find that I shall kill them or die trying.  Maybe I am not so aimless after all.