Tessele was born to two sergeants in the town guard of the laketown Moorpost. Moorpost was a relatively young town, only established a half-dozen decades before. It was established around fishing and pearl farming, thanks for bountiful trout populations and a strange, deep trench in the bottom of the lake, where a species of oyster was found to grow large and exotically colored pearls. The first divers decided to put down anchor in houseboats to make the commute easier, and soon fishermen joined them, everyone mooring together into a giant network of boats. The town slowly developed, with some residents putting down more permanent structures, laying public walkways, and organizing a government, with the 'help' of some beefy soldiers from Lakinium and Yalani. Tessele's mother and father were part of the Lakinium and Yalani armies, respectively, when Moorpost was first being established in earnest. Both countries had an interest in controlling the resources of Moorpost, but neither was willing to directly attack the other over it, since the ink was still wet on a peace treaty after the latest war. Since Moorpost was in disputed territory, both sent troops on peacekeeping operations, to help build infrastructure and setup a government.
Initially, tension between the two forces were high, but the higher ups decided to skip spilling blood and inciting another war, and formed a coalition government. It was a rough start, with brawls almost every night in streets over someone muttering 'knife-ear' or 'mayfly' too loudly, but the wrinkles were eventually ironed out, and the municipality functioned as effectively as an urban-planner's nightmare like Moorpost could.
Tessele's parents met through work, and, as a workplace romance, it was pretty dorky. They didn't meet by one interrupting the other's stakeout of a mob den, they didn't share their first kiss after standing back to back, fighting off hardened criminals in sync, nor did they express their love for one another after one saved the other from being kidnapped by drug dealers. After a shorter than normal courtship for elves and a longer than normal one for humans, they married, and Tessele's older sister was born just a few months after. Neither were quite sure how to raise her; should she be brought up as an elf or as a human? A mix? They never really came to a decision on the issue, and worked picked up, distracting them from childcare. Tessele came along three years later, something of surprise for her parents. She was raised in guardhouses, tutored by officers on their coffee breaks, played with confiscated weapons, and was put to sleep by her parents reading from the laws of the land.
Naturally, she joined the guard as soon as she could. She graduated top of her class, and her instructors would have picked her for 'most likely to become an adventurer', if not for her love of Moorpost. As a graduation gift, her parents gave her a gold painted wooden whistle they gave her when she joined the guard, and told her to 'blow it when you need help'. The station of her parents and her skill earned her a patrol route in the wealthier districts, but, much to the surprise of her instructors, she volunteered for beat duty in the Poop Deck, the name of the town's most dangerous neighborhood. During her time there, she made her own name for herself with a string of successful busts and arrests, and rose to the rank of corporal in just five years. And just weeks after her promotion, everything went to hell.
One night, in late spring, Tessele was on her normal rounds with her normal squad, when, as normally happens, a scream pierced the night. It was on the other side of town, so she pushed it aside. But then another scream sounded, and then another and another. Then, she saw the fires. Moorpost was burning. She and her squad rushed to investigate, where they found the Fallen's servants butchering the town's guard. She rallied the survivors, and did her best to hold the line, but there were too many of them, and they blazed by her, leaving her for dead in their wake, lying on the barely floating wreckage of Moorpost.
By morning, they were gone. Most of Moorpost lay burnt or at the bottom of the lake. The death toll was higher than Tessele would care to recount. Her parents were among that number. The majority of the survivors were packing up, leaving for the lands they came from, far from the border, where they could be safe from the Fallen's hordes. With nothing left for her in Moorpost, Tessele joined them, resolving to see the homelands that her parents gave up, meet the family they left behind. Her father's relatives weren't going anywhere, but her mother's weren't as eternally young.
For a year, she toured Lakinium, tracing down her human relatives, plying her sword as an adventurer, a blade for hire. It didn't suit her. She needed structure, rigor, an authority beyond that which she exuded through her sword arm. The Guard was her heritage, so where better to respect that heritage than a growing city, just like her parents had settled in. Kolos it was.
It's been five years. Tessele has grown comfortable in Kolos, maturing with the city. She's made names for herself on the beat, none of them the exactly positive. She still carries the whistle, having never blow it- yet.
Edit: Didn't post the entire backstory.
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Topic: Dwarmin and Gigla's co-gm 5e game: OOC thread (Read 18669 times)