DnD Characters

Eirika Stormbringer

Eirika is a warrior princess, brought up being trained for battle as part of a warring nation constantly trying to expand their territory or defend their borders from underestimating foes. Raised with sword and shield or hand axe by her father to prepare her... Just in case. With the influence of her mother, she also learnt how to be a lady, how to dress properly, how to play certain instruments, how to sew and embroider. She is the perfect balance of femininity and strength.

In her culture, if someone had no confidence in the ruler, they could challenge them to 'trial by combat', a fight till submission where the winner would have earned the right to lead as king. By Eirika's 16th year, it seems that this was the opinion of her uncle. He wished to rule, so constructed fake evidence that the king was conspiring against the entire nation with an enemy nation. The claims were false but once the challenge had been called for, there was no stopping the momentum of a mob. An arena was built in the palace courtyard as quickly as possible, the crowd gathered and the rules were established. No armour, no weapons, just bare fist brawling.

The fight looked like it would be going in the King's favour, as he was the brother with the larger physic and greater strength, but with one final blow, the uncle delivered a devastating punch to the King's jaw. The king went down quickly, falling over and staying face down in the dirt. The cheers from the crowd are quickly taken over by the cries of the royal family as the king stayed on the floor. Medics ran onto the arena floor to check the now ex-king's vitals, coming away shaking their heads. Somehow, with one punch, Eirika's uncle had killed his brother and now had the right to call himself king.

It wasn't until the crowds had dispersed and the royal family had retreated to the 'safety' of the palace that the new king finally revealed his intent. He provided the family with an ultimatum: join his court and serve under him unconditionally or die a slow and painful death. Eirika, being too proud for her own well being, refused to bend the knee to her treacherous uncle. In response, the guards are ordered to take any revolting family members to the dungeon. The younger children burst into tears as their siblings tried to fight against their old protectors, but one by one, they were subdued. All Eirika remembers is calling out her brother's name before something impacted the side of her skull knocking her unconscious.

This was the start of Eirika's new life. Every day for the next 15 years she endured physical and psychological torture, simply because she refused to submit. She watched and listened to the screams as her siblings either died or submitted, her mother simply dying from grief. She was exposed to the torturer's new apprentice to be practice material, the King didn't mind if they used the equipment wrong. New guards were introduced to a random insane woman locked up for her own safety. Everything was taken away, even her identity.

By the time she turned 30, Eirika had lost all hope and the majority of her sanity. She talked to the hallucinations that joined her in the day, then screamed from the demons that invaded her night terrors. Every day she had to fight against the voices in her head. Fight against killing her captors, fight against screaming until her vocal chords gave out, fight against just ending it all and embracing the darkness... but that could never happen. If that happened, her uncle would win and that wasn't allowed to happen.

It wasn't until she had passed into her 31st year that Eirika met the monk. A harmless traveller, thinking that they were taking a shortcut on their way back to their monastery and was accosted by a scouting party patrolling the border. The monk was brought before the paranoid king and declared a trespasser and a spy against the nation. The monk was taken to the dungeon, where they peacefully enter a cell, seemingly accepting their new fate passively. The guards didn't understand why the monk wasn't protesting but became incredibly grateful that they were there at all when the screams started. Night had fallen and the night terrors had started. The first signs came from tiny whimpers that snuck out of the corner of Eirika's mouth, like a kitten mewling in the night. Then the sleep-talking, random words and indecipherable phrases, followed by thrashing limbs and yelps that echo through the corridors. Other prisoners begin to join in with the macabre whining, their sleep disturbed and their minds unravelling having to listen to the screams every night.