The Force of Shadow and Shade

Before Adeline was born, her family was poor and isolated. People were dying as a result of disorganization and lawlessness. Adelaine's father, Anon, was exiled for attempting to influence the people with the goal of bringing back the monarchy. Before he met his wife, he was succeeding. Nearly half of his large community followed him, agreeing that one, sole leader would better protect them from raiders and ensure peace and the survival of all members. One family would look over the rest and be the face of change. The other half of the community believed having a single leader would quickly lead to corruption, and they banned together against him. During this time, Anon married Hassah, one of his followers and a powerful seer. He invisioned her as a beautiful queen who would be loved by all. Not long after Hassah became pregnant, he was confronted with a choice: reintegration, exile, or death. For the sake of his new family, he chose to stop the fight and was exiled. Some of his followers continued with him to a strange, new land where he became the head of a new community. Addie was born a few years after and lived in the new community which had built itself back up in a short time. By the time Addie was 13, Her community had become so well off that they became the new target of a group of local and powerful raiders. Anon did his best to protect them, and he did, but soon the attacks became too frequent; the raiders hit them hard each time and the people struggled to keep their heads above water. Meanwhile, Anon trained up his daughter to be an agile, skilled fighter, keeping to the shadows in honor of their shadow god. Little did she know that her father would soon use her, not as the weapon she'd been training to be, but as a powerless offering.