About

"I don't know exactly what drove me to stray, but I think there's a certain sadness to finally getting what you want."

History

• Born into a small southern Wild Clan away from the "civilization" of Faline and Namarast as it is known today. Just a little before reading age Bastet had old magic handed down to her and taught by her grandparents and ancestors before them.They believed and relied heavily on the spirits of the land and the long deceased to guide them through their trials.
• The Clan's core structure was based on the sole belief that "corruption" is a completely natural process of life and that all magical beings return to their "true form" and inhabit the earth as they were meant to be. Though none had ever completed this journey, not for hundreds of years at least.
• When Bastet was very young she spotted a small billowing of fire smoke just above the treetops and wandered off much farther than her mother's yells could reach. Naively curious she approached a small camp of Order Mages who had set up unkowingly around the outskirts of the clan territory. What a surprise it was to them to see a small, dirty filly who had just been playing in the mud fields after a heavy nights rain no doubt.
• "Where have you come from?" one of them asked, "j-just across the river". One kind woman mage quickly gained rapport with young Bastet and spent many afternoons telling her stories about the Order and life in Namarast. In exchange Bastet told her about life in her village. She knew she was not allowed to talk to outsiders but she was too enthralled with the nice travellers and their tales of the outside world.
• "May I see your village?" The nice mage woman asked one afternoon. Bastet hesitated but thought about it for a moment, "if you promise to be quiet". They travelled through the old forest and across the river just like she had explained weeks prior until they came upon a short lining of old cottages and tilled fields. They stopped along the forest's edge and quietly observed from the safety of overgrowth.
• At first glance it was nothing more than mundane village life that was so usual to see on the outskirts of the cities. Old bungalows worn with time laid tightly amongst the protection of the thick greenwood and small fields adjacent with what looked like vegetables neatly rowed. But as the woman looked closer her face twisted into horror. The village folk, perverted outwardly with corruption, there was no mistaking what she was seeing.
• "Why do they look like that?" she stuttered, "like what?" Bastet looked at her puzzled. The woman turned around and began to leave quickly, but stopped after a few seconds to look back "will I see you tomorrow as usual?" Bastet nodded quietly and watched the woman disappear into the thick foliage.
• The next afternoon she visited the woman mage but things were different as she neared the camp once again. There were no friendly faces there to greet her this time, in fact, there was no one at all, the site was gone. "Bastet" a voice greeted, it was the woman. "Where did everyone go?" a confused look washed over Bastet's face and the woman spoke up "will you take a walk with me?" a weak smile across her face. They walked quietly along the river's edge, bits of light seeped through the treetops as the birds chirped from inside the forest. "Are you going to tell me anymore stories?" the filly asked, the woman smiled in response and she stopped walking "you would be a great student there... in Namarast I mean". "Oh truly?!" Bastet lights up "Oh mother and father would never let me but perhaps if they meet you and see tha-" her voice is cut off by shouting in the distance. A thick smoke rising from far into the forest, from the village.
• Bastet looks at the woman for a moment, a panicked look on her face before taking off towards her home, "Bastet!" the mage shouts after her. Bastet bounds through the forest and across the river, just like many times before. Smoke pools into the crevaces of the thick foliage, making it difficult to see. She can faintly hear her friend shouting her name behind her but it is drowned out by the sound of the blaze and the forest creatures running for their lives. The shouting gets louder as she breaks through the tree line, her vision scewed by fumes as she begins to see the carnage that had unfolded minutes before. Bodies outlined by the smoke lay on the dirt, houses and crops ablaze. "Bastet wait please!" Bastet turns around to see the woman, fear and realization hit her and she fleas further into the chaos.
• "Mother!" she shouts into the flames, but she cannot hear anything. A tight embrace envelops her as she stumbles to the ground, bound by something she cannot see yet she cannot move and a brutish man lifts her from the dirt. She can feel herself being being carried, the shouting echoing into her ears as she nods off into darkness.
• Years Later
• The light flutters brightly into her eyes as she looks beyond the crowd. "Bastet!" clapping and nodding erupt in approval as she sweeps across a delicately placed red carpet. Her gown dragging behind her. A graduation diploma from the Order is outstretched towards her. "As she continues her research into herbology enchantment..." the voice fades in and out as she squints outwards into the light, a forced smile on her face as she thanks the presenting officer and steps off the stage.
• Though she still remembers her time at home briefly, the majority of her childhood was flooded with memories of The Order. This was her home now. She planned to continue her herbology research right here in Namarast and make her way up the ladder into a position as a professor.Though as fate would have it, her studies would have her stumble upon some peculiar magic. Some familiar magic.
• It was old family magic, as she would remember it but it was told with warnings of corruption. Her research would shift after this discovery, with a newfound interest in her family teachings. She knew this type of work would be frowned upon so she became more secretive and reclusive from her peers. Combining what she knew as a small child, her school education and her newly acquired knowledge source she knowingly started down a dangerous path.
• Winter's cold embrace finally envelops Namarast and the frost nips at Bastet's ears as she makes her way up the academy steps. It was time, almost. The books and papers in her office lay strewn about, and she quickly gathers them into a heap. She glances at her herbology research which had laid buried and untouched for many months and she frowns "it's too late now". The Order professors had become suspicous of her reclusivity and her excuses had begun to run dry and tasteless.
• She knew questioning the legitimacy of corruption was a one way ticket to exile. She knew corruption was real, but what if it could be controlled, like her ancestors believed. Or what if, we were all meant to end up that way, our truest forms inhabiting the green Earth, again. Bastet hid her families history from the prying eyes of the professors and outwardly distanced herself from her past as she grew up. Afterall, who was asking a poor orphaned filly?
• Nightfall drew close and she could see the cities evening lights begin to flicker on as she made her way past the gates. A cart wheeling behind her with books and other necessities. She had a place, a secret place just beyond the city limits and deep into a small wooded clearing where no one would find her. As the sun finished disappearing under the horizon, so did Bastet. Her books lit dimly under candlelight, and the moon now high into the sky had blessed her with the feeblest of light as she looked upon the incantation site she assembled.
• "It's just a matter of control!" she told herself, "and if my ancestors managed it for themselves, so could I". She hesitates for a moment, before stepping into the center of the site. The candle lighting her book flickers briefly at her presence and she bends down to begin reading.
• The incantation begins as a familiar verse, in a language that is understandable. Her mouth moves rhythmically with each word and she closes her eyes to concentrate. Her commands become louder and her words unrecognizable, they flow from her mouth like a choir singing to the heavens and a wind slowly begins to sweep around her body. It slithers about the ground, feeling the grass and the rocks beneath it, eyes red with contempt. "Child" a low voice reverberates "I can hear you pounding at my gates and yet you cannot come in. What a fool, so weak and yet so determined."
• "Your feeble mind could not fathom the powers beyond, and yet, you scream. I am not what you seek but I will grant you a lesson to remember. Mayhap your next trial will be different." With its last words a bolt of lightning cracks the heavens and whizzes through Bastet. The sky lights up for a brief moment and the air becomes still and heavy wtih electricity. Her body lay quietly on the forest floor and she wheezes slowly, blood trickling from her nose and ears. The delicate tickle of water caresses her face and she closes her eyes to rest as it begins to rain.
• Present Day
• Bastet weaves through crowds on a busy street, her cart pulled gently behind her. Merchants and entertainers alike shout on all sides, shop doorbells ring demandingly as those enter and leave. She approaches an old shop with a red door, the flora reclaiming its steps and the edges rusted with time. Her cart teeters quietly as she wheels it to the back of the shop to rest and shutter its windows. Hanging lamps flicker on as she steps inside.
• Plants hang and sit in every direction, vines and tendrils grown out much farther than intended. Papers on herbology, liquor and tea sit half hazardly on desks and tables. A room in the back sits cozily with blankets, pillows and colorful drapes that sweep across the ground. A single table placed neatly in the center. The dim lamp lights cast long shadows as the night begins to take its hold and Faline's underbelly begins to stir awake.
• It had been many years since that fateful night in the outskirts of Namarast. Bastet had fled from the Order and took refuge in Faline in hopes of starting a new life. She new something was different, and not in a good way mind. Every night she shamefully recalled the spirit she tried to tame, how foolish she was in attempting to do so. She did not need to admit to herself what had happened, she knew that corruption had begun to sink its teeth into her soul. That was the price she paid that night, and she got nothing in return.
• Bastet found herself reclaiming her old herbology studies, though slightly modified. Using tea brew and other concoctions to say her well wishes to spirits who listen. She keeps herself afloat through fortune reading and potion selling. Most of her free time is spent researching and practicing what she failed so long ago, and she keeps steadfast in her determination to succeed. Whether she's taken down a path of corruption is left up to fate and she's accepted that outcome if its written to be.
• WC 1,945.
  
• TL;DR Bastet foolishly befriended order mages that set up camp around her village outskirts.
• A woman mage sees the corruption the village was living with and tricks Bastet into keeping away from the village as it was pillaged.
• Bastet comes to the Order as an orphan and grows up there and graduates as an Enchanter.
• She plans to stay at the Order and become a professor but she stumbles upon old familial magic and begins to research it, ignoring the corruption warnings.
• She foolishly attempts to invoke a spirit to tame but is struck down and gains nothing but corruption.
• Bastet now lives her life in Faline's underbelly using herbology, tea and fortune telling as her trade.
• She's determined to continue what she failed many years ago no matter the cost.

Magic

Log