[Dandeli]

 
Fresh headlines grace the news of the day!
 

This year's annual 'Rising Hero', as decreed by the Archmagi Association, is Magnolia.

 

Now, who is Magnolia?

 

They are of the Golden Ram, and hail from the lands of the distant North called Enobora.

The threat that has surfaced on the face of Meranthe is an enemy to themself and their people.

 

"The title of 'Rising Hero' given to me by the Archmagi Association came as a surprise. This path I walk has bore trials, more painful than triumphant. The scars of battle to both my body and beyond have worn me to the brink. I seen how easy it is for a person to fall into despair, and yet in the shadow, I found that a flicker of hope ever remains. That little flicker, which persists through the guilt of feeling inadequate in ones efforts, in failing to meet expectations, in feeling the burden of lives that need to be guarded weighting incomprehensibly upon one's shoulders. It is crushing, and yet it fills me with the determination I need to awaken each day.
 
I often feel so weak, and yet I am made to know that I am strong in the moments I need to be."

  

"The essence of being a Golden Ram lies in ones oath to defending the people and their loved ones. In Enobara, the Golden Ram travelled from village to village, hunting demons and shielding the little people from the Arch Enemy. But my purpose extends beyond just protection- it's about cherishing those precious bonds made with those I hold dear. My actions are not driven by any want for glory, but alone my commitment to safeguard what matters most."

 

"I follow the legacy of my father, and I have found his ways in the Golden Ram to resonate truly with my heart."

 

"My values, ambitions, and goals are all within this cause.
It is my purpose for living- every sacrifice, hardship, and pain endured, to be swept away in knowing that my actions may have saved one life."
 
Two lives. Five Lives. Ten. One-Hundred.
 
"I find solace in this, knowing that pain endured may illuminate the way to sanctuary for those who need it. Just as I do, they too know love, and they deserve to fill out their days with it, until the ultimate end that will guide us onto the lands of the Lady of Death."

 

"If you chose to share my words, I ask you to carry forth the creed I live by."

 

'Love unto Death'

 

Be steadfast in the face of darkness.

Magnolia of the Golden Ram

 

 

Loramelian announces she and others have developed a method to free witches from their patrons and save their souls.

 

This invention has been aptly named 'The Staurogram Key', which represents 20 years of work.

 

It utilises a method which Loramelian calls the 'Fivefold Cut', intended to sever the connection between shard and witch.

 

The first cut frees the mind.
 

                                          The second cut frees the heart.
 

The third cut frees the spirit.                                             
 

The fourth cut frees the self.
 

And the fifth 'cut' is the utilising of wayfinding to search the link for it's absolute weakest point and sever it.

 
 
Loramelian would extend the possibility of being a candidate to those earnestly seeking a fresh start. 
 
"As you may guess, I cannot do this for every witch in the world. And I will need to discuss a method for proceeding with the other nations of Meranthe, as I know full well everyone has their own opinions on what is justice."
  
"...but I will say this: Any witch that voluntarily turns themselves in, seeking a fresh start in a mindset of true penitence, will at the very least be considered as a candidate."

 

 

Loramelian would also announce her desire for an apprentice.

 

"-I'm looking for an apprentice, an eventual inheritor of the Key. They must be a practitioner of metaphysical magics, with a willingness to learn a great deal of esoteric arts. And more importantly - a strong devotion to the freedom and liberation of souls." 

 

"Any and all are welcome to apply to me, if they believe they fit those criteria. Even if only one person will ultimately be able to receive the Key, the training should be its own reward."

 

"Some witches have escaped their contracts via going to Helheim and physically retrieving their soulshards, 

or via deals with djinns, I've heard. Svengalf Sandsker also was able to sever a witch from her contract
once through the power of faith, I believe, but she was... from what I understand, there was irreparable
damage to her mind and self resulting. "

 

"That is part of why this method is so complex - doing everything possible to weaken the tie before severing
it is essential. The difference between ripping a limb out of the socket and a surgical amputation, if you'll
forgive a gory metaphor." 

"...This is not a secret to many people, but. My mother was a witch."

 

"And she conceived me as a gift to her Nethradin. As an ideal vessel. Yet when the time came to give me up...

she could not do it, in the end. Instead she saved me, at the cost of a fate worse than death. But it was only

a temporary deliverance; I spent the next twenty-five years or so of my life desperately scrambling to escape

its pursuit. Time and time again it would catch up enough to overshadow me with its presence - to turn me into

a roving nightmare of Helheim's own darkness and misery."

 

"Yet in all that suffering, I was granted one unexpected silver lining-"

 

"-the gift to see people as they truly were, by how they saw me."

 

"Some people viewed me as suspicious person, tainted and hence untrustworthy, to be doubted at every turn and
rejected the moment I put one foot out of line. Some saw a monster, a thing that should be slain out of hand,
another footnote in the long list of their heroic deeds of valor."

 

"But some people... Some people could tell I was simply a person who needed help. And it is because of those people
I am still alive today. Many of them had been distrusted and feared by the world themselves, and often for good
reason."

  

"In enduring horrors that most people thankfully cannot imagine... I have also witnessed beauty beyond compare.

Kindness from the most unlikely sources."

 

"Many long years ago... this scalpel was given to me by another child of a witch, another victim of their parents' sin.

I sought her help to see if she could cut me free of my curse. She could not, but she hoped I could turn the burden

she had inherited into something useful. That I could continue her quest toward liberation of all those who suffered

beneath chains no mortal key could unlock."

 

"Perkalas... I cannot imagine you are still among the living. But if by any chance you read these words..."
 
"...I kept my promise. I'm sorry it took me so long, but I never forgot you, and I kept my promise."