[MFR] Report on the Hero, Sapphiria (Patreon)

Notes :

Hello everyone ! I'm back once again, this time with MFR's first in universe lore file !

For an hour or so, and for unknown reasons, my vision went back to normal today. I don't know if my allergies are finally being battered into submission, my meds are working at last, or what, but the reprieve was very welcome, though it has already ended and everything is back to being a haze.

So...yay ?

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the lore file. I wrote as much as I could before my vision failed me again.

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I know not if these writings of mine will be found and read, or make their way to the appropriate hands.

Nevertheless, I consider it my duty to write it down, and I have grown considerably more optimistic as of late that I will be given the chance to turn them in and perhaps make a difference, both in the historical record and its veracity, as well as any potential reactions to the events and personages I will relay therein.

So hail, and take heed. I am Teman Solaph, brother of diviner Malry Solaph, assigned by his most August Majesty, Protector of the Realm and Guardian of Turlor, to the vassal Magistracy town of Lavis and its countess (former local title, mage-magistrate), Kaliria Comnena, formally known as 'Kalia' by most of her subordinates and people.

And I write to inform of the Hero, and possibly Living Ancestors though she disdains that appellation, Sapphiria, whose family name is unknown to me.

Let it be known that she was found when we were at our most desperate, and when things seemed the darkest. Pushed out the path by Bane forces, which we now know to have been spearheaded by none other than Hand Sarcher, we had retreated to our settlement which we had dubbed Astralis. Backed against a metaphorical wall, we had no hope of defending against a large scale attack, and our numbers were dwindling by the day, as winter and its monsters approached rapidly, and the undead kept up their attacks.

It was then that Kaliria decided to lead an expedition into an isolated mining tunnel we had found, apparently to service the outpost. To lead an expedition down below, and hopefully emerge somewhere on the other side of the mountains, to seek help or at least a way out.

There she was met by Bane...and a miracle.

I did not understand what Lady Sapphiria was when I first met her. I am not well versed in the arts of artifice or the miracles of technology. I have beheld some, used others, but I have not studied them extensively nor, must I say with some shame, any real interest.

Her armor was gleaming white, almost unblemished by all around her, with a black underlayer that moved and shifted in ways I did not believe metals could. Segmented in placed, certainly, yet in others not. At least not at first glance.

She spoke in the common tongue, in no specific accent I could discern. Though she certainly spoke strangely at times, it was not with another dialect and was in keeping with standard nomenclature, simply in odd turns of phrases. Her age, I have gathered second hand, is considerable, being estimated that her formative experiences were before the Age of Expansion, and the arrival of the Eternal Empire on our fair shores. Possibly longer, in fact, though she has not been precise and no one has wished to push her on the subject.

She bore weapons that seemed advanced and were confirmed to me as such later. One, I have been told, fires energy, similar to our own fire spells, but much more focused and devastating, while another is a powerful rifle, much like those our esteemed royal infantrymen march to war with.

As I said, I did not understand the significance of her vestments or weaponry at first, only coming aware of them through the intervention of one Ramina, whose family name I shall not record because it has so obviously been fabricated. She is a criminal, certainly, a scoundrel, possibly, and for reasons I will not expound here, the taker of my dear sister's heart. For one whose past remains so shrouded, she had proven a great asset throughout our journey, and once again she proved her worth by unerringly identifying the Hero and her equipment.

In the interest of brevity, and avoiding overlap with my other records, I shall not recount every notable event Lady Sapphiria had a hand in. Indeed, it would be shorter to mention which ones she did not participate in.

I wish it noted that though a Hero, and owing us nothing, Lady Sapphiria has gone through extremely considerable trouble to both assist and protect us.

She has, repeatedly and with no fear, though perhaps a hint of temerity, gone in harm's way on our behalf. Both defensively and offensively, she has engaged Bane and monsters, alone, accompanied by her golems, or with our own troops and people in support.

I should, perhaps, take a moment to explain my previous sentence. Lady Sapphiria uses golems in a manner most unusual. Indeed, though most of the world treat them as delicate mechanism, indefatigable but extremely expensive, she seems to think them entirely disposable, and though not exactly cheap, certainly not worth preserving at the expense of one's life or even injury.

Much speculation by the town's population has been spent on that subject, in vain. If Astralis' council had insights, it has no shared it with me. That includes my sister, or her girlfriend.

On top of that profligate use of golems, some of which were offered to us as workmen, and others as protectors, Lady Sapphiria has also demonstrated a technical prowess which I believed belonged in legends and myths. In a matter of months, she has erected defensive works the likes of which I have only seen built by armies, and not only deployed heavy artillery, but also devised the means to make food plentiful and nourishing from wood.

This 'nutrigel' as she calls it, is tasteless, disgusting and feels as if one is trying to devour one's own mucus, but it is nonetheless filling and has enabled us to survive in these trying times with surprising ease.

She has even shared with us 'batteries', that not only produce electrical current to power her 'nutrigel vats', but also furnish us with warmth. Seemingly with no source of power or fuel, I must conclude that they are containing Condensate. Though that is a layman's opinion, my understand of artifice being limited, as noted earlier.

I shall, by the request of my sister, not record another peculiarity of her food offering, and will append another document detailing it only upon specific instruction from the Countess or my sister on the matter.

I would also like to note an important thing, before ending this preliminary report and treatise.

Lady Sapphiria appears to have taken for girlfriend Countess Kaliria, and their affection appears not to be an alliance of necessity nor some maneuver to reassure our people of her continued support, but genuine. Genuine, I should note, to the point that my sister has confided doubts upon what might happen if Kaliria was asked to go against Lady Sapphiria, or, Ancestors help us all, something was to happen to the Countess.

Only time will tell how this will evolve and end, but I would like to note that Lady Sapphiria has always seemed extremely protective of Astralis and its people in general, caring of our wellbeing long before she entered in a relationship with the Countess. She has unleashed great fury upon the Bane for attacking us, and continues to fight with a ferocity that would do any Hero of old proud of their cohort.

I, quite candidly, dread to think what would happen if that power was focused on the protection and vengeance of one, and, if one is to read this report, urge...considerable caution.

The Countess, as covered in my other reports, has taken actions of legality and loyalty most questionable, as she believes she serves the Magistracy first, and the Crown second. My sister has, in fact, confronted her upon this issue directly.

It is not my place to cast judgment. It is my place to record. But I would urge caution.

For what I have recorded, were it to be turned upon us and not the Bane...

We are already on our knees, slowly driven into the ground by the Eternal Empire, returned from the dead and damned to reap our souls.

I shudder to think about how we will fare if the one being to have given the Bane pause, let alone forced them to ally with her, would be to take up arms against her.

Teman Solaph, graduate summa cum laude of the Mallivan University, writing from Starfire Valley.

Hail the King, and may his shadow protect us all.