They were all gone now, her tribe, her family. She was responsible. She should have seen the signs in the stars but they didn’t warn her of the impending attack, the impending doom. She was their leader, their good omen, the sign from Sarrae that they were going to prosper. How did this happen?
Born in a human astrali’nar tribe, in the deserts of the Sultanate of Roenok, Marakata’s birth was extraordinary. Being born during a solar eclipse was enough to garner her unusual status but the gods decided that wasn’t enough, they had to drop a star out of the sky right into the middle of the camp too. Normally this would have definitely put her birth into the bad omen category but this star was different. When it struck the ground the energy it released didn’t destroy anything. Instead it healed and cured everyone in her tribe. People who had lost limbs grew them back, the sick were healthy again, even the elderly seemed to be somewhat younger and definitely more full of life. They say that had that not happened she and her mother would have died in child-birth. They told her she wasn’t breathing when born and her mother was bleeding to death when the star hit the ground. They said it was a miracle on a miraculous day and that made her birth a good omen.
She was seen as very different from other children not only because she had unusually colored hair for her people and very unusual eyes. She also exhibited almost no interest in playing games or doing things the other kids in the tribe did. Instead she spent all her time with the oracle and scribe of the tribe. Her mind was always thinking about the heavens and the past. If another tribe was camped in the same oasis she would trade her things for any writings on other worlds and on the history of this and other regions. She also spent a great deal of time studying the heavens themselves often staying up deep into the night and sleeping during a good portion of the day. Her most prized possesion was the gift her mother gave her when she turned 14 an astrolabe adorned with a piece of the star that had hit the ground when she was born. The astrolabe was something that had been handed down from mother to daughter for generations in their family further back than anyone could remember. Her mother had added the piece of the star to the astrolabe as it had saved them both. She believed the astrolabe had been handed down since before the Breaking but there was no way to prove that. Marakata loved the astrolabe so much it never left her side. She used it every night and became very skilled in its use.
Upon turning 14 she was now considered to be a woman by her tribe and was taken into the tutalage of the Oracle. The next 10 years of her life were filled with learning and discovery. She found that she was a very gifted oracle and Sarrae blessed her with an extra revelation regarding her mystery. She could save those from deaths door with just a touch and her knowledge of the heavens and history was unmatched. This made her a natural choice for head of the tribal council when the elder council leader died. She was very skilled at negotiating with other tribes and even modestly successful in getting things from the nearby outposts. The tribe prospered under her leadership and believed it would be a long and prosperous time for them. Unlike the rest of her tribe Marakata didn’t seem to be getting any older. No one could figure out why but it was believed that this was a side effect of the star that had blessed her birth.
She led her tribe successfully for nearly 50 years. Throughout that time they prospered and did well until that one fateful day near the border between the desert and the Orman Jungles, the day her life changed forever. Never in recorded history had a tribe near the Orman Jungles seen, let alone been attacked, by the savage elven tribes that lived there. It was believed to be a safe place to travel and camp. Stay out of the jungle and you will be safe was what she had always heard. Something had to have driven that elven tribe mad. Mad enough to leave the forest and attack another tribe, a non-elven tribe, out in the open area of the desert. Her tribe didn’t stand a chance against the savage skill and ferciousness of the elven attack. They showed no mercy, no remorse, and just slaughtered everyone. Well almost everyone. Somehow she was spared. She remembered being hit in the head and then blackness. After that she woke and found herself under the body of one of her guards. Her entire tribe was either dead or dying. She had already used all her spells for the day so she couldn’t help anyone herself. She ran to a nearby outpost and begged for help from the people there. They thought she was crazy and laughed at her. Some even spat at her and the guards bodily dragged her out of the outpost and dumped her on the ground. The rest of her tribe died that night and there was nothing she could do to save them.
She decided then that she was done with Roenok. She spent the next week honoring her dead tribe and disposing of the bodies properly according to tribal traditions. She then packed her things and left heading out of Roenok on a journey to hopefully find some new meaning to her life, and to find answers.
