Bio

Previously “Secret GM” Information:

“The Great Secret”

Though it is said that Kiphan’s beloved wife, Saryena fell ill after giving birth to their youngest child, Aryanna, and soon thereafter died, the truth of the matter is much more twisted.

As detailed by Cassandra, who had only just discovered the truth herself, in Game Session #3…

Lady Saryena Alvison, had always been loving and loyal to her husband, Kiphan. But, as fate would dictate, she eventually fell irrevocably in love with his best friend, Nordred Rythgar, who was also the Captain of the Northshore Guard.

This forbidden relationship didn’t begin until several years after the Kiphan and Saryena had been wed, and for many more years Saryena and Nordred kept their distance from one another, staving off the betrayal of a man they both cared for. Yet, with Kiphan’s frequent outings battling against the vampyre plague on the isle, the two who remained behind found themselves with more and more time together, beckoning further for their relationship to evolve into treachery.

As the years passed, Saryena grew lonely in the frequent absence of her husband, and her passion led to a secret affair with the Nordred. This affair led to her impregnation. Saryena’s daughter, Aryanna, is actually the daughter of Nordred.

During the years of the affair, Kiphan began to suspect something was amiss with his marriage, though he couldn’t quite place the facts of the matter, he knew his wife grew more and more distant each time he returned to the city from an assault on a Vampyre den. He remained watchful and waiting for hint of the mystery to come to light, but had little time to focus on personal matters when it was his duty to ensure the safety and protection of those who called Alvison’s Haven their home.

Since Nordred was captain of the guard, he was aware of most anything that happened within the city walls. The only time this was untrue was during occasional late night retreats (where he was meeting in secret with Saryena at an abandoned storehouse on the west side of Northshore Landing).

It was in fact, one of Nordred’s own men, a gate guard by the name of Cathion Imar, who took notice of these mysterious retreats. Cathion mournfully suspected his captain of plotting a coup against Kiphan. Though a man dedicated to his captain, Cathion was an even more loyal subject to Kiphan, and thus, in secret, he went to his lord to disclose his suspicions.

Kiphan, have long suspected something uncouth brewing in Northshore, took heed of Cathion’s suspicions and the two man hatched a plan to discover the purpose of Nordred’s secret outings. Though, the leader at this time had no suspicions that the outings were related to his failing marriage.

The plan was hatched: the next time that Cathion took note of Nordred’s leaving, he was to follow the man to the location and then immediately report back to Kiphan.

In less than a week’s time, one early evening during midweek, the sheepish guard appeared outside Kiphan’s chambers in the keep and informed his lord that Nordred had again abandoned the barracks, and that he had followed him to an empty storehouse.

Not wanting to raise suspicion in case other members of the guard may have been complicate in the plot, Kiphan and Cathion quietly made their way alone to the storehouse. When they arrived at the location, quietly sneaking to get a closer look at what was going on behind closed doors, Kiphan was simultaneously devastated and outraged to find his pregnant wife, half undressed in the arms of his best friend, Nordred.

In a screaming rage, the lord burst into the building, drawing his blades and spewing a plethora of profanity at the captain as he directly engaged the man, with intent of killing him on the spot. In the ensuing struggle, Saryena was mortally wounded; stabbed in the side. It remains unclear whose blade scored the deadly hit upon the Lady during the scuffle, but each man eternally blamed the other.

Though still quite formidable in his older years, Kiphan was bested in this battle against Nordred. His wounds were not fatal, but he was felled non-the-less. Unchallenged by Cathion, who was attending the wounded Lady Saryena, Nordred escaped capture to flee from the city.

Saryena’s wounds were not definitively fatal, but the stress of the encounter and injury prompted her to labor, and that night her daughter, Aryanna was born. Weakened by the wound, stressed by the conflict, and pushed beyond her limits by labor, the Lady would succumb to her end.

Laying upon what would later become her deathbed, her daughter in arm, she told Kiphan that she believed the child was of Nordred’s line, and begged her husband not to kill the child’s father. Angered, he swore to his wife that no harm would come to the girl child, but vowed to murder Nordred at any cost.

His last words to his wife were condemning both her and her lover to a torturous existence in the afterlife. Soon after this final conversation, Saryena fell into a death-sleep from which Kiphan would never see her awaken. Kiphan would raise Aryanna as his own daughter, withholding her father’s true identity from her, as well as the public.

Kiphan declared Nordred as a failed assassin and lead conspirator in a plot to overthrow his leadership of the island, and pursuant to the military code in which he applied to all men serving under him, Kiphan found him guilty of treason and sentenced him to death upon capture. He placed the loyal Cathion in charge over the guard, donning him with the title of his former Captain and charged him with seeking out and capturing or killing Nordred.

However, Cathion’s new charge would last less than a day, as that night he was murdered, his gutted corpse hung upside down from the great statue of Kiphan in the town commons. That same night nearly one-third of the city guard, proved loyal to their former captain, Nordred, and they and their families abandoned Northshore Landing, fleeing with their condemned leader into the Blavewood.

Outraged at the betrayal of so many of his people, Kiphan took charge of the guard once more with intent of seeking out those who had fled to crush them. However, once he and the remaining guard took afoot, they found no trace of their query. And, finally it was assumed that they criminals had fled deep into the Stonepeak Mountains on the eastern side of the island.

Kiphan returned to Northshore Landing, where he remained both leader and acting captain of the guard until many years later when the station was granted to his son, Kresh.