Adria of Bondon
Mar 29, 2018 23:42:37 GMT -6
via Tapatalk
The Dungeon Master and Eioin Boughsinger like this
Post by Joshua on Mar 29, 2018 23:42:37 GMT -6
The mining settlement of Bondon was once a vast community built of many family farms centered around churches. The idylic settlements were never wealthy, but rarely did anyone go hungry. When founded, the dale was ripe with worship of Yondalla and the halfling pantheon, and the people praised them greatly for the safety of the dale in a chaotic dale. Faith is easy in a world of danger, but in the safety of the dale there was no need to pray. Over hundreds of years, the worship of Yondalla began fading into antiquity.
Most recently, less than a century ago, ore was found within the mountains that bordered Bondon. Gold and silver, yes, but key among these a strange and lucrative ore of mysterious value. With merchants pouring in the purchase these resources, many residents of the dale packed up and left their family homes to take up work in the mines. What was once a sprawling, vast dale was abandoned for the central city of Bondon. With this transition, the slow and steady decline of their religion met an immediate end. The loss of the family homes led to the loss of history and tradition. The culture of Bondon was ultimately changed.
Adria was born to a mining family in Bondon, but she had spent as little time in the city itself as possible. Throughout her youth she wander through the abandoned farming communities throughout the dale, climbing trees and playing always with a filched practice bow. Exploring the abandoned farms sparked a great curiosity of what the Hin lived like before the mines.
This adventurous spirit was often at ends with the now-industrious city of Bondon. As she began growing out of her teens, Adria was pressured to settle down with a professional job. Her family pressured her into various auxiliary jobs among the mines, or even service jobs for the merchants. Determined to maintain a certain degree of independance, Adria instead obtained an apprenticeship with the town Healer. Along with tending to the sick, the job included traveling out in search of herbs and medicines, and traveling to nearby towns in need.
When in Bondon, Adria and the Healer operated out of a renovated community center. Centuries before, the building had been a church of Yondalla, but the only hint of this was a decaying history of the pantheon. Fused to the cover of the tome was the pristine symbok of Yondalla, but by the time Adria found it, most of the pages had been rendered illegible. What she did find, though, astounded her. The stories painted a beautiful, adventurous community brought to the dale in a frightful exodus. The tales ignited Adria's love of Yondalla, but they were scant. The stories only hinted at the Dale's history and worship. Lost traditions were still lost, and none of her kin could answer her questions.
Most of Bondon had an idea of how to speak Southern. A few phrases which eased relations with the merchants, and traveling with the Healer had taught Adria even more than that, but Adria needed to learn more of Yondalla. She worked tirelessly to complete her grasp of Southern, and interrogated nearly every merchant that would let her speak with them. She bought books and scrolls of anything they had to offer. Over months she gained very little, but enough.
Rumor had it that, when Yondalla led the Halflings to the dale, they planted first in a valley south of Bondon. Instead of going out with the Healer that day, Adria created excuses and snuck away to find the valley. After searching most of the day, she found the ruins of the settlement. While much of the farming communities had been somewhat preserved, the homes dug into mounds had long since collapsed, and the only hint of its presence was a half buried stone church. Disheartened, Adria prepared to return to Bondon, but first decided to pray in the ruins of the church.
There in the rubble, Adria felt a presence she had not felt before. Like a light so bright in burned, she was overwhelmed by the divine power of Yondalla. It was then that she gained the powers of priesthood, and it was then that she gained a binary mission. In one part, she was tasked with sharing the love of Yondalla. Rebuild a safe community among the halflings, and among the world beyond the dale. The second task, far harder, was to go out and recover the histories of her people and the worship of Yondalla. Yondalla could have revealed all of this, but this to be Adria's trial.
Adria promptly returned to Bondon, and arrived near day break. She bought a cloak in the green and yellow of Yondalla, pried the holy symbol from the cover of the book, took the pony the Healer had loaned her, and set off with a group of merchants. She wrote two notes. One to the healer, and one to her family. She followed the merchants along the roads to the north, but after several weeks she had to split off and journey to Greyhawk on her own. There, in the great city, she hoped to find records of the dale, tales of Yondalla, or a new path forward
Most recently, less than a century ago, ore was found within the mountains that bordered Bondon. Gold and silver, yes, but key among these a strange and lucrative ore of mysterious value. With merchants pouring in the purchase these resources, many residents of the dale packed up and left their family homes to take up work in the mines. What was once a sprawling, vast dale was abandoned for the central city of Bondon. With this transition, the slow and steady decline of their religion met an immediate end. The loss of the family homes led to the loss of history and tradition. The culture of Bondon was ultimately changed.
Adria was born to a mining family in Bondon, but she had spent as little time in the city itself as possible. Throughout her youth she wander through the abandoned farming communities throughout the dale, climbing trees and playing always with a filched practice bow. Exploring the abandoned farms sparked a great curiosity of what the Hin lived like before the mines.
This adventurous spirit was often at ends with the now-industrious city of Bondon. As she began growing out of her teens, Adria was pressured to settle down with a professional job. Her family pressured her into various auxiliary jobs among the mines, or even service jobs for the merchants. Determined to maintain a certain degree of independance, Adria instead obtained an apprenticeship with the town Healer. Along with tending to the sick, the job included traveling out in search of herbs and medicines, and traveling to nearby towns in need.
When in Bondon, Adria and the Healer operated out of a renovated community center. Centuries before, the building had been a church of Yondalla, but the only hint of this was a decaying history of the pantheon. Fused to the cover of the tome was the pristine symbok of Yondalla, but by the time Adria found it, most of the pages had been rendered illegible. What she did find, though, astounded her. The stories painted a beautiful, adventurous community brought to the dale in a frightful exodus. The tales ignited Adria's love of Yondalla, but they were scant. The stories only hinted at the Dale's history and worship. Lost traditions were still lost, and none of her kin could answer her questions.
Most of Bondon had an idea of how to speak Southern. A few phrases which eased relations with the merchants, and traveling with the Healer had taught Adria even more than that, but Adria needed to learn more of Yondalla. She worked tirelessly to complete her grasp of Southern, and interrogated nearly every merchant that would let her speak with them. She bought books and scrolls of anything they had to offer. Over months she gained very little, but enough.
Rumor had it that, when Yondalla led the Halflings to the dale, they planted first in a valley south of Bondon. Instead of going out with the Healer that day, Adria created excuses and snuck away to find the valley. After searching most of the day, she found the ruins of the settlement. While much of the farming communities had been somewhat preserved, the homes dug into mounds had long since collapsed, and the only hint of its presence was a half buried stone church. Disheartened, Adria prepared to return to Bondon, but first decided to pray in the ruins of the church.
There in the rubble, Adria felt a presence she had not felt before. Like a light so bright in burned, she was overwhelmed by the divine power of Yondalla. It was then that she gained the powers of priesthood, and it was then that she gained a binary mission. In one part, she was tasked with sharing the love of Yondalla. Rebuild a safe community among the halflings, and among the world beyond the dale. The second task, far harder, was to go out and recover the histories of her people and the worship of Yondalla. Yondalla could have revealed all of this, but this to be Adria's trial.
Adria promptly returned to Bondon, and arrived near day break. She bought a cloak in the green and yellow of Yondalla, pried the holy symbol from the cover of the book, took the pony the Healer had loaned her, and set off with a group of merchants. She wrote two notes. One to the healer, and one to her family. She followed the merchants along the roads to the north, but after several weeks she had to split off and journey to Greyhawk on her own. There, in the great city, she hoped to find records of the dale, tales of Yondalla, or a new path forward
