"Ten years have long passed since the day I made you my promise, and I swear to you I will find a way to fulfill it soon. Until then, my mistress... may your will guide me!" Urdn'Varn's voice echoed softly in the dimly lit chambers of the temple he had claimed for the Worgs and himself.
Shadows flickered across the polished stone floor, cast by the soft, eerie glow of enchanted blue and midnight torches lining the walls.
In the center of the room, a statue of Shar stood proudly, its intricate craftsmanship radiating an aura of authority and mystery.
As Urdn'Varn knelt before the Statue of Shar, the room seemed darken, and a whisper that echoed like wind through dead leaves, filled his ears as a vision cast over him like a shadow, vivid and consuming.
In his vision, Urdn'Varn saw a grand Selûnite church, its marble facade gleaming under the light of a full moon. But hidden within the sanctuary was a wolf in the shadows.., a powerful Believer of Vhaeraun posing as a devoted servant of Selûne, and in the back of his mind, Shar's voice rang clear:
"Find her. Aid her. Take what is hidden and ensure faith to this temple crumbles...
Then return to here, to me!"
The vision faded as quickly as it had come, leaving Urdn'Varn with his breath shortened and his heart pounding. A newfound determination burning within him.
As Urdn'Varn rose to his feet, he cast one last glance at Shar's statue, before leaving to find Nazareth and tell her of his duties.
For six grueling months, Urdn'Varn traversed the wilds on Worg-back, aided by his three greatest followers, who took turns carrying him along the way.
His journey took them through dense forests where the trees whispered secrets of old, across barren plains under starless skies, and through towns and villages too fearful to question his passing.
Guided by the fragments of his vision and the occasional whisper from Shar in his dreams, Urdn'Varn finally stood before his destination;
A towering Selûnite church, with its alabaster spires reaching toward the heavens.
From the shadows of the nearby forest, he observed the church as Priests and priestesses dressed in flowing silver robes milled about the courtyard, their faces serene and oblivious to the storm that was approaching from the shadows.
Urdn'Varn's lips curled into a smirk as he began weaving a disguise, crafted by Shadow Magic.
In seconds, a spell of illusion cloaked him in darkness, twisting his fearsome, yet petit visage into that of a battered and injured Blue Dragonborn, as the scent of blood, caused by a self inflicted wound, added a sense of authenticity to his ruse.
After transforming, Urdn'Varn turned to his Worgs and ordered them to head home, were their queen was waiting for them.
Feigning in weakness, Urdn'Varn staggered toward the gates, "Help.. someone.. wolves... the forest!" he pleaded before collapsing dramatically before one of the guards.
Alarmed by his sudden appearance, two more guards rushed to his side, their divine magic probing his illusion but finding nothing amiss, thanks to his injury. Immediately was brought inside the church and placed in a modest chamber to recover, where he was aided by a young white dragonborn named Draz'Zorn.
The days that followed were ones of careful manipulation and observation. He moved among the clergy with practiced humility, imitating their routines and rituals, drawing aid from his memories of the past.
His apparent devotion earned him the trust of the temples favored, and no-one ever suspected the darkness lurking beneath his facade.
During one of his meditations in the church's garden;
A serene place brimming with moonflowers and soft, glowing fountains,
Urdn'Varn's gaze once again fell upon Draz'Zorn. The young White Dragonborn was earnest and naive, his kindness evident in every word and action.
"I see the moonlight has finally eased your pain." Draz'Zorn said one evening, sitting beside Urdn'Varn on a stone bench. "When you first arrived, I feared you wouldn't make it through the night.. But I'm glad that you did. "
Urdn'Varn gave a weary smile, masking his disdain for the Selûnite drivel. "Yes it has.. and I have you to thank for that, my dear dragonkin. Your kindness has been like a beacon in my resent times of darkness, young Draz'Zorn. I owe you my life."
The young Dragonborn beamed shiley,
his pale scales reflecting the soft light of the moon above.
Over time, his admiration for Urdn'Varn grew, and in time, Urdn'Varn learned to use this to his advantage, ensuring Draz'Zorn's loyalty would serve him when the time came.
Two months passed before Urdn'Varn finally discovered his true target of his goals.
Late one night, as the clergy slept and the moonlight bathed the grand hall in a silver glow, Urdn'Varn ventured into the church's archives, guided by the shadows.
The labyrinthine library was a place of quiet reverence, its shelves filled with ancient texts and scrolls documenting the church's history, and medical records obtained over the years.
It was here that he encountered her:
Lilistar, the Half-Drow Servant of Vhaeraun. Her movements were precise and deliberate as she scanned the shelves, her dusky skin blending with the shadows. As Urdn'Varn stepped closer their eyes met for the first time.
"You seem lost.. Is there something I can help you look for child?" He exclaims attempting to keep his guise going.
In shock, Lilistar drops the book she was holding, before bending over to pick it up.
"Sorry, I couldn't sleep. So I was hoping to find something interesting to read.."
Urdn'Varn walks up beside her, grabbing a random book off the shelf.
Hmm, ..So it would seem, yet I can't shake this feeling.
...that You've been watching me ever since I first arrived here."
Little Star brushes her to the side, trying to break eye contact with Urdn'Varn.
"N..No, not really, it's just that we don't usually see many new faces around here... I'm sorry for disturbing you sir I shall be on my way now. May the light of Selûne be with you."
Instinctively Urdn'Varn reaches out, grabbing Lilistar by the arm.
"Pleas do not belittle me with such words. I am no salunite.. and I know, Neither are you, Servant of Vhaeraun." Urdn'Varn replied, dropping his illusionary appearance for a moment, just long enough to reveal his true form.
A tense silence followed before a smirk spread across her lips. "Wait.. It's you isn't it? You're the one from my dreams."
After confirming his suspicions were right, Urdn'Varn looks up at a Lilistar and smiles. "Ahh, so you too have had visions of me. Well then, It seems as if our goals align with another, for my goddess has sent me here to aid you."
For a while the two of them sat there in the dimly lit library, as they pieced together the fragments of their divine instructions. Urdn'Varn came to learn that Lilistar's true goal was to recover ancient knowledge, tucked away in these very walls.
Lilistar had been sent by Vhaeraun to search for *The Twilight Records*, a collection of scrolls said to contain truths that could shatter the Selûnite faith.
With Lilistar's knowledge of the church's inner workings and Urdn'Varn's cunning, they felt as if they were unstoppable.
Their search came to fruition a month later on a stormy night thanks to Draz'Zorn's unwitting assistance.
His devotion to Urdn'Varn as a fellow Dragonborn, blinding him to the darker nature of their mission, led him to reveille the location of a hidden chamber, tucked behind one of the library's walls.
Inside the hidden room, hidden below a stack of maps and blueprints, was the first of the *Twilight Records*, its ancient script glowing faintly with arcane power in response to Lilistar's presence.
As Lilistar held the scroll, its truths began to unravel before them.
— scroll of the Twilight records: part 2
"Selûne, no longer content with the balance they once held, had become obsessed with creation, with new life, brought only by the light of the Sun.
She sought to impose her vision on the universe, pushing aside the quiet and gentle introspective space Shar and her had nurtured for so long..
And in her arrogance, Selûne began to see herself as The Sole Architect Of Life, believing that only through her light could the universe flourish. But what she failed to understand, was that True Growth requires both light and shadow, both warmth and coolness."
"In her pursuit of dominance, Selûne began to reshape the heavens, bending them to her will as she crafted new stars and cast her burning light unto the moons, transforming them into celestial bodies that blazed her influence at all times;
casting her light across the once peaceful, nights of the shadowed realms. Her followers, the mortals and lesser deities who worshiped her, were filled with the belief that this light was their salvation and that darkness was something to be feared and eradicated."
**But in all reality, they were too blind to see the subtle truth:
By rejecting the darkness, they were rejecting half of existence itself, and half of ourselves.**
"Shar, though wounded by her sister's betrayal, did not retaliate immediately, instead She withdrew into the last of the shadows, watching as Selûne's light began to unravel the very fabric of their creation.
Now.. Life, once harmonious and free to thrive in the cool darkness, and a subtle warm glow created by The-Sisters-Who-Were-One, now withered under the relentless blaze of the sun. Plants scorched, waters dried, and the beings who had known the comfort of the night found themselves hunted by those who now worshiped the day, and the false light of the moons that now governed the night."
"As time passed, Selûne's once pure intentions became twisted by her desire for control. She began to demand loyalty, forcing the creatures of the realms to bend to her, and her allies' lights.
Cities rose in her name, churches with great towers reaching toward the sky, all built on the notion that her light was the only path to salvation, and those who refused to worship the light were cast out into the wilderness, their lives plunged into limitless chaos and torment by the ever-burning flames."
"Shar, realizing the true threat Selûne now posed, knew she could no longer remain silent. She gathered her strength and reached out to the creatures who had been abandoned by the light.
The shadevari, the lords of shadow, came to her aid, along with those mortals who had been shunned for embracing the darkness. Together, they formed a rebellion, not to conquer the light, but to restore the balance that Selûne had so arrogantly disrupted."
"The battle that followed was not one of good versus evil, it was but a battle of light and darkness…
Unlike what the followers of Selûne and her allies would have the realms believe.
Instead it was a fight for survival, a struggle to restore the harmony of glow and shadow that had once existed before Selûne's ambition led her so far astray. Shar, once content to live in the shadows, now had to become the protector of all that had been cast aside."
"In the end, Selûne was no longer the goddess of gentle light she once was. She had become a tyrant, blinded by her own brilliance, unable to see the destruction her light had wrought. Shar, though often maligned as the goddess of darkness and loss, was the one who understood that without shadows, there could be no light, no warmth... And so, the war between them rages on, not because Shar wished to destroy Selûne, but because she sought to save the universe from Selûne's unchecked power."
"The truth, once lost to time and buried in the myths of mortals;
Is that it was Selûne who first sought dominance. It was she who broke the unity of the Sisters-Who-Were-One, and in doing so, set the universe on a path of eternal conflict." —
Draz'Zorn was overcome, he began to question everything. What he was raised to believe, what they were even doing in the library, and most importantly, who he was.
"what is this, that voice.. did you both hear it too? That can't be true, can it Sir Varn?"
A wave of sorrow washed over Urdn'Varn's face as he grabbed the young Dragonborn by his shoulders after he crumbled to the floor before them.
"I'm afraid it is Draz'Zorn, this scroll has told you nothing but the truth..
But I'm sorry to say that I have not."
Bewildered, he looks up at Urdn'Varn with tears in his eyes. "What do you mean Sir Varn, what else have I not been told, what are you hiding from me?!"
Lilistar draws her dagger from it's sheath, yet keeps it concealed As she shoots a worried look towards Urdn'Varn.
Understanding her message he nods his head disagreeingly, as he lets out a sigh.
"Draz'Zorn, What time about to tell you,
..you can never tell another soul, And after you know who I really am, You must swear your loyalty to me do you understand.
... Otherwise I may not be able to save you."
More confused than ever he stumbles to his feet and looks at Urdn'Varn before saying, "Please.., just tell me sir Urdn'Varn. I want to know.. I want to know the truth, I want to know who you really are!"
"Then.. I want you to take my hand, and pay close attention to what I'm about to show you." Urdn'Varn says as he folds his hands together, crushing what seemed to be ivory and incense. Immediately a pale green smoke began to rise up and flow from out his hands as he cast his powerful Draconic Magic. "Place your hand within the smoke and I will show you who I really am."
As Draz'Zorn reached forth and placed his hand within the pale green smoke, it began to spiral around them on the floor, and a shadowy presence began to wash over the two of them as Urdn'Varn's eyes began to glow. At the same time vision came to Draz'Zorn;
--A vision of Urdn'Varn and of Syllel, his mother. It showed him how the Selûnite Church stole her away from him, hunted him down like an animal.. and so he hunted them too, and stole the way the thing that they held most precious.
*Their beloved temple* and gave it to his new family. A family of Worgs and werewolves, loyal to Shar.--
As the spells affect began to fade Urdn'Varn then stood before Draz'Zorn in his true form that of an Urd.
"Now that I know of you of your past and of your duties... I can no longer stand proudly as a Selûnite, and so.."
The young Dragonborn proclaims, kneeling before Urdn'Varn. "I swear unto you my loyalty, and vow to forever serve in your cause!"
" I'm glad to hear that, It would have brought me much sorrow to have to kill you.. now please, rise to your feet! We must be off before anyone suspects of us." Urdn'Varn says, before transforming back into his Blue Dragonborn disguise and walking out of the hidden corridor.
From the shadows, Lilistar watched the two of them leave with a quiet approval, her own loyalty to her own god, and holy mission unshaken.
A week later, the three received another vision while they were asleep;
A glimpse of another piece of the scroll, hidden not far from their current location. Their mission was clear:
**They were to leave in a three days time, with the aid of two foolish Selûnite's whom they must convince to travel along with them.**
After meeting up in the courtyard,
the three of them devised a plan to retrieve the missing part of the scroll, and formulated a plot to gain them their temporary allies.
Later that day, Urdn'Varn told one of the elders of the church that they had read about a powerful Selûnite artifact in their library. He told the elder that the artifact was hidden away in a nearby dungeon, and that he would need at least four participants to aid him on his journey.
He also told the man that he had already found two *fellow Selûnite's* who were willing to help him in his cause, but he didn't know who else he should ask.. for he was new to the church.
The elder, pleased by Urdn'Varn's expressed loyalty to the church, agreed to lend him to young paladins who would aid them on their journey.
A week later, under the cover of darkness, the five companions set out, leaving the Selûnite church behind, and began their journey to recover another piece of The Twilight Records.