Backstory
Born of a
drow mother, and a human father, Izanami was not destined for a simple life.
She was born into a house of drow nobility, her mother having gleefully
manipulated her father with false promises and pipe dreams, only to abandon him
to social ostracization when she was through toying with him. Growing up in
drow society as a kitr’ye, or half, she learned hard and fast that the only way
to survive was to prioritize yourself, keep your allies at arm’s length, and
never be afraid to stab an enemy in the back if the opportunity presented
itself. Being a kitr’ye, Izanami matured much faster than her full-blooded
peers, and was pushed twice as hard in her lessons and training. Deceit and
trickery was the drow way, and thus she studied the art of hidden blades and
vital points, of disappearing into the shadows and vaulting over enemies. With
the intensity of her studies, Izanami fled at a young age, seeking reprieve
from her more gentle heritage. However, upon leaving the Underdark, she was met
with only hatred, disdain, and mistrust. She forged on, hopeful for her
father’s love – or any pure affection at all, really – soon coming upon the
village her mother spoke of. Seeking affection, seeking kinship, Izanami
approached her father’s homestead. She only saw him for but a moment before he
slammed the door in her face, shouting a string of curses more vile than she
had even heard the slavers of the Underdark utter. Young, broken, and bitter,
she returned to her home, throwing herself into her studies, without even a
complaint from her expectant mother of her performance. Izanami sneered at the
peers that whispered behind her back, slept with one eye open, and dreamt of
power. The power to silence the whispers behind her back, to avenge the hurt
her younger self had gone through, power enough to force her way into society.
Power was the drow way, and the human way, it seemed. Everyone dies eventually,
and whoever had power over death ruled – that was the way of the drow noble
houses, and, apparently, of the human warlords of the surface, as the drow had
begun to hear whispers of.
Izanami, as
a kitr’ye was able to walk the surface with less pain than her peers, and was
thus sent to investigate claims of the wars above. Exiled away from the society
she stained, and yet still made useful. Spitting and snarling as she left,
Izanami knew better than to disobey the orders of her house’s matriarch, and
she knew returning to the surface would give her a chance to inflict the
suffering on her father that he had upon her as a child. However, upon reaching
the village, she saw no sign of her father’s home but a smoldering ruin, having
been torched to the ground by what appeared to be several human soldiers and
their officer, who were calling for more conscripts, or death for those who
refused. The village was several short, they claimed, hauling away some
farmer’s sons, forcing them into the barred cart, clearly made for unwilling
conscripts. The villagers had no hesitation in pointing fingers at Izanami,
claiming her her father’s daughter, suitable for war, they said. Izanami
sneered at them, fighting off pushing hands, slashing, punching, even biting,
before she was shoved before the officer, who laughed. He laughed at her, at
her spitting and snarling like a cornered beast, laughed at her mixed heritage,
laughed at her coward of a father for running from the draft. And then, she was
knocked out – by the horse, of all things, not even worth his time. She hated
him.
When she
awoke, Izanami was in some sort of war camp, full of initiates, chained up to
what she assumed was some other… unwilling draftees. But she played along, she
knew when to feign obedience and when to resist. So she went through the
motions, pretended to obey and play the humans’ little game of war, and
listened, and learned, and planned for her escape or mutiny. She learned of the
humans’ fear of magic, of the persecution of those who wielded it, and she
learned of the chaos the continents were plunged into, the general state of war
all around. And when the ambush came, she took to the shadows, killing any who
came near, friendly army or foe, they were the same to her, everyone out for
themselves in the chaos of ambush. When it was finally over, she found herself
among only several others…
