Venus

The name Venus inspires lust, awe, and prayers to Lumaya wherever it is sung or whispered. The best-known account of Venus’ life tells of her being born as heir to the Barony of lnnerste. She was an only child, to her parents a miracle from Lumaya. In gratitude, the baron and baroness dedicated their lives and realm to the Goddess of Light the day Venus was born, for they had believed they could no longer conceive a child. That very day the baron unceremoniously dropped his long-standing commitment that the teenage son of his closest advisor would be his heir. The boy abandoned lnnerste, bitterness in his heart, mutters of vengeance on his tongue, and a bundle of rotting spellbooks under his arm. Venus was raised a devotee of Lumaya. Every day she thanked the goddess for her life, prayed in her father’s chapel, and toiled with lnnerste’s monks and sisters. Faith and duty were everything to her. She also trained her body vigorously, joining the knights of her household in their daily exercises. Her experience working with the poor had shown her what could happen to those unable to defend themselves from the hated Skinwalkers, Dark Elves, and Orcs. Venus’ faith was everything to her, but it changed nothing of the fact that she was heir to her father, and that one day she would take his seat. As she grew, so did her beauty, with contradicting stories told in the present age describe hair like a river of gold, as red as a raging inferno, and abyss-black. Men from all over lnnerste came to offer themselves as suitors. She spurned the advances of hundreds. One did catch Venus’ eye, a knight in elegant, crimson plate. She turned him down regardless, swearing that whoever wed her would have to prove his courage and faith beyond all measure. The former heir of Venus’ father watched on, ugly in soul and black of heart. He spent long hours in study poring over ancient texts dedicated to dark magic and eventually submitted to Siroth in his relentless desire to learn more. With his heinous powers he had seized for himself a forbidding, hilltop stronghold. He decided to claim her for himself, in part at least to spite the baron who rejected him so coldly. Reading of an enchantment from a Skinwalker-leather tome, he whispered words in dark tongues while crushing the petals from sixty-one flowers, each of a different variety. With this he mixed the blood of a throttled lovebird, dove, and lamb. Finally, he added a dozen drops of his own life-force. The sorcerer disguised himself as a shepherd and traveled to lnnerste, where he bewitched one of Venus’ handmaidens. Upon his order the woman poured some of the enchanted potion into Venus’ morning rye-gruel. That night, Venus escaped her father’s castle, the malign magic of the potion overriding even her strong will and making her seek out her would-be entrapper. The sorcerer led her to his keep, where he looked her in a cell. Venus’ faith in Lumaya was unbreakable. As a result, the effect of the sorcerer’s potion wore off far more quickly than he intended. Venus escaped her cell. Her beauty was so great it broke the hold the sorcerer had over some of his minions’ will, and they helped her. Her warrior training enabled her to overpower more guards. But the sorcerer’s thralls and animals were too many, and she was recaptured and force-fed the potion. This cycle repeated several more times before the sorcerer realized he could only trust predatory animals guard her cell. Venus never stopped praying for Lumaya’s aid, and received her answer during another of her escape attempts. The crimson-armored knight came, wielding a huge, two-handed sword. Venus watched him out down dozens of thralls and beasts, invoking the Goddess of Light’s name with every killing strike. She raced to his side, and they fought the sorcerer together. It was the knight who finally ended their foe’s life, driving his blade through the neck of the black-souled man. It was to be his final warrior act. He collapsed to the ground, his blood pouring over the ground around him. Venus ran to her mortally wounded rescuer, tears streaming down her cheeks. With his dying breath, Cupidus swore his undying love for her. The Arbiter then came, to preserve the crimson knight forever within a Shard. Venus knew what she had to do. There was no suitor in all the lands who could even match, let alone exceed what her rescuer had done. He had proven his faith, his strength, his bravery, his love, all traits loved by Lumaya, and thus by her. Venus pledged herself to the Arbiter’s cause, to be by her love’s side forever.