PCs:Dala Wennen

Race: Human
Birthplace: South of Blandenberg, Farmland adjoining the village.
Current Residence: Mikona

Family History

When the war betwen M'Chek and T'Nanshi first broke out, records show that Dolf Wennson moved his family South, to a small farming region packed with displaced settlers from Blandenberg. The Wennson family disappears from records until Roger Wennson, Dala's grandfather, was tried and hanged after he was cought "stealing M'Chekian property" (most likely taking arms from the dead soldiers) after one of th many Battles of Blandenberg. Probably to avoid the stigma associated with the name, Wolfe Wennson, the eldest son, changed the family name to Wennen.

Wolfe was one of those all-to-common M'Chekian men who made up for their lack of control over their circumstances with extremely authoritarian control over their private lives. He was, however, not an overly cruel man. Wolfe was able to provide successfully for his first wife, Victoria, and his two children: Robin and Jacob. However, when T'Nanshi's army pressed further to the South during the Fall of 2073, Wolfe was forced to move his family South to one of the many "New Blandenberg" settlements set up for refugees. The crowding of the settlement, and loss of so many crops led to many deaths, and both Victoria and Robin Wennen passed away that winter.

In the Spring of 2074, clergy of Mikon arrived from Mikon in order to aid the refugees in the various New Blandenberg settlements. A young priestess by the name of Alcaria Torren was among a group who set up a small shrine in Wolfe's village. The following Winter, she and Wolfe were married, and that spring she gave birth to a daughter, Dala Wennen. From the testimony of villagers who knew the family, they were initialy well-cared for, having friends within the village clergy, and Wolfe, as always, worked tirelessly to provide for his family.

However, in 2079, things began to change. The village was considered well-established by the M'Chekian army, and so the Mikon clergy were moved to a more needy encampment. Alcaria was granted leave to remain with her family, but she no longer had time to care for the village's spiritual needs. The Church of Valok soon sent a representative to the village, hoping to capitolize on the general disconent the settler's had with the quality of frontier farming life. This particular representative, Lanse Gormann, was a domineering, and even outright cruel man, and the village quickly factionalized into those who followed him fanatically, and those who didn't, but were afraid to speak out against him for fear of reprisal. Stories say that Gormann's favorite method of correcting those who strayed from his teachings was to hang them by their arms from a tree in the village center and scourge them, while preaching of Valok's desire for discipline and strength.

Another notable feature of Gormann's fanatacism was his loathing of any practicioners of the arcane. Itinerant wizards would occasionally travel between border settlements, offering to aid villages with their spells in exchange for anything from mere lodging and food, to their choice from among the village's women. Whenever Gormann got word of the arrival of such a wizard, he would fly into a rage, and chase the interloper from the village with his longsword. Needless to say, it was strictly forbidden that any of the villagers own any materials on arcane magic.

Of course, as soon as Gormann established his dominance over the village, Alcaria Wennen was no longer able to preach Mikon's ways to the people. Her last attempt to preach to the people was interrupted by Gormann, who strode up to her, snatched her holy symbol from her hand, and began railing against the inability of Mikon to grant salvation to the people of New Blandenberg. After that, she fell into a sullen depression and seldom left her home. Wolfe, probably out of a feeling of impotence at having to watch his wife suffer, turned to drinking, and began to neglect his family. It was in this atmosphere of that Dala first began to experience life in refugee M'Chek.

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Childhood

As a child, it was obvious that Dala had an exceptional mind. Unfortunately, it was equally obvious that she had no intention to use it for anything. She would spend her days reading what few books were available in the village, but resisted all attempts by her father to send her to Mikona for a clerical schooling at the Temple of Mikon. Evidently, he wished for her to follow in her mother's footsteps. Her brother, Jacob was far more ambitious, but unfortunately very dull. Wolfe also had designs for Jacob to take over the farm and establish a family line in the village.

As Wolfe began to live more and more of his life in the bottle, and Jacob began to take on the farm work, young Dala began to wander the village untended. However, despite her later affiliations with the Church of Valok, she seemed to somehow avoid dealing with Gormann. None of the village's survivors seems to recall her ever being present for one of his sermons.