I wish to tell you a story about a man named Sadim. He was a good
ruler and treated his people fairly well. Sadim had a small kingdom, but this did not bother him. He was happy living his life with his wife, Norina and his lovely daughter, Croisha. Sadim had one passion, that passion was silver. He collected it whenever he could. He had beautiful statues and a throne made from solid silver. All jewelry he wore was silver, even his kingly crown. This obsession, with silver, drove him to seek all forms of merchandise and rare antiquities. Sometimes, his people would suffer, so that he may purchase silver and satisfy his fixation.Soon it came to his attention that there was a potent force that could turn all things to silver. A supremacy that would give him the power to simply stroke an object and convert it’s core to solid silver. He immediately set forth and began seeking this gift. All the scouts he sent forth, never returned, until one day, a strong and powerful knight returned with a tale of the swamp and the Goddess of Suffering who could grant such a gift. Sadim immediately began to convert his life to Loviatar’s religion. He had his people tortured and studied the affects of disease on individuals. His rapt worship, eventually, gained the notice of the Goddess Loviatar.
Sending him a vision, she informed him that he needed to come to her Temple and give proper veneration. Sadim spent a year making the trip to Loviatar’s temple, he did it without a slag and without the comfort of his kingly retinue. It was a journey wrought with despair and anguish, but he eventually gained access to Loviatar’s inner Temple. There he prayed and gave up adoration to the Goddess for many weeks. Sadim knelt on the stone floor and meditated, listening to the screams of the Goddess of Vengeance’s temple, when the room grew dark and bright, red eyes glowed in the air above his head. A bitter cold spread throughout the room and pain wracked Sadim’s body. He covered his ears, howling in torment, as the screams of the Temple spun together and became that of a voice. A thousand screams echoed within the chamber and words formed from the tumult. "Sadim, you have worshipped me for many years, you have spread misery and suffering to Threshold and to your people. You seek the gift of the Silver Touch. I shall grant you such a gift, but you must do something for me. I have created a plague which will bring horrific devastation to Threshold. I seek a host for this malady. I wish your daughter to carry it, to spread the affliction to all." Sadim, his nose and ears bleeding, screamed his acceptance of the deal. Silence spread through the room, deathly quiet. Sadim attempted to stand, but could not, he collapsed there beneath the beloved statue of Loviatar, and slept.
When he awakened the next day, Sadim blearily cleaned himself up. His head pounding he recalled the nights events and reached out, softly he touched the wash rag, it became solid silver. His excitement overpowered his fatigue and he ran from the temple, turning things around him into solid silver with nothing but a small caress. His travel home took half the time and he rushed into his castle, only to be greeted with the terrified faces of his subjects. They immediately led him to his daughters room, and there on the bed lay his daughter.
Her eyes were clouded, her frail frame wracked with coughing fits. Her skin, pale and blotchy. It was as if she shouldn’t have been alive at all, that her body seemed to cling to a life that should have rejected her. Her blackened lips constantly moved as if trying to say something. Her sightless eyes revealed a suffering, a pain so intense that she tried to escape into sleep, but could not. Sadim kneeled at his daughters bed and stared in horror at her small form. He looked up at his wife and gazed into her hollow eyes, she was a woman who sat watching her only child die, slowly. Her gaze reflected a loneliness a knowledge of loss, an anguish that was beyond description, and her skin had started to pale, blotchy marks spreading down her neck. It would not be long before she joined her daughter in the sickness. It would not be long before it spread to the servants and the other citizens of Threshold. Sadim screamed and threw himself down beside his daughter. His apologies fell on deaf ears as he reached out to stroke his daughters sunken cheek bones, and suddenly, there lay in bed, a silver statue.
Sadim looked up at his wife as she came to her feet, rage and fear playing across her face, tears forming in her eyes, and suddenly, her tears were plastered to a silver face her silver hands reaching for her child. She never made it. Sadim kneeled on the floor and screamed his pain and torment to the world. He lost sanity for some time. Closing the door and doing nothing but touching the statues for days. Sadim was awakened suddenly by a freezing wind that spread through the room. A bitter cold sunk into his bones and his body twisted in agony. His ears screamed at him and he covered them quickly. A voice he remembered all to well, echoed within the chamber. "You have broken our deal Sadim, you have turned my wondrous disease to silver along with your daughter. I take from you the gift I had bestowed upon you and give you another. Your statues shall forever be within your sight. Within touching distance, they shall never leave your side Sadim. This gift I bequeath to you." The laughter pealed through the room and suddenly, everything vanished.
Sadim, grabbed at the bed and pulled himself to his feet. Gazing down at his silver daughter, he shook his head slowly, he would forever be forced to look upon her, knowing he had caused her torment. Abruptly, a noise came from the girl. Sadim was so surprised, he stepped back. Listening carefully, he could hear her mumbling, hear her screams of agony. Her lips did not move, but the pain was obvious within her eyes, a fresh pain, that would never go away. Sadim’s eyes widened in horror and he looked up at his wife, for the first time, he noticed the tears had never dried, that his wife still reached for her daughter, her eyes still filled with the need to touch her one last time. Sadim screamed and ran from the room, running till he fell within the garden. Burying his face within the dirt. It did no good, he heard the screaming, saw the silent suffering from his wife. And as he glanced up, there they were, his daughter lying on the ground, forever in agony and torment from a horrendous disease. His wife, evermore, longing to touch and eternally feeling the sorrow of loss. Sadim lost his mind that moment. He wondered the grounds for several days before his servants convinced him to return to his kingdom. They averted their eyes from the statues as they followed him. Sadim, did eventually, get himself together.
You see, the suffering and Torment he saw, angered him. He turned on the world, torturing his peasants and raising an army that he sent out, all over Threshold, spreading misery and suffering to every edge of the land. His worship for the Goddess Loviatar never faded. He gave his soul to her and praised her for showing him the true path of life. The misery in his life drove him, the tribulations taught him the way. The Goddess Loviatar gives the guidance of truth and teaches the only path of life. Life is pain and suffering. Embrace the tribulations of life and you will grow stronger with each passing day. Spread misery to the world, show your appreciation of the Goddess’s wisdom. May Loviatar bless us all with the gift of woe and despair
