Raphael's early story

This story is based on the earliest parts of Raphael's "lore" he most likely made up to feel better about himself. This "lore" features his wife.


The rise of Seil family

A long time ago in Samania's lands there lived a mere mercenary called Agan Seil, an abandoned child that earned his position through numerous shows of his abilities. As the world was still in shambles after the fall of Primal Sorcerers, traveling from place to place was both the most dangerous part of one's life, and at the same time the only way to survive, as numerous cities were being destroyed, be it from raids, mad sorcerers or magical beasts up to that time locked away by the powers of Primal Sorcerers. Agan Seil's origin was unknown, although it clearly originated from one of many cultures destroyed at that time. His bodyguarding skills were a blessing for many travellers, and over time it allowed him to accumulate large sums of money, which he would secure in pure gold. Agan was almost unhealthily picky in choice of his comrades, but those who came to accompany him on the job quickly swore loyalty to him. Eventually his subordinates began recruiting teams on their own, until the number was high enough to warrant creation of their headquarters. With the last brick Agan died, leaving all of his knowledge, riches and people to his daughter, Emrya Siol.
Emrya Siol inherited rough personality after her father, and the second Agan's bones were given back to the earth Emrya challenged every single one of his former comrades and their subordinates in various physical and intelectual exercises in what had later come to be known as the Trials of Emrya. She mercilessly threw away anyone who could not beat her in at least 2/3 of the competitions. It was said, that after the trials were complete, Emrya stayed alive inspite of broken bones and deep wounds. This proved beyond doubt, that she would be more than capable of being an heir. As their fame grew, so did the number of members and requests. The mansion grew from originally small building to a small fort, housing many mercenaries at a time as a hub area in between jobs. Such story lay behind foundation of one of the first Guilds.
Her only son, Doanston, disliked operating out on the field. It may have been caused by an unfortunate turn of events on one of his earlier jobs, which caused him to lose lower part of his body. He moved away from active jobs and instead focused on strengthening the formal side of Seil guild. He doubled as a head teacher, and either due to kind nature or his unfortunate condition he educated a batch of selected orphans, ensuring that they would be strong in mind and body. One orphan in particular, a kid with hair as dark red as blood, Raphael, struck him as a son he could had never had, and so he raised Raphael as his own, giving him the surname of Seil.

The fall of Seil family

When Doanston passed away, he left behind a gigantic castle in place of an old fort, only partly finished. Raphael swore to finish the work of his protector and throughout twenty years he'd foolishly put vast majority of the guild's earnings into building of the castle. In the meantime he was contributing to the cause himself, taking the highest paid requests himself, leaving his wife and children home for very long periods of time. His 50th celebration of having been taken in by Doanston converged with birth of his seventh child, or rather the seventh attempt - as all children of his blood, bastards or not, would die within a year. The seventh child, Caster, survived for reasons unknown, although the colour of his hair was quite condemning.
One year later the construction of the castle was finally complete. The strain on the guild's budget however was too much for many guild members to handle, and in combination with Raphael's rude personality and lack of aura of leadership that all Silkes before him had, many members decided to leave in favor of competing guilds and groups. The fame and reputation of Seil Guild spiralled down, and with savings depleting and worse paid requests building up Raphael would spend years questing away from his family. One request in particular spelled doom to their lives, and the request was to find and destroy leaders of Nalaitak, the sorcerous circle of undead vampyres, liches and the like. During assassination Raphael failed to conceal himself, and although it took two full years, Nalaitak discovered his identity and in the retaliation strike the castle was attacked. It would have been a breeze in the early days of the guild, but with so few members left, everyone inside were massacred. Raphael, coming home from a successful hunt, was greeted only with sight of his entire life worth of effort burning in front of his eyes, and with a front view for an execution of his friends and family. The only thing he remembered from that day was a misguided bite to the cheek, that teared off skin from that region. When he woke up, he was within the quarters of Nalaitoc as an undead slave to a vampyre who bit him.
Following century was spent with not a spec of natural light meeting his retinas. His master was a great conossieur in terms of arcane magics, rituals and the like, possessing an entire library on the subject. In between his deeds as a slave well-behaving Raphael was allowed to spend time in a library and there, with only dim candles illuminating his future, his hatred and regrets grew to sick levels. By going through books and grimoires, as well as his own thoughts and theories, he suddenly struck his vampyre master in a brilliance in arcane magics he's never seen before; it didn't take long until he earned his master's trust and through a magical trap sucked out all of his power, becoming himself a vampyre, twice as powerful as any before him. That was when his obsesssion over power began.
In search of absolute power which, as he be strongly believed, would compensate for his past, he conducted many rituals and experiments on himself all the while climbing through nefarious ranks of Nalaitak. Eventually he gave up his natural body in favor of that of a lich. His bones were made of pure obsidian, and although naturally frail, his arcane spells were the strongest in the organisation, except for its master, also lich, but much older and more experienced. Knowing well of who gave out an order, Raphael challenged the leader of Nalaitok and with no hesitation whatsoever he had been crushed. However, in his fading moments he sensed something else's presence - something much stronger, much more mysterious, filled only with hunger for life. He'd read about it before. Lyi'Rau, entities that come through the rifts that unprotected, excessive spellcasting results in, the perfect hunter and at the same time an abomination of existence itself. He knew what it was, but he cared not for consequences. He reached out to the creature and within seconds the lich and Lyi'Rau, two abominations yet complete opposites fused together into one single being. Raphael's skeletal body shattered into dust and reformed just as quickly into an eldritch horror, sending a shockwave of incredible energy that distorted the very structure of space. The leader of Nalaitok  as well as everyone present in the room knew very well what was happening. They could not let such monster loose, no matter the cost. There was no time for exorcism rituals, no time for even incantations or charms. They poured all of their energy into petrification spell. The rampaging beast absorbed it as if it was a part of itself, its new and flecible structure accepting the spell as part of its own identity and it froze in place, another wave of energy coming out, sending the petrifying magic all over the Nalaitok's underground headquarters. Raphael's fading sanity turned his form back into that of an obsidian lich, frozen in an expression of pure rage and hatred toward himself and the universe his last emotion before time within the catacombs stopped, last screams of petrified echoing through the stone corridors.

The rebirth of Seil Kai

Centuries have passed. Nalaitok was a history, and its catacombs had long been forgotten by almost everyone. There was, however, an organization relevant to our story, known as the Masked Sisterhood.
The Masked Sisterhood used to be a circle od wizards, whose goal was to uncover the past and learn from it, as the crumbling civilizations left behind many useful artifacts that could potentially boost technological progress of new magics by a considerable margin. Their methods were highly questionable, as many of the Sisters had their own personal motives. It was originally founded by Laenei Mei, a powerful wizard skilled in mind manipulation, said to had been taught by succubi. The hierarchy was set in stone for over five generations since then, however, it was corrupted to the core with selfish desires. Its reputation was not the greatest, as many claimed to have seen Sisters get involved in numerous shady scams and affairs, although they always would come out on top thanks to their skills in manipulation. An heir to the organization, Sou Mei, had a kind heart and bright mindset. She did not care about their reputation, and had her eyes firmly set on the circle's original goal, and so, when the catacombs of Nalaitok were discovered, she was the first to move in. The bright light of her staff was illuminating big chambers and narrow corridors, revealing numerous sculptures of powerful undead. Some were moving on with their daily life, reading a book or performing a ritual, some would stand in groups and talk between eachother. Majority, however, seemed to be stuck in a motion of running toward the exits, running from a certain something deep down. The liveliness of the stone statues pushed Sou Mei to a sudden realization, that all of them were in truth live entities struck down with the spell of petrification. After preemptively casting anti-petrification ward on herself she followed the trail, walking in the direction opposite to all running statues, and walked down to the deepest chamber, large and filled with more statues. In the middle of them all were two liches, one on the ground, cowering in fear, the other one frozen in a position that resembles pure fury. It had to be the one responsible for the catastrophy. Before thinking too much she reached out and touched the statue, expecting an ice cold stone, but instead was met with warmth, sense of dread and what seemed like an irregular pulse. Surprise and terror made her pull back the hand and examine it throughoughly. The outer layer,of skin on her finger was gone, however, she felt no pain, as if her body couldn't comprehend ehat happened. After a while Sou looked again at the statue and froze, as it was looking directly at her, freed from its position it had been locked in for a thousand years. It moved more like a newborn animal than human turned lich, shuddering sporadically, at one moment moving in an instant from one place like a bug, at other moment normally walking on four, three, one limb, as if figuring out how to operate its body. The surge of life energy that came from Sou Mei's fingers was enough to break the stagnation of petrification that held the beast immobile for such a long time, as it absorbed the anti-petrification spell Sou casted on herself before. It directed its eyes on its saviour and the only thing it saw was a vessel full of life energy, a perfect target to be its first prey. It lashed out, quick as wind, and only the Sister's reflexes saved her from being ripped in half. She left her shattered mask behind and started running, the monster following her steps like a shadow. It ran straight through walls she could erect from stone, unfazed by anti-evil, anti-demon and anti-everything wards and amulets she left behind. She lost her sense of time, awareness of space, and nearly even her sanity, as she was running through the catacombs, chased by the creature. Eventually she ran into a one-way alley, and locked off, saw the lich approach her slowly and leap in the air. In the last thought she cast the first spell she could think of - the most basic Charm, so simple yet so powerful on humans. She knew nothing about this monster, but it was her only and last line of defence, her last hope. She closed her eyes, awaiting death. The clawed, skeletal hand stopped a mere inch from her throat. She looked at it, standing on two legs, helplessly pummeling air in front od her, so apparent it was it wanted to kill her - but it couldn't. The spell burrowed itself deep into the structure of the monster, causing it to feel what it has not felt for a very long time. Both hunter and the prey collapsed on the cold stone floor of the catacombs.
One day of pointless wandering around the catacombs had passed before Sou Mei finally found the exit. The nightmare was following her every step, like an accursed shadow. The shining light of sun enveloped her and it, the latter letting out shriek of agony that caused members of an expedition to raise their staves in high alert. The monster rushed at them and before she could react, her friends and companions, all of them powerful sorceresses, were reduced to chunks of flesh, broken bone and wood, ripped cloth and blood along with other bodily fluids splattered over what used to be their camp. She cried out in despair, realizing that it was she who had brought doom to them.