Gadamir and Lissa

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Sir Gadamir the Trutheful lived a life that most would consider to be too structured. Every morning, the young paladin rose before dawn to exercise his already huge, muscular body, seeking to improve an already impressive physique as he sought to serve his goddess, Thenaia. He lived in her temple along with the other paladins and clerics that had relinquished their earthly possessions, content to serve his goddess in any way that he could. Another name he was known by was Sir Gadamir the Chaste, but behind his back he was also called Sir Gadamir the Celibate or the Thorough or the Predictable as his routine never varied. After rigorous exercises, disciplining both mind and body, he would eat and then enter the training area, preparing himself for the time when his goddess would call upon him to serve her in a more active role. His manner was rigidly formal at all times, keeping everyone at a distance so that he had formed no real friendships while he had been there, either inside the temple or outside of it in the town of Noraston.

The city was one of the larger ones on the continent, growing from a small fishing village to a thriving port city. Gadamir ventured outside of the temple only when he was sent on errands by the priests as he preferred the simple quiet life inside the temple.

He was content in his life, having conquered the rage of battle that would overcome him before he had been placed in the care of the church by his father and become a paladin, learning to control all of his emotions through meditation. He knew that only by adhering to his own rigid code would he be able to continue to be in control of his emotions, but those around him thought him to be emotionless and uncaring, not knowing that he feared his emotions. He took his inspiration from the cold marble columns in the main temple, standing strong and silent no matter what chaos occurred around them.

His life moved peacefully along, though the priests to which he would confess his sins were amazed at the small things he would consider a terrible transgression that required atonement. They knew that when he came in, the confession would be long and detailed, and, by most standards, not transgressions at all. But he upheld his code and his honor, living by his rigid standards.

When he was not training, he also studied the law in all its painstaking details, committing them to memory so that he would never cross the clearly drawn boundaries and transgress against his goddess in mundane earthly ways, either. He read everything in a slow, thorough way, then thought about the laws until they were set deep in his memory.

One morning he was called before the high priest of the temple, becoming thrilled when the high priest told him that Thenaia had a quest for him to fetch a package that had been left behind by a messenger. Filled with fervor for Thenaia and proud that he was chosen to complete a quest for her, he rushed to fill out the needed requisition forms to have a horse to ride and food to eat on his journey. His armor, a full set of plate-mail, and his weapon – a hammer, an unusual choice for a paladin – he already had. As he waited for his request to be filled, he polished his armor once again, determined to shine for his goddess as he fulfilled her quest.

When the request for supplies was filled, he rode out of town, seeking a caravan heading north along the dusty road that he could accompany until he reached the point where he was to strike westward to retrieve what belonged to his goddess.

Lissa strode down that same road many days to the north, not even aware that her appearance drew stares from those that passed by her. Her height and muscular physique made her tangled black hair, the threadbare dress that was the color of dried blood, and the shabby boots that she wore look even more wrong than normal, but her mind was elsewhere. Her father’s favorite racing camel had escaped, and though she had not been the one to lose the camel, she knew her father would blame her for it and walked down the road at a brisk pace to try and find the missing creature. She had no desire to suffer punishment at his hand, though she knew that this time, as well as many other times, she would receive punishment that she had not merited by any of her actions. Ignoring the pain in the backs of her knees as the fast walk aggravated the extensive scarring there, she continued to search for the missing camel that she had tracked to the road, determined to find it and take it home so that whatever punishment she received for not doing her chores on top of the camel getting lose, it would be less than if the camel was never returned.

She did catch up to the camel, at the moment that it was killed by laughing guards of the caravan that Sir Gadamir was accompanying on his way north on his quest.

“No!” she cried, rushing to where laughing guards struck the poor beast, and Sir Gadamir spurred his mount to intercept her and protect her. He watched her, noting that she was unusually tall for a woman, as she stood staring at the camel’s body, dismayed, before turning on the guards, saying, “That was my father’s favorite camel!”

As others from the caravan rushed to find out the cause of the disturbance, the guards just laughed at her, one of them saying, “Well, it may have been. Now it is supper.”