» Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:49 pm
Two hundred years ago, the Dark Brotherhood made a mistake in their assumption that the entire Draconis bloodline had been exterminated. The assassin they sent failed to eliminate the son of Andreas Draconis.
Andreas had very little company at his tavern, The Drunken Dragon, save the single alcoholic guard who never seemed to leave. One night, however, a young woman by the name of Avita Florius, was passing through from Leyawiin, traveling north, and decided to stop in at The Drunken Dragon for the night. Avita and Andreas drank heavily, and somehow Andreas charmed her into his bed for the night. The following day she continued on her travels. She settled in Cheydinhal and gave birth to Giaus.
Avita was killed by a Dunmer robber in her home a year after Giaus was born, just as she had finished preparing to return south and announce the child to his father, Andreas, whom she didn't realize was already dead. Giaus, who then took his mother's maiden name of Florius, was remanded to the state, and taken in at an orphanage. He grew up on the streets of Cheydinhal, running with Dunmer gangs, and was often in trouble with the law. He married a drunken bar wench, and had two children. It was at this point he and his wife decided to turn their lives around and left the city with his wife and kids to start a farm, the beginnings of which was difficult on his family. His daughter Rena was killed by wolves at the age of twelve, and his wife died of rock joint which she had contracted while attempting to save her daughter. Giaus and his son Denel were left to work the farm together, and managed to prosper somewhat before Giaus died and Denel took over.
Denel married and raised three healthy children; two sons, Jesan and Sulinus, and a daughter Camilla. The blooming family, still with the name of Florius resided at a growing farmstead near Lake Poppad. Denel's eldest son, Jesan, grew to manage a branch of the farm and subsequently raised two children of his own, Bellona and Ciaus. His brother, Sulinus had returned to Cheydinhal to open a store, but married later in life, and his wife had just given birth to a son. Unfortunately, the newborn wouldn't live to see his first year.
Denel, now retired, had been digging into his family's heritage, and had received paperwork from the Imperial City regarding his father's arrival at the orphanage in Cheydinhal. His research ultimately led him to discover his true Draconis bloodline. His requests for records, however, also drew the attention of an agent for the Dark Brotherhood in the Imperial City who was alerted to the resurfacing of the Draconis name, and followed up on who had been making requests for information. In order to avoid embarrassment for their failure, the Dark Brotherhood immediately set out to finish the job.
Sulinus' wife had brought the newborn to the family farm for a visit when the Dark Brotherhood arrived. Bellona and Ciaus were playing at the lake, only to return after the deed had been completed, and the assassins had left the scene. Seeing their family slain, they fled to Cheydinhal to find their uncle. When they arrived, they found the store locked. Bellona knew the secret hiding place her uncle stored a spare key, and entered through the back where she found Sulinus face down in a pool of blood.
Already in her late teens when the slaughter of her family occurred, Bellona was a powerful young woman, and had often watched the guards training in Cheydinhal with sword and shield. She became focused on finding justice for her family. Having discovered her grandfather's research, she and young Ciaus found the gravestones of the Draconis family, originally thought to have been exterminated two hundred years earlier. While her brother was still only 10 years of age, they agreed that they would separate, and that, like her great-grandfather, Ciaus should disappear under a new name. He left her at the gates of the Imperial City and walked to the temple district where he begged under a new name for several days before he was taken in and given over to an orphanage.
Bellona dodged the Dark Brotherhood for another fifteen years, and finally managed to find a brief bit of refuge in northern town of Bruma, near the border to Skyrim. While she spent those years drawing the attention of the assassins, Ciaus grew in secrecy and safety, and over the years she had managed to learn some basic skills with a shield, and after numerous assassination attempts had picked up skills in restoration magic.
In Bruma, another assassin managed to get her pinned and cut a deep gash in her left cheek. She escaped his grasp, and caved in his head with an old iron mace. At this point she decided to attempt to flee over the pass, and into Skryim. She arrived at the border with little more than ragged clothes and that bloodied, old, iron mace where she stumbled into some sort of ambush and was taken into custody by Imperial Legionnaires, mistaken for a bandit or some sort of Nord rebel.
As her own people lowered her onto a block, she was dazed, tired, and hungry. Her emotions ran deep with rage for the loss of her family, and she resigned to understand the justice as she stared up at the hooded executioner.