Joan The Luminant

For as long as there have been mortals in Kaerok, Joan the Luminant has protected and guided them. She loved the land even before mortals were created, before it was called Kaerok, bathing in the crystalline rivers, climbing the rolling hills, and exploring its lush forests. Joan reveled in the world created by Lumaya and Siroth and was devoted to her gods. When the Shadow God turned on the Goddess of Light, Joan wept. She hurried to be with Lumaya and fought every day of the Great Divorce, a radiant beacon of purity and goodness upon the battlements, fighting often beside Lady Noelle and Sir Nicholas. Wherever she and her luminescent blades went, Firstborn of Lumaya felt their weary muscles strengthen and their exhausted minds restored. In all the days of that hideous battle of Firstborn against Firstborn, one defined by agony and misery on both sides, Joan never once felt hatred for Siroth and his followers. To her the whole event was a terrible tragedy, a waste of what had been and what could be. When Lumaya and the Arbiter cast the banishment spell, Joan and all the other Firstborn followers of Lumaya were cast into the Halls of Eternity. Separated from her beloved Teleria and Kaerok, Joan railed against what she saw as imprisonment. She felt numb and distant from everything and everyone, her enthusiasm for life drained away. The Halls were stale to her, colorless and bland. Many years later, the Arbiter, who had not been banished to the Halls of Eternity, opened a portal to them from Teleria. She said she needed the Firstborn to return to Teleria to thwart the machinations and armies of Siroth. Joan was among the first to volunteer, joined by Lady Noelle and Sir Nicholas. Joan was soon back in Anhelt, breathing in its air, feeling its breeze over her face, hearing its birds sing, with a smile on her face. But she also smelled burning and heard the screams of the terrified and moans of the Undead. This was the Age of Hellfire, and the minions of Siroth raided and rampaged everywhere. Joan’s happiness to be back remained undimmed, however. There was just some work to do. Teleria’s state of affairs worsened before they improved. Demonspawn and Undead were rampant no matter how many were purged. Joan roved around Kaerok for two centuries, smiting Siroth’s minions, an angel of Light and beautiful symbol of hope to all she came across. She greeted every mortal soul she encountered with a warmth and kindness that reassured them all deep within their being. A single smile from Joan was enough to dry the tears of men and women whose whole families had been destroyed or whose farms had been reduced to Cinders. Before the Second Great War, there was a brief reprieve. No one in Teleria, least of all Joan, suspected that it was merely Siroth marshaling his scattered forces to prepare for an all-out assault upon the world. It was a war-weary Joan who took to the first battlefields of that conflict, one that raged for decades. During that time, she was never far from the front lines, a beacon of righteousness so pure of heart and spirit that even those soldiers of Teleria driven mad by the bloody sights and sounds of Anathraad were returned to sanity by her mere presence. She was a vision of beauty that brought tears to the eyes of hardened knights and stirred them to new heights of courage equally. They stared down the horrors of Anathraad time and time again by her side and shattered tides of the living dead. On these same battlefields Joan once again fought beside Lady Noelle and Sir Nicholas. The trio came to understand one another’s fighting techniques and powers to a new level, and bonds already forged strong on the walls of Lumaya’s fortress so long before were made greater still striking down Undead constructs made from the bodies of mortal comrades, and Demonspawn who butchered innocents in droves. Outside of battle, Joan was tireless in her efforts to help the common people. She spent hours visiting the wounded in makeshift hospitals, sitting with the dying, praying with the fearful and hopeless, and offering gentle touches and warm smiles. She did the same with the many refugee camps that sprung up outside castles and cities. Wherever she walked, spirits were renewed and faith restored. Joan became synonymous with kindness, charity, and strength in the face of the enemy. Even some Demonspawn turned against their dark master upon her encouragement. Decades later, after the Second Great War had long been won, the Red Crusade began. Joan was the first Lightbringer to leave the Order, disgusted at what its Human masters were doing to the Orcs, Skinwalkers, Lizardmen, and Ogryn of Anhelt. She was so furious and upset that she decided to return to the Halls of Eternity. Deep within the Eternal Citadel, headquarters of the Sacred Order, was the portal back. But she did not go through. At the last second, she changed her mind. Joan could leave the Order, but not Teleria. If anything, she was needed more than ever, for the Sacred Order could no longer be relied upon. Joan faded into obscurity. Working beyond the Order’s sight and reach, she helped those fleeing its wrath into the mountains or to the Sorrowlakes, smiting pockets of Undead and Demonspawn if she found them all the while. Occasionally she is seen, a vision of sad beauty and purity recognized primarily as a protective spirit that wards away the shadows and the dark. But Joan’s memory lives on. To this day people all over Kaerok keep small shrines to her, which they keep out of sight of the Sacred Order’s representatives. Joan remains a popular name for newborn girls throughout the kingdom, whether peasant or high-born. She is loved, still. Her great deeds so many years ago were not in vain.