Rhodrica Vrech Madoc an adolescent verging on young womanhood with a big name... In those long ago days..when Aurion was a mortal her family had served this man who would one day be a god. A member of the family since that long ago day, always sent a son into the ranks to become a paladin and serve the royal family that were descendents of Aurion. The family..minor nobility so lived the unremarkable and staid existence from generation to generation...until Rhodrica came along and several familar precedents were broken, through no fault of her own, moving the family out of their very very comfortable, overinflated view of themselves and the world.
What happened you might ask?... Well first of all Rhodrica alas was the ONLY child born to her parents. Much to the very great disappointment of her father.. there was no male heir forthcoming, and he never failed to make that disappointment clear to Rhoddy..Both Mother and Father..were calm, even cold, staid folk who had somehow begotten an imaginative, emotional, impulsive child so unlike themselves. She much preferred running about playing in the streets where her natural leadership abilities found a fun if unproductive outlet. It was at that time she took for herself the name Purple Moon or Purple if you will, only giving her birth name as an utterly last restort. If a prank had been played or mischief done one and all knew where to look...always.. for Rhodrica and her gang were always to be found at the root of it.
And so life went on until one fine day as Rhoddy entered adolescence and puberty set in, at which point another VERY VERY awful, to her parents thinking, phenomena exerted itself *deep sigh*. Rhoddy became subject to surges of wild, uncontrolled magics...uncontrolled for the most part that is, especially when she became excited or overly upset, which alas was her natural state of being most of the time.
Ever ready to find a "fun" outlet for these new abilities she and her group set up what to them was a harmless prank...much as childern today would toilet paper a house. This involved a grease spell..some not inconsiderable amount of webbing from yet another fun spell she knew and the store of a cranky shop owner. Well to make a long story short.. that was the last straw. The twelve year old was summarily grounded until she could be sent..as far away as possible to what would be today called a military academy.. a paladin training school of Aurion. Her father called in every favor, and pulled every string available to him to get the child enrolled. Luckily for him, he had had a long and distinguished career.
The ordered, disciplined life would have been the undoing of Purple or the schoolmasters, hard to tell which, but for one thing. The idealism and very very good heart of Purple. Exposed to the teachings and code of paladins of Aurion. Her imagination caught fire and that emotional intensity found outlet in the saying..."and evil shall..never triumph". Ohh how she spent day after day daydreaming of the time when she would smite evil and slay dragons...Well reality and fantasy oft are at logger heads with each other. That impulsive idealism often ment a child apt to jump in where wiser (and more disciplined) folk ought not to tread. In other words..following orders and instructions.."was a problem". Still none doubted her heart was in the right place. In all martial studies she excelled whether it be learning a weapon or strategy. Books, lectures, and libraries were to be avoided at all cost and her academics was mediocre at best. Then there was also that not inconsiderable problem of that magical side of her. That part of her was still not under total control and magic was frowned upon by those noble teachers of hers, who viwed anything not a gift from Aurion with suspicion. Laying of hands was heartily approved of but not..alas.. a sleep spell, especially when said spell was apt to just erupt at the most inconvient of times.
As graduation day approached the outcome..of her future was still very much in doubt..with all factors weighing in, it was not at all certain they would grant paladinhood to the girl..no matter how good her heart or how well she did at military tatics and weaponry. Her fate seemed sealed when.. as they practiced for graduation she got to horsing around with some of the others and let off ..accidentally, a sleep spell putting her instructor sound asleep for the rest of the day. Summoned to the CO's office she was roundly chewed out and told she was not fit to serve. At that news the child's heart broke and in despair she was sent back to quarters and ordered to stay there. Purple..tears in her eyes stood gazing into the starlit night. Without thinking she climbed to the top of the great tree that stood outside her window to better see the night sky. Her eye caught one particularly bright star and her eyes widened as it continued to grow in brillance filling her vision. From the glow stepped a shimmering figure..that surely was the epitome or ideal of any paladin. The man smiled sweetly at her and gently lay a hand on her tear stained cheek..brushing them away. "Rhodrica..Rhodrica..", he softly said. "Your family child has served me time out of mind child. And of them all you shall serve me best and foremost. You will come to understand that what to you is a handicapp and defecit is instead a wonderful gift with which to serve ME, for you were born outside the weave and fabric of existence and time. Child, tis not easy to be born outside the weave tis true, I of foremost of all know this!" And laying his hand as if in benediction on the crown of her head, Rhodrica felt for the first time, a sense of profound love,peace, bliss, and a sense of belonging such as she never had in all her life. "Yes you will oft feel lonely and alone...your path uncertain and unclear, for it is a path rarely trod and the way oft not clear. But know this my child and champion.. you are never alone.. for I AM ALWAYS with you..and inside you", and tocuhing her heart he said, "and you are never alone.. I abide in you and you child abide in me.. and we are NOT seperate."
As Aurion began to fade away Rhodrica reached out to grab hold of him, only to lose her balance and fall crashing to the ground unconscious. The noise brought people running. They pulled up short at sight of the unconscious girl who exuded from her body a golden glow that was fading, the visible effect of her encounter with the god. Well...when all was said and done Rhodrica DID graduate with her class, a long way from their ideal student.. bottom of the class it is true, but she did graduation a full paladin. Why?.. Well you see there was the matter of that glow so many had seen before it faded and the fact that she when she woke she unmistakeably and unfailing time after time exhibited the gifts of the paladin that can only come from the paladin's god. Finally there was the undisputable miracle of the fall from a very very great height that she survived without so much as a bruise or small cut.
After the visit from Aurion Rhodrica's life was forever changed as such things always tend to do. From that day forward.. she came to posses and inner certainty and confidence she'd never before had. Ohh it would be a long long time before the phrase "I didn't mean to" didn't automatically spring from her lips, to be sure, but no longer would she be ashamed of who and what she was. And never ever was she to feel as if she walked blind and alone down a dark path..knowing that the hand of her beloved god was on her.