Born from an unknown woman during a war between two petty kingdoms, the young angel-born aasimar has no idea of how he truly came to be. Sidon had grown up among other orphans at the Inheritor’s Light orphanage, run by the Church of Iomedae in an adapted fort in Theldrakar, the newly unified kingdom, risen from the ashes of the River Kingdoms. He’d grow up as a dependable boy, always helping the novices and nuns running the place. He’d unfortunately never get adopted, as the realm was still recovering from the sequence of plagues and disasters which resulted from the early unification. There simply weren’t enough folk for all these children who’d lost their parents to the curse.
After the orphanage became victim to a bandit raid, one of Sidon’s friends, a novice named Akhar had died trying to defend him from a raider. From that point on, he’d invest all his free time practicing swordplay, to help defend his friends in case of another attack.
When the young aasimar became of age, he professed the wish to enlist as part of the guard instead of becoming part of the novices, as it was common for orphans who reached adulthood. The senior cleric however had another plan, seeing the sense of justice and goodness in Sidon, he’d passed a recommendation for him to become a paladin of Iomedae, and sent him to Absalon, where the Knightly Military Academy of Ozem resided.
Sidon spent years training in the Academy, and after ten long years, he was finally deemed ready to swear his oath as a Paladin. The oath ceremony involved making a pilgrimage back to his family, and swearing the oath to them as well. To Sidon his family was the orphanage, and thus he took the trip back to Theldrakar. After weeks of travel, he’d finally made it back to Inheritor’s Light.
However, his expectations of camaraderie and joy were dashed. He’d found his childhood home razed to rubble. Among the broken pieces of wall and furniture he’d only found skeletons. Sidon was devastated, it seemed like the attack happened years ago, and if only he was there to help with the defense. So many what-ifs filled his head that he did not see the wolf coming for him.
The hungry beast leaped from the ruins of the unsteady roof and hit Sidon in the face tearing a large gash near his right eye. The surprised aasimar was taken by surprise and lost his footing, falling to the floor, headfirst into a hard rock.
He was unconscious, he was dreaming. In the dream he’d see his friends in the orphanage, his companions in the academy, and finally himself, surrounded by monsters in a devastated land surrounded by corpses. He watched as this image of him fought the demons, and in a burst of light a group of strangers managed to clear the land of the creatures. He saw the blinding light, and saw only himself, shining like something unlike anything he’d ever seen. And in an instant it all came to black again. He was alone in the dark of his vision, and then in a blink of an eye he was seated in a wooden table, a familiar face looking at him. It was Akhar the novice, a friend from long ago. His face was slowly morphing to one of a wolf, as the vision faded.
Sidon woke up, his leg crushed by a piece of rubble that had fallen from the roof. He’d never be able to leave like this, but from behind the large rock, he’d heard a mild howling, and realized it was the wolf. But this time he looked different. Somehow he knew that this wolf housed the soul of his friend Akhar. Both of them pulled on the rock until a divine wave of strength overcame his body and with this power along with the lupine Akhar, both were finally able to push away the rubble out of the way, revealing his legs, crushed.
The pain was unbearable, but amidst the screaming, Akhar took Sidon’s hand with his mouth, and placed it over the wounds. A warm holy light emitted from the palm of his hand, and after a few minutes his leg was cured, although a bit weak and crooked. He got up, with the help of his lupine friend, and managed to walk, now with a limp, but still. He’d just healed himself, without any preparation as a paladin or cleric would. And there was also the mystery of the vision he’d seen.
Back in Theldrako, the capital, he consulted with the local clergyman, asking about the fallen orphanage, which had been destroyed more than eight years ago, and also about the vision he had along with his new powers. Apparently he’d been awakened to some sort of latent divine power, a phenomenon that dubbed him an oracle. Nobody knows the origin of these powers, or why they’re accompanied by things like prophetic visions, but the cleric told him that he believed that this all was happening for a reason, and that he would be able to get answers at the Worldwound, and directed him to Kenabres.
And thus Sidon and Akhar had departed towards the capital of the crusade.