Winter 48th 503AV
Andelen Rosewood had just arrived home from the Place of Purging. Two people had ventured to the birthing center and two had returned. Yet someone was missing. The second companion to return was not the same Symenestra who had ventured from the home earlier that day.
This is the beginning of the story for Durvekral (or perhaps by his birth name, for Evandiel Rosewood.) Far before he could ever do anything interesting like write or speak or even walk, Evandiel's poorly planned development had begun.
First, some mention of Evandiel's father. Andelen had always been a simple man. Evidenced by his very profession, he was a simple chef working under Havier Avens at the Hunter's Gather. His professional ambitions were about as focused as his personal ones: he asked only for a good time and for the resources to put food on his plate. He fit the image too, he was a slightly underweight Symenestra male of average height. His hair was mostly black but with enough streaks of silver as to give him a prematurely aged appearance. His eyes were a darker, more dull and less luminescent shade of red.
It didn't take a whole lot to make Andelen happy but one thing that was absolutely essential was the love of his full-blooded Symenestran wife, Delia. Perhaps, Andelen was unique in this trait but Delia was his world.
Much to his irritation and his dread, Delia was an Estarian. She was fiercely dedicated to the purity of the Symenestra bloodline. She never knew her mother and she didn't expect to know her child, either. She didn't mind these losses so long as she knew that her's and her child's lives would not be hampered by the handicap of being a half-blood.
Andelen didn't realize it at first, but the loss of his wife had wrecked his mind. The sadness hit him immediately, but the consequence of losing her wouldn't set in for a few days. The obvious, visual grieving process passed quickly, within Andelen's mind, but he would truly live that grief until his dying breath.
He began to withdraw from the world. He grew to viscerally fear loss and let-down. He came to loathe hope and trust. Above all else, however, his greatest phobia was dependence. Dependence on luck, on others, on nature, on time...all of these things. They posed a greater risk than Andelen would ever again, be willing to take. Delia, the most important being whom he had ever known, the love of his life, the dearest creature to his heart...even she had left him. She chose, above him, some insubstantial concept of pure breeding. If she had abandoned him, if even she could be convinced to leave him, then why would anyone else warrant any trust? How, he reasoned, could he ever allow himself to be in a position of depending on anyone else?
And so Evandiel's role model had been conceived. Although warped in his emotional capacity, Andelen loved Evandiel. Afterall, there was left only one trace, in the world, of Delia and that was her son, Evandiel. Andelen did not have one urge in all of his mind, body or soul to harm Evandiel. Conversely, he wanted to perfect Evandiel. He wanted to protect him and raise him as a strong, successful Symenestra.
The first manifestation of his grief was Evandiel's new name. Never again, would Andelen get caught in the trap of relation and love. Similarly, he wanted to protect his son from such a pitfall. To this end, Andelen had changed both his and Evandiel's name. Instead of the family name of Rosewood, they would take the name 'Wormwood.' Instead of the graceful, alluring 'Evandiel,' the son of Andelen would now be known as the gutteral and harsh "Durvekral." Similarly, Andelen had taken the name of Urakrel.
The reason for the name change was to eliminate any chance of success with [and therefore any waste of time applied toward] The Harvest. Where most Symenestra choose elegant, sensual names as to lure potential surrogates, Urakrel would raise his child to spurn such wasted notions as reproduction or even social relationships. Afterall, what allegiance did his son owe to the Symenestra? Were these not just another group of possible beings to betray him? To abandon him and let him down, someday? Reproduction may have benefited the race, as a whole, but it would provide little-to-no benefit to Durvekral. Therefore, it was a waste of time and was not, according to Urekral, a duty to be taken seriously.
