Karre

What is the soul? The seminal principle from the loins of destiny. This world is the womb: the body, its enveloping membrane: The bitterness of dissolution, dame Fortune's pangs of childbirth. What is death? To be born again, an angel of eternity.

Karre was once mortal. She was the only daughter of peasants who lived in a small village near the city of Eldrosune. They had a modest cottage and worked the land for sustenance and trade.

Karre grew to be one of the most beautiful women in her village. She also desired more than what her parents could give. Food and shelter were not enough. She sought physical pleasure, beautiful clothes and attention. She learned how to turn men’s mind to her binding and desires.

On a beautiful summer day, a cleric of Hro came to the village. He had seen the seductive beauty of Karre, through a vision from Hro. He wished to persuade her to become an initiate. His name was Blacklock.

Karre was entranced by the finery of the cleric. Her desire for power overcame any attachment to family and village. She left with him and never came back. She was 16 years of age.

They traveled south to the center of Hro’s power. There she was revered as one of the greatest and most decadent priestesses of Hro. She learned many arts including music, painting, and dance and she paid special attention to studying the carnal arts and methods of seduction.

One night after the evening services, Karre was practicing her lute, when a man appeared before her. He was obscured by flame. He announced himself as the god, Eldro. Karre, fearless in the face of a god that she had rejected, began to call on Hro’s protection.

“Do not fear me, Karre. I wish you no harm.”

He described his throne in the East and his power in Saros. “Hro is a young god with little real power. In his service you are rich, but as my wife, you would be a god.” Karre had no love for Eldro, but she thought of what she could achieve for the people of Saros. She would open their eyes and minds to pleasure and the possibilities of love. She accepted.

In short, Eldro paid dearly for deifying Karre. The Fires of Saros demanded another force be created to offset Karre's power, so they elevated Blacklock to a God as well. Blacklock was full of chaos. He was not interested in power. He had no sense of morals. Nothing mattered to Blacklock, so he spent his time making trouble for his own personal amusement. Eldro hated him.

Eldro’s lust for Karre did not allow him to see her truly. Karre had different values from Eldro. She sought pleasure from many men, women, and gods. She had no guilt or shame about this. It was who she was.

Eventually, Karre left the side of Eldro and returned to the South. She divinely inspired her clerics to build a great place of learning. The acolytes of Karre were trained extensively in the arts of seduction, sex, illusion, and the visual and performing arts. This was the birth of the Companion.

As a goddess, Karre consorted directly with Hro. However, she began drawing more and more of his faithful to her side, which made him very angry. In revenge, he sought out Eldro, the cause of Karre’s deification, to demand that his acolytes be returned to his service. But Eldro was hard to find…..