Silikko Warrie-Lochatlan

Silikko Warrie-Lochatlan is a member of House Lochatlan, a noble family in Anglunia.

Childhood
Silikko Warrie-Lochatlan was born in the town of Norstaeyya in the summer of 157 TE. Her mother was Mash Dardellan-Lochatlan, the daughter of the local onsyr, and her father was Warrie von Fyra-Tjugo, back then tilvindlayin Norst and a vindyi member. Due to some obscure circumstances Silikko was born as a kumiho, with both elven and snow-white fox ears and a large tail. The rumour was the one to blame was Warrie's unknown descent, as no one, including himself, knew where he had come from.

Most of the time Mash was busy in her study, and Silikko didn't even have a room of her own, so she had no other option but to live in Warrie's house, making a big couch upstairs her bedding. As a small child she indulged in playing with other children and her father, exploring the ebony woods behind the house and climbing trees to hide from her parents. Being a sturdy and witty girl, she would often find herself in a company of boys, and rather than toying with dolls like other girls she would prefer to spend a night in a hut of branches, away from home, making Warrie particularly worried. Such antics frequently got Silikko in jeopardy with her rather austere mother, who would punish her by making her stand in a corner for extensive amounts of time, thinking of how wrong her actions were. However, unfortunately for Mash, these punishments never made Silikko reconsider her behaviour.

When Silikko turned 5, she was forced to study by her mother. Although Mash never found enough time to teach her daughter herself, she hired a private tutor to teach her how to read and count, and would often come to her classes in order to check if Silikko was learning well. Yet no matter how despotic Mash could be at times, Silikko was not in the slightest degree interested in old books and she would sometimes run away into the woods to play, leaving her tutor hanging and causing a sway of righteous fury from her mother.

By the age of 8 Silikko resembled a street urchin more than a daughter of a prominent noble family. Through the efforts of her mother she learnt to speak and read pretty well, and became quite the eloquent little girl with a frivolous and gregarious attitude.

Silikko was later initiated into Arternaia in 167 TE. The ritual of conversion was performed by her mother, as the latter was one of the head priests of Arternaian faith. Although Silikko was hardly agitated for picking Belana, the goddess of wisdom and youth, as her patron, the night before the ritual she stole her father's hammer and then smuggled it into the temple under her clothes. In the last moment of conversion, standing in front of Mash in the temple of Klarien, she tossed away the book she was supposed to sacrifice and threw her father's hammer into the blue flames, gushing out a rapid prayer to Tollan. In that instant Mash was staggered, as was every visitor of the temple. Later on, Silikko was told off and punished for her actions, yet, nonetheless, she felt like she at last defended her stance.

Adolescence
In the summer of 173 TE, shortly after Silikko turned 16, she was admitted into Norstaeyyan Academy where she was supposed to study under the watchful eye of her mother, the principal, for 7 years. First years of her study proved to be very stressful for the young girl - all of her affairs in the academy were thoroughly supervised, and she was rarely allowed to rest at home. To say that her relationship with her mother was tense is to say nothing, as Mash was firmly determined that she would never let her act as arbitrarily as before. Starting with her very first day in academy, Silikko was escorted to her classes by hired guards, same way as she was escorted back home in the evening. A few times Warrie tried to intervene in defence of his daughter, but Mash would not budge.

A few years later, in the winter of 178 TE, on Mash's fortieth birthday, Silikko gave a way to the emotions that had piled up on her like a dead weight. After she was reprimanded by her mother in public during the celebration, she fled down stairs and called to memory every known curse to revile Mash in her mind. In her blind rage, she kicked a tall candlestick near the kitchen table. The candlestick toppled over and fell on the floor with a loud clank, startling Silikko, who then ran away, fearing that someone would notice the noise and go down stairs. Little did she know that the fire of this single candle would then grow stronger and spread throughout the house at short notice...

Silikko was hiding in the grove behind Peony Lane when a bunch of running and panicking people caught her attention. She followed them up the street as they hurried to her mother's house, a house engulfed in flames. She stood in the crowd, looking at the fire crew desperately trying to put out the fire with water from the nearby river. Only a few people managed to escape, but one thing was on the lips of everyone around - the birthday woman was still inside. Silikko was in a stupor as a couple of people emerged from the flames, carrying the badly burnt body of Mash away from the roaring fire consuming their family abode. As the stupor wore off, she ran off as quick and as far as possible, her past life, home and friends forfeit in the wake of her terrible mistake.

She left the town and fled to Saint's Port, where she hopped on a random ship sailing to the East. Hiding in the hold, she travelled to the lands far from home, driven by desperation and immeasurable sense of fault, to start a new life.

Thirteen years she spent overseas, wandering aimlessly around Eldham, taking on any job she could. A handyman, a petty thief, a thug, a mercenary - Silikko experienced all nuances of the lowermost end of life. This high fall from riches to rags really took a toll on her mind - once jolly and adventurous, she became a callous and bitter person. And she never forgot who she was and what she had done.

In the year 191 TE Silikko finally returned to her homeland carrying a big sword and a bag of money. No one recognised the lone cutthroat she'd become; she bore no crest, no name, only the faithful blade she named Ire, the last thing still true to her. She came to her old house - now rebuilt - to take a look at the place she once belonged. The jolly voices of children playing in the streets, wind, blowing in the crowns of the trees of the alleyway - nothing reached this abode of quiet and solitude. Whilst standing there, gazing at the house where the spent her childhood, Silikko suddenly felt like she was looked at. She turned around and met eye to eye with her father.

The family reunion wasn't as heart-warming as one could imagine. No one in the town knew for certain what happened on that night thirteen years ago, the versions differed - someone thought it was a group of bandits who kidnapped Silikko and set fire to her family house, someone thought a rival noble house was to blame. Only a few would have a hunch as to what actually happened, and one of them was Mash herself. Now bedridden, with no hope for ever walking again, she met her daughter in her bedroom. However, deep in her heart she forgave Silikko long ago, for her stubbornness, for her negligent actions, for running away. She knew that part of it was her fault that she neglected and abused her daughter her entire life. And so, without saying a word about the accident, she welcomed Silikko and offered her to return to the household, as her daughter and a Lochatlan.