#wargammer au

[pallysuune]

Theater of Hearts

Prologue

Being the firstborn daughter of a noblewoman, Meliana had always known that she would be married off to some guy or another for the benefit of her family. Maybe, if the guy was really important, for the benefit of their planet. She’d never even imagined it would be something like this.

Humanity had spread beyond the bounds of Earth long ago, but there were still so many mysteries of the galaxy. When the strange aliens had first come from the darkness between the stars, humans had called them ‘elves’, harkening back to ancient stories and legends. They proclaimed themselves Aeldari. Meliana was still a child when they had first come into realspace from a realm of twisting passages and space they called the Webway. She was still a little girl when treaties had been signed and deals had been made.

She was still a little girl when the first human woman was given as a bride to the Aeldari, a way to unite their two people despite their differences, to entwine them with the intention of keeping peace for generations.

For all she had always known she would have an arranged marriage, she always assumed it would be with a human.

She was wrong.

This had suddenly become a lot bigger than she’d expected.

Among the elves, the Aeldari, there were a faction that they called the Rillietann. They were artists, priests, and warriors all rolled into one. Players who’s calling was to serve their Laughing God by performing the history of their race on stage, and defending their race and territory from monsters that came from the deepest darkness of space. They were a secretive group, always masked, equal parts jester and assassin. And they all had roles.

At the top of their hierarchy, but set apart was the one they called the Arbennian. This was a player who was the only one allowed to play the great enemy from their mythology. And because of that, there was a taboo about them. It seemed like superstition to the humans, but the Aeldar took it very seriously. This Arbennian was a solitary force, belonging to no troupe, but still held in the highest regard, feared and revered almost in equal measures. High Priest and one to embody all the worst parts of their mythology. Some even went so far as to say that speaking with one was bad luck.

Meli wouldn’t have figured that this was the sort of figure to get married.

She was wrong again.

She would never know the exact series of events that led to her being the one chosen to be married to one of these esteemed and maligned Solitaires, but it happened. She came of age and she was told that she would be married to one, connecting him and his kin to their planet, hopefully for everyone’s mutual benefit. She would be leaving the planet she had been raised on, where she had lived all her life, and be taken to some strange, otherworldly new home in their Webway, with her only tie back to humanity being the knight chosen from the world governor’s house.

All Meliana knew was that this was going to be a mess, and nothing she had done had prepared her for it.