Vesk'ra was laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the soft breathing of the girl sleeping next to him and letting it lull him to sleep when a thought entered his head.
What has my life been?
Even by the standards of his own species, the Dragonborn, his time on this planet had been far from normal.
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He was born in the small, isolated village of Esclaw, a village of all Dragonborn who believed that their bloodlines were either tied to or blessed by the god Est'Ktha the Usurper, a formerly mortal Dragonborn wizard who became the god of all magic. As such, the entire town took worship of this deity as simply part of their life, and dedicated themselves to it fully.
Worship of Est'Ktha was widespread in the material world despite the realm he ruled over: The Abyss. This was likely due to how he became a god, but that's a story for another time. While Est was popular for a deity, it was here in Esclaw where his worship was strongest… though perhaps that was because this village wasnt in the normal world, but in fact, in the Abyss itself.
The Abyss was one of the Outer Planes, a series of essentially alternate dimensions that housed the seats of power of the various gods of the world. They are usually depicted in a ring surrounding the Elemental Planes, which in turn surround the Material Plane (generally seen as the real world) and its two sister planes, Shadowfell and the Feywild. The Abyss lay at the bottom of the ring, and was often associated with demons and other quite nasty critters.
Originally, the Abyss was ruled by a deity known as Kcrad the Deep One, often referred to as the king of demons. Kcrad had intended to invade the other planes of existence, including the Material Plane, using a massive army of demons and control the multiverse. However, reality itself conspired against him. On one of the many worlds of the Material Plane, Est'Ktha grew to be an adventuring mage of immense power, gathering a team of adventurers to find the worlds many sources of magic and investigate them. However, due to some magical mishaps that may have been something akin to divine intervention, he and his team were flung into a multiversal conflict.
After a journey through Mount Celestasia, the very top of the ring of Outer Planes, to save a comrade, Est and his group turned to the Abyss, where a demon threatened another of his team. After defeating them, Est decided to conquer the Abyss itself on a whim. With reality itself on his side, he cast Kcrad into the unknown depths of the Abyss and destroyed his seat of power. With the energy of the Seth's destruction flowing into him, Est soon found himself a god, whether he wanted to be or not.
Soon, he created a new layer of the plane on which he found himself, and built a castle upon it. The layer became the new top layer of the Abyss, and Est'Ktha found himself with two new titles: The Usurper, and The Gatekeeper.
Esclaw was situated on this same top level of the Abyss, surprisingly far away from the castle of their lord. The top layer was one of the newest, and was the location of the seat of power of Est'Ktha. Unlike the rest of the layers of the Abyss, the top level was rather peaceful for the most part. It wasn't a particularly lush environment, but it had everything necessary to keep its inhabitants alive.
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When Vesk'ra was born with red scales, his parents rejoiced. Red Dragonborn were often seen as some of the strongest and most likely to succeed in life. Despite this, he spent most of his really early childhood with a weird sense of emptiness, as if something was missing.
That would change, however, on his tenth birthday, when Est'Ktha himself manifested in front of him and the entire village, declaring young Vesk as his avatar in the world, and granting the child his blessing. From that day forward, Vesk knew his purpose: to study magic, learn the nature of a certain deity's change in the pantheon of gods, and, after passing, return to his lord with all the knowledge he had gained.
Immediately, Vesk sought every magical tome in the village, absorbing all the knowledge he could. He began to experiment with his powers, both those he learned and those he discovered within himself. His magic flourished as the years passed, and soon he found himself praying to Est'Ktha almost out of instinct. This led to him creating a full connection between himself and his lord, as well as one with Est'Ktha's main companion, the angel known as Caerelius, who granted him powers not unlike those who forge pacts with demons or fey for magic.
However, his personal life soon grew complicated. Almost immediately after being claimed by his new lord, the entire town began to almost worship him. Adults treated him with as much respect as the elders of the village, who in turn brought him into their circle of clan leaders as, likely, the next leader of the village. Even the other children, his friends, and even those who didn't care for him, began to treat him as something more.
For the most part, he didn't particularly care about the change. He wanted to learn everything he could, and sitting in on meetings of the clan circle gave him much to think about. Furthermore, it meant he could basically do as he pleased in the village, and this led to him spending much of his time with his snout in at least one book, sometimes multiple.
However, there were a few people whose change in attitude truly rattled him. His parents, his siblings, and his childhood friend Ki'Reina. Being the eldest child, his siblings always looked up to him somewhat, but now they seemed to almost worship the ground he walked on. His parents had always thought him special, but now they treated him as the head of the household, despite him having no idea how to run it. He could pass it off back to them, telling them he had no wish to take over for them just yet, but it didn't stop him from always feeling slightly out of place.
Ki'Reina had possibly the most jarring change, however. The little silver Dragonborn girl was born just a day after him, and had always treated him almost like her own brother, as she had no siblings of her own. She was rowdy and a tad arrogant, but fun, and always pushed Vesk to be better than he was. And, at first, she didn't change much. She stayed his tomboyish friend for some time, even going so far as to drag him out of his books when he would forget to eat, and Vesk was happy that someone still treated him normally. The fact it was Ki'Reina also helped.
After some time, though, even she began to change how she treated him. Whether it was her father, the elders, or simply the situation truly sorting itself out in her head, she began to worship him like everyone else.
Weirdest of all was his eighteenth birthday, when, after the party celebrating his rise to adulthood, Ki'Reina offered herself as his personal servant, and, if he so desired, concubine. Understandably, seeing this usually playful and tough girl kneeling before him so seriously was disorienting.
Between the pressure of his position, the gradual feeling of displacement, and the weirdness of everyone he knew changing how they treated him, Vesk'ra was beginning to need out of it all. Luckily for him, it seemed like Est'Ktha agreed.
A few days after Vesk's birthday, Est visited him in his dreams. "Travel to the Divided Lands. It is there you will find the answer to your questions and problems." And with that, upon awakening, he found there was a portal in his room.