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Araelin became a common name for male newborns, in the years after the Storm Wars. The heroic monk was quiet and soft-spoken, but he had a commanding presence on the battlefield that allowed him to turn broken and demoralized troops into calm and collected warriors. His charismatic smile, and his willingness to listen, garnered the hearts and hearths of the frightened Karatikans during the war. He himself rarely engaged in battle, instead always directing and guiding the fighting with the distanced eye of a general. When the battle would turn for the worse, though, he was unafraid to join in the combat, and proved more than a match for any foe -- until the Battle of Korundim.
The Nathelian hordes were traditional troops, with conscripted soldiers making up the mainstay of the army. It relied on food and supplies from the rear, and the army never marched faster than its supply train could keep up. The hordes had several quite intelligent and capable generals, hand picked by Nathel for the task. One of those generals moved his army into the coastal city-state of Korundim, sacking it and then occupying it. His supply train and its heavy escort caught up with army there, and then the general had the leisure of awaiting resupply from the Nor Sea. Once his army had rested, General Tsvarichov intended to sail north quite a bit, and land behind the Karatikan armies that were still retreating before the onslaught of the hordes. Araelin had very little information to go upon, but somehow sensed General Tsvarichov's intents -- although some believe divine intervention was involved. Araelin was a monk that studied under both Mikindim and Rahne, however, and could sift through the massive numbers of scrolls brought to him on a daily basis with a certain ease. Araelin decided that a quick, hard strike against Korundim would throw General Tsvarichov off guard, and delay his army long enough to allow the Karatikan front to withdraw safely out of range. The army that Araelin would lead would be on a suicide mission whose only intent was to save the rest of the Karatikan armies. After a year of retreats and withdrawals, Araelin's troops were more than ready to take the war on the offensive. Due to the monk's leadership and grasp of war, plus some surprising reconnaisance by a wizard's familiar, Araelin's army was like a hammer striking a soft ingot against the anvil of the sea. General Tsvarichov had grown complacent, expecting the Karatikans to withdraw continually, and wrote them off as cowards. As his army crumbled in the urban fighting that went on around him, Nathel sent one of his archons to eviscerate Tsvarichov for his complacency. Perhaps by luck, or again by divine intervention, Araelin and his elite guard broke into the General's headquarters just as the archon, Revombrin, appeared in a flurry of smoke and brimstone. A fierce fight broke out, with the archon pitted against both the monk's guard and the General's guard, and both guards against one another inside the compound once occupied by the king of Korundim. Revombrin fought briefly with Araelin, wounding the monk terribly. Forced to defeat the epitomy of evil that was before him at all costs, the monk forsake his holy vows never to draw blood; pulling his eating dagger, he shattered the main wing bones of Revombrin, before being knocked out of a window by the enraged archon. Revombrin went on to slay General Tsvarichov, and then depart through powerful prayers. Araelin recovered, though slowly, and was allowed to retake his holy vows by the Disciple of Rahne Thulmor Dameer. Tsvarichov's army held Korundim, as the General's leftenant took control and deftly turned the tide of battle. Araelin's delaying tactic succeeded, and his army withdrew after losing only two-thirds of the warriors. The Karatikan front held, and would rally later in the year to take back land from the Nathelian hordes. Sheathed in the blood and bone fragments of an archon, Araelin's dagger was considered holy by his followers. He gladly gave it up to the priests under him, and forgot about it in the ensuing years of battle. During the Inquisition that would follow after Araelin's death, the true powers of his dagger were unveiled. Though it appeared as an ordinary eating utensil of steel, it glowed with a powerful aura of deitific magic when detect magic was cast upon it. The blade had merely to prick those denizens of evil to make them writhe in agony. Against priests who professed to evil, the blade did even greater damage. As the centuries of the Inquisition wore on, Araelin's Blade became a holy artifact for the Church of Rahne, allowing them to test the purity of their priests, and their elite followers. Araelin's Blade acts as a dagger of wounding against anyone of evil alignment, no matter how light the scratch is from the blade's edge. The blade deals double wound damage against priests of evil alignment -- perhaps in rememberance of the archon Revombrin. In the hands of a good priest or paladin, the blade acts as a longtooth of wounding +2, inflicting damage as a shortsword, and wounding those of evil alignment for two Hit Points each round after the first, for up to ten melee rounds (one turn). Again, it deals double wound damage against evil priests. For example, a specialty priest of Rahne wielding Araelin's Blade would deal 1d6+2 points of damage to an orc, and 1d6+4 points of damage to an orc shaman. On the succeeding round, even if the priest does not strike the orc or the shaman, the blade deals an additional 2 points of damage to the orc, and another 4 to the shaman -- and would continue to wound them for nine more melee rounds. In the hands of any non-priest character, the blade would only have dealt 1d4+1 points to the orc, and 1d4+2 points to the shaman. Any evil person touching the blade is assumed to have been struck, and begins taking wound damage automatically.
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