Purchased in the slave markets of Chiaroscuro, Rakantirre was to become a gift to a high ranking Dynast in the Imperial City. He was to become a concubine slave, and as such, he was trained over the course of years in the basics of the courtly arts: Poetry, language, drama, music, and dance. And as befit a proper concubine, he was also trained as an assassin, for the finer points of political intrigue. His exotic looks and his education were certain to bring status to the recipient and favor to the woman who had overseen his training.
Over time, Rakantirre began to feel the pangs of ambition, but he saw no way out of the situation that he had been raised in. In his private moments, he would imagine himself escaping the life that he was being groomed for, even though these fantasies would collapse after a certain point when his ignorance of the outside world would creep in.
Eventually, the time came that he was to be taken to the Imperial City and presented to the Dynast as a gift. Dutifully, he packed his finest clothing and display weapons for the trip that would being him to his new life. He was to travel with a caravan of slaves and exotics that were to find their way to the Blessed Isle. In particular were treasures and animals brought from the Wilds of the South.
The ships were beset by storms on the way, and in the confusion, a notorious band of pirates struck, sinking two of the ships outright andforcing several onto the rocks near Yane. Rakantirre crawled from the wreckage of the ship, The Harsh Mistress, burning with ghostly fire of grey and white as he saw the pirates approaching overland. Despite what had been a crippling fear, he found himself coldly calculating the deaths of the men that stood before him. Calling on his years of training and the power thundering in his blood, he leapt into the fray, joined by the only other survivor of the wreck. At his side, a strange beast, resembling a black panther with pale grey tiger stripes, fought with a ferocity bourne of the same cold fire that guided his hand.
Scavenging a pair of swords from the raiders, Rakantirre (now calling himself the Shadow of the Bitter Moon) set out with his new companion,the dead night tiger, Flawless Whisper, in search of a better existence than destiny had previously had in mind. Returning to Chiaroscuro, he submerged himself in the underworld, usinghis courtly skills and those he picked up in short order to carve out aniche for himself as an assassin and criminal figure. It was in these months that he discovered a hidden shrine in a seemingly locked toweron the outskirts of town, where the effects of a hero from the previousage had been hidden.
