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As if they felt the
need to hide from the encroaching footsteps of the foreigners,
a tribe of people secluded themselves in a small village nestled
deep within the mountain valleys. The tribe honored the Wind Deity
and lived as one with nature.
Talim was born during this era into a
family of shamans. She was raised as the Last Priestess of the
Wind during a time when western influences grew stronger, and
faith in the Wind Deity gradually waned.
One day, Talim was reading the winds,
just as she had done since she was a young child. That day, however,
something about the winds felt odd. Unlike the normal, soft whispers
of the winds mixed with murmurs of distant cities, the winds were
tainted with an evil aura that seemed to devour everything in
its path. The screams, hopelessness, and madness of faraway places
carried by the evil aura surged into Talim before she realized
what was happening.
This occurred on the day the Evil Seed
spread across the world.
Talim crumpled to the ground and lost
consciousness for days. The people of her village were on the
verge of losing all hope when she finally awoke. Talim's eyes
were filled with deep sorrow, and she cried without knowing why.
By Talim's fifteenth year, it was common
to see western merchants and explorers in her once secluded village.
One day, a westerner brought a "vitality charm" to the
village. The elders expressed concern when they saw the unusual
metal fragment. They sensed that it did not belong in their village;
it belonged somewhere else. They also felt that its presence would
have an evil influence on those who came near it.
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