A Character Background Because I couldn't think of something to do

The Bedrallsons were a prosperous family that had risen through the ranks of servitude and finally gained a small place of power with the minor nobles of the land of Malenbruk. Adoulfus and Emilia Bedrallson had a son quite early in their marriage and named him Cedrall. Cedrall had all the advantages of his parents. He attended the proper schools and was educated to follow in the ambitions of his noble line. Cedrall excelled in school and life soon finding himself in a potion of power as his parents failing health lead to them being in a carriage accident.

Cedrall took the reigns of the family and took the hand of the Claudia Daltannis as his wife. Their wedding feast lasted for nearly a month and it finally ended when a guest finally realized they was no more food or drink to be consumed and the feast ended.
The marriage was far more lasting then the feast. They were often seen hand in hand walking the green estate or in the various rooms of the house sharing a private joke. All things were rather like a story and both Cedrall and Claudia had found true happiness.

More then a year passed and the couple could not have been happier with each other. Cedrall had made a journey to the city of Urwal to find a gift for his bride. Losing his way in the city Cedrall soon lost his life as well. He was stabbed my miscreants that had taken his money and left his body to collect with the garbage in the back alley. For 3 days the body of Cedrall Bedrallson lay with the garbage and then as the church bells rang out midnight Cedrall stood up. He dusted off his wool coat and found his hat among the waste and tried to find a ride home. All the people on the way gasped at the blood stain and offered help. Cedrall felt better then he had ever before and saw no reason to accept their offers of charity. He found himself walking the road back to the manor house. The wolves were out that night but only gazed at Cedrall being not hungry enough to attack him.

He arrived home as the morning sun was warming the fields and immediately prepared a bath and tried to forget the last few miserable days. Then as he shaved and prepared his clothes he noticed the greying wound that had been placed in his back. The flesh around it was moving from a dark grey to a white and the wound seemed to need attention. He called a doctor and had it investigated. The doctor looked at the wound and check the vital signs of Cedrall. The doctor began more and more confused. No means of medicine and magic could give him the answer to this problem. Cedrall was dead but seemed to be completely unaware of it. Outside of room the doctor inform Claudia of this. Peering back into the room and seeing her husband sitting upright she could not believe what the doctor said.
Still she had seen the wound and could not account for the days that Cedrall was missing. The idea that he was dead seemed completely false. The doctor could offer no other explanation but Cedrall seemed alive even if he was not.

In the weeks that followed it became clear that Cedrall was not living. He began to have conversations with his dead relatives. The color slowly left his body. His joints became very stiff and the smell of death seemed to come from him. Claudia tried her best to ignore it but the truth was always there in the milky depths of Cedrall's eyes it was clear that he was dead. Then the night came when even the darkness did not shield the people from the fact he was dead.
While the manor slept Cedrall was speaking with the spirit of a long dead aunt. She had spent the last several days teaching him the ways to use magic in his new body. For Cedrall the strange ritual seemed to make more sense and finally he had done it. In the darkened room Cedrall called for a bright light. This success caused him to race through the house and inform all the occupants, living and dead, of his success.

There had been far too much burdened on Misses Bedrallson. Now her husband was experimenting with a trade that he had no practicle experience with. Claudia gathered her things and prepared to leave. She did not want to make a scene of things and decided to leave at night when no one would tell Cedrall of her leaving. She prepared a horse and raced down the road toward a friends house. Claudia mistook a path into the woods for the path she needed to find and soon found herself in the middle of the forest. She became increasingly lost and the sounds of animals seemed to be closer then ever before.

Cedrall was awoke that morning to find the servants talking about how the Lady of the House had left. Cedrall asked a spirit if it had seen her and the spirit told him that Claudia had gone into the woods. Cedrall gathered a group of servants and prepared to set out. They found the body of her and her horse most eaten by the animals of the woods. Her body was carried back and prepared for burial.
Still Cedrall could not say good bye. They had made a vow to each other that they would be together always. He could not let her die and taking her body to a hidden room Cedrall prepared to raise her from the dead. A feat that would take him years.

Cedrall would never succeed in raising his wife from the dead. Each day her body got worse and worse and it took him more energy just to keep her from decomposing. All the while the servants were leaving the manor and the estate was getting less and less care. Still Cedrall worked on animating his wife.

Until finally the land had become over grown and uncared for did Cedrall achieve some success. Although most of her body had become too decomposed to use Cedrall was able to give her arm some life. In the process her body was ruined and Cedrall gave up. He felt that he could still see part of her attached to the arm and even was able to attach it for short amounts of time. It was not the same but there was some comfort there. They were together and Cedrall began further experimentation. He learned more from his dead relatives and was able to gain some control over the magic. And in an unknown room he found things his ancestors had left behind. His great great Grandfather's sword. A monicle that granted heightened vision and a ring that projected an illusion of who you thought you were. Cedrall had discovered a family history that was forgotten.

Then after decades of ignoring the activities of the manor the citizens began to wonder what was occurring. A mob was formed and they proceeded to the manor. They found Cedrall in a room and while he tried to explain he had done nothing wrong they attacked and killed him. Taking his corpse and burying it in a distant part of the estate under the eyes of a few priests. The mob then destroyed the manor leaving a burnt out shell.

In a few days Cedrall woke up underground and decided to leave. Clawing his way to the surface he found his home destroyed but the items he had carefully hidden where still in good shape. Having no home Cedrall left and began wandering the lands. Occasionly he'd be buried, exorcized, or killed but since his corpse was more or less intact he was able to get back up and keep going.
"Why let dying get you down?" he once asked a man who was trying to kill him. For Cedrall death was only a small hurtle to get across, "There is still plenty of life out there but only a few people that can actually enjoy it."

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© Sal Ponce 2001