The life of tieflings and kobolds has never been an easy ones. Discriminated against, trodden upon, mistreated practically from the day they are born, it is not unusual, though heartbreakingly cruel that it is, to find an infant of one of those races either deceased or weak, thrown upon midden piles or abandoned in the forests. But that was to change. At least a little.
A new village was starting to form. The alone, the abandoned, the lost, all gathered here. Tieflings, kobolds, and other beings that society seemed to think were "trash" were finding a place here. A home here, lives where they could be accepted, by each other if no one else. The rules were simple here. Cruelty simply due to one's species was forbidden. And each citizen had a voice. And in the center of town, a special orphanage, where children who were found abandoned, no matter how young or old, were brought to be raised and cared for. There was a reason the village was named New Hope. -- Tiefling
All that is needed to change the world is one pair of kind hands, -- Common Saying of the Unwanted.
Once upon a time, a pair of kind hands scooped an unwanted baby from a midden. The child that prospered from the care of those kind hands took up more abandoned children. Left in the woods to wander. Left on a midden heap with the garbage. Left on the streets to survive. The half-breeds, the Kobolds rejected from their nests or who had lost it all and gone half-mad for want of a pack. The monstrous who were left alone. Among them, the most unwanted of them all, the Tieflings.
For the first handful of decades, things were rough. Of course they were. The lost, abandoned, and forsaken banded together with what little they had, and eked out an existence as best they could. It was rough, but those who lived there did not expect anything less. They barely hoped for anything more.
They named the little village where nobody else wanted to go New Hope because that was the principle upon which it was founded. A new hope for those who had no hope at all. Those who were Adventurers banded together to oust the forces of chaos and destruction that previously infested the place. With, of course, a few side-quests to establish various truces.
Sure, New Hope was haunted, and the forests surrounding it were full of giant spiders, but they were friendly to the residents of New Hope, and that was the important part. It didn't take long for the giant spiders to realise that life was so much easier with the twolegs bringing them food and soon became as complacent as cows.
The finest in Spidersilk garments and other items come from New Hope, now. It was not that easy in the early days. New Hope kept itself guarded and cautious about trade for ages. Even overseen by the Matriarch Nique Wraithkin and some of the incoming Druids, it took much to convince Spidersilk out of the spiders.
As for the Ghosts, those not given peace by the abandoned village coming to life again were content to assist in the things they knew. Many a New Hope babe has cooed and gurgled at a horrifying phantasm over their crib, safe in the knowledge that it was guarding them from the other monsters in the night.
In New Hope, Bugbears gambolled with half-orcs who played with half-elves at hopscotch and all of them, every single one, was watched over by at least one Tiefling with a young Kobold hunting their tail.
The Kobolds dug, as Kobolds do, and found things. Not always shiny, but definitely of interest to the kinds of people who pay in gemstones. Matriarch Bull was the first to trade, with her Tiefling wife glaring over her shoulder at any merchant trying to run a ruse on them. They were a formidable pair.
One kind pair of hands became twenty. Twenty became two hundred. Two hundred became two thousand.
A village became a town. A town became a city. A city became a refuge. It was the place anyone went where they would never be rejected. It became the place for the people who were not of the accepted type. Elven metal masters, Orcish fine artificers, Dwarven air mages with a love for flight, and -of course- Tiefling clerics with a deep and powerful love for their deity.
Once a decade or so, give or take a year, the entire place gained a special, celebrated visitor. They came with students. They came with children. They came with rescues from a cruel world, learning to become another pair of kind hands with which to alter the world.
Wraithvine always preferred to check on the "grandkids". Even when they were no longer in the mortal world. Ze had come with a Kobold. Ze had arrived to say farewell to Nique during her last days. Ze had arrived even after there were none here who knew hir from hir adventures.
This time, Wraithvine came with a Kobold and a Bugbear child barely taller than the Kobold. The boy known as Rawr actually relaxed enough to wander alongside his protectors with his mouth agape, instead of lurking in the protection of their cloaks.
This is what kindness can build. With more than a little understanding on all sides, harmony could grow. Prejudice had no place in New Hope. This was where the new trainee had a choice to make.
There was plenty of welcome in New Hope. The trainee could stay there in safety and make a new life with a new family, or learn with Wraithvine how to be another pair of kind hands.
Almost all of them chose to continue wander with Wraithvine.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / grandfailure]
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