Humming a tune down the street, singing a well-known adventurers song in your head, or a poet in a tavern reciting prose... All of these are due to one being, Adrylin the Minstrel, the Patron of Bards, Minstrels, and Poets. Music, poetry, and literature are all around us, and thanks to him we can all enjoy the pleasures of a good song in our hearts. I raise my glass to the man, for if it weren't for him, I'd have no place in this world! -Garner Pronse, The Wandering Storyteller

The sharp intake of his last breath of air as a stiletto hits the jugular, the barely audible slice of a coin purse as one loses their days wages, the tumbling of a picked lock during the trespass... All of these are my doing.

I was once simply known as "The Minstrel," but that was before my dark past was uncovered, and my secret revealed to the world.

I'm forthcoming with the nature of my true arts now.

I am Adrylin the Dark, the God of Thieves

The God of Thieves Awakens I wasnt always like this Or was I? I dont think I ever took odd pleasure in seeing people lose everything they have; their wealth, possessions, and maybe even their lives. I was just The Minstrel, nothing else, that past was behind me along with my mortality.

That s where I thought wrong, I still clung to a small piece of my humanity, and it s there in my mind that He was able to glean that juicy bit of my past and use it to bring out what I truly am. A dark hearted thief.

It all happened while I was forming a symphony that was going to be the idea of a young man in Naran who would ve been the next great composer. A book entitled The True Life appeared in front of me and it was accompanied with a somewhat familiar voice: You should find this to be an interesting read, Minstrel.

I knew that tone; it was the Unmaker, Nixil. I reached out for the book, and it opened on its own, turning to various pages. At certain sections, the pages would stop, and I could read that this book contained every foul deed I had committed in my mortal life. You see, I wasnt just your average wandering minstrel That was just what I used as a cover for my thievery. While my sister Ariel would tell her stories and sing to the crowd, I would make my rounds slicing open coin purses, and stealing various trinkets from people too entertained to notice. Nixil knew this to be something I had tried to forget in my new life.

Why hide this, Adrylin? Embrace it. Theres much to be gained from such a past as a deity. Accept your history now and I can grant you power in which you never had before.

Power? Was I really about power? I ve never had a need for such a thing, have I? Nixil was a master of placing doubt, and he knew my thoughts. Accept my offer, Adrylin. Otherwise, people all over Entia will be reading pages from this book as they put their children to bed, and everyone will know every dirty little secret.

At that moment, the book vanished, for I had accepted His offer. The world need not know all of my past, just what I tell them. I am a thief, and I have done much to be ashamed of in my time. Once I accepted that fact, something changed within me. A part of me was ripped from my very being, the last shred of humanity that I held on to, the part that put me in this situation to begin with. This was His entire purpose, to rid me of that which still bound me to my mortal past, and with that, something filled its place A new feeling, a power Ive never felt, a twisted new way of thinking, this was His gift for my acceptance.

I was fine being a minor deity of the realm, I was The Minstrel, but now, now I truly am a God.

• An excerpt from the Journal of Adrylin