My name is Elizabeth Starbrand, and I am cursed. Long ago, during my first life I was an orphaned princess. I had a twin named Lilith and we both fought to end the tyrannical rule of the Dragons. In the end we succeeded, but I ended up dying. Unable to cope with my death, my twin sister did something forbidden and stupid. She pulled my soul from the afterlife and attempted to bind me to a new body. This angered the gods of order and death, as it was an affront against the natural world.
To punish us and to prevent Lilith from attempting the same act twice, the gods cursed me. While I do not know the specifics of the curse, I'm aware of its effects. Whenever I die I am reincarnated in a new world and retain my memories, personality and knowledge. The naive would say that this curse doesn't sound so bad and that it's a form of immortality. They do not realize that humans were never meant to live as long as I and through my many lives I harbor much pain, regret and bad memories. I consider staying sane during my many lives a feat in itself, though perhaps my sanity has already slipped?
I should mention there are a few constants to my reincarnation. I'm always born as a human, though occasionally I might have ancestry of other species. Thankfully I am always born a girl and the beauty I had in my first life seems to follow me. Lastly, I carry over the mana I had between lives. In fact, each time I reincarnate my reserves of mana, the magical energy used to cast spells and create magical effects seems to grow.
At first the ability to pass mana on to my next life was a blessing. I became able to cast obscenely powerful spells, beyond what I had the capacity for in my first life. Though I would eventually find such a thing was a double edged sword. You see the body of an adorable newborn isn't meant to hold an extraordinary amount of mana. Humans are generally born with low amounts, these reserves then increase through age and temperance. Starting with a large amount of mana meant my new body was incapable of handling it. This was a type of 'Mana Sickness'. The symptoms of this condition manifested with harsh fevers that left me weakened and each childhood it was getting worse. Eventually it got to the point that the fevers were killing me, at an alarmingly fast rate. I grew fearful that eventually I might reincarnate and die as a stillborn. The idea terrified me and so I looked for a solution to my problem. I began to expel magic from my body after being born. I first tried casting a spell shortly after birth, to rid myself of extra mana and although it worked, I found out being a miracle baby was a hard life. So I switched to using more passive magical abilities, to slowly syphon off the mana.
For a time this technique worked and although my childhood was still filled with fevers that left me with a weak body, I stopped dying from them, at least for a time. Eventually the problem began to come back, as my mana reserves kept snowballing to god-like proportions. I needed another solution and fast. That's when I discovered another technique. Right before I died I would expend as much mana as possible in order to reduce the amount that I would be reincarnated with. Sometimes I would even go out with a bang! Although I feel this is just another stop gap method in the end, it's kept me going on my path of reincarnation.
I should also mention another factor of my Mana Sickness is that if I use too much mana at one time, more than my body could handle, I would end up causing more fevers or even kill myself outright. This meant that even if I had god-like reserves of mana, I couldn't even make use of it. I could strengthen my body through life and access more of it, but a human lifespan is only so long, and a body only so strong.
So you might be wondering why I'm explaining all this to you dear reader? Maybe I'm just trying to give you context. Perhaps I'm trying to teach a lesson to not chase immortality or too much power. Or maybe I'm trying to garner an ounce of pity. I'll leave that for you to decide.
