Here are the backstories of the characters narration by Ruck. I promise you all after this, I wont do this ever again. Anyway, lets begin.
Who Knows Where (Kid's Dream)
Seems the only thing the Calamity saved for Zulf was his smoking pipe. Poor Kid collapses after just one drag.
The past… Only good thing ever come out of the past, is history. Fair to say he's led a hard life, supposing what he says in his sleep ain't no lie. He never knew his old man, but he had his momma to take care of. Frail thing with pure white hair like his. Having his momma's hair did the Kid no favors while he was growing up, but he learned to hold his own out there. School ain't working out so the Kid signs up for a turn on the Rippling Walls. Make his momma some money. Thanks to folks like the Kid, the Walls kept Caelondia safe from whatever's out there. The elements, the Ura… you name it. Once the Kid done his time, he hurried on home. Turned out his momma's time was done too. The City had nothing for him. The money he'd been sending home was nowhere to be found neither. So what'd the Kid do? Why he went right on back to the Walls for another five years. In the history of Caelondia nobody's ever volunteered for a second shift on the Walls. Out there, Kid learned to fend for himself. Learned to build. Learned to break. In time the Kid earned good standing with the Marshalls. They trusted him to scout out farther than anybody. One night on one of his expeditions, the ground beneath him shuddered, cracked, and split apart. He saw nothing where the world used to be. The Calamity happened, just like that. All the Kid had to work with was his hammer and the clothes on his back. Through twisted streets he ran with nothing but the City Crest and an old stranger's voice to guide him. Well he finally arrived at Caelondia's vaunted safe haven. He and no one else. But then? All he got was more thankless work from a man who ain't even asked his name. Sure, I may be the one who dreamt up the Walls and the Bastion. But the Kid made them real. Not me. I'd like to say I'll never forget him, or what he's doing… what he's done. I surely would.
Who Knows Where (Singer's Dream)Kid arrives just in time to sample Zia's famous cooking. He wolfs down too much too fast, and it all goes to his head.
I've said a lot about the Kid but he ain't the only one wrapped up in all this. What's he thinking? Well let me see if I've got this straight. I only heard it once. Once there was a normal Ura girl. But she wasn't born in the Tazal Terminals like the rest of her people. She was from Caelondia. Her folks were orphaned in the war, taken in and raised inside the City, on condition they would never return to the Terminals. Ura refugees who came into the City had to stay for life. It was a way to reduce the risk of City secrets leaking out. Her mama passed away from birthing complications, leaving the girl trapped inside that City with no one but her father. Her father was sharper than a Brusher's pike so he got a job working for the City's Mancers. His daughter barely saw him. Her father told her nothing of her Ura heritage. He told her nothing of the Mancers. It's for your own good, he said. She took to studying the arts. Learned more through music than history books. Gained a knack for strings and songs. At first she tried to be like other girls. But her classmates spread word that her father was an Ura traitor selling out the City. One young man stood up for her, or so he led her to believe. He knew much of her heritage, and she grew fond of him. The young man convinced her to take him to her family den to meet her father. Spoke of how he wanted to meet a man from the Terminals. When the young man greeted her father in the Ura's native language, her father flew into a fit of rage, and threw them out. The young man never told her that the Ura's native language is not to be used by foreigners; to do so is a terrible insult. It was then that she decided to escape. The two of them could flee the City together, and go to the Tazal Terminals. They would hide inside a garbage bin until it got ingested by a Scumbag, then let him slosh on out of the City for disposal. Her plan almost succeeded. But the authorities were already there when that Scumbag sidled up to the City Walls. The young man had sent the authorities a tip. Told them her father was using her to sell secrets to the Tazal Terminals. She and her father were arrested for treason. But her father got a deal: Return to work for the Mancers, and she'd go free. Before they parted ways for the last time, her father whispered a desperate plea: Hurry home to the den and lock yourself in. She did as she was told. And deep down underground inside that den, she found a journal written in her father's hand. The next day the door to the den turned to ash. The girl came up for air… and she saw the Calamity all around her.
Who Knows Where (Survivor's Dream)Zulf. Very soon the Kid's going to have to face that man again. For the last time.
They met on the worst day of Zulf's life. There in the Hanging Gardens he aimed to throw it all away. It wasn't the first time Zulf had nothing to lose. He was born to a simple Ura couple who didn't last long before plague took them. He grew up hungry in the tunnels of the Tazal Terminals. So he took to stealing from a Caelondian missionary living there. He once got sloppy with his thieving hands. The missionary caught him, but didn't rat him out. Instead, he offered to take him in. That missionary raised Zulf like a gentleman. Like he was his own son. Taught him theology, history, and mercy. When the missionary passed away, Zulf promised to continue his work, to bring about a lasting peace between the Ura and Caelondia.
Zulf started teaching the missionary's wisdom to any Ura who would listen, and listen they did. He advocated tolerance, and argued that the Ura should atone for the war. He believed the City had much to teach his people. However, Zulf felt he could only do so much in the Tazal Terminals. He needed Caelondia to know the Ura had changed. He decided to do what the missionary did many years before. He left the City of his youth to brave a savage land. The journey was hard. But he knew how to fend for himself. And then at last, Zulf saw the Rippling Walls on the horizon. He endeared himself to City folks straightaway. And in turn he fell in love with the City and its people. One, in particular.
This young lady was fascinated by the Ura, but she never met anyone like Zulf. She told him she knew all the City's best-kept secrets. The Hanging Gardens was their favorite spot. It was there that Zulf clasped her hands and proposed in proper Caelondian style. He celebrated with his friends long into the night. Joy and revelry like you've never seen. Too bad he couldn't remember it all. He woke up alone underground inside the Ura-Caelondian War Memorial, built like an Ura den. But something was wrong. He emerged from that hole in the ground…into a waking nightmare. Everything that wasn't gone was twisted upside down. The world was frozen. Air thick with ash. What few faces he saw in the street stared back at him with gray and vacant eyes. He found his wife-to-be asleep inside her home. But when he reached out to her…she joined with all the ashes in the sky.
And so, Zulf returned to where he proposed in the Hanging Gardens, and there he stood. As if the Gods would answer him.