Afterlight Story Development 2.1 (Protagonist)

It was finally time to give our main character, Aste Myth, a backstory, a reason as to why she is on this journey of self discovery, where she will have to work through her emotions to understand why and how the things that happened in her life affected her.

Backstory

Aste’s Mother, Jasper Lynn Myst, had always worn an amethyst pendant that had been passed down for 50 generations of women, since it was found by one of her late relatives deep in an ancient tomb. Ever since then, the pendant was passed down from mother to daughter, as well as the tale that the women of the Myst family had been cursed to suffer ailments of unknown origins, and that the pendant would help stabilize their conditions.

When Aste was born, the amethyst pendant shattered, Jasper was devastated; cries of pain mixed with those of grief and anger as the only anchor in her life had suddenly vanished. When she finally was able to hold her child, she thought that maybe she would find a new way to get through, but when Aste was placed on her arms, she felt the weak, trying her best to lift the weight of what seemed to be a healthy baby girl, she realized she had not the means to protect her.

Jasper became just as overbearing, as she did abusive; Aste grew up in a home where her mother would hold on to her for dear life at night and relieve her frustrations on her daughter during the day. Jasper blamed Aste for what happened with the crystal, but also feared her daughter's life without it. She spent all of her daughter's life coddling, barricading, and sheltering her from the outside world, Aste was only allowed to leave the house once a week, and only to go to the market, or sometimes play with children her age, but never after sundown.

No one came to her wake. Jasper was not a despised woman, but the only thing that surrounded her soul was fear; it drove her mad and rendered her unable to promote meaningful relationships, including that with her daughter. Aste was nineteen when she had to bury her mother, her inexplicable ailment had claimed her life, and all she had to show for it was child full of resentment.

On the anniversary of her death, Aste walked to her mother's grave, hoping she could try and converse with her, make sense of the broken home and wounds she was left to tend alone. But something caught her attention, a violet glare probing her eyes from atop the headstone, where a small shard of a broken crystal sat. Aste felt a faint white noise in the back of her mind, guiding her to the shard, and so she reached out, and vanished.