I was not always as I am today, you know.
Once, not long ago, I was one of the living, like you. A man with hopes and fears and dreams like any other (well, not like ANY other -- I've always been unique, you see.)
Until I died, that is.
Now, don't get me wrong, death isn't so bad a thing (though dying was another matter entirely). It certainly hasn't been at all unpleasant for me, at least, as my Lady has found a very important position for me - I now serve as Her emissary.
In life they called me a liar and a scoundrel and a trickster. All these appellations were... and still are... true, at least as much as anything is in your world. Those of my faith know that lying is a sacrament, thievery is a gift and con artistry is indeed an art to be carefully cultivated by the wise.
How do you know if I'm telling you the truth now, you ask? Well, you don't, do you? *grin*
Once I was known as the greatest confidence trickster of the age, possessed of a silver tongue and razor sharp wit beyond compare. I sucked the marrow out of life and lived it to the fullest, on my own terms. This has not really changed, I just keep rather different company these days. *smirk*
One would thus think me a carefree rogue, not a man of duty, but that I most assuredly was and am. As Her cleric, my dedication to Olidamarra, Lady of Shadows, and to my people, Her followers and my brethren, knew no bounds. I swore I would give my life for them and that is exactly what I did in the end. I fear the Chosen of my Lady do not live long, for ours are perilous lives in this unfriendly age. Duty and devotion to my cause were my life's blood and thus it had to spill in order to save many.
And so it is with my boon companions whom I myself named (most accidentally, if truth must be told) Fortune's Children. Each dedicated to their cause, their people, yet all of us with common cause - saving Aerys itself and her Gods from destruction. I have never in life or death met more stalwart allies or better friends. It has been my honour to know them - just don't tell them that lest they get big heads about it. Though to be honest (such as it is) I didn't care much for my time in Drema's axe -- such graceless weapon indeed! *snicker* But it had to be done to bring my Lady back from the brink of destruction, and so it has been
My only sadness in this glorious afterlife is that my time with them is all too brief these days. A message here, a dire portent there, that's about it. How I miss arguing with Cailet, teaching Sharna the ways of the world, getting up to much mischeif with Drema, plotting with Hearom, unravelling the onion that is Rruk, revelling in the wisdom of Jack...
Ah, I see from the sparkle in your eyes that you wish to travel with these heroes, eh? Then there are some things you must remember that I myself had to learn. Compromise is the antidote to conflict. Good and evil are extremes and most certainly not the only ways of going about (a)morality (something I knew before I joined but that is all too often forgotten in a hero's life.) Nothing is ever truly as it seems. No one is ever truly lost forever. And you must be willing to sacrifice it all, to lay all your cards on the table and go all in when it's time. Let's hope you fare better than I did, aye?
Oh, and make sure to ask them about the time I fell asleep in the mouth of a dragon, and about that levitating whore I once met!
*sly grin*