She walks quickly along the streets, keeping to the shadows, avoiding eye contact. She feels the thousands of eyes watching her. They say nothing to her, knowing her shame and of her fall from grace, they simply stare. The weight of their stares is almost too much to bear, crushing what’s left of her soul. She continues along her way, heading to the overly large Cathedral in the center of town. She dared a glance upward at the great stained glass Cathedral, adorned with stone Gargoyles and statues of great warriors of the church, where she had been ordained as a Paladin of the Order. That had been the single greatest day of her life, the Day of Ordaining. The ceremony was both beautiful and powerful. She stood with nine others in the large courtyard. The sun shining down upon her, its rays reflecting hope and strength off of her polished steel breastplate and her longsword. That day she received the blessing of her god and was sent out into the world to do the tireless, never-ending work of a Paladin. Her duties were simple, protect the weak and innocent and bring justice and light into the dark, cruel world. She was sent to a dying frontier town, plagued with monsters and daily raids by a thieves’ guild. She was sent to ease the peoples’ suffering and to gain experience. There she thrived. Within a few months she had vanquished the monsters, with the aid of a small town militia she had assembled. Then she tackled the Thieves’ Guild, she arrested the ones that surrendered, and the few that resisted saw only the sharp end of her keen longsword. After this assignment, she was promoted to Captain of an infantry unit stationed on the border of a hostile neighboring kingdom. Here is where she fell from grace. Once there her unit was immediately besieged by the enemy. The defenders, confident in their victory, stood ready. Their Captain stood ahead of the line, ready to lead her troops valiantly into battle. From nowhere an enemy spellcaster assaulted her mind, she fell under his spell and lost herself. Suddenly, she was alone, surrounded by the enemy. She launched all her might at her foes, felling them one by one. She cried battle cries and Smited the defilers of the light. She brought the full wrath of the power invested in her upon them. The joy of her victory shone on her face. Then the spell ended. Horror replaced her joy as she examined the field. All of her enemies lay scattered about on the ground in mangled heaps. She looked, and saw that each one had the crest of her kingdom on his breastplate. She had murdered her entire unit under the compulsion of the spell, and the enemy had retreated as the men tried to stop their Captain. Her sword crashed to the ground and tears fell like rain from her eyes, drowning out the world. The sky then clouded over, massive thunderheads darkened the sky. She didn’t look up, she knew what was happening, her god was coming to punish her. The sky turned black as night, the air became chill. A violent wind sent rain like needles, into her face. Her armor was ripped from her, she felt the stinging rain on her body, but she stood. The storm suddenly subsided. The clouds stayed. She could feel the rising tension in the air, a palpable sense of the impending judgement. She let out a sob just as a bolt of living lightning streaked across the sky, It circled around her, shrieking, drawing from her the light that was given to her the day she joined the Order. It soared into the sky, it's shrieks getting louder the more it moved. Without warning is struck her, the pain silenced her, she couldn't speak or cry out. It burned her, lifted her from the ground and threw her several feet away, she landed in a heap against a large rock. Her armor and sword were struck asunder. She felt her power draining, she could sense the light rejecting her. Soon it was done, she was no longer a Paladin anymore, just a fighter. No longer a champion for peace and justice, but a common sword swinger devoid of all honor, disgraced. Without a word, her god had striped her of the powers with which he had given her many years before. The shock of everything overwhelmed her, for the first time in her years in the Order, she was afraid. No thoughts entered her head, no words escaped her lips. She felt as if her very soul were ripped from her chest. Unable to process everything, her mind shut itself down. She slumped over on the ground, a Fallen Paladin.