Kestrel Adain

 ''He serves the Truth, yes. But in his own way, not ours. Not even in the Truth's, if I think about it.''

 - Aei'klatharius A'Dun

Kestrel Adain was a human Male Vindicator operating between 1432 and 1509. During that time, he participated in some of the more influential events of those two centuries, eventually becoming the Minister of Justice for the Crownless Lands in 1510.

Birth and Early Childhood
Born to Quentis Adain and his wife, Lataeria - both of whom were powerful magisters of the Spire - Kestrel spent three years with his parents in their mid-level flat in New Anegal, the capitol of the Crownless Lands. Both Quentis and Lataeria were tragically killed in 1420 by the terrorist Slachatain bombing of Brightshore during a conference on manashards they were both attending.

Suddenly orphaned, Kestrel was given to his father's closest friend, the Mor'kar Aei'klatharius. The elf would later remark that one of the reasons he took the boy to the Spire had less to do with his parents and more to do with the young Adain's uncanny ability to see through to the truth of things. Therefore, in 1421 at the age of four, Kestrel was given to the Academ Vindicarii in hopes that he would become a Vindicator, the enforcers of the Truth Unyielding and the only people capable of managing and enforcing magical balance.

Years at the Spire
Kestrel, as he grew up in the Spire, showcased the mischevious and anti-authoritarian personality that so defined him in his later years. By age ten, he had been officially reprimanded more than two dozen times and had caused the transmogrification of the entire East Wing service staff into oppossums. This later incident was through his colluding with his longtime friend, Erasten Kole, who was being trained at the same time for admission into the Magister's Collegium.

By the time of his Aei'Qua Var at fourteen, Kestrel had wracked up as many as fifty reprimands as well as twenty-two commendations for initiative and ingenuity and thirteen new patents on various enchanted or modified Artifex artefacts. During his Aei'Qua Var, he was able to destroy three steamwalkers with a single manashard by charging it to a frequency that resonated in opposition causing the walkers manashard engines to explode. It was one of the fastest completion times on record at the Academ.

His induction into the Truth of the Shadow was no surprise to anyone one of his fellow students or instructors. The young Kestrel had always been adept at bending the rules just far enough to get around them while not seeming to willingly infringe the Tenets. However, his instructors were displeased with his overwillingness to lie through omission and his leaning towards outright ruthlessness when it came to solving problems. One instructor, Khae'la'een was especially concerned about his behaviour and suggested that the now twenty year old be washed out of the program. In this singular instance, Aei'klatharius stepped in - still widely respected at the Spire and in Mor'kar culture as a whole - he made it clear that the boy was what the Academ needed in order to combat the more cunning and ruthless reprobates. When Kestrel finally graduated at twenty-one, he was sent back to New Anegal in order to administer Academ justice to the capitol. Kestrel recognised this as a delayed punishment for his rebellious school days. New Anegal and the Crownless Lands in general, were a lawless area for the Vindicators with a high number of reprobates operating with relative impunity. The local law enforcement being inadequate, Kestrel realised quite quickly that his work was well cut out for him.

Vindicator in New Anegal The first few years of Kestrel Adain's tenure in New Anegal were quiet and unassuming, something that was especially irritating to the hyperactive and easily bored young human. In 1442 AS, Kestrel was asked to investigate the manor and lands of the alchemist Horatio Hennsguld. The man was suspected of inhuman experiments on the surrounding townsfolk, a violation of Article Four in the Pax Arcanum. Upon arrival, Kestrel could at once tell that the violation was legitimate and proceeded to the manse of Hennsguld with the intention of arresting him. The alchemist fought back, unwilling to be arrested, even going so far as to resist the Penance that Kestrel attempted to place on him. This resistance came from a strange artefact that Hennsgul had in his possession: a soultorque.