Hekate was born in a small village on the coast of the Sea of Rhûn, among eight children. Her father, the chief of her village, paid Hekate little mind when she was young, as she showed no real promise with a blade or bow. Though she grew to become skilled with a scimitar, it was never as good as her eldest brother, the prodigy of their family and clan. Hekate grew up in his shadow, seeming to have to take two steps for every one of his. Her mother was a gentle woman who eventually taught Hekate about herbs and, after time, how to read meanings and messages in the fire and smoke. 

She grew up underneath the harsh sun, spending her seasons training and honing her skills and talents. Hekate became known for her dancing rather than any exceptional skill with combat, spending many of her nights entertaining her father's people while dancing and spinning around their hearths, weaving magical notes in her voice to soothe and encourage, wearing beautiful silk clothes that seemed as fluid as the wind. 

When she was six and ten, she befriended a rich traveling merchant and his family, and while they stayed with Hekate's clan through the winter, she learned her Westron letters from his eldest daughter. Though they left once spring had bloomed again, Hekate continued her studies whenever possible, buying as many books and writing supplies as she could get her hands on from travelers and merchants passing through. The progress was slow and sporadic, but Hekate was determined, and it produced a lifelong passion for learning as many languages as she possibly could. 

The following summer after Hekate's twentieth birthday, Hekate's clan was already struggling from a spring sickness that had wiped out and crippled many of their group. They were vulnerable and had fewer healthy men and women to fend off an attack from invaders of Mordor. Hekate could only watch as her village was burned to the ground, some of her friends and family killed before her eyes, and others bound and shackled.

Out of the eight children from her family line, Hekate and three of her siblings escaped in the midst of chaos. While her eldest brother charged back into the fray, Hekate gathered her two younger sisters and fled into the night.

Skirting unseen around Mordor and the mountains was arduous and long, but when Hekate and her sisters arrived in Khand, they finally stopped looking over their shoulders. They assimilated as much as they could, donning garb and speaking to as few people as possible, though Hekate was quick to pick up the local language. They found few allies in Khand, running into those allied with Mordor, or those who would've turned them in for simply being from an enemy nation. 

Finally finding where they could begin rebuilding their home in Near Harad, Hekate resided in near isolation with her two sisters, teaching them the lessons she had learned from their mother and passing on all the knowledge she could. As the War continued to wage on around them, and they were cut off from anything south of the river Poros, Hekate continued to train and hone her skills, learning new ways of fighting and reading from Haradrim they befriended. 

Her taste for knowledge never wavered. Hekate only grew restless the longer she stayed put, until eventually she bid her sisters farewell, leaving them to their new life in Harad as she continued on her travels alone, determined to learn every secret Middle-Earth had to offer her, no matter the dangers.

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