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Before telling the story of Ruth Shalehem, one should know the guardianship of her predecessor, Saul Shalehem. When Saul was the Guardian of the secrets of the Royal Family, he found himself lost in the desert and nearly died of dehydration. He was then found by a group of bandits, whose leader appeared to have a scrap of honor and decided to bring in the young Guardian. Assuming that he was a noble, the Bandit Lord believed that getting on the Shalehem's good side would perhaps allow him and his men an opportunity at riches that would make their lives simpler and no longer dependent upon preying on hapless travelers... After all, in this part of the world, thievery wasn't about the thrill, but about survival... At least, to most thieves.

After they let the Shalehem go, while they planned on using him for resources, it appeared they forgot about him entirely... However, Saul did not forget about them. After living among them, he believed that the laws concerning the thieves passed down by his family were far too harsh for such a people who were just trying to make a living in such harsh circumstances that drove them to poverty and crime. As such, the Shalehem opened himself up to the Criminal Underworld, presenting himself as a gentle forgiver in contrast to his predecessors, who ruthlessly and mercilessly slaughtered a good deal of robbers for the sake of the Royal Secrets. In that time, most of the Thief Guilds had stayed away from the Royal Treasures and even provided Saul with some information concerning those who might become thieves of the Royal Secrets, though they never became such. However, the truest conspirators were within the Royal Family, seeing this buddy-buddy relationship with the thieves as an opportunity to plot to steal the Phoenix Feathers- which one didn't matter, they were both insanely powerful (in those days, the Shalehem's actions were public knowledge, like a sort of one-man police force).

When Saul's reign as the Guardian of Royal Secrets was drawing to a close, the Nobility of Aden finally got together their pieces in this proverbial chess game and struck with hired blades... They killed all of Saul's family, save for Saul himself, and his daughter, Ruth, who at the time would not have been considered to become the next Guardian (All Guardians at the time were required to be male due to patrilineal inheritance laws). Stricken with grief, Saul believed that there was no time to protect the feathers now, as the noble's conspiracy to steal it was already in motion... He then decided to pass on the traditions of the Guardian to Ruth, if only for posterity... He believed that she would be the end of the line and gave her the sole rights that normally a male heir would have in every respect. Having hastily taught her the ways of the Pyromancer and Guardian of the Royal Secrets, she was set off in a bleak, criminal underworld that threatened to devour her whole.

Ruth was a fast study when it came to the ways of Pyromancy, and learned much of the law of the Shalehem Family. However, she began to see glaring flaws in how things were conducted, namely with the fact that the Shalehem family was so flashy and was an actual part of the Royal Court... They were easily targeted by any group and everyone knew that it was they who protected the secrets of Aden. As such, she foregone and threw out many rituals, believing them to be dangerous to the security of the Royal Secrets, the Royal Family, and the Shalehems themselves. Slowly but surely, she began to erase the Shalehem family from the knowledge and the existence of the Kingdom of Aden... To add to the success of her mission was actually what would have been considered a defect, her gender made it so that she was not the legal heir to the Shalehem legacy, and thus the line would have ended with her... As far as the Royal Court was concerned.

The Coup de Grace came when Ruth's father, Saul, was finally captured by a band of assassins that were in the employ of the Nobles who, by now, have successfully stolen the corporeal Phoenix Feather, believing that with Saul's death, the Shalehem line would come to an end and no longer pose a threat to them. They slew Saul, and many of the assassins involved were once people that Saul knew, and Ruth was aware of their acquaintance.... The knowledge of this occurrence had not only changed the Shalehem family that would follow after her as its matriarch into a line of secrecy and obscurity, but one of bloody vengeance and ruthless cruelty... A group that had all but disappeared to the public eye and regarded thieves now as vicious animals to be slaughtered.

When the nobles took the feather, they used its power to hold the entire Kingdom of Aden hostage and pose a horrifying scenario to the King: Surrender his throne to the nobles who have stolen the feather or see his whole nation destroyed. The King, of course, believed at first that the Nobles made an empty threat, until they did use the feather to create a storm of flame that rained down upon the nation and incinerated most of the country's outlaying villages (the sites of these former villages would, ironically, later become the sites of some noble villas). This action significantly reduced the territory available to the Kingdom of Aden, and had frightened the King enough to surrender the Kingdom, at least for now, to the Nobles, now ruling with the iron first of terror with the Phoenix Feather at their disposal, threatening to incinerate all who would dare oppose them... And about 500 others who just happened to be too close.

The King, distraught and desperate, sought out the now-secretive and reclusive Ruth Shalehem, who had been itching for an opportunity to destroy the men responsible for her father and family's death. She agreed to help the King, but on a few conditions that would be met when his line ruled Aden again: That the Shalehem Family is no longer recognized in the house of nobles, get regular supplementary funds from the government, the Shalehems answer only to the King or Queen alone, and that any actions they perform that result in massive destruction of property are dismissed as accidents, particularly when they claim the lives of the criminals they pursue. The King, of course, consented to this and even ensured them a permanent residence near the palace, to keep their vigil at all times and to have all records of their existence blocked from all but the most exclusive access, while he provides the family with all the information they needed...

Ruth, now free to act, ravaged the underworld by pursuing every single group that was involved with the assassination of her father and the stealing of the feather... She even destroyed the blacksmiths that gave the assassins their weapons and the tailors that gave them the burlap for their bags. Incinerating the assassins' guilds, thieves' guilds, and other such entities, including the secret police that had been established by the new, ruling nobility, Ruth had effectively crippled and destroyed the power of the noble rule by obliterating almost every aspect of its economy (quite literally obliterating, at that), save for the fact that they had the feather. Taking to the shadows, Ruth herself then began to conduct the actions of the assassins that she destroyed, slaughtering only a few of the nobles who were in control of the feather in their sleep... She then retreated to the obscurity of her existence to watch the noble council rip itself apart... Combining with anxiety and the fact that they all had to collectively control the feather, they all turned on each other and had each other killed until a single noble remained...

Ruth had then approached the noble face-to-face, burning him alive and then using his ashes to create a ward around the feather she recovered and hid in a place within the castle (a chest hidden inside one of the walls, though it has since been moved countless times). The King of Aden then re-took his place in society and took the credit for the achievement of driving out the nobles who had held the nation in terror... The only slightest hint of his gratitude to Ruth was in honoring her wishes, and the mysterious marriage of his fifth son to her and producing an heir who would carry on the tradition...

Since Ruth's destruction of the conspirators to steal the feather- and all associated with them- she had instituted a new set of laws called originally "The Code of Secrecy," presently known as the Ruthic Law. The Laws are as follows:

-No Shalehem shall ever take part in noble events.
-No Shalehem shall ever disclose their name or dwelling to any but the King, those helping to find thieves or those related to the Royal Family. (This law is largely ignored since the Criminal Underground finds out the name of each new Shalehem anyway)
-Regardless of gender, the firstborn child of any Shalehem shall carry on the name. If that child is to die, then it is the next born, et cetera et cetera.
-When a Shalehem becomes of age and is instituted as a Guardian, the Parents and the rest of the family are to be moved West, as to not be used as leverage against the Current Guardian.
-Anyone who wishes to steal the Secrets of Aden is to be punished by death. Only extraordinary circumstances allow for leniency, and such is to be met with Exile instead of Execution.
-Shalehems are to be taught the ways of the Guardian when they are Ten Years of Age and are to be taught until they are 18 Years of Age, in which they accept the charge of the Guardian.
-Shalehems are permitted to use whatever means necessary to stop the theft of the Secrets of Aden; However, those who break any of the aforementioned laws and result in the feather being stolen is stripped of their position by their predecessor and a new Guardian is to be named.
(The latter clause has never been implemented)