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In The Beginning...
For Maxwell that realization, in one form or another, came at an early age. His adored older brother, Ronwell, disappeared when Max was six and despite his questions, Max's father refused to offer any explanation as to where Ronwell had gone. The questions continued to plague him for many years, however, and after a violent confrontation with his father several years later, Max ran away from home to search for Ronwell. He was twelve years old. He quickly learned the cruel ways of the world and found himself scrounging for food only a few weeks later. Eventually, in desperation, he turned to crime and attempted to pickpocket a group of strangers who were traveling the same road as he. He was caught immediately, but instead of punishing him, the strangers took pity on him and allowed him to travel with them. That was when he found out that they were a group of rebels fighting against the Empire. For thirteen years he traveled with them, absorbing their teachings and becoming an accomplished combatant in his own right. Then one day they were ambushed by an Imperial patrol. Maxwell managed to escape with his life, although he was badly wounded. However, to his dismay, the rebel group, his family in all ways save for blood, were slain to the last man. It was a dark period for Max and he wandered aimlessly from town to town for months before meeting another rebel recruiter named Flan. Flan had the kind of personality that most people opened up to and before Maxwell new it, he was recounting his tale to this man without even really knowing why. Flan sympathized and told Max that he was recruiting rebel agents for a secret mission that could bring the Empire to it's knees once and for all. The opportunity was too good to be true and Max could not resist the chance to strike back at the people who had massacred his family, and by all logic, probably had something to do with Ronwell's disappearance. That was when he met Sparrow, Balbanes, and Eljin, and began the fateful mission that eventually ended with his capture. Sparrow's story began in the great jungles to the west and for her combat had always been a way of life. The Empire hated the Elven race as they had been their strongest opposition (save for perhaps the dwarves to the east) since the very beginning. Growing up knowing how to use a bow and blade, she had already been involved in a dozen bloody battles by the time she reached the age of adolescence. It was an orc attack that led to her blindness, however, rather than the Empire. The orcs were a stupid race who cared nothing for political affiliation and raided against the elves and the Empire alike. It was during one of these attacks that she was knocked from a tree and found herself struck blind. Despite the best efforts of the Elven priests, she found herself faced with the prospect of perpetual blindness. In spite of this, however, she made her mind up to make the best of her situation and began to train her remaining senses until they were as sharp as the blades she carried. She sought solitude during this time, hoping that the absence of others would quicken the process, and she was not wrong. She journeyed far from her lands and eventually met the druid who gave her the greatest gift of all. The tattoo that he marked her with brought with it a true companion, as well as the ability to see again. As long as she lived, Rorek would remain with her and through him, she could see the world in a way that few other beings would ever have the chance to see. It opened up the world to her. That was until she met Flan. He promised her the opportunity to strike down the Empire and free her people from the war that had lasted for so many long generations. It was too much to pass up, or so she thought. Eljin, unlike Sparrow, never knew the racial home of his people. He was conceived when his mother was raped by an Imperial soldier (also an elf. There were a few traitors.) and left to die. She survived despite the odds, but felt so ashamed by the event, that she decided to move away from the beloved jungles rather than have to face her people pitying glances. In desperation she turned to the north. For months she traveled through some of the most inhospitable climates known to man. Dodging Imperial patrols and roving orc bands she eventually arrived in the village of Farhaven in the arctic region known as The Wastes. There she found a home among the criminals and castaways of society, eeking out a living as a seamstress. Eljin's birth proved to be too much for her, however, and she died a few days after he was born. Fortunately he was taken in by a human hunter who had begun to court his mother shortly before her death. His name was Beyorn and he was the only family that Eljin ever knew. Beyorn taught the young boy the ways of the wild from the time that he could stand. They would go on long walks together and the hunter would show him how to survive in the frozen wasteland of the north. He taught him what plants could be harvested for food, how to catch fish with a spear, and how to avoid the more dangerous animals. He also taught him how to fight and Eljin grew into a massive young man with an incredible strength that had never been matched by any man he had ever known. When he was sixteen wanderlust became too much for him and he left Beyorn who had become to old to accompany the young man on his journeys. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but Beyorn knew that it was something that his son had to do and that he could not stand in his way. He had taught him all that he knew and know Eljin had to go carve his own path. That path lead south and that was when Eljin first heard of the war with the Empire. Despite hundreds of years of war, The Empire had never focused it's attention on The Wastes, viewing it as a worthless acquisition not worth the effort. Never had Eljin encountered such outright brutality, but being young, and wishing to test his metal, he joined up with a party of rebels and for years played havoc against the Empire. It was then that he met Flan and heard of an opportunity to end the war once and for all. Little did he know that in the end it would carry him further from home then he had ever imagined. Balbanes grew up in the southern deserts where the life expectancy of most people is less than that of a cat in a dog fight. Brutally hot and dry, the primary means of making a living is the diamond mines that provide the primary means of income for the struggling economy of Arcarious, the largest, and only city, in the desert land. He never really knew his father, as the man was always gone deep in a mine somewhere. His only interaction with the man was once a year when he would return home to drop off the meager coinage that he had managed to save after his drinking and gambling habits had consumed the rest. His mother was forced into prostitution out of necessity and made her money by servicing the Imperial guards who ruled the region with an iron fist. Arcarious was an occupied city and had been one of the first targets of the Empire at the beginning because of it's precious exports. Living under Imperial rule was simply a way of life that most people accepted in that area of the world. The rebellion rarely ventured that far south, primarily because it housed the largest Imperial military force on the continent, but also because they had no support in the region. After generations of isolation from the rest of the world, as well as spoon fed propaganda by the Empire, the people of that region had become complacent and saw the rebellion as an enemy. Fortunately for Balbanes, there was one man who was able to get through to him at an early age and show him the truth of what life could be without the Empire. That man was Gregory Antarious, a human ranger who had spent the majority of his life living with the dwarves in the forests of Silverfall. Balbanes is to this day not sure why the old man singled him out as an apprentice, or even why he had traveled so far south into enemy territory, but single him out he did. His teachings shaped Balbanes into the man that he was to become and directed his feet onto a path that no one in the south could have ever dreamed of. When Balbanes was twenty years old, Antarious died and the young ranger, grief stricken, left the desert and ventured north. He did not go alone, however, but took with him the ways of the ranger that had been taught to him throughout the course of his mentors final years of life. He smuggled himself across the border into the plains that grew in the center of the continent and for many years found he himself fighting battle after battle. Faces seemed to flash before his eyes, friends falling one after another, but through it all he kept his heart steeled against the pain. Antarious's teachings were never far from his mind and somehow he remained true to the old man's core values. And then he met Flan and his life seemed to falter. His companions on that ill fated mission were some of the best he had ever known, but captivity had never been something he had imagined for himself. Death had always seemed so close that he had never even really considered another option, yet there he was, sleeping in the mud and lowering his eyes to his mortal enemies. Escape was ever on his mind. Little did he know that escape would come in the form that it did.
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Last edited by Sparhawk; Feb 1st, 2013 at 01:45 AM. |
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Maxwell D'Mienor. Half-Elf. Fighter/Mage/Thief.
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Wherever you go, there you are. |
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