Background
Coradwin was born into a small mercenary company of the sort which are to be
found in many places and employed to do all manner of tasks where a half
hundred armed men are required. These ranged from minor wars between rival land
owners to caravan guarding and occasionally being brigaded together with others
of their kind to form a fighting unit in a more major war. Coradwin’s father, Vurekel was a long time
soldier in the company of no rank, he made corporal every so often but
generally got demoted again as he was over fond of the drink and got mean when
drunk and his mother, Merithel was a camp follower who had married his father
having come to the company having fled a previous marriage. The marriage straightened
out Vurekel at least for a while and he made corporal and stayed there this
time and was a proud father to his young son, Coradwin. Unfortunately this
relative happiness did not last as when Coradwin was six his mother fell with
child again after a long time were it looked like he would be an only
child. However the pregnancy ended in a
hard labour and nothing could be done by the Company women or the surgeon to
save Merithel indeed it was rumoured after that her second son was cut form her
after she died, however none who where present at the birth would ever comment.
After his wife’s death Vurekel returned to his
old ways and hit the bottle hard, losing his promotion for a foolish brawl too
many and around the time Coradwin reached eight his life in another with a
member of another similar company which ended in a knife being used in the jakes
behind a tavern, in a backwater town. Any way Vurekel had by this point long
ceased to be any sort of parent either to Coradwin or his brother Melidar, and
the care such as it could be called that had passed to the company and its
hangers on as Melidar was a babe in arms he tended to be better looked after at
least at the start than his older brother who was old enough to be put to
useful work. At first helping to drive the companies pack train and latter
having been given some training as a skirmisher with sling and buckler. Coradwin
as he entered his teen age years became increasingly unhappy with his lot in
life and like most unhappy teenagers he acted up which in no way improved his
treatment and so it spiralled on. He took to gambling at every opportunity and
since he had no money for this he took to stealing things from the company
stores to sell to get money. This might have worked had he any skill as a thief
but he did not and got caught punished and so the spiral grew. In the end the
company captain decided that he needed rid of the troublesome kid and sold him
to a wizard called Glavren Anizmir who they had worked along side and who had
taken a shine to the lad and started to teach him to read and write.
At first the wizard was uncomfortable with
Coradwin being his slave, as the wizard had some sympathy with the teachings of
the FREE so decided to treat the lad as an apprentice. Latter when Coradwin
though an able apprentice was found out as a thief the wizard some what
regretted his choice as you can’t sell on an indentured apprentice when they
are found to be troublesome as you can a slave. The situation continued for as
long as the Wizard found the thieving apprentice useful but eventually things
went beyond the Wizards tolerance zone and he had by this time a couple of
apprentices who could do the same work and where not robbing him blind whilst
doing it, so he let Coradwin “graduate” form his apprenticeship and told him to
make himself scarce.
Since then Coradwin has been a wanderer, largely
because despite his limited magical repertoire being useful in hiding his
thievery he is a rubbish thief and always no matter how hard he tries not
to ends up thieving to support his
gambling. His latest adventure in this regard, caused him to come to the isle
having had to stow away on a ship at his last port of call when one of the
aggrieved victims of his most recent thefts was on his way to the local temple
of the true, who ran the local petty courts system as they often do, with
enough evidence to get Coradwin a severe flogging and possibly worse.
Coradwin has not seen his brother in years indeed
since he was indentured to the Wizard Glavren Anizmir, but they never really
got on for a number of reasons principle amongst which are. Coradwin some what
irrationally blames Melidar for his mother’s death and every thing which
followed on form it, to Coradwin, Melidar birth marked the end of his happy
child hood, he is also of the opinion that Melidar was favoured over him by the
various people who got to look after them after the death of their mother
during their grief stricken fathers decline, again not entirely fair as Melidar
was a babe in arms to start with and did not fall into the ways of petty
thievery and there by alienate otherwise well disposed people. When Melidar was
old enough, Coradwin resented him for taking to the life of a trainee man at
arms better than him and the two used to
squabble continually when in each others company to the point that they where
generally kept apart as much as possible. Coradwin does not miss his brother
thought he does wonder what he grew up like some times. However never to the
point where he is inclined to actively find out.
It will almost certainly be possible to develop this further when I have learned a bit more about the games background so I can weave them together
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