Name: Glynlen "Glen" Liadon
Race: Elf
Class: Ranger
Age: 105 (barely an adult; declared his adulthood on his 100th birthday)
Occupation: Professional caravan escort under contract with His Majesty's military and the city watch.
Religion: Deeply connected to nature, of which he considers Obad-Hai one important facet, like the wind, the rain, and the sun themselves.
Personality: His easygoing nature and frequent smile help him to fit in most places pretty quickly. He can take a joke after lifelong ribbing from his big sister, but if your words cut too deeply, he won't forget. He is quick to laugh while still being a worrier at heart.
Commonly known: Glen has something of a reputation with the city watch and military. He fits in well with them despite being an elf, which they find both surprising and pleasant. He is a crack shot with a longbow and an excellent scout. He chats frequently about his sister, who lives in a village in the forest, not far from the road running north from Brilight to the pony post and His Majesty's capital. He is rumored to have recently died and has no living parents, having lost them when he was very young.
Uncommonly known: His true Elvish name is Glynlen. There are rumors that he plays an instrument, but it was apparently stolen from him at some point in the recent past. He also hates goblinoids but has studied them extensively. He was killed when a group of bandits hired an escort transporting black market goods to the capital. He was ambushed while in his trance and remembers little of his death. He feels deeply indebted to his adopted clan for bringing him back and plans to go back to work to pay back every copper piece as soon as he can.
Physical description: Relatively short and lean, Glen wears his brown hair cropped short and leaves it messy. Like most elves, he has little facial hair, but he does have slight sideburns. When not wearing his leather armor, his traveling clothes are still modest and practical. His face is often bright with a smile, but his dark green eyes are careful and take in the world around him in meticulous detail.
Image:
Race: Elf
Class: Ranger
Age: 105 (barely an adult; declared his adulthood on his 100th birthday)
Occupation: Professional caravan escort under contract with His Majesty's military and the city watch.
Religion: Deeply connected to nature, of which he considers Obad-Hai one important facet, like the wind, the rain, and the sun themselves.
Personality: His easygoing nature and frequent smile help him to fit in most places pretty quickly. He can take a joke after lifelong ribbing from his big sister, but if your words cut too deeply, he won't forget. He is quick to laugh while still being a worrier at heart.
Commonly known: Glen has something of a reputation with the city watch and military. He fits in well with them despite being an elf, which they find both surprising and pleasant. He is a crack shot with a longbow and an excellent scout. He chats frequently about his sister, who lives in a village in the forest, not far from the road running north from Brilight to the pony post and His Majesty's capital. He is rumored to have recently died and has no living parents, having lost them when he was very young.
Uncommonly known: His true Elvish name is Glynlen. There are rumors that he plays an instrument, but it was apparently stolen from him at some point in the recent past. He also hates goblinoids but has studied them extensively. He was killed when a group of bandits hired an escort transporting black market goods to the capital. He was ambushed while in his trance and remembers little of his death. He feels deeply indebted to his adopted clan for bringing him back and plans to go back to work to pay back every copper piece as soon as he can.
Physical description: Relatively short and lean, Glen wears his brown hair cropped short and leaves it messy. Like most elves, he has little facial hair, but he does have slight sideburns. When not wearing his leather armor, his traveling clothes are still modest and practical. His face is often bright with a smile, but his dark green eyes are careful and take in the world around him in meticulous detail.
Image:
- Full backstory I wrote for fun, if you're interested (click to expand):
- There is no more important person in Glynlen Liadon's life than his sister, Sariel. This is as true today as it was a hundred years ago, and it will still be true five hundred years from now.
==Early Childhood==
As a child, Glynlen (then Rael, his childhood name) was sweet, kind, and carefree. His first twenty years were spent in the secluded elf village of his tribe, hidden deep in the forest. His sister Sariel (then Sai, her childhood name) was always his best friend, his protector, and his closest confidante. They ran and played together through the forest. They studied history and nature from the village elders together. She had her own group of friends, behind whom Rael would follow dutifully, always glad just to be included. Rael and Sai trained together with sword and bow, even when he was very small. Over time, he surpassed her with a bow, just as she was his better with a longsword.
On one particularly sunny day, Rael and Sai were out of the village, relaxing together in the shade and seclusion of an enormous willow tree. Suddenly, in the distance, they heard the clash of weapons and the shouts of battle. The siblings quietly returned to their village, staying a safe distance away and out of sight. Goblins, led by a ferocious-looking hobgoblin, were ransacking the village. Sai put her hand on the hilt of her sword, but Rael knew they did not stand a chance. Grabbing her arm, Rael pulled her away and started running. He looked back over his shoulder as the goblinoids slaughtered their village, wiping out their tribe. Rael was twenty. Sai was forty-one. He still has visions of that day.
==Life in the Wild==
Rael and Sai spent the next fifty odd years or so wandering the wilderness with only one another for company. Sai was boisterous and cheerful, often forcing a smile or a joke to help her baby brother cope with what was obviously a very difficult loss and feeling of hopelessness. They occasionally came across the odd elf village here and there, but would rarely stay more than a night or two. Seeing the smiling faces of children and their parents tore at both Rael and Sai's hearts. Rael longed for a community of friends and family to call home, but he could not bear the pain of losing so much again. He knew he could depend on Sai, so they would continue on.
On the road, Rael learned how to forage, how to survive in the wilderness, and how to study the flora and fauna around him to gather information about the forest and its inhabitants. Occasionally the siblings would happen across the tracks of a couple of lost goblins. Sai's eyes would burn with fury, and Rael knew that tracking the monsters to ambush them would be much safer than running through the forest with sword held high, as Sai would have done were she alone.
Beyond that, though, Rael even learned to play the bagpipes. He and his sister found a set of pipes in an old abandoned village they found in the forest. He picked them up and tried to play them, and Sai doubled over from genuine laughter, tears running down her face. Rael soon did the same. The honking, squawking sound of the pipes always left them both laughing until their sides hurt. Sometimes, when she was away, he would earnestly practice the pipes, trying to learn to play the soft and gentle songs of his people without totally mangling them. It was different, but not unpleasant.
==A Change of Pace==
Just days before Sai's hundredth birthday, the brother and sister happened across what seemed to be an unremarkable elven village, the village of tribe Naïlo. This one, however, was special because of one of its inhabitants. Her name was Enna, an elfmaid with a signing voice that was well-known throughout the village. Sai and Rael, a few days into a visit that should have been like the dozens of visits to villages in the past, went to see Enna sing. Gathered in a quiet spot in the village, she sang a sad song of lost friends and families that brought tears to the siblings' eyes. Back at the siblings' lodgings, they sat together, taking inventory of their belongings and deciding what needed to be procured for the road ahead. Sai was unusually quiet. When Rael asked when they should be going the next day, Sai stayed quiet. Then, out of nowhere, she bolted upright, a wide grin on her face. She told her little brother that she had decided that she did not want to spend her hundredth birthday on the road, but instead wanted to stay here. She said that on that day, she would declare herself an adult, and that she had already chosen a name: Sariel, after their mother.
Rael was confused, but happy. He would follow his sister anywhere, and she seemed genuinely excited about staying in this village for her centennial and her declaration of adulthood. In truth, she likely could have broken with tradition at any point in recent decades, for she was truly independent and had watched over her brother like many parents do their children. Rael was proud of his big sister. Sai explained the situation to the village elders and asked if they would allow her to perform the ceremony in their village; they accepted, knowing that it would be a great sin to reject the request of this elf child, orphaned by the slaughter of her tribe.
On her hundredth birthday, the people of the village gathered around. Rael watched, full of pride and hope, as Sai declared herself Sariel, and the village elders accepted her declaration. Enna, too, attended the ceremony, and sang a song of celebration for Sariel's newly-claimed adulthood. Enna joined Rael and Sariel in many hours of stories by the fire and many cups of delicious elven wine. Rael, tired, went to meditate, leaving Enna and Sariel chatting by the fire late into the night.
Not long after, Rael found their departure delayed even further when Sariel began courting Enna. The two elf women spent many hours together with Rael, making sure not to exclude him but often exchanging glances of affection. Rael became more and more used to staying in one place, even as worries of loss picked at the very edges of his consciousness late at night.
==Integration and Adulthood==
Rael was unsurprised when Sariel suggested they stay here and integrate fully into the village tribe. He loved his sister, and he knew that it would make her happy. In truth, integrating into a new community was something he always wanted. Sariel and Rael, with the help of Enna and her family, fixed up an old house in the village and moved in to stay. Sariel, outgoing and strong (and dating the most popular elf in the village) easily integrated into tribe life, and Rael was welcomed into the tribe along with his sister. At the same time, he felt that the villagers held him at a short but noticeable distance, and he did the same to them. He loved his sister and her partner, but his desire for community was tempered by fear of loss. Besides that, some of the other elf children and he had gotten into spats when he tried to join them for games of archery and swords. He was frequently their better, hardened by the road, and they resented him for it. Although Rael was easygoing, their words cut deep and he had a tough time forgetting them.
Weeks turned into months, and months into years. Before long, Sariel and Enna were married. The three of them lived together in harmony and happiness. Rael loved them both with all his heart, although he would never have the attachment to Enna that he had to Sariel. They stayed like this for a long time, laughing and eating and drinking together, taking in the stars and nature together, and generally enjoying life together.
Then, right around Rael's hundred-and-first birthday, he began to overhear Sariel and Enna talking about adopting a child. Rael encouraged them, saying he would love to be an uncle, and it was the truth - but it came with a twang of sadness. Having spent the first hundred years of his life depending heavily on his sister, he knew it was time for him to become an adult and leave her close care. He needed to become independent and see if he could find a place in the world - whether it was in the village or somewhere else. The elders gathered, Enna sang, and Rael did as his sister did, choosing the name of a parent: Glynlen. Sariel cried tears of doting, loving joy for her baby brother, all grown up. Glynlen became a fully-fledged tribe member with the responsibility to contribute to the greater good.
Glynlen, knowing that his sister and her wife wanted to start a family, decided he needed to find a job. His skills didn't fit those of usual elf professions of crafter and performer (and besides, the bagpipes weren't very popular outside of Sariel and Enna), so he thought to use the skills he learned on his travels. The village was situated not far from the road running north from Bright-Light-on-the-Water to a pony post and, beyond there, to King Eldan's seat in the capital city. Some of the young elves in the village had entered into contracts with His Majesty's military, guarding caravans and important dignitaries on the roads between Brilight, the pony post, and the capital. Glynlen inquired with the elders about such a contract and joined a caravan headed south for Brilight. There, he was introduced to a military contracting officer and became an official escort for city caravans.
==City Escort==
Glynlen, ever-curious and itching to belong, became well-known with the other escorts and their military counterparts. He was deadly with a longbow, smiled often, and laughed loudly at their jokes. He was used to long hours on the road with little to eat, having to sustain instead on the company of his traveling companions. His human military buddies came to call him "Glen," finding his elven name difficult to shout on the fly when spotting game for hunting or potential pitfalls that needed scouting.
Glen escorted people of every race, religion, and profession. He met people who impressed him either with their words, their skills, or their profound corruption. More than once, he had a shifty feeling about those he was charged with protecting, only to realize that it was just the way things were with kingdom politics. In recent months, he heard chatter of a plague in Brilight, but he rarely traveled within the walls. He did not give it much thought.
Glen's work kept him away from his Naïlo brethren, and that suited him fine. He often found himself missing the company of his sister, but he wanted to give her space to live and grow and have her own life. They spoke when he would return briefly to the village and spend a brief night in the spare room, which he knew would soon be a nursery. The Naïlo elders found him useful, as he maintained their relations with His Majesty's kingdom and the other races in Brilight, while unobtrusive and not particularly missed while he was gone.
==Death==
Local bandits had found the military escorts of kingdom caravans particularly vexing. Times were lean and seemed to be getting leaner as soldiers and contractors regularly stopped bandit raids. They hatched a plan, sending the most cunning among them disguised as people of import who needed to hire an escort for some particularly valuable and illegal goods to the capital. Glen dismissed his misgivings as naivete and struck out north for the pony post from Brilight, his charges in tow.
On the road, the bandits ambushed their protectors. They waited until Glen was in his evening trance and the least-observant lookout was on watch, sleepy from one too many rations. The bandits knifed the lookout in the back. Glen did not see or hear his death coming, trance-dreaming again about the losses of his parents. The bandits were emboldened, taking everything from their protectors. They even took Glen's pack, in which he carried his pipes.
Glen doesn't remember much about what happened after he died. The Naïlo elders gathered to discuss the situation. The military brought his remains to the village for and Sariel was inconsolable. She respectfully requested an audience with the Naïlo, who saw little choice but to hear her out. She made an impassioned plea for them to send to the temple in Brilight and bring back the only brother she ever knew. Naïlo was fortunate to have the funds, owing to its positive relationship and regular trade with Brilight, the pony post, and the capital, all of which Glen helped facilitate by being a positive, bright face for their community. The elders' hearts were also softened because they knew that Glen had never truly integrated into their tribe, and they knew they were partially to blame. The elders agreed to Sariel's request.
Hers was the first face Glen saw upon return from the beyond. He held her tightly, and then embraced his sister-in-law Enna as well. Before Sariel and Enna returned to Naïlo, they bought Glen new equipment and gave him some money. They called it a rebirthday present, and they all laughed together. Glen feels deeply indebted to the elders and plans to pay back every copper piece as soon as he can return to work.
Before he could return to his post, a military messenger came to the temple. Word of his return had reached the military fairly quickly, as he was a good scout - not to mention the rarity and expense of the spell to bring him back. He was summoned to meet Dolores Imokina, paladin of Pelor, and army vice-captain in good standing. He does not know what the meeting is about, but he is interested to find out.