“With blade and verse”
Once a vagabond, adrift. Now, cavalry sergeant of the Reach. Spirited, audacious, maybe too quick to laugh, his eyes alight with curiosity and ambition.
Although he first came as a fugitive, he has since taken a liking to the Spire, and has shed blood in its defense. No matter how strange this land and its denizens may be, he will gladly call it home.
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ince childhood, Atal longed to become a part of history, a figure of legend, an ancestor that generations would revere in the eons to come. Adversely, his youth was marked with the customary fearmongering of his clan, who insisted that he stay within the refuge of their camp, on the desolate steppe beyond the eastern mountains—where no mortal, nor god, nor demon could find them. Of course this proved to be a hollow promise, as the wildlands hosted its own share of perils. The jaraid that roamed in the dark were fearsome enough. As were the Greatling marauders, who defied the Valkian’s reign, and would prey on anyone unlucky enough to cross their path. Evading them was not always plausible, however, and so inevitably these roving bands and his family would come to blows. Fending them off was no easy task—but he knew that no lord would reward their heroics, no bard would regale their feats. Were he to die in these wastes, it would go unnoticed by everyone. Except his family, naturally, but the world had long forgotten them anyway. |
| The desire for renown – however vain it may be – was instilled in him early in his upbringing, from the stories he'd hear from travellers on the road, on the rare occasions that he would chance upon one. Scrolls and tomes would also grace his imagination, whenever he could come across them during his escapades into the city markets. They recounted instances of valour and martial prowess, values that Atal coveted, qualities that he hoped to possess one day. These glimpses into the outside world left an indelible mark in his mind, and gnawed at him—urging him to abandon his homeland and explore the far corners of the known world. To learn every story that has ever been written or spoken, to seek their origins, and to create one of his own. The choice was taken from the youth, however, when a series of past errors caught up to him. |
Fearing reprisals or – worse yet – a lifetime of servitude imposed upon him, he decided that he must strike out on his own. With furtive glances over his shoulder, bearing the meager belongings that he could scrounge from his family's camp, Atal's untimely adventure began.
