Application - JackdawGrey - Printable Version

Prelude

The valley of Faedun was always a calm and quiet place, teeming with life and lush foliage. The tall maple trees that filled the brisk valley have been prized for as long as anyone can remember. This valley nurtured the growth of the logging town Farmoor, and deeper into the mountains it housed the fortress keep Morgus Thurgen. However, this valley is not where our story starts or ends.

Our story starts in the Muhadi Desert, with a small caravan of vagrants and wonderers that had lived on the move since the day they fled from xitian enslavement. These travellers were never respected, regarded as rogues and thieves. Vagabonds and the worst sorts of rabble. It didn’t help when they fled from conscription into the united armies of the veld war, as what they called self preservation most of the cultured world called cowardice.

It helped even less when xitians on the run from the purges took to hiding in this tribe. Many would think that escaped slaves would loath their former masters.. But they learned to loath the rest of the world far more, and welcomed other outsiders and unwanted with open arms.

Through the civil wars they flourished in the chaos, whole new waves of the displaced and weary lost souls joining with the tribe and bringing with them their skills and connections. But then came a time of peace. A time of law and order, and for much of the tribe.. A time of hardship. The more order the rest of the world adopted, the more they shunned the vagrants and vagabonds. From the Muhadi Desert they came, and to the desert they returned. Life was hard, and the sands were rough. So to flee the tribe and seek life in more civilized lands was not an uncommon choice, especially among those hoping to raise children...

Early Years

Such a situation as this, is what where we found the Sabir family. They fled to the north, to a valley on the edge of the snow. They worked hard and diligently, as such the town of Farmoor looked past the vagrant's reputation and welcomed them. They prospered and had many children, most of which boys. Poor mama Sabir.

The boys loved to play rough and caused much trouble in the town, for which their father gave them many a harsh beating. They had a life to strive for, and as such the Sabir parents were eager to prove themselves and keep well respected. Sadly, boys will be boys. They continued to raise hell well through the years. The beatings made them tough, but the town girls kept them rowdy.

Solomon Sabir was no exception, he was a middle child and as such he was never paid much attention to, but his older brother always kept him close by his side. In his childhood he stuck to his father and older brother like a shadow, and joined in all the adventures.. And trouble, much to his mother's chagrin. He grew up in the town and loved everything about it with all his being.

The boy wasn't quite like his older and younger brothers. Not entirely. He was quiet and thoughtful, and always worrying about what people thought of him. But he loved his family more then the world itself, and he would get in trouble with his brothers at every chance just so that he could be there to watch their backs.

In his teenage years he worked with his father in the booming lumberjacking trade, felling trees since he first could wield the axe. He fancied the girls more than most, and got himself in a great deal of trouble with a few of the town’s fathers.. But the drama his companions always brought him eventually calmed him down and developed an aversion to the pursuit of steady relationships. He learned to care a lot less for what people thought of him, thanks to the hardships and drama.. But he never stopped trying to be a decent person.

In time, thanks to this developed temperament he slowly came to be regarded as the “good boy” of the brothers.. His past was forgiven, and this reputation as a respectable and hard working boy carried into his adulthood.

Adulthood

As an adult, Solomon joined the town’s volunteer fire brigade for the extra money and respect. The forests of the valley were a treasured resource for the logging town, and as such they did everything they could to keep wildfires from consuming them. It was a very part-time job, with meetings once a week and training whenever the town could afford to pay for it, so the logging work continued well into this.

The environment of the brigade was particularly masculine, which Solomon came to appreciate in the late wake of the drama he had to deal with during his string of female relationships. He volunteered for firehouse duty whenever he could and came to appreciate the company of his fellow man much more than some may deem healthy.

But there was a time where his masculinity faltered, the day he looked back on a cleared forest made barren by the axe and thought of how much of a shame it was that the green and fruitful valley might be destroyed by industry. So he did what many regarded as pointless.. He planted more trees, learning what he could from whom he could and helping to bring the clearings back to life. Soon he moved on to the very grass, then the flowers, and in time he came to raise entire gardens in the wake of his lumbering.

It got him shit around the men, but the ladies appreciated it and the town elders respected it enough to protect his gardens as a vital part of preserving the valley for future generations. Things went well for Solomon for several years, and in this valley he thrived.

Exodus

Then one day trade from Morgus Thurgen ceased, and smoke billowed in the distance. The rumors that followed were too unbelievable to be true.. until one by one the valley forests began to burn in the dark of the night, the gushing winds of powerful wings overhead being the only thing to stem the blaze. The fire brigade worked day and night, but so often nothing could be done save digging partitions to keep the fires from spreading.

When the elders began to leave, Solomon and his family knew it was time to move on. They split up, for the large part. He headed or the coast and eventually to a ship headed to the far lands, his brothers mostly moved to the northernmost lands. And a few weeks later.. The town of Farmoor burned.

None of Solomon’s family was still there, but when word came to him it hit like a punch to the gut. The kind that leaves a man on his knees gasping to suck down his next breath. He knew his youth was gone on this day, that there would be no going back to the valley he called home. No, now he would need to find a new land to nurture. Now he would need to move on. So he let the ship take him as far as it would go, to the most backwoods town of the forbidden lands that it would sail to...