• Jonah
• Elias
• Rell
• Thoerd

“Whoever brings ruin on their family will inherit only wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise.”

Jonah was raised by farmers in Higg’s Hole, a small village in the Chelaxian vassal state of Isger. His family, who first came to this region as Ulfen traders a long time ago, has always been devout followers of Erastil, ancient god of the hunt and of farming.

Jonah’s parents are John and Mathilda Blair. They have four boys and one girl: Caleb, Jonah, Micaiah, Nathan, and Miriam. Jonah is the second oldest child. He is devoted to his parents, especially his father whom he admires most in the world, and fiercely protective of his baby sister (“my Miriam”).

Thoughtful and highly sensitive, Jonah speaks and appears much older than he actually is. Not surprisingly, he prefers the company of elders to people of his own age.

Jonah knows that he is special or at least different, and not only because of his Ulfen blue eyes and blond hair. Whether he is herding the sheep alone at night, working the fields with his siblings, or simply is starving because the crops have failed again, the sheer power of Old Deadeye clearly lies before his eyes. Jonah, from a very early age, honestly believes that there is a connection, an invisible bond, between him and the land itself, waiting to be used for the benefit of his people. As a result, he has been eager to show and lead others by example and good deeds ever since.

Among his contemporaries in Higg’s Hole, Jonah is considered odd or just plain weird. He has few friends. He enjoys listening to Elias though, the orphan who works at the local inn. Whenever Jonah goes there to deliver fresh meat from the farm, he usually stays awhile to chat and get the latest gossip. Jonah also looks up to Rell, the child of an abusive father and probably the strongest person that Jonah has ever met. Rell earned Jonah’s gratitude when he rescued Jonah’s beloved Miriam from the hands of Bill Ribbelby, the village bully, after Jonah himself had failed and lay bleeding in the dirt.

A woman calling herself Ann Kognito (an obviously assumed identity) stopped for three days at Greenlund’s inn in Higg’s Hole. She paid in advance and asked not to be disturbed no matter what. It turned out that she gave birth on the second day, recuperated for another day and then left both the inn and the child, never to be heard of again. The Greenlunds did some investigation using the scarce information they had, but to no avail. An odd event was noted a week after her disappearance. A body of a woman was found in a village 30 miles away, burned to a crisp. It was assumed she had been struck by lightning, but no storm had been noted around the time of her death.

The Greenlunds took the boy in and named him Elias. He grew up little more than a hired hand. Though his adoptive parents had no children of their own, they had never wanted for any. Elias was cared for properly, fed well, kept clean, given clean clothes and was rarely beaten (and never without reason). It was a loveless relationship and Elias started helping with simple shores as soon as he could walk and understand instructions.

Elias was a beautiful child, something he realised early on and learned to exploit. He was tipped well at the inn and was given lots of affection, especially from the female customers. There was one mean drunk though that apart from not tipping, used to slap little Elias around whenever he found an excuse to do so. Luckily the drunkard tended to be aggressive towards other customers and was finally banned from the inn.

As Elias grew older he excelled at manipulating people to do his biddings. His charm didn’t work too well on other children though, especially boys. His weak physical frame taught him to keep a low profile, so as not to attract attention and thereby potential beatings. There was however one boy that was susceptible to his charm, a rather simple boy named Rell. Their relationship started off as one of convenience. What Rell lacked in mental strength, he made up more than enough in physical prowess, something very useful to Elias. Their friendship grew over the years though. Rell’s sad family situation, much worse than his own, struck a chord with Elias, and there was something oddly likable about Rell’s simple mind. You always knew where it was at! There was another boy that Elias befriended quite early on, the shepherd’s boy Jonah. He used to stop by the inn once a week with his mutton delivery. It was probably due to the fact that both boys shared a dream of, nay, rather a premonition of something grander than their current life in Higg’s Hole. No matter the cause, the two boys found each other and they shared stories of what they perceived as the future to be, whenever an opportunity presented itself.

My father is a mean drunken bastard who beats everyone and everybody he doesn’t trust with his life, especially me Rell. His only child and cause of my mothers demise. Although I’m the strongest boy in “Town” I’m no match for him yet, just he wait …

Thoerd.