Hello my Niblings! This is the first post of a series that introduces some of the characters I commonly use in my writing. I figure putting these out there will help me to do at least a little writing every day and help to encourage me to actually finish stories for a change. In any event here is the character I based on my first consistent AD&D character. The half elf Bard (Bard/Rogue in 3.0 and beyond.) Alias Nambrox.
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Alias was born to the human wizard Michael Grandolg and the Elven princess in Exile Silkpetal Finn Arikron. She was, as all half elven children tend to be, both vigorous and intelligent. Her human blood gave her strength, vigor and a lust for life and her elven side gave her great intellect, an instinctive talent for magic, and a keen awareness of her environment. She was a happy child, doted on by her parents and loved by those who met her.
Not all was well however. Her mother, who had lived most of her life as a spoiled elven princess had no marketable skills and fell easily in to deep, nearly torpor like depressive states. Her father worked hard to support his family, but saw that his wife was not up to the task of raising their daughter on her own. He began to take more and more dangerous work, hoping the higher rates of pay would allow him to save up enough to stay at home and raise Alias while still supporting the family. This plan literally blew up in his face and Alias and Silkpetal were left alone with no means of support.
Silkpetal quickly fell into another depression. She drank through the family's savings in no time and became desperate to find more money, and more wine. She tried working, but failed at whatever task she attempted. She tried her hand at the oldest profession, but found that she could not even think about entertaining a client without becoming even more depressed and terrified. In the meantime Alias needed to be cared for and was a constant drain on Silkpetal's resources, and her patience. She finally broke one day and sold Alias to a band of travelling merchants. The Nambrox caravan.
Surprisingly, Alias was never placed in the kind of danger one might think a pretty elven slave might be placed in. Grellbon Nambrox, the head of the caravan was a cold man, mean and ruthless as they came, but he was no villain. He never touched Alias in any harmful way and he made sure that no-one else in, or associated with his group did either. Alias was well fed and made almost comfortable as long as she performed one task. Her job was to sing the insomniac Grellbon to sleep every night.
Every night she sang, and every night she found new ways to use and adapt her voice. She learned different songs from those in the caravan and those the caravan dealt with. She learned instruments from bards and troubadors they met along their journeys. She worked hard with both Grellbon and the other members of the caravan and soon became the darling of the group of merchants. Pocketing any coins she might find and doing extra jobs for whatever pittance the other caravaneers would give to her, she made enough to buy her own freedom in a mere 10 years. She left the group when she was set free, but she knew she'd be back. She had a goal in mind. She wanted to make enough money to buy the caravan out from under Grellbon and make them all work for her!
Alias had learned many things on the road and seen many different kinds of people. She had discovered many years ago that farming, or learning a trade was only going to trap her. They would provide enough money for her to live, but only just that. Alias would have to follow in her father's footsteps if she was to have the success she craved. If she wanted to make a lot of money quickly she needed to risk herself for it. She needed to become an adventurer.
For a while she lived simply as a bard, starving herself to save every penny she could. Eventually she found an old dwarven war-singer and she learned how to turn her voice into her ultimate tool and advantage. She learned what he had to teach quickly and was soon able to join mercenary bands as a bard and drummer. She would sing and play rousing marching songs to raise the spirits of her allies and gloomy dirges to bring terror and apathy into the hearts of her enemies. She continued to learn as she did this, picking up the fundamentals of sword play and defense and the basics of light fingered thievery from her mercenary brothers and sisters. Using these lessons she gathered a party around her and went on series of adventures that (Partially thanks to her talent as a song-writer.) are still the stuff of legends. Using the funds gained from those adventures she was able to fulfill her dream. Though he only grudgingly did so, Grellbon Nambrox sold the caravan and all its possessions and inventory to Alias.
Alias savored her victory and was overjoyed at her success. She would soon find even more joy however. The caravan's new magic user was a beautiful, shy and delicate woman named Merci Sparaux. Merci was honest, kind and also a hard worker. She earned every copper she made as the caravan's mage, but she also stole Alias' heart. Alias and Merci run the caravan together now as both partners and lovers.
Currently Alias and Merci travel with the caravan, expanding its trade routes and territories by exploring places off the beaten track that few other companies would dare to set foot. She's also grown famous for her voice, her fame as a bard opening many doors for her as she rises from the tragedy of her early life.
Alias is a half elf and stands about 5'4" tall. ( Around 163 centimeters) She weighs 93 lbs ( Around 42 kg.) She has warm chestnut colored hair worn in a pixie cut. She is unusual for a half elf as she has freckles on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, something only humans usually have and four inch long ears that end in sharp points. ( Half elf ears are usually only half that length and slightly rounded at the tips.) She wears a studded leather vest over a white poet shirt and tight cream color breeches with thigh high light brown leather boots. She fights with a grosse messer (german style single bladed short sword.) which she carries on a sword belt at her hip and usually travels with her guitar slung across her back.
She is cute rather than overtly sexy, with a mischeivous face easily given to smirks and winking. Her eyes are a deep, earthy brown color and she usually wears earth tones when she uses cosmetics. Her goals in life are to make things as happy as possible for herself, Merci and the Nambrox caravan which she now considers her family. If she wished she could attempt to stage a coup amongst the forest elves on the strength of her mother's royal blood. She does not wish to do so however as she feels disdain for most elves and maintains a violent anger toward her mother for selling her into slavery for the sake of wine. This ambivalence, combined with only the haziest recollection of her father is the reason she uses the name of her former master, who despite buying her still fed her and made sure she was cared for, rather than her original family name.
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