previous next

My name is Shiv. If I have a last name I've never known it. Same holds true were you to ask about my parents, never knew 'em. I've been alone from the start of things. I can't tell you where I was born as a result, only where I was. My earliest memories are of Rune, the big city. Plenty of ways for a dwarven kid all by himself to get into trouble. Being a child forced to find his own way to live teaches you a few things, most of them pretty savage. I was swinging an axe before I even had a proper beard.

As I started to grow from my childhood into a young adult, I grew tired of living as a scamp and scoundrel. I decided to use the money I'd made killing and murdering in the alleys of Rune and ride the fabled Iron Worm to a far away land. I didn't really care where I ended up, so long as it wasn't Rune, so I just asked a few people where they were headed and threw in with them. Turns out we landed in Sigil (after an agonizingly long and boring wait for that little profiteering weasel Ganuk to show up), a city where I soon learned the best way to get ahead was to serve the local Lord, Vendredi.

Now this Vendredi character, he and I never got along real well. Sure, he asked me to do some things for him, kill someone here, visit there, and he even paid me to do it. But he always treated me like I was really nothing more than a pawn to do his bidding. In fact, the longer I stayed in Sigil the more evidence of this I saw not just in Vendredi but in the populace in general. If there's one thing you don't want in your neighborhood it's a right pissed off dwarf with an axe, and the usery I endured enraged me. Soon I was running amok, hacking away at everything in sight. Took those knights a good long time to catch me too, but eventually they did and I spent several long months in Diocletian dungeons, guess old Vendredi didn't want to have me around any more. I resolved then to learn more than the simple yet fine art of ravaging people with my axe, and sought to become more at peace. My skills as a fighter benefitted from my decision, as I studied to become a monk.

For many years I stayed there in Sigil, continuing my work for the arrogant Lord Vendredi (the simple fact that he allowed me to remain in his city after all the chaos I'd wrought being example enough of his pompous nature) and studying all the while in the ways of the Monk, in the hopes that one day I would be strong enough to topple the authority that tought itself so much superior to the common folk.

The other monks in Sigil would often imply that I spent too much time at the tavern and not enough in the temple. If you ever been in a temple you know just why I spent most of my spare time at the pub. As fate would have it, my life would turn in yet another direction as a result. Most nights the local bars would have some sort of entertainment, comedians, dancing girls, and of course bards. I'd never had a bit of appreciation for the rotten bards that would ride into town, wailing on and on about some great hero or other. They'd sit up front in their flamboyantly colored whatever you call it and pluck the strings of some shameful little violin. One such evening I was getting good and drunk at the Boar and Sickle when the looney elf bard up front challenged anyone who would accept to a musical contest of sorts. The winner would recieve some paltry amount of gold and the loser would be dumped in the slop out back. After several minutes no one had accepted this little challenge, so the now semi-humilated bard started pointing to people in the audience and yelling "Hey, you there, are you afraid lose to me?". I'm sure that scrawny elf still regrets pointing at me.

I stood up from my table, knocking it and half the people around it over. Stomping and fingering my trusty axe I approached the stage.

"Afraid of ye?!" I bellowed. "Here then, let me show ye how the dwarves make music!"

I scooped the little bastards legs right out from under 'em and started banging him into the wall. When the city guards showed up I started beating out a rhythm on their helmets and singing my own impromptu song about smashing things. Maybe being a musician wasn't such a bad gig after all I started to think, and I had plenty of time to consider it while I spent another tenure in the dungeon.

I was in a pretty foul mood by the time they let me out of the dungeons that time, and set on becoming a new breed of bard. The kind that sang to the tune of battle. My instruments were the skulls of my enemies as I once again went amok, this time swathing a path of destruction through Diocletian and Lake Bonns. Beasts and men alike fell before me, my mind could only think to kill. The law was closing in on me once again, and I wasn't about to return to the dungeon, so I fled back to Rune and continued north to New Rigel.

I bought a ratty sagging old shack there and tried to get on with things. New Rigel, however, was not for me. After a very short time I left the city and wandered through the wilderness of Alyria. I had lost my focus, I had no direction. For a time I was certain I would simply lie down under the stars one night and not bother getting back up. There's no mystical reason for my next realization, no epiphany delivered from the gods or a woman of incredible beauty. As it would be, I merely woke up and remembered my purpose. Bringing down the powers that played the world like that bard played his flute. I remained in the wilds, my mind becoming clear once more. I studied the might of nature and the power she had to offer. This time of reflection has taught me much, and some now label me Druid.

I'm still mastering the finer points of nature's strength, all the while singing my songs and swinging my axe. Every now and then I even use a little something the stuffy Monks taught me. I've left Sepharia now, and journeyed to Beltane where I'm currently under the employ of Lord Maldra. I think Maldra and I are going to get along just fine, a no nonsense kind of guy that one. Many of the great "heros" the bards sang of in Sigil reside here, and I've had my chance to meet a few of them. The songs give them far too much credit. Someday I'll return to Sigil, to set the bards straight and to knock the perpetual smile off that fool Vendredi's face.

previous top next