einaror, svend

Abilities

Svend was born into the simple life of a farmer and for the first twenty years of his life, it suited him well. He was an only child, brought about in a modest one room shack in Hryst's hinterlands. The land his family owned had been originally staked out a century ago by his great grandfather; one of the original pioneers who trekked northwards after the sundering of the empire. The four acre plot featured rich soil, and Svend's ancestors settled, building the shack in which he now dwelled. For three generations, the Einaror's prospered.

He spent his childhood in the collapse of that flourishing age. They were only little things at first; a small plot of land becoming bare, crop yields slightly diminishing from the previous year. These minute issues were dismissed by Svend's mother and father. The land has always provided, and the Einaror's had always endured. These signs, however, were only the beginning.

It was during Svend's fourteenth year when the first real famine hit. Whether due to some divine intervention or simply a lack of agricultural innovation, the harvest failed. Facing winter with a severely reduced larder, Svend's father Torvik was forced to travel by ship to the more populous areas of Hryst to work as hired labor. They scraped by the first winter on Torvik's meager wages and prayed the following spring would be bountiful. It was not.

Another harvest failed to come to fruition, forcing Svend's father to take passage by ship once more and seek work. It was here when tragedy struck, the small ship Torvik booked passage on was obliterated in icy waters, sending him to a watery tomb. As his father passed on, so did Svend and his mother Hilda's chances of surviving the winter on their own. Their fellow neighbors took pity on them, and sheltered the pair for the winter. Their neighbors explained, with regret, that they could not do the same again for the son and mother, as the recent rash of poor crop yields was affecting all of the families in the region.

Perhaps the earth had been appeased by Torvik's death, as the following year the land seemed to rebound from its sluggishness. It was here that Svend's legendary vitality was revealed as he worked soil vigorously for hours on end. Farmers from around the area were awestruck, watching this boy of sixteen work entire fields by himself. Svend was oblivious to his peers' reverence. In his mind, he was only driven to make sure neither he nor his mother were in want, as they were the past two seasons.

The true nature of the boy's hardiness was indeed a work of Hryst's patron deity Brynne. Why she chose to bless this boy is a question only she could answer. Most ironic was the fact that Svend's family paid little heed to Brynne. Their life was filled with too many chores for them to ever consistently worship. A strong religious connection for the Einarors was a luxury they had not yet been afforded.

Svend's labors reaped a plentiful bounty. In fact, the yield from the farm was immense enough for the family to sell their extra produce at market. Piling what excess grains and vegetables they could into their rickety wagon, they headed down the road to the markets in their tiny village. It was here where Svend was lovestruck by wispy femme by the name of Laila. Bold enough, or perhaps thick enough, to saunter right up the lass and speak to her. After a few months Svend had not only successfully courted Laila, but also acquired the blessing of the girl's father to marry. He and his new bride would retire to Svend's family plot, and along with his mother would live in plenty for several years.

For more than a decade, Svend and his family prospered in the hinterlands. Laila gave birth to a son, named Timann on Svend's twenty seventh birthday. The following six months were the most blissful that Svend had experienced since the death of his father. During this period, however, is when Svend began to suffer from an "itch". There was something that stirred in the deep recesses of his being, urging him out of the pastoral lifestyle he had embraced. He yearned for adventure, but his duties as father and husband kept him bound in the only life he had known.

What, praytell, could break these chains? Only the gods truly know.

OOC