Daeron Stonewall

[Daeron Stonewall]

Born : Skara Brae
Age : 40
Skills : Fishing

Daeron was born to an impoverished family in Skara Brae, the roots of his family are unknown, where his father Delan and mother Romana had moved out of necessity for unskilled work was hard to find in the years of his birth.  From an early age he followed the trade of his father and became a capable fisherman.  He was only 12 when disaster struck Skara, a raiding party of bandits ransacked the outer settlements of Skara Brae, his father, amongst many other citizens, was killed in a brave but futile attempt to see off the bandits. His mother managed to hide Daeron in a patch of undergrowth a short distance from their home, but when the bandits started to search the surrounding area for survivors she realised he would surely be discovered and plucking all her courage she made much noise and ran out of the undergrowth, hoping to distract the searchers. In this she was successful, but was herself captured and taken away as a thrall.

Dismayed and helpless Daeron waited in the cold for several days, before creeping back to the centre of Skara Brae .... there to his horror he saw it had been completely devastated. This however helped as, despite his tender years, the elders of Skara were greatful of any help and Daeron worked ceaslessly to help rebuilding the place he had come to call home. He was made a man.

As he reached the age of eighteen a wanderlust came over him and he longed to journey and see what he knew must be a big world - he'd spent many evenings listening to the various travelers who visited Skara telling stories in the local inn's about places of wonder and beasts of terror.

One day he was down by the quayside fishing, when an old journeyman sat beside him and talked to him about his travels and listened to Daeron's own tale and suggested that maybe, just maybe, Daeron's future lay outside of Skara. Daeron jummed at the chance to travel and it was agreed that he could work his passage on the journeymans boat as far as he wished to go. He sold what little he had and no longer needed then gave the money to the elders of Skara, to help provide for the poor, homeless and hapless of Skara, of which there were still many. So it came, late in that year Daeron and his new found friend set sail .... for where he knew not, but he knew his life's journey had begun.

After many years of traveling from port to port, mending nets, fishing and doing odd jobs to provide for himself and the now aging captain they had docked in Vesper where to Daeron's dismay the captain announced he was now too old to travel and was going to settle in Vesper. Unable to travel on alone Daeron found himself in Vesper, for a time he was happy. After three summers the captains health finally failed him and he passed on, quietly in his sleep. Unable to sail alone and unwilling to remain in Vesper Daeron sold his only possesion, the captains boat, which with the captain having no living relatives, was his. With the money he raised from the sale he paid passage to go to Britain of which he had heard much, but knew so little. It was at this time that his mind wandered to thoughts of his mother, not for the first time and certainly not for the last.

Arriving in the hustle and bustle of Britain at first he was lost, but he soon busied himself trying to further his skills and learn all that he could about the wide world and all that it had to offer....he learned many lessons from people both kind and devious and for a while had a comfortable, if basic, life. Eventually, realising that he would need money if he were to make anything of himself he took up prize fighting as an easy, but painful, way to earn coins and spent many a night in the taverns drinking, outside the taverns brawling, in time he became well respected among the traders and locals of Britain.

Several years passed by when news of new lands reached his ears, lands it was said that were the home of a new kind of people, who lived a life based of meditation and the following of strict codes and behaviour ... the Tokuno isles. One of his more ambitious friends suggested that in the new lands there would be opportunities a plenty for those willing to work, and fight ... so Daeron, along with several of his friends set off towards the new isles. It was not an easy journey and many things, good and bad, happened along the way, but after just over a year they arrived in the new lands.

Sure enough when they arrived, there was work for all, but poorly paid, so once again he and his friends started prize fighting....here Daeron was to learn much, a new style of fighting. As with all things he was quick to learn and soon became quite well known in the area for his fighting skills. He spent much time talking among the locals and trying to learn of their ways and beliefs.

One day he was sitting deciding what to do for the day when a messanger came from Twikano Zal, a lady of some position and distinction in the area, she had heard of his reputation and requested he attend her, as she had an matter of great importance to discuss with him. Intrigued he set off at once, but when he arrived at her home Twikano was in great distress and she explained that her young son, Mikal, had been taken by bandits and that a ransom demand had been made. Thinking back to his early days in Skara, and the kidnap of his mother, he told Twikano that he would do all he could to return her son unharmed. A place to deliver the ransom had been supplied, but Twikano dare not tell her own people as she was sure they would try to regain her son by force and she felt the risk was to great....all she wanted was the return of her son. She supplied Daeron with the requested ransom and with all the details supplied in the note and he set off to recover the taken child. He ventured far into the outlying areas off the isles, a perilous journey in itself, but, at last, he came to a tumbled down building that had been described in the ransom note. Here, using his skill and guile he lay low and prepared for a long wait. Days passed by, but he waited patiently, at last a group of bandits hove into view....still he waited and as the hours passed several more arrived and they set up camp. Not knowing what to do, eventually, Daeron decided to wait until nightfall and approach the camp fire, but just as he was about to some more people appeared in the distance...more bandits, but this time with them they had a train of people roped together, with a brute at the real forcing the captives forward with threats and the constant use of a whip. Daeron remained in hiding as the course they were following would mean they would pass very close  to him and then maybe he could make his move. As they approached he could see three youngsters, two girls and a boy, the boy he knew must surely be Mikal, but a greater shock was in store for Daeron. At the rear of the train of young captives was roped an older woman and as the group closed in on his place of hiding the campfire lit up the faces of the slaves...the woman was his Romana, his mother. A rage the like of which he had never felt rose up in him and he charged from his cover screaming. Such was the suddeness and ferocity of his charge that the bandits immediate response was to scatter and abandon their captives, all apart from the brute with the whip. Daeron ran him through without a seconds thought and cut the bindings from the prisoners, he told his mother, to take the children into the undergrowth and wait. Flashbacks of Skara Brae were in his mind, and he walked slowly and deliberately towards where the bandits were re-grouping, ready to fall as he was outnumbered ten to one, but running was no option.

As he approached them the bandits slowly drew their weapons, readying themselves for the bloody fight that was surely to follow, when all of a sudden there was what sounded like a clash of cybals and a blinding flash which temporarily blinded Daeron, he rubbed his eyes in an attempt to regain his sight and when he could see once again he saw that several of the bandits dropped lifeless to the ground, whilst the others were running for their lives. Daeron turned to see Twikano standing behind him, she was there, but again, not there...more of a shimmering image but she smiled, nodded and vanished. Quickly Daeron, his mother and the children collected there thoughts and moved off in the direction from which he had come, hoping to get a distance away from the fleeing bandits, before they came back looking for their lost captives. Three days passed before they returned to Twikano's home and in that time he had time to talk with his mother and discover that her life, though as a thrall, had not been too harsh, she had lived with that bandits and raised their children as she would her own, but of late they had traveled to Tokuno and the bandits had decided on kidnapping as a profitable side-line to their usual thuggery.

Twikano was overjoyed to see the return of her beloved Mikal, as were the parents of the two small girls, also kidnapped, but being re-united with his mother was more of a reward that Daeron could have hoped for and he and his mother stayed with Twikano for several weeks and in this time it was suggested that maybe his motherm would remain in Twikano's service to help raise Mikal, this all agreed was a good idea. Twikano and the parents of the two girls insisted a reward must be given to Daeron, for his brave deeds, but what ? Money Daeron had, certainly sufficient for his needs, armour and weapons he had all he needed, he thought long and hard. Twikano suggested that maybe that he should have something that would set him aside from most and there was something she could do as she was a very capable alchemist who had learned from her mother how to blend and imbue lichen into hair and clothing, abilities that were foreign to the lands in which Daeron would live his life. It seemed a fitting reward to Daeron, and so the kind Twikano used her skills to make Daerons hair a colour unlike any he had seen, with this he was pleased as it did truly set him apart, also it marked him as a friend of Twikano's family and the people of the Tokuno lands, as this was their custom.

After a time, seeing his mother settled and happy, Daeron decided it was time to move on and see more of the world whilst he promised to return to see his mother, Twikano and Mikal, who had become like a son to him, often and in later years he promised he would train Mikal in the art of combat. But time was pressing and he decided that he would return to Vesper, however there was one final twist in his fate. The ship he was traveling on to return to Vesper was caught up in a ferocious tempest and blown off course and for many weeks was lost, but at last land was seen and eventually the ship weighing anchor in Cove. Here, cold, wet and hungry Daeron decided to go looking for a local tavern to get some food and a nights rest, intending to continue his journey to Vesper the following day. However fortune was to smile on him once again, because whilst walking across Cove docks he met Anton and Qom. He had never visited Cove before, but had heard about it whilst living in Vesper and the greeting he received from Anton and Qom was so friendly and welcoming that he decided that he would remain in Cove and do all he could to help Cove and its people.

After a long, long journey it seems that Daeron Stonewall had at last has found a place to call home.