Beginnings.

In a far-off land, in a peaceful village full of all kinds of people big and small, we come to a young man, a human sitting in a booth, he has his gaze deep into a notebook, or perhaps a journal. No, he is not taking notes, nor is he doing his best to draw as many an attractive woman he sees, no he is writing his story, my story. He is me, now I know what you're thinking, oh perfect another boring journal entry story, I can assure you that's not what this is. Confusing I know. Let's just go to the beginning, shall we?

My name is Shane Crowfeather the youngest of two sons, my hair has been described as black a the feathers of a crow, my skin is a darker tan, similar to a bronze-like color, my eyes are a simple brown, I have a pretty fit body type if I do say so myself, sadly it's mostly pretty scarred up. I have a bit of a medium-sized beard, it's getting a little too long for my taste to be honest. As for my surroundings, I am currently in a decent pub run by a very pretty dwarven woman, she seems to have wide hips that hypnotically sway from side to side, likely to grab the attention of a few staring patrons. I remember being with a woman like her, long before my elven wife. It's a long story that I'm sure people would likely enjoy. Of course, I will tell the said story, but where to begin? Perhaps at the beginning. The very beginning.

Long ago, in the free and diverse nation of Ulvenguard, east of the capital city of the empire of Vescolar, there was a young human man by the name of Sebastián Crowfeather who had fallen in love with a tall and muscular woman by the name of Silifrey Stormwind. Their relationship was strange, Silifrey did not speak common too well, but Sebastián would often communicate for her and even understand her when she was trying to communicate something. Long and oddly adorable story short, they wed and had two sons, my older brother Dante, and of course me. We spent most of our time together living in relative peace, yet when we heard there was going to be a war, we had to leave, unfortunately, my mother refused to come with us, she said it was her duty to fight and protect her family.

We made a new home on the black islands, where we had come to find out that my father was an assassin and a good one at that. In fact, he was the leader of the famous Twilight Crow organization. During our time on the island, he and other members of the organization had taught us how to fight, how to sneak away, and get away with murder. However, while we were learning all these new skills, my father had received news that my mother had died in battle having taken several arrows to the chest. My father was, distraught to say the least. We continued our training but he had always been distant, perhaps we reminded him too much of our mother. While on our free time away from training I would always be at his side and listen to him tell stories about his adventures as a young rogue and how he would join with groups and other adventuring parties on long quests to save cities and towns from danger, and how he once landed the final blow to an ancient red dragon, he even told me stories about when he was with our mother and the times they spent together. Soon enough, he trained with us again, though he did put more of a focus on me, at the time I thought that it was because of the gestures, and because I was the youngest I would need the most help. Oh, how wrong and naive I was.

At the age of 13, the oldest child was supposed to receive the father's sword, it was a tradition my father experienced, even though he was the only child. However, before the ceremony, my father called us both into his office space to privately speak with us. He stood in front of us both and said that I would be the one receiving his sword. Confused we asked him why, he explained that while we trained he watched as our behavior seemed to change, how I seemed to be more heartfelt and honored those whose life I would have taken while my brother Dante would almost always be ruthless and cruel in the way he would take a life. As he was walking away, Dante had pulled out a dagger and stabbed him in the back right in front of me. Before I could react or even ask why, He ran out the door and screamed, "Murder! Murder! My brother committed a murder!" Without a second thought, I took my father's sword and ran as fast as I could.

As I ran I felt a sharp agonizing pain in my shoulder, I turned to see an arrow had found its way into my shoulder. in intense pain, I ran faster, trying hard to tune out the pain I was feeling. More arrows flew in my direction, a few missed but others had found their mark, seeing a boat on shore I ran even faster, my legs burning and screaming for me to stop but I couldn't. With whatever strength I had left I pushed the boat out into the open sea and hopped in. When I was safe I took out the arrows carefully and passed out, not knowing where I was gonna end up or where I was even going.

I had lost count of the days that passed me by since my escape. I had no direction of where I was or where I was going. The only thing that I could feel was the scorching sun during the day and the freezing cold winds during the night. I had no water, no food, and the unattended wounds I still had from the arrows that fired upon me. Yet even after all that it seems the gods would not let me die. Perhaps they planned a more glorious death or at least one where I'm on land and have a chance to put up a fight before I inevitably pass through the platinum gates of the grand haven.

One slowly dimming afternoon, my boat had made contact with a much larger ship, all I heard before I had passed out were orders to get me and anything I had in the boat onto the deck, after that I immediately passed out, not knowing how much time had passed since then. When I finally woke up, the sting of my now bandaged injuries was one of the first things I noticed, the next was that it was pitch black outside and the only light in the room was the faintly lit lantern gently swinging from side to side. Still injured, I slowly made my way out of the room and onto the deck of the ship. There I heard a very thick accent from behind me, "bonjour young human. I see that you have finally returned to the world of the living. We were afraid you would not wake up monsieur, three days is not a good sign for those left at sea. You are a very lucky boy." I turned to see a very beautiful red-skinned tiefling, her eyes were a bright and golden yellow, her fangs white and sharper than any dagger, and her hair, like the ocean, was wavy and dark wine in color. "Before we continue, would you kindly tell us your name monsieur...?" She asked staring right at me, giving me a smug little smile, I stood as tall as I could, looked directly at her golden eyes, and said, "Shane Crowfeather. My name is Shane Crowfeather." And this is only the beginning of our story.