Streic was born in Selahrin to a small warrior tribe on the northern coast. When he was quite young a much larger and stronger tribe expanded into the area and came into conflict with his tribe, the larger tribe gave a ultimatum to his tribe. They would surrender the rights to their lands and serve tribute onto the larger tribe and their children would be raised as members of the larger tribe, or the larger tribe would declare war and forcibly take their lands. Streics tribe responded by killing the messenger and declared that their honor demanded that they not agree to such a thing. The larger tribe Annihilated Streics tribe in battle with ease, most of his family was killed and he and the remainders were sold to slavers.
Streic and the remains of his family were transported across the Taveric sea to the Acasi Empire, where eventually he was sold as part of a pack along with several other tribe members to a wealthy merchant family, where he was forced to work first as a general helper, and then eventually as a assistant stable boy. Around the age of 15 though the merchant family decided to resell him, he worked for a time as a manual laborer, but eventually found himself sold to a gladiatorial arena. After a light amount of training he was sent to the pit to fight for his life and the amusement of others. A bit to his surprise he found he was almost a natural with a sword, the hard labors of his youth and training, and perhaps distant memories of watching the warriors of his old tribe fight had produced in him a semi capable fighter. That said, he was not really a match for the vetern warrior he was matched against, and after a bit of a show he the older warrior put him down painfully, he was deemed entertaining enough to live by the crowd though, after a relatively short convalescence time he went back to the arena with no permanent effects other then a few scars. After surviving for several months and gaining a few more scars and a lot more skills he eventually managed to gain a small amount of notoriety for himself as a skillful, if somewhat brutal, fighter who learned how to play up to the crowd, particularly the nobles who sometimes watched from reserved seats.
In the spring of his 17th year he gained what was to be a important 'friend' in his life. A younger son of a important noble family, Hadar Asusher. This younger noble was heavily sheltered in life, and was frankly a bit foolish and sometimes foppish. He enjoyed sneaking out of his house to watch the Gladiatorial battles and he quickly became a fan of Streics persona as a fighter. Eventually Hadar bribed his way into the slave pits to see a few of his favorite fighters, Streic included. When Streic recognized the young noble as someone who often intensely watched him or often even cheered for him he realized this was his chance to escape the pits. Motioning Hadar over in a spare moment when no one else was paying attention Streic managed to talk with the young noble. Flattering him and impressing him with inflated tales of his life Streic managed to leave the impression of a honorable if slightly unintelligent savage who lived a unjust but amazing life in the mind of the young nobleman.
Springing from this a acquaintanceship between the two of them slowly grew in secret, with Hadar bribing his way into the pits to talk to Streic. After a few months of this Hadar with the encouragement of Streic managed to convinced his parents, who were at this point unaware of his actions, that he was growing up and needed to be coddled less and given more responsibility, eventually he left their house and set up his own fairly modest (for a noble) home. Which he stocked with a few slaves, some hired freemen, and Streic, who he managed to buy from the arena for a quite frankly too large amount of money. From here Streic managed to deepen his relationship with Hadar even more. As he gained more and more of his confidence a plan formed in his mind. Talking with Hadar reveled that he was generally unhappy with his lot as a younger son, no where close to getting a large inheritance and likely having to live off of his (in his eye small, which was hilarious to a man who owned absolutely nothing like Streic) allowance for quite a bit longer. Streic convinced him that he should be investing his money instead of bemoaning his station in life, and eventually together they came up with a plan to fund a merchant caravan that would carry luxury goods across the Daros mountains and into Laenaren, spinning tales of the adventures they might have Streic convinced Hadar it would even be a grand idea to go with the caravan on it's first run though. Hadars parents would be dead set against it of course, but the first they heard of the plan was a letter Hadar sent to them after leaving the city, and they had no chance to stop him or argue him out of it. And so Streic left Acasi along with Hadar, some guards, a few slaves, and a small merchant caravan. In his mind Streic envisioned that once they made it to the friendlier and heavily forested Laenaren he would be able to break away from the caravan and make his escape, freeing himself from his long slavery. By the time word of his escape made it back to Acasi he would be far to long gone for any hope of catching him to remain.
At first the trip went well, it made it out of Acasi fine, and it was about a fourth of the way over the mountains when tragedy stuck. A group of mountain bandits, fairly desperate from a lean winter, attacked the caravan on mass at the break of dawn. Heavily outnumbered, almost everyone in the caravan went to help with the defense, with the only exceptions being Hadar and two slaves, who hid in his tent. Although lacking in numbers, the guards were better equip, better trained, and in better health. Both sides took heavy casualties. Most of the bandits were in the end cut down or ran away, and the only person from the Caravan who escaped heavy injury was Streic himself. As soon as the last Bandit turned and fled Streic rushed to Hadars tent, he found Hadar shocked by the events, and as soon as he became sensible he said that he intended to turn around and return to Acasi as soon as possible. Hadar cried out in repentance for being a wayward son and promised himself that he would never again disobey his parents. Streics blood ran cold as he realized his hopes for freedom were being dashed. If he tried to run now it would only be a few days before the news would reach civilization, and he would have to move slowly on foot. It was highly likely he would be caught. Additionally, if he didn't run, it was undoubted that such a chance would be unlikely to come again, Hadar might even move back in with his parents, and they would eventually manage to piece together the new found agency in their son came from this slave, and if that happened at best they would resell him to some dangerous place like the arena again.
Streic realized that there was only one path open to him. He knelt next to Hadar and put his hand in his shoulder. Then ran his blade though the neck of his once master and almost friend. Hadar didn't utter a sound as he died. Only a slight air of confusion. Turning to the other two slaves. Streic left the tent and went among the wounded, most of they were tending to their wounds and in poor shape to fight. They stood no chance and he cut them down. Streic then turned to the slaves who watched in shock. Not willing to leave any possible witnesses he ran them though. At the end of the blood bath he stood alone in the carnage of his slaughter and the bandit attack. If luck was with him anyone who found the scene would assume the bandits had done the whole thing. After all, what was one slave more or less? And very few people knew that Hadar had a favored personal slave.
To complete the deception Streic tied together all the horses he could handle and loaded him down with all the goods they would carry. He then headed to the east though the mountain. After a few weeks of travel he found himself in
. He buried the more expensive goods he carried and let all the horses but one go free, keeping a sturdy surefooted mare. He made his way to larger city and managed to sell off the less expensive goods he stole from the caravan for what was likely way bellow it's market value but to a escaped slave was a fairly enormous amount. With this money he purchased a new set of clothing and travel supplies. Then he set off. Making his way in the world, partly by living off the money he got for selling the stolen goods, and partly by thievery. For a while he was confused with what to do with his new found freedom, but he eventually came to the conclusion that he would simply have to go on living. But also importantly, he decided to himself that he would hone his fighting skills and strength and become powerful enough that his safety and freedom would not come under threat again.
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Topic: Path to Power OOC Thread (Read 4252 times)