Tadhg (pronounced "Taig", basically) hails from the rocky coastal mountains along the Safferine Sea, where the clans of the Saffer people had made their home for as long back as their history goes. The land there is harsh and unfruitful, and her people makes their living mostly of fishing and herding sheep up along the mountainsides. The sea itself is rugged and treacherous, full of islets, sea stacks and skerries that makes traversing it very dangerous unless you know the way through, and among the cliffs there are lots of hidden inlets and caves only accessible depending on the tides, which the population have learnt to use to their advantage. Despite this the region still sees relatively heavy traffic as it lies along an important trading route, forcing ships which are unable to to traverse the open sea to try to make their own way through the deceitful archipelago or hire Saffer "protection" to guide them through it.
The Saffer clansmen has always been known as seafarers and have a reputation as skilled sailors. Many centuries ago their ships travelled far and wide and and became infamous and feared as murderers and plunderers, first as mercenaries in the service other powers, then as raiders burning their way along the coasts, and lastly as conquerors and kings. Their names became synonymous with death and tragedy, and their warriors earned a reputation for bloodlust and their wild, untempered way of fighting.
But that was long ago. The last Saffer kingdom on foreign lands is long gone, and even their own homeland has been claimed by other conquerors, and the Saffer people themselves reduced back to bickering clans in constant feuds among themselves. However, their reputations - both good and bad - remains, but now as of how their whole people is a bunch of honourless and petty pirates, thieves, looters and general scum, making the journey down theirs coast much more dangerous than it would have to be. An unfair generalization to be sure, but life in the mountains is hard and thankless, and when your children cries of hunger in their sleep, then sneaking down to the coast and lighting a misleading bonfire in order to wreck and loot a passing ship might no longer seem as an impossible act, even to an honest and good man. Of course, far from all the criminals along the coast have as good reasons for their piracy. Some are in it for the violence and the gold. Tadhg's father was one of them.
Vinsween Maeloc, the man in question, had himself had a short career as an adventurer, mercenary, and conscienceless murderer-for-hire, earning him enough money to go back home and live in luxury, relatively speaking, and a fair deal oprominence and influence over his fellow clansmen. He commanded several boats and owned the biggest inn in the glorified fishing village they called a town, The Mermaid's Tear, which served both as a inofficial town hall as well as the base of operations for the less reputable side of Vinsween's business. The name for the inn he had taken from one of the stories of his adventuring life he liked to tell - how the silver tear earring he always wore was a real mermaid's tear, given to him personally after she had fallen in love with him. Or so he claimed. The man was full of old stories and loved to boast, and every person staying at the inn when he was around would end up listening to him talk for hours. And it wasn't just his own stories, he loved tales in general, and had a special place in his heart for the old Safferine legends of the old days and their long gone glory. A sociable fellow, all agreed, and quick to aid his fellow clanbrothers when they needed aid.
Then there was said less reputable side. Vinsween made most of his money pirating and wrecking ships passing through, then used the network of hidden caves to hide the loot before selling or smuggling it away. The most honest work he'd do was extort ships into paying him money for protection and guidance, and more than once he ambushed them anyway if he thought there to be a good enough prize to be won. In his adventuring rays he had loved the violence and the battle-fury that would come over him, and settling down and starting a family did nothing to change this. Instead he brought his children along, despite the danger to their lives, wanting them to grow up into hard men and women capable of continuing his legacy.
Such was the environment that Tadhg spent his childhood in. Tadhg was never his father's favourite, he was always too wet-hearted, he'd say, but ironically the boy still grew up to be the biggest in the family, both of height and shoulders. Tadhg never really took to his father's work either - sure, he greatly enjoyed fighting and brawling, but he couldn't feel the same kind of disregard for other people's lives as Vinsween did for his victims. Instead, he focused on learning the other trades necessary at sea, how to navigate and steer, and how to repair and maintain the ships themselves. He often thought about leaving home, and spent days and weeks living alone in the mountains, particularly as be grew older and the rift between him and his father became more and more pronounced.
Perhaps he would have left on his own accord one day too, hut that never came to pass. When he was around the age of fifteen the empire had finally had enough of the piracy and started an extensive campaign to curb the criminal elements along the coast. Which, in this case, translated to razing potential pirate harbours to the ground and killing off large amounts of those who lived there. Vinsween's town, he having gained a bit of reputation the previous years, was among the first to be hit - the imperial army and rival clansmen in their service descended upon the settlement in the late hours of the night, setting fire to as many boats as they could and many of the buildings buildings, and killing every man and woman who even looked like they would try to stop them. Tadhg never saw what happened with his older brothers, but he did find his father's body in the street right in the doorway to their house, still clutching his favourite axes in death. The sight of his father convinced him that fighting was futile, so he dragged the body back in through the door. He said his final farewells, figuring he would never get another chance, then took his father's earring and axes and hid with his younger siblings in the inn's basement.
He was found when the fighting was over. The axes were taken from him, though he managed to conceal the teardrop, and he and his kin was brought out in front and bundled together with the other survivors of the settlement. The older men were summarily judged to hang for piracy, and those of younger age pressganged into service, Tadhg among them. He was separated from his remaining family and brought to a distant destination.
Because of his even at this age considerable size, Tadhg was chosen to be apprenticed to the army engineers, hard work that required much strength and endurance. Though the finer points of the trade were never his thing, Tadhg still had some talent for the building and handling of siege engines, and he soon came to see battle and war. He grew a reputation as a fierce fighter himself, often resorting to using the heavy, oversized hammers the engineers used, and he found that he came to trust his new company, and in time he thought of them as brothers and family. He grew proud of the banner that symbolized them. Sometimes he felt shame over it, wondering how he could possibly feel anything but hate for the nation that had murdered his kin and what kind of man he was who felt that way, but over time these doubts came less and less often, and regardless, it was his brothers-in-arms he felt loyalty to, not the lords and rulers of the realm. It was their banner, not the king's flag. The past became the past, and he was too busy making sure he survived the present.
And time moved on. Eventually Tadhg was dismissed from service, and he left. Unsure of where to go next, he wandered tlalong the main tradeways, taking whatever jobs he could find. He thought about going back to the Safferine coast, and maybe look for his old family, but he decided not to. The life he had lived there had burned to ashes with the town itself. The future laid ahead of him. He just had to keep going down the roads to find it.
Finished. Sort of.
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Topic: D&D 5e: Adventurers of the Lost Isle OOC (Full up!) (Read 112114 times)