Child of the Mountainhomes
Age of Darkness, Year 374, First of GraniteYou are Libash Zustash'Alak, hailing from The Arduous Spires; A stern dwarven woman of the north. At fifteen years of age, and under urging to reconsider your decision, you took to the military. The years since, have been mainly spent in the pursuit of martial, and situational prowess - both plenty needed to fight the collective enemy.
Looking back, you are satisfied with your progress.
Limited Combat Experience
Your battles, weren't much of that, and haven't hardened you just yet.
Safe for mopping up the local wildlife, clearing out feral goblins, and bruising up insurgents, your combat experiences are still lacking. Well - the military does like to play it a bit on the safer side, especially with recruits.
Trained Solder of The Arduous Spires
You have been trained in the common ways of combat.
Next to extensive practical combat training with axe, armour and shield, you have also been taught how to take care of such equipment, marching and combat in formation, the use of a crossbow, basic humanoid anatomy, and under-siege combat.
Schooled Enemy of Darkness
You have been trained to fight against the dark forces.
Extensive information about the locally appearing threats, their common combat tactics, their dangers and weaknesses, single-combat and formation tactics to exploit them, and spotting ambushes, have been taught, and trained into you.
Budding Sub- & Arctic Survivalist
You have been trained to survive in the north.
Building shelter from ice, spotting blizzards in advance, the footprints of local wildlife, the seven edible plants of the tundra, basic first aid, and avoiding - as well as treating - ice-burn, has been ingrained into your brain. During several drills, you also had to prove this knowledge, by surviving up to two weeks without supplies. Yes, not even booze. (It was horrible.)
Decent Linguist
You have a basic understanding of local languages.
Basic human- and elven-speak, mostly geared towards either trading, or combat situations, have been taught to you. You also have a rough understanding of kobold pidgin, limited by individual speakers and tribes.
With most of your time spent in exercises far from your temporary home, some bare-bone barracks fates know where, you have become quite used to travelling around. This time, it is no different, with you and your peers spending two weeks on the road to make it in time. Over the course of the next week, several caravans will leave the capital Umid Deler'mishar - Titans Fall, and while not the last to do so this season, they will certainly be those, that will travel the furthest.
Over the course of the last month, you have packed everything important that you brought, or received during your service - and sold off the rest. Better, to travel light. All together, your gear weighs in at around ninety pounds, which is well within reason of what you are used to carry. Marching several weeks, or sprinting short distances, among the basics of training.
Document of Advancement: Unceremoniously handed over to you a few days prior, it assures your standing as soldier.
Dwarven-Steel Battle-Axe & Shield: Your chosen "tools of the trade", attentively cared for.
Hand-held Crossbow: Comes with 20 quivered bolts, for killing before your first axe-strike, and formation tactics.
Dwarven-Steel Armour Set: Not your second skin just yet, but you are getting there.
Comfy Yak-Pelt Undercoat: Keeps you warm, while keeping frost-bite and abrasions away.
Small Travel Barrel: For no dwarf, should ever suffer prolonged sobriety!
- Filled with Gnome-Whip: Triple-burned spirit - quarter the content, thrice the punch!
Seal-Hide Sleeping Gear: Fluffy white fur, warm - and hydrophobic. What's not to love?
Arctic Survival & Travel Gear: First aid, fishing line, fire starters, nightshade pill, clothes, other odds and ends.
Coin-Purse & Personal Belongings: Five silver towers, sixty copper chips, mothers heirloom ring and some womanly secrets.
With a thud at your icy door, you are brought back from your musings. Instructor Idór, in whose care you and nine fellow recruits have been for the past five years, urges you to hurry; Half of your lot, was ready hours before dawn, and by now they want to get a move on. Hastily complying with his request, the whole troop is gathered a few minutes later. Having chosen your nightly dwelling based on its proximity to the city, it only takes your group half an hour to reach it. After passing through several thick walls and military controls, it is another half an hour before you actually reach your goal.
It is not your first time coming to the capital, but you find the great hall to be, once more, impressive. The place famed in several legends, the most important obviously the slaying of Deler'mishar, the steel-titan, at the hands of Melic, the human demigod. The mighty titans blood, copiously spilt during combat and its death throes, formed the only known veins of natural steel, and some of them have been preserved to this day. Needless to say, they are off-limits for everyone, with the parts on display encased in clear glass.
This great hall, once the titans lair, is currently overflowing with the activity of thousands. Caravan organizers loudly proclaim their travelling routes, while the local merchants try to sell some last-minute wares to the enlisting soldiers - obviously at highly inflated prices. Several military officials, while behaving far more subdued, get equally long lines of enlists, though mostly from seasoned veterans.
Having said their goodbyes prior, over several inebriated evenings, your small group of eleven splits up. Most of you agree, that it was a good time - all of you agree, that you wouldn't want to do it a second time. At least some parts of it. The other freshly-minted soldiers, make a beeline into the bustling mass of people, while the Instructor is already catching up with some former recruit of his - a balding man in his fifties. Poor sod, the later one.
Having informed yourself five years prior, you have a keen understanding of what the soldiering life has to offer. You could enlist with a station of your choosing, take a closer look at the capital, or even seek out employment yet unknown to yourself. Dawdling around for too long though, might find yourself in front of closed doors.
~
For now, these are the possibilities that you are aware of:Join the northern front-line! (
Unavailable)
To put it bluntly, without climbing the military ranks, or recognized deeds of merit, most dwarves under forty just aren't eligible to be stationed at the northern forts. Enough veterans die each year as it is, with everyone better of in the long run, if greenhorns gather experience elsewhere, instead of dying in vain.
Guard a Northern Trading Caravan (1 Year, Extendible)
Going around the northern human kingdoms, the wares are mostly made by apprentice smiths, or failed creations of higher-tiered crafters. Still, dwarven-make, is dwarven-made, and any tool, weapon or armour the local market doesn't sell, will just be traded further southwards by them. What the caravans return with, is necessities for living and crafting, plus any important information that was to be had at the taverns.
Run a Tour as Enforcer (1 Year, Extendible)
A bit more selective than guarding a caravan, are the duties that enforcers have to shoulder. The long arm of the military high court, they put the axe to any deserters, traitors, true-steel smugglers, and the boot to any uprising insurgents. It is just, but dirty work, and one of the better ways to start a career in the military at a young age.
Enlist as Guard to a Punitive Facility (1 Year, Extendible)
Guarding a den of miscreants not guilty enough to put to the axe, but not innocent enough to go free, is not one of the most sought-after employments. To deal with insurgents and frequently violent criminals, is something that only specific mindset can do. To those that manage, future employment as a Punitive Overseer might come into view.
Guard a Kingdoms-bound Trading Caravan (1,5 Years+)
Led by an official ambassador, these caravans cut deep into the human controlled "Hundred Kingdoms". Safe for goblins and desperate bandits, they do so relatively unhindered - any serious attack on an ambassador promising war upon any local faction involved. As one would expect from the feuding race, the b-rank weapons go for high prices, while the bounty of their lands go for far less.
Guard a South-bound Trading Caravan (2 Years +)
Participate in the journey towards our eastern brethren, The Menacing Glare. While many of their practices are, well, questionable, they are dwarves, and the sole supplier for some rare materials. As The Gems of Toiling also send their caravans there, it is a hot-spot for important information, and wares from all three dwarven civilizations.
Optional: South-bound One-Way Trip (3 Years+)
It is not strictly illegal, but heavily frowned upon, to leave the caravan without prior notice - be it to study our eastern cousins, or head even further south towards the grand cavern. Deciding to do so beforehand, is far less frowned upon. Deciding against such an initial plan, and hurriedly leaving behind our erring kin in favour of the northern lands, is more welcomed though, second only to not bringing up such foolishness in the first place.
You also might want to decide upon the colour and speech of our fair lady:For now I went with a navy blue in ascii, due to her being an axe-dwarf, but any input otherwise, is obviously welcome.
Will Include current status, watered-down traits, equipment, and that should pretty much be it.
Right now though, it will only hint at the fact that this thread will be more organized in the near future, and you won't gain much from reading this. Funny how that works, eh?
What? What was that? You wanted to have a look at the great hall?
Aww~, We~ll. These opening posts are "heavy" enough as they are, but if you want to explore, or once we return, I assure you that you just might get a closer look. That, or you won't, as a hall filled by thousands, would take hours to create. So.. the later option, I wager. ;3
On a more serious note, I took the liberty of smuggling a " ' " into the last name of our protagonist, as I tend to "treat" such double-names in this manner. Will revert this change upon public outrage.