Sasserine's Hammers-- Background Stories

Feel free to post your PC's background story here. You know, the kind of things that would come out over drinks or during the last 6 months of getting to know each other.

Here you go...



Character name: Raven

Residential district: Sunrise

Contest won: Pentathlon

Race: Human (Oeridian)


Origins: Raven is a foundling. Her parents were farmers who had a small plot of land in a remote spot in the foothills of the Yatil Mountains. When Raven was still very young, her parents’ home was attacked by a large group of orc-ogres who were rampaging through the ranges. They murdered her parents without mercy and burned the small farm to the ground. Thinking that the child was dead too, the orc-ogres took what they could from the farm and abandoned it.

Raven was rescued early the following day when an elven scouting group that happened to be on its way home to Highfolk after many days in the field, saw the smoke from the ruined dwelling and diverted into the Yatils to investigate. As they searched through the debris for any signs of life, the elves heard the youngster’s faint, pained cries and unearthed her from an old cast iron oven at the rear of the dwelling, where her mother had hidden her. After rendering what help they could on the spot, they took her back with them to their forest home.

Of all the human races, the Oeridians are closest to the elves – having, on occasion, even formed alliances with them - and most of those in Highfolk accepted the babe with little comment.

She remained at Highfolk with the elves for the next 23 years. Not knowing what her parents had named her, they came to call her Raven, perhaps after the long, jet black curls which cascaded over her shoulders and which she never cut. Or perhaps, the name signified the girl’s inscrutable and mysterious nature. She loved her adopted people with all her heart and they her, and she absorbed their culture, traditions and beliefs with such eagerness that her true origins were all but forgotten by most of those with whom she passed her days.

But Raven couldn’t forget and as she grew older, so the pain of her parents’ tragic deaths and the void which they had left in her life, despite the elves’ kindness, continued to deepen. Often in the evenings, when the clamour of the day was at an end, the elves would notice Raven sitting apart from the company and staring into the flames, lost in some reverie or other, struggling perhaps to give meaning to a life which had begun amid such loss and pain.

She began to disappear into the forest for long periods, sometimes not returning for days, and none of the elves knew where she went or what she did. In truth, Raven simply enjoyed the solitude and she adored the natural world around her, finding beauty in everything that grew or moved under the vast canopy of Highfolk. The peacefulness gave her time to examine her life and to decide upon a course of action.

A little over 23 years after the elves had first welcomed Raven into their community, she left them. The parting was painful on both sides and many tears were shed, yet Raven knew as she glanced back an hour later and watched Highfolk disappear finally from view, that she would never again return to the elves.

She sought to bring meaning and peace to her life and she knew that while she stayed with the elves, she could never put the pain of her parents’ loss behind her.

For six years, she journeyed across the length and breadth of Flanaess, finding work where she could, often as a guide or an escort to nobles or adventurers. She lived mostly from the land and often slept outside, never remaining for long in one place. Throughout that time, she honed to perfection the skills the elves had taught her, becoming an expert in trapping, tracking, hunting and combat. And her affinity with the natural world grew ever deeper.

Finally, Raven found herself in Sasserine, a busy, exotic melting pot of a city on the Azure Coast. She spent a little time there, finding the scent of the salt air new and exhilarating and comforted by the nearness of the wild Amedio Jungle.

She drifted naturally to the city’s Sunrise district, where the residents seemed to welcome those with a passion for the natural world and as time wore on, Raven began to think that perhaps, she might find a niche for herself, some purpose to her existence if she gave life in Sasserine a chance.

She has been there now for almost six years and while one could never really say that Raven was contented, she has made friends in Sasserine – her first since leaving Highfolk. These new relationships give meaning and focus to her life: meeting, working and socialising with these people has helped her break the self-destructive cycle of loneliness and pain which, if truth be told, was slowly choking the life spirit out of Raven.

These days, she lives in a small, two-room home in Sunrise and raises vegetables and fruit on a small plot at the rear. What she doesn’t use herself, she sells to her neighbours for coppers.

Her skills continue to be in demand from merchants, adventurers and even the odd noble and Raven has recently formed particularly strong relationships with a friendly band of like-minded adventurers – all of them former winners of contests at the Founders’ Festival.

Sasserine’s Hammers, as the group calls itself, hasn’t been in existence for long, yet already, news of their discretion and effectiveness is spreading throughout merchant circles in the port city.

At last, it seems, Raven and Teesh-ka have a purpose.

In the years since leaving the elves, Raven has grown into an attractive woman, tall and well toned with deep, irresistibly blue eyes. She remains a little awkward in company, even that of elves, but thanks to the busy life she now leads and the good people she has met in Sasserine, the sense of aimlessness and indifference which once blighted her life has all but gone.

She looks to the future with a mixture of optimism and curiosity and for the first time in her life, she’s excited about what lies ahead…



The three things most precious to Raven are:

- The well-being of the natural world
- An exquisite crocheted shawl which belonged to her mother. The elves who found her in the Yatils wrapped her in it to bring her back to Highfolk. It is the only thing she possesses which belonged to one of her parents and she treasures it.
- Teesh-ka, a two-year-old grey wolf who follows her everywhere. Raven rescued Teesh-ka as a cub when she was trapped in a hunter’s snare deep in the Burneal Forest and the animal has been with her ever since. Teesh-ka is fiercely loyal to Raven.


A secret known only to our group:

- Perhaps as a result of her terrible experience as a child, Raven has grown up with a terrifying and paralysing fear of fire.