Surus - his life and times
It has become popular for people to write a history of their lives. Some have not yet lived long enough to have anything to write about, but they have begun the writing none the less.
So I now surrender to the fashion.
I am Surus Julianus Caesar, Weaponsmith Artificer Magnus. As much as I would wish to claim that I am indeed of that noble blood, I can not. My blood is Gaulish. In the days of my great great grandfather, he and his clan were among those who allied with the Great Caesar when he led his legions into Gaul to drive out the Elven Lords and their slave master Druids. For my great great grandfather's service for the Romans, he and his children were allowed to bear the nomen and cognomen of the Great Caesar.
For myself, I was born nigh onto eighty years ago in Lutetia on the Sequana River in the province of Lugdunensis. As with my great great grandfather and down to my father, I was born to the forge and the anvil. They, though, were not weaponsmiths, let alone artificers. Until me, my line was comprised of blacksmiths, tinsmiths and a few whitesmiths.
As the river running through Lutetia was navigable all of the way to channel between the mainland and the Elven Isle, much of my family's work was in the ironmongery for ships and boats as well as carts, wagons and chariots. We also worked in household goods of iron, copper and bronze.
As was granted to my great great grandfather, we were citizens of the Empire. It has brought peace and prosperity wheresoever its eagle nests. The stories passed down within my family of the days when all of Gaul was ruled with an iron hand by the Elven Lords make clear how much the Empire has improved our lives.
But those are for later, now more concerning me.
In my youth I was a large person. From a family of blacksmiths, it is hard to be a small person. Before age began to take its toll on me, I stood six feet tall and weight near two hundred pounds. Working bellows and wielding hammer built my strength (C & S Str 20). The smoke, though, left me with a cough which as only worsened with my age (C & S Con 17). I once was quite quick with my hands as well, doing quite intricate work (C & S Dex 20), but age has stiffened my fingers painfully. My father was quite proud the stars marked me well at birth, born under Scorpio with a good aspect would bless my work throughout my life (C & S Scorpio Well Aspected +25%). I learned swiftly (C & S IQ 19) and needed to be shown a task only once or twice before I could do it. Like my father I was plain of face (C & S Appearance 7) and the same smoke that gave me the cough left my voice rough, as was my father's (C & S Bardic Voice 8). My father taught me well in the running of our business. Later when I became a Weaponsmith Artificer, his teaching stood me in good stead as few could fool me (C & S Wisdom 15). In all I learned from him to do my best work not because I would be praised for it, but to do less than my best was to betray myself. I learned if I expect others to be trustworthy, I must myself be trustworthy (C & S Alignment 5).
In all I was raised expecting, in time, I would take over the smithy my family had worked for generations. Little did I know what a life I would lead. It was not that I had accepted the thought of being just a blacksmith so much as it had never crossed my mind to be anything else. From the time I had been able to walk, I had been with my father in the smithy. At first simply tending the fire, pushing in wood or charcoal, sometimes even coal, depending on the fire he wanted. Later, as I was bigger, I would help work the bellows. I tended the tools, cleaning and putting them away or taking them out as father needed. I would bring in the stock he needed, given I could lift it, for whatever he was making. I would run for him to tell customers what they had ordered was done. It was the way my life was and it was all I had expected that life would be.
As I was just past my thirteenth birthday and being responsible for filling some of the simpler orders completely by myself, then the Weaponsmith Artificer Magnus Hephaestos came from Massilia on the southern coast. The armory he owned there supplied the Legions with armor and weapons. While he was not one of the Thirteen, his skill with the making of weapons was known far and wide. He had made many blades now noted as Troll Slayers. There were many swamps and marshes along both coasts as well as along the Rhine. In those places the Trolls lived. It was largely because of the Trolls the Noble Elves had come into existence. Against the Trolls the common hunting tactics of the Wood Elves were ineffective and only the better armored and armed Noble Elves stood a chance. Now it was left to the Tribunes and Centurions of the Legions to deal with the Trolls.
In consulting a Diviner he had been told the time was right for him to start his life's work, but for it to succeed he had to have an apprentice worthy of assisting him. First condition the Diviner had set was the apprentice was not amongst those already in his employ. The Diviner set a birth sign and place which brought Hephaestos to Lutetia and to my father's smithy. Of those born in Lutetia under the proper sign, I was the only one who had any skill or training in the working of metal.
Magnus Hephaestos set for me some tests, to see if the quality of my work was good enough for him. Not even the journeymen in my father's employ could do some of the things he demanded of me, but I put everything I had been taught into my work. As my father had taught me, to do less than my best was to betray myself, and I met Magnus Hephaestos every challenge.
Which lead me, for the first time in my life, to leave home, going as apprentice to Magnus Hephaestos in Massilia.