(no subject)
Earlier I mentioned being excited about roleplaying a halfling thief in our newest D&D adventure. I decided during the down time that I would write up a lil' history of his to share. Hope you enjoy. (I did not check grammar or spelling so I may edit it later, but I just wanted to get out there)
Edit: Fixed some spelling/grammar errors. Also rereading this made me realize I had left out an important detail. That detail being the loophole in the disownment contract. Ralth would be allowed back into the family if, and only if, his older brothers could not in any way fufill their duties as head of the household when the time came.
Ralth Dinfarther von Ralskalper III
Halfling Rogue, Vagabond Extraordinaire
Ralth was born into the house Ralskalper, a noble line of the Leaf Empire. His father is Jaren, once part of an engineering duo with his brother Belwyn, but had to move on from that career to politics when their father passed away, family affairs called and Jaren had to oblige. Unfortunately, being in an aristocratic environment made Jaren more arrogant and snobby than ever before, being a noble made him so, and becoming part of the government merely inflated his ego. Ralth’s mother, Amarisa, was almost the polar opposite of his father. She is a kind and compassionate soul. Amarisa was born a commoner and caught the eye of Jaren, after wooing her, and several hundred feet of legal documentation, the marriage was allowed and Amarisa was considered noble. Together they had seven children as it is commonplace for the noble homes to have several children, to try and have as many boys as possible to keep the family name going. Ralth came in at number six.
Ralth’s childhood was simple, if not opulent. He was practically (and sometimes literally) offered everything on a silver platter. Unlike his brothers and sisters, Ralth was a quiet one and mostly kept to himself, tinkering with objects around the house. His older siblings tried time and time again to contort him to their whims, if he denied his brothers would beat him, his sisters would tease him unmercifully. Ralth was never one to back down from them, but he would always wait to enact his revenge, he was always more subtle about it. If Ralth’s brothers would beat him, perhaps the next day they would find themselves tripped up, flat on their faces; bloodied nose, spinning to face their would be attacker they would find nothing but the shadows. If his sisters teased him, perhaps their favorite doll would go missing, only to be found a couple days later charred in a box conveniently placed by their bedroom door.
Then came the day the seventh child was born, Ralth’s baby sister Nymira. At first Ralth figured she would be no different from his other sisters, and even though she was younger, would find a way to look down her nose at him. This was not to be though, as Nymira grew, the similarities between them became more and more apparent. The two became inseparable, and Ralth took it upon himself to not let the others burden her or influence her. As Ralth got older, he would defend himself or Nymira openly against his siblings. He became too quick for his brothers, and his tongue grew too sharp for his sisters, and eventually through the futility, they gave up.
As adolescence came, the time of home schooling was abandoned and the university called. At first Ralth abhorred the university for the first couple of years, his father chose the courses and they were all far too boring. The time came where he was able to choose his own courses, and again his father chose for him, but did allow Ralth to pick a couple for himself. Ralth immediately when for the engineering courses, and for the first time he could ever remember his father smiled and told him of his past endeavors with Ralth’s uncle. “You still have to learn the ways of business and politics in case the time comes and you are needed, this way you will be ready. But seeing as we share the same interest as young men I will allow you seek out the knowledge your uncle and I sought after.” With a thank you, he left his father’s study overjoyed. Ralth excelled in his studies as an engineer, as well as the newly founded mechanics courses. There was even talk of Ralth taking an apprenticeship with his uncle Belwyn. It seems though, that time would never come.
Even though Ralth excelled at his studies, he was known as a bit of a class clown. His classmates would find their books or tools missing if they annoyed him too much. He even tried out for a couple of plays, and even though his acting wasn’t great, he always looked the part; and this lead to him garnering a kind of infamy throughout the school. He caught the eye of Enalda, a beautiful woman who shared a couple classes with him. She was a commoner, an upper class commoner, but a commoner all the same. Their relationship was kept in the shadows, but it was a matter of time before it became known to someone. Ralth never did find out who informed his father, but the argument that ensued was of epic proportions. The gist of it was, Jaren would not have his son gallivanting around with a commoner and Ralth called his father a self induced arrogant hypocrite. Ralth was beaten and locked away in his room after that for a week with little sustenance, even Enalda was branded a harlot, trying to worm her way into a noble house, and she was barred from the university. Revenge was all that was on Ralth’s mind.
With plenty of time to think, Ralth hatched a plan to get even with his father, he didn’t like commoners much, so Ralth decided to see how his father liked it when the commoners of the area got a little richer. He knew where the vaults where, he’d seen the ledgers, couple hundred gold should be enough. In less than a week after his release, Ralth set his plan into motion. Sneaking into the vault area, Ralth went to work on the lock, it proved difficult, but it soon relented to his persistence. After pocketing almost 200 gold in varying types, Ralth made his way to the common area in full disguise and showered the people there with money. His father’s reaction was almost more than he could hope for, sputtering with rage, Jaren went on a tirade about the gall someone would have to have, to steal from the Ralskalpers. This tickled Ralth so much that it caused him to make one of the biggest mistakes of his life, he returned to the scene of the crime. Ralth made his way back to the vault. Just before he reached out to grab the money, out of the corner of his eye did he spy a couple of scrolls. Upon careful inspection the scrolls they turned out to be mechanical schematics. Tucking the papers carefully under his garb he went back to the coins, only to see a guard walk in, no where to run, little place to hide, Ralth knew it was over.
He was hauled of to a jail cell where he waited two long days to hear of anything. Finally one of the house servants came to fetch him. The only words he uttered were, “You are to report directly to the master of the house when we arrive.” When they reached home, Ralth made is way to his father’s study, he passed his mother’s room and saw her and Nymira sobbing, thinking better of disobeying his father any further he continued on. Upon entering the study, Ralth saw his father, his back to him. Jaren held out a pen a spoke, “Read if you must, but sign it at the bottom.” Ralth took the indicated parchment, started to read, then stopped, his jaw slackened then hung open for a moment. “You’re disowning me?!” A nod was all he got in response. Ralth huffed finished reading, nodded to him self, and signed the parchment. As he left the study and servant told him he may keep the clothes he had on, but everything else was in ownership of this house. Seeming to ignore this, Ralth made his way to his mother’s room, he embraced her and his sister for several long moments. “Cry not for me, regardless what a piece of paper says I will always be your son and your brother. Wish me well.” And Ralth walked out of his house for the last time.
A lot had apparently happened while Ralth was in jail, a tax was levied on the commoners so they not only had to pay back the money that was stolen, but more in addition to that. To make matters worse, they were told that Ralth was responsible. He was shunned, by both commoner and noble alike. For weeks he was forced to disguise himself, to beg, to steal to survive. One day he was begging out in the streets, it was in the spring and the sun shown and the birds chirped away. A warm fragrant breeze came in, and as Ralth inhaled it in a smile bagan to play on his lips. He looked around, then looked beyond the city limits, pocketed the coins and stood up. “Nuts to this! Too much of this damned world to see to be spending my time like this!” He then walked to the walls of the city, walked out the gate and crested the nearest hill, he took one last look at the Leaf Empire, spat at the ground, turned and continued his way.
Months passed by as Ralth continued his way, from town to town, thankfully the finer details of big city politics don’t trickle that far in the empire’s outskirts. People out here were easy to deal with, and on occasion easy to swindle. It was almost a year past when Ralth happened upon his first multicultural town and decided to dig in. After a couple of months, Ralth was doing well, he had his own lodgings and had a sizeable chunk of revenue saved up. Ralth would single out the wealthy shopkeeps who had a knack for overcharging and just being plain mean and nasty. Swindle them out of some gold and move on. He was just about to swindle a dwarf out of a few hundred gold when travesty struck, the candle in the dwarf’s head finally lit. Ralth barely made it out alive, practically feeling the stubby fingers graze the back of his neck. With people on his heel, wanting his blood, Ralth made his way to a series of alleyways. He ducked and weaved his way through, but ended up in a dead end. Cursing his luck, Ralth made ready to try and climb the wall, but before he could do so, a pair of hands grabbed his shoulders and hauled into the doorway nearby.
His captor turned out to be a savior, he was a member of the thieves guild and they had been watching Ralth with enthusiasm. Bets were made to see how long he would last, and he exceeded expectations, so much in fact that it was deemed he did not need an initiation to gain entrance in their order. When he found this out and found out that they actually had a code of honor and morals (as much as you can get in a guild of thieves) he was all too eager to join. And thus did Ralth earn the title of Rogue (not Thief thank you, has too much of a negative in connotation). He trained, honing his skills, he went on outings and adventures with his new family.
It was at this time that Ralth found out that their network made its way into the leaf empire. He decided to make an attempt to reach his sister, letting her know everything was okay. He would write her, taking caution, the letters were delivered to her at school with a couple coins along with it, and she was instructed to never take the letters home and to destroy them after they were read. He told her to hide the coins, to save them up, so if ever she was to leave the empire, by her will or not, she would be ready. He would write every one as if it were the last time he could do so, but he wrote her as often as he could, and ended them the same way: “If ever you find yourself no longer in the empire, seek me out, put out that you are looking for me and I will eventually know, and I will find you.”
A couple more years passed and soon Ralth became part of the upper echelon in his chapter of the guild. Soon the decision that he needed to move on to better things came (the moment things became too hot on the northern continent). The guild would sponsor Ralth’s entry into the Guild of Adventurers. What exciting and dangerous things would he get himself into here? Only time will tell.
Edit: Fixed some spelling/grammar errors. Also rereading this made me realize I had left out an important detail. That detail being the loophole in the disownment contract. Ralth would be allowed back into the family if, and only if, his older brothers could not in any way fufill their duties as head of the household when the time came.
Ralth Dinfarther von Ralskalper III
Halfling Rogue, Vagabond Extraordinaire
Ralth was born into the house Ralskalper, a noble line of the Leaf Empire. His father is Jaren, once part of an engineering duo with his brother Belwyn, but had to move on from that career to politics when their father passed away, family affairs called and Jaren had to oblige. Unfortunately, being in an aristocratic environment made Jaren more arrogant and snobby than ever before, being a noble made him so, and becoming part of the government merely inflated his ego. Ralth’s mother, Amarisa, was almost the polar opposite of his father. She is a kind and compassionate soul. Amarisa was born a commoner and caught the eye of Jaren, after wooing her, and several hundred feet of legal documentation, the marriage was allowed and Amarisa was considered noble. Together they had seven children as it is commonplace for the noble homes to have several children, to try and have as many boys as possible to keep the family name going. Ralth came in at number six.
Ralth’s childhood was simple, if not opulent. He was practically (and sometimes literally) offered everything on a silver platter. Unlike his brothers and sisters, Ralth was a quiet one and mostly kept to himself, tinkering with objects around the house. His older siblings tried time and time again to contort him to their whims, if he denied his brothers would beat him, his sisters would tease him unmercifully. Ralth was never one to back down from them, but he would always wait to enact his revenge, he was always more subtle about it. If Ralth’s brothers would beat him, perhaps the next day they would find themselves tripped up, flat on their faces; bloodied nose, spinning to face their would be attacker they would find nothing but the shadows. If his sisters teased him, perhaps their favorite doll would go missing, only to be found a couple days later charred in a box conveniently placed by their bedroom door.
Then came the day the seventh child was born, Ralth’s baby sister Nymira. At first Ralth figured she would be no different from his other sisters, and even though she was younger, would find a way to look down her nose at him. This was not to be though, as Nymira grew, the similarities between them became more and more apparent. The two became inseparable, and Ralth took it upon himself to not let the others burden her or influence her. As Ralth got older, he would defend himself or Nymira openly against his siblings. He became too quick for his brothers, and his tongue grew too sharp for his sisters, and eventually through the futility, they gave up.
As adolescence came, the time of home schooling was abandoned and the university called. At first Ralth abhorred the university for the first couple of years, his father chose the courses and they were all far too boring. The time came where he was able to choose his own courses, and again his father chose for him, but did allow Ralth to pick a couple for himself. Ralth immediately when for the engineering courses, and for the first time he could ever remember his father smiled and told him of his past endeavors with Ralth’s uncle. “You still have to learn the ways of business and politics in case the time comes and you are needed, this way you will be ready. But seeing as we share the same interest as young men I will allow you seek out the knowledge your uncle and I sought after.” With a thank you, he left his father’s study overjoyed. Ralth excelled in his studies as an engineer, as well as the newly founded mechanics courses. There was even talk of Ralth taking an apprenticeship with his uncle Belwyn. It seems though, that time would never come.
Even though Ralth excelled at his studies, he was known as a bit of a class clown. His classmates would find their books or tools missing if they annoyed him too much. He even tried out for a couple of plays, and even though his acting wasn’t great, he always looked the part; and this lead to him garnering a kind of infamy throughout the school. He caught the eye of Enalda, a beautiful woman who shared a couple classes with him. She was a commoner, an upper class commoner, but a commoner all the same. Their relationship was kept in the shadows, but it was a matter of time before it became known to someone. Ralth never did find out who informed his father, but the argument that ensued was of epic proportions. The gist of it was, Jaren would not have his son gallivanting around with a commoner and Ralth called his father a self induced arrogant hypocrite. Ralth was beaten and locked away in his room after that for a week with little sustenance, even Enalda was branded a harlot, trying to worm her way into a noble house, and she was barred from the university. Revenge was all that was on Ralth’s mind.
With plenty of time to think, Ralth hatched a plan to get even with his father, he didn’t like commoners much, so Ralth decided to see how his father liked it when the commoners of the area got a little richer. He knew where the vaults where, he’d seen the ledgers, couple hundred gold should be enough. In less than a week after his release, Ralth set his plan into motion. Sneaking into the vault area, Ralth went to work on the lock, it proved difficult, but it soon relented to his persistence. After pocketing almost 200 gold in varying types, Ralth made his way to the common area in full disguise and showered the people there with money. His father’s reaction was almost more than he could hope for, sputtering with rage, Jaren went on a tirade about the gall someone would have to have, to steal from the Ralskalpers. This tickled Ralth so much that it caused him to make one of the biggest mistakes of his life, he returned to the scene of the crime. Ralth made his way back to the vault. Just before he reached out to grab the money, out of the corner of his eye did he spy a couple of scrolls. Upon careful inspection the scrolls they turned out to be mechanical schematics. Tucking the papers carefully under his garb he went back to the coins, only to see a guard walk in, no where to run, little place to hide, Ralth knew it was over.
He was hauled of to a jail cell where he waited two long days to hear of anything. Finally one of the house servants came to fetch him. The only words he uttered were, “You are to report directly to the master of the house when we arrive.” When they reached home, Ralth made is way to his father’s study, he passed his mother’s room and saw her and Nymira sobbing, thinking better of disobeying his father any further he continued on. Upon entering the study, Ralth saw his father, his back to him. Jaren held out a pen a spoke, “Read if you must, but sign it at the bottom.” Ralth took the indicated parchment, started to read, then stopped, his jaw slackened then hung open for a moment. “You’re disowning me?!” A nod was all he got in response. Ralth huffed finished reading, nodded to him self, and signed the parchment. As he left the study and servant told him he may keep the clothes he had on, but everything else was in ownership of this house. Seeming to ignore this, Ralth made his way to his mother’s room, he embraced her and his sister for several long moments. “Cry not for me, regardless what a piece of paper says I will always be your son and your brother. Wish me well.” And Ralth walked out of his house for the last time.
A lot had apparently happened while Ralth was in jail, a tax was levied on the commoners so they not only had to pay back the money that was stolen, but more in addition to that. To make matters worse, they were told that Ralth was responsible. He was shunned, by both commoner and noble alike. For weeks he was forced to disguise himself, to beg, to steal to survive. One day he was begging out in the streets, it was in the spring and the sun shown and the birds chirped away. A warm fragrant breeze came in, and as Ralth inhaled it in a smile bagan to play on his lips. He looked around, then looked beyond the city limits, pocketed the coins and stood up. “Nuts to this! Too much of this damned world to see to be spending my time like this!” He then walked to the walls of the city, walked out the gate and crested the nearest hill, he took one last look at the Leaf Empire, spat at the ground, turned and continued his way.
Months passed by as Ralth continued his way, from town to town, thankfully the finer details of big city politics don’t trickle that far in the empire’s outskirts. People out here were easy to deal with, and on occasion easy to swindle. It was almost a year past when Ralth happened upon his first multicultural town and decided to dig in. After a couple of months, Ralth was doing well, he had his own lodgings and had a sizeable chunk of revenue saved up. Ralth would single out the wealthy shopkeeps who had a knack for overcharging and just being plain mean and nasty. Swindle them out of some gold and move on. He was just about to swindle a dwarf out of a few hundred gold when travesty struck, the candle in the dwarf’s head finally lit. Ralth barely made it out alive, practically feeling the stubby fingers graze the back of his neck. With people on his heel, wanting his blood, Ralth made his way to a series of alleyways. He ducked and weaved his way through, but ended up in a dead end. Cursing his luck, Ralth made ready to try and climb the wall, but before he could do so, a pair of hands grabbed his shoulders and hauled into the doorway nearby.
His captor turned out to be a savior, he was a member of the thieves guild and they had been watching Ralth with enthusiasm. Bets were made to see how long he would last, and he exceeded expectations, so much in fact that it was deemed he did not need an initiation to gain entrance in their order. When he found this out and found out that they actually had a code of honor and morals (as much as you can get in a guild of thieves) he was all too eager to join. And thus did Ralth earn the title of Rogue (not Thief thank you, has too much of a negative in connotation). He trained, honing his skills, he went on outings and adventures with his new family.
It was at this time that Ralth found out that their network made its way into the leaf empire. He decided to make an attempt to reach his sister, letting her know everything was okay. He would write her, taking caution, the letters were delivered to her at school with a couple coins along with it, and she was instructed to never take the letters home and to destroy them after they were read. He told her to hide the coins, to save them up, so if ever she was to leave the empire, by her will or not, she would be ready. He would write every one as if it were the last time he could do so, but he wrote her as often as he could, and ended them the same way: “If ever you find yourself no longer in the empire, seek me out, put out that you are looking for me and I will eventually know, and I will find you.”
A couple more years passed and soon Ralth became part of the upper echelon in his chapter of the guild. Soon the decision that he needed to move on to better things came (the moment things became too hot on the northern continent). The guild would sponsor Ralth’s entry into the Guild of Adventurers. What exciting and dangerous things would he get himself into here? Only time will tell.