Sarathai Iskadar
24
Race: Half-Elven
Origin: Ioria- in a section of country ostensibly claimed by the Imperium
Personality:Sarathai bears all the misplaced confidence of one who has never faced true hardships growing up. Even presently, at a junction in life he never imagined finding himself at he still maintains an air of casual optimism. Bereft of the dark and tragic pasts of virtually everyone he now finds himself surrounded by, his naturally cheery and upbeat demeanor can strike quite a contrast to the dour, laconic folk that make up the bulk of the Order.
Having been provided with a greater degree of education than your average soldier, he is more than happy to engage in discussion on a variety of topics, even if his knowledge tends to be more generalized in any given topic and there are few things (if any) that he would consider himself to have any degree of expertise in.
When it comes to fighting, Sarathai prefers to avoid it if possible. If not possible, his go-to tactic is to try and hang out as far back as possible, taking pot shots with his crossbow while other more skilled combatants do the brunt of the work. Though he has had some measure of training since joining the order, he still lacks much of the skill of his peers. Fortunately, though he is a far cry from being the perfect soldier of the Order, every organization still needs quartermasters to keep their people fed and provided for- the sort of logistical role Sarathai would be quite proficient at.
History: I suppose the best place to start would be at the start of the Iskadar line. Without going to much into the specifics of family trees, the important bit to know is that at some point in time the Iskadar family name belonged to a line of merchants. For generations their success was made along the road, buying from one town to sell in the next. For a time, this was more than sufficient for everything they needed to provide for themselves. Eventually, as their success and fortunes slowly grew from one generation to the next, it became apparent that this nomadic lifestyle was becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain. Eventually, ye olde Iskadar of something like a dozen or so generations ago decided that the time had come to settle down and be the ones manufacturing the goods for the other traveling merchants to sprnd their days carting near and far. Thus it was that the old Iskadar used his accumulated wealth to purchase several large tracts of land off in the Iorian countryside. According to most "official" boundary maps distributed by the more reputable cartographers in major cities this land was part of the territory claimed by the Imperium, yet it was far enough removed from any major population centers that most folk didn't particularly care who their proper ruler was- if some years the tax collectors had pointier ears than other years it hardly changed anything for the small folk. Most people couldn't even tell you the name of who was king off yonder, nor did they particularly care.
Out here, where most folk were travelers heading between the Imperium and Eroammir, people tended to care a less about the politics and prejudices of the fancy big city folk and more about making it through the next winter. As such, at least in the area where the Iskadar family had settled, half-elven families were hardly given more than a second thought. Whether the first of the Iskadar line had been an elf or a human was a matter of some debate, with opinions that could vary wildly depending on who was recounting the tale of their more humble beginnings. The only thing agreed upon was that at some point there had been a bit of mingling between the two races, so that now there was never a generation that didn't have a bit of blood from both. When it came to the Iskadar lands, large portions had been converted into orchards, vineyards and apiaries with the wines and mead produced by the Iskadar family keeping the family comfortably wealthy. In addition to the network of business connections forged during their time as traveling merchants, there was almost always a healthy demand for their goods at inns and taverns up and down the local trade routes, so business was good and the family prospered.
Sarathai was born as the fourth child of his current generation. With a slew of older siblings this meant that, barring any sort of catastrophic event (perhaps a war or plague), there was very little chance he would end up inheriting the family estates. Still, it was Iskadar tradition that all children be provided with at least a rudimentary education and some formal training in managing the family business in case it became necessary for any one of them to have to step up and take over. As such, Sarathai was one of the comparatively few among the local villages who was literate.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you're morbid like that), none of the Iskadar children met any unfortunate ends before reaching adulthood. For Sarathai, that meant that his eldest sibling would end up inheriting and he would be expected to make his own path in life- be it working for the family business or moving on to do his own thing. He chose the later option. Still, his family was not the sort to just turn out one of their own with no support and provided Sarathai with a decent sum of money with the implicit understanding that it be used to support himself until he got suitably situated in life and able to provide adequately for himself.
To Sarathai, this meant heading to the largest nearby Imperium city. He had entertained delusions of becoming quite the formidable wizard and to that extend sought someone to instruct him in magic. Unfortunately for Sarathai, his imagined future of flying about hurling lightning bolts didn't seem likely to come to fruition. He discovered, to his dismay, that some magical schools were harder to find a tutor for than others and that even if you could find one they were
expensive. He ultimately had to settle for pyromancy, as it was the only elemental school where he could find a reasonably priced instructor willing to teach him. That didn't last very long. It turned out that Sarathai had no knack for pyromancy and gave it up relatively quickly, as it was rapidly eating into the money he needed for food and lodgings.
Eventually, Sarathai managed to find himself working for an aging shopkeeper who dealt in all manner of goods. Having experience balancing ledgers and keeping inventory from his limited experience with the family business he quickly ingratiated himself with the owner. Eventually, she even shared with him that she had her own talent in magic that she was willing to teach to her apprentice. As it turned out, she had some decent skill with restoration magic. In particular, she was talented at warding- which she used primarily as a means of detecting and deterring would-be thieves. It just so happened that she was more than willing to teach some of what she knew to Sarathai, much to his chagrin whenever he thought of how much he had spent on his previous failed education when he could have been learning for free this entire time.
With most people, this lifestyle would have been perfectly sustainable, bu Sarathai was not most people. Dspite his business acumen, Sarathai did not mirror this strength in his personal life. He had grown up accustomed to a certain sort of lifestyle and without a second thought had recklessly tried to recreate this level of comfort for himself regardless of the cost of doing so. Unfortunately, this was well beyond his means. Between this and the decent chunk of money he had invested in his failed foray at pyromancy he quickly found himself having to borrow money in order to make ends meet. Unfortunately, as he continued to borrow money without reducing personal expenses to match he found himself falling further and further into debt. Eventually, people began refusing to offer any more loans as he found himself unable to adequately repay what he had already borrowed. Around the time when the initially subtle threats started to get more poetic and descriptive he realized he might need to look into alternate solutions.
As fate would have it, the very day he had concluded that the best solution was to skip town he happened to run into someone recruiting for the Order. If he had been thinking straight, he might have wondered what kind of recruiter seemed to be primarily recruiting from prisoners, street toughs and other riffraff, but the promise of a clean slate in literally any city that was not here was too tempting of an offer for the young man to pass up while he still had both of his kneecaps intact.
Relationships: PCs: (none yet)
NPCs: (none yet)
Skills: Archery (crossbows)
Scribing
Accounting
First Aid
History
Geography
Magic: Restoration (Warding)
Equipment: Bedroll
Flint/Steel
Waterskin
Trail rations
Crossbow/Bolts
Dagger
Sheaves of Parchment/ink
Member
