At the western edge of the Erdeloch is West Harbor, a grand harbor, once majestic, now in disrepair. A great fortress has been built, and in the shadow of the fortress, the cruel Baron Ivan's stables serve as sleeping quarters for the boy who will grow to be called Blade.
The Baron himself had been awarded this land when he was a young noble knight in the service of Queen Tarrex, whose seat lay in Rexxenturm, and who claimed to rule all the land from the Dunrock Mountains to the Saltwallow Bog, but whose true reach only extended as far as any baron she designated would obey her. The Baron had come with a dozen soldiers, a wizard, and a cleric who claimed the gods themselves had crowned Queen Tarrex, and the peaceful people who lived here had shrugged, expecting life to be much the same.
The Baron claims all of the Erdeloch and the grasslands from the shore to Yrrosa and as far north as the Pearlbow Wilderness as his own to rule in the name of Queen Tarrex. The folk who live at the edges of this domain would be surprised to hear that their lord is named Ivan, for he is weak, and controls nothing about their lives, but he claims them nonetheless. For those who live within an hour's ride of his estate, though, Ivan's presence is keenly felt.
Blade's parents, Frith and Hav, are unlucky enough to live in the hamlet of North-on-Pearlbow, which lies, perhaps ironically, just south of the Pearlbow wilderness, close enough to West Harbor to feel the grasping greed of Baron Ivan.
Like his sisters before him, Blade's service had been promised to the baron as partial rent for the fields the family tends. No one prospers in the Baron's lands, and the Baron himself threatens the farmers and shepherds that he sees with death, pain and taxes until they are forced to over-work and over-graze the lands. Over time, the land has produced less and less, and now the rents the Baron demands are always short.
Fearing the fate of a lifetime of servitude to the baron more than he feared the unknown, an 8-year-old Blade, who was just called "Nibling" then, tried to run in the direction he thought led to Yrrosa, the only city he'd heard of by name, the only location he knew of outside the demesne of the baron.
He failed, and his life was miserable for eight long years in the baron's service.
An envoy, Ambassador Candrina, for Earl Partrivex, brother to Queen Tarrex, arrived one late fall morning that happened to coincide with the stableboy who would become Blade's 16th birthday. She was there to see if the Baron had borne any children that could be promised to the Earl's offspring so that they could strengthen the kingdom's bonds to each other. The Ambassador had lost a guard to disease, and offered to buy out the contract of one of the Baron's guards to accompany her as she surveyed the far reaches of the queen's domain. She had left Rexxenturm, with 5 guards, and felt conspicuously under-powered.
She asked the baron for a guard from his personal retinue to accompany him, and offered to pay off the rest of that guard's contract. Greedy as he was, the baron shoved a sword in my hand and told me to act like a sellsword or he'd beat me. Well, I wanted to get out of there as much as he wanted to get paid for a contract that didn't exist. I didn't know a thing, but I was agile from dodging the bites and kicks of angry horses.
I accompanied her as she traveled the lands of the Queen until we finally wound up in Yrrosa. From there, the ambassador would have been heading back towards the lands of the baron, and I wanted to stay away from him. I managed to get a new contract while there that paid enough that I paid off the rest of the contract by which the Ambassador claimed me; a contract that led me further from Baron Ivan's lands.