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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dungannon" data-source="post: 563845" data-attributes="member: 8169">Darrien the Ranger, formerly of House OrchidFor your consideration and reading pleasure, the background of Darrien the Ranger, formerly of House Orchid.Darrien was born the fifth of seven children (third of four sons) to Sir Hyrem of House Orchid, a minor noble and prominent businessman in Estolad.  With his father devoting much of his time and attention to his educating his first-born son, Stephen, on the intricacies of the family business, Darrien found himself with ample amounts of free time in his youth. He often used this time to explore the countryside surrounding Estolad.One day, while wandering through a forest glade, Darrien happened upon and older gentleman who appeared to be sleeping.  Now while this wouldn’t strike many as strange, it being a fine spring day full of warmth and sunshine, the man appeared to be using a wolverine as a pillow.  Normally, Darrien wouldn’t hesitate in approaching the stranger as he has always enjoyed hearing stories of those that have lived and traveled outside his home city.  That wolverine, however, was causing him to pause.  Just because it tolerated the old man treating as a pillow didn’t mean it wouldn’t hesitate to attack someone it didn’t know, and Darrien didn’t have anything to defend himself with, not even his trusty hand axe he usually carried with him.  As he stood there debating, the situation was removed from Darrien’s control as both the man and his pet opened their eyes and stared at him.“Little young to be out in the woods by yerself, ain’cha boy?” The man asked.“I’m neither little nor young, sir.  I happen to be almost 12 years old.  And I have just as much right to be here as you do.” Replied a somewhat startled Darrien.“Hehehe, so ye do, m’lad, so ye do.”  Chuckled the stranger.  “Please allow me a proper introduction.  My name’s Faroth, and this here furry fella impersonatin’ a pillow answers to Runt.  Mosta da time he does, anyway.”Too curious to be scared anymore, and because he was raised to be polite to his elders, Darrien introduced himself and started a conversation with Faroth that ended up lasting most of the day.  He discovered that Faroth actually lived in the wilderness, making a living for himself by selling skins to merchants and growing certain plants and herbs for some of the specialty shops in the Estolad marketplace.As the years passed, and Darrien became more and more disinterested in the inner workings of business and politics, he spent more and more time outside the city visiting with Faroth and learning about the various plants and animals of the forests and plains.  This caused a widening of the rift between Darrien and his family, particularly his father and oldest brother.  It didn’t really bother Darrien, though, because they never really paid much attention to him anyway.During his 16th year, Sir Hyrem contracted a rare virus that slowly but surely wasted him away.  On his deathbed, Hyrem declared that Stephen, being the only son he could depend on, would be his sole heir and would run the family after his death.  One day after Sir Hyrem’s death, Stephen officially took over control the ancestral home and his first action was to banish Darrien from the premises.  When Darrien asked for an explanation, Stephen replied that he didn’t want to be bothered by freeloaders and ingrates that had no respect or loyalty for the family.  Hurt by this characterization, and not sure how to properly defend himself to the new head of the family without alienating the other members, Darrien quietly packed the few belongings that were truly his and left the home and the city. He fled to the countryside where he figured he would stay with Faroth and help him with his garden and his traps.Faroth felt some sympathy for Darrien and agreed to take the young man under his wing.  One day, after witnessing the way Darrien dealt with a young fox that was caught in one of Faroth’s snares, he came to the decision that the lad had displayed enough of the proper qualities to warrant training in the ways of the rangers.Thus began Darrien’s indoctrination onto the path of the ranger and woodland protector, a path he’s been following for 4 years.  Recently, Faroth succumbed to the same virus that felled Darrien’s father.  Now 20, Darrien once again finds himself alone in the world.</blockquote>

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