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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PhoenixAsh" data-source="post: 3177576" data-attributes="member: 18230">Fair warning: I'm new at PBP, but I've been eager to give this a try for some time.Perin Olhandle, Halfling RangerAt the beginning of the Wizard Wars, many halflings were scattered, either making their homes in isolated locations or wandering from city to city, nation to nation.  They were thus easy prey for greedy armies, quickly captured and put to work to fuel the machine of war.  One such place the halflings found themselves in was Willhollow.  That was their name for it, of course.  The official name changed as often as the fortunes of war, but to the halflings it never seemed anyone came up with a better name than theirs; naming it after the copse of Willow trees that hung over the lazy stream running through the small plain between forest and hill that soon filled with farmlands.Of course, as the Wars continued and the demand for food for the armies increased, so too did the depredations of the halflings.  The halflings organized and together, they found ways to escape into the nearby woods.  There they formed a resistance movement.  To protect this resistance, the most wood-savvy among them watched the ways into the wood and deterred or killed any who sought to keep them out, and to lead other escaped halflings into the resistance.  Thus the Waywatchers of Willhollow were formed.In time, the halflings were successful in reclaiming Willhollow.  Poison was employed and the overlords of Willhollow were sickened, then attacked and brutally killed.  Caravans and later squads of soldiers sent to Willhollow were met by ferocious barrages of sling stones, ferocious animals and cunning traps.  From that point forward, no one took the effort to retake Willhollow and the halflings secured their new home.Perin Olhandle was born of sheepherding stock; as the third son of his parents he quickly found a knack for tending the animals on the slopes above their home.  To the disappointment of his father, he did not pursue the family business – he became a Waywatcher.The Waywatchers are much different after two hundred years of peace.  With no soldiers to drive off, they focus instead on keeping wild animals out of herds and crops, and the rare trespasser or vagabond out of their lands.  Perin took to the task with an enthusiasm most of his fellows felt unnecessary, and still holds his post twenty-two years after coming of age – longer than any since the times of the Wars.  His father tried everything to get him to come back to the family pastures and recently, his wishes were almost granted.  Perin fell in love with the dark-eyed, dark-haired Prisbella.For the first time since coming of age, Perin spent more time within the bounds of Willhollow than without.  Earnest and soft-spoken in his affections, he swayed her affections and their courtship blossomed.But Prisbella was not happy with Perin’s way of life, and she gently urged him to settle down, to return to his family’s pastures and raise sheep, so they could wed and raise a family.  Perin would in turn gently refuse, as much as he cared for her, he refused to settle down.  In time Prisbella’s urgings were not so gentle, and Perin’s refusals got hotter, until finally Prisbella gave Perin an ultimatum.  When he refused once more, she stopped asking.  A year later, she married the Miller’s son instead.Since then, Perin has spent nearly all of his time in the woods around Willhaven.  And when rumor of dark things and Shadowmaster armies reaches the Waywatchers, he is all too ready to listen and to leave Willhaven to do greater things and prove to himself and all of Willhaven that being a Waywatcher is a worthy occupation.</blockquote>

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