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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bob Aberton" data-source="post: 439477" data-attributes="member: 1518">Eliad Pelgrin (Character History)Eliad, as he tells the story, was born a "mere" sixty years ago, to Cnorrec and Hrea of the Burrow (Tribe) of the Goldstriped Badger.  His Burrow was a happy, almost carefree group of seventy or so Gnomes from six families.  Although Gnomes as a rule are inclined to be short, Eliad was even more so.  He was just barely over two feet tall, and was the subject of much teasing and ribbing from his taller peers.Gnomes themselves are a contradiction.  Although they are inveterate tricksters, enjoying playing pranks on each other and the stupid, blundering Big Folk, the Big Folk, who rarely see them, call them the Shy People, for they hide from the sight of other peoples.  Eliad lived out this contradiction, for despite that his name, Eliad Pelgrin, meant "Foolish Laughter" in Gnomic, he became shy and withdrawn due to his peer's continual tormenting about his height.  This shyness, very unusual for a Gnome, only increased the amount of teasing he recieved, which only increased his shyness, which only increased the amount of teasing he recieved.  It was a vicious circle.It may seem absurd to the Big Folk that the Gnomes would make fun of anyone for being short, but so it was.  Gnomes will find any excuse to ridicule or make someone look foolish, and Eliad's height proved to be that excuse.  Oh, but he was the subject of many pranks, ranging from the simple - like stealing his clothes over night, enlarging them, and then telling him he shrunk over night - to the cruel - like strapping him to the back of a badger and send the badger shuffling through the Burrow with Eliad strapped to its back for a full half-day (his parents finally found and untied him).However, one day, the turnaround cameOver many years, Eliad learned to adapt, growing into a bold, comical little Gnome well-liked by most, but he always maintained a secret sore spot about his height.  He would fly into a fine fit of rage if anyone even came within a yard of insinuating that he was the slightest bit short.  His tormentors when he had been younger soon found the joke on them.  At one point, the two ringleaders were found tied to their own pet badgers, wearing clothes (comically too large) that Eliad had bartered for from a few wandering Big Folk he had found near the edge of the Elfinwoods.  Needless to say, the Burrow never forgot about that.Eliad had always had a fascination with the Big Folk.  He met them once or twice, while gathering mushrooms at the edge of the Elfinwoods near his Burrow's dwelling.  Despite his clan's fear of them, the Big Folk seemed to him innocent and harmless.  They would often trade him for some of the "worthless" mushrooms he gathered.  Some of these, mushrooms like the Wizard's Cap mushrooms, the King's Throne (a more aristocratic relative of the toadstool), and the Grand Mushroom, were worthless to the Gnomes, except as delicacies, but worth many silver pieces to humans.  The Wizard's Cap, it was said, was worth far more than its weight in gold, for its magical properties.  The King's Throne was the delicacy of delicacies, and the noble that could afford to serve a  dish of King's Throne mushrooms could afford the whole of Avalon, it was said.  And the Grand Mushroom was a key ingredient in the stupefying drink know as Firebrandy.Eliad knew none of this, of course.  However, the pretty little pieces of shiny metal the Big Folk gave to him were so very fascinating, even though his Burrow frowned upon it, he continued his illicit mushroom trade (enriching many a poor peasant along the way, no doubt).However, he had his enemies in the Burrow.  In particular, one of his peers who went by the name of Iregh-chah (Inky-Cap, a name he recieved after a nameless Gnome dyed Iregh's beloved hat a sickly black with distilled inky cap mushrooms) had a fair number of bones to pick with Eliad, among them Eliad's dyeing of his cap (the incident which gave Iregh-chah his name), Eliad's shaving of his pet badger (afterward, the pet, though it grew its hair back, was known as The Bald-ger), and most heinous, Eliad's courting of Iregh's sweetheart.Through much stealthy spying, Iregh discovered Eliad's dealings with the Big Folk, and laid out the sordid story in full before the entire Burrow.  Shocked that one of their own could be trafficking with the   greedythievingmurderingchildstealingrapinggluttonouslazydrunkencheatingvicious Big Folk, they summarily exiled Eliad.Eliad, though a bit despondent, was almost glad to start over again in a new place without the baggage of old Burrow.  Naturally, he gravitated toward the Big Folk.  They assumed he was a changeling, a Fey-child that had been exchanged for a human child at birth, and thus avoided commenting on his height.  Eliad quite enjoyed the measure of respect the superstitious Big Folk gave him, for it was the first respect he had ever recieved.  All the same, he never quite learned to quit the pranks, and was soon caught picking ("burrowin'") from the pocket of one Nystyra Elfblood, a former apprentice Witch.  The rest, as they say, is history.     ****************************************************Well, what do you think?If the history feels a bit contrived, be it known that I came up with it on the fly.  Although, the  part about being teased about his height was drawn from my own life experiences<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> .</blockquote>

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