248pengin

Hailing from a small hamlet tucked between the mountains of Norland, Scoria was raised in a family of 6 composed of his mother, father, twin elder brothers, himself, and a younger sister. His parents were devout believers of "The Red Faith," and he and his siblings were raised with a similar mindset. He originally aspired to be a lumberjack like his Father and elder brothers, who had 7 years on him, however around the time of his 10th birthday his mother began to fall ill. While originally showing faint symptoms, only showing itself as if she was slightly under the weather for a few days every month, as years went on it gradually grew worse. Upon diagnosis from the elders of the hamlet, they proclaimed that there was nothing medicine could do for her, and that only thing they could do is pray to "Father," and give her time to recover. He and his family believed that they could do nothing but pray. As time went on, his family didn't waver, believing she would get better as long as they held their faith, but Scoria began to grow tired of this. He begged his father and brothers to bring her out of town to have their mother receive proper medical treatment. He argued that they may have answers outside the hamlet, but his pleads were shut down, being scolded and told that the village elders would have said so if that were the case. When he was 15, his mother finally passed away on the night of her 47th birthday. For a fortnight, he fell into a state of disarray, crushed by his mother's passing, locking himself in his room alongside barely eating. His mental condition worsened by his family's belief on it that it was simply her time to go. After that fortnight passed however, he opened his door with resolve and headed to went off to the village elders. After consultation with them, and a fierce debate with his Father, alongside lumbering he began to study under the Elder's to learn traditional medicines. He began to delve into messing with ingredients and byproducts of local flora and fauna, attempting to expand upon the medicinal knowledge his home had by any means.

What he would later refer to as a waste of time ended 3 years after that, when half a year before his 19th birthday a merchant from afar visited the secluded region, something that he had never witnessed before. Merchants had come and gone, but the only ones that he had ever seen had been those that cycled between the local villages to exchange goods every few months. Filled with curiosity, he approached the trader after the townsfolk finished bartering, offering to help him pack his wares in exchange for small talk and tales of the outside. That night, Scoria's hands bruised and bled from punching his wall in grief, the dull knocking of wood as his knuckles impacted it were etched into his memory that day. When he finally calmed, he began to wrap his hands in cloth as he pondered the tales the merchant had told him. The world he once thought to be so big had only consisted of his native Kingdom of Norland, and at that, much more so had he only thought of the surrounding villages and mountains. He learned of miracles of magic and alchemic concoctions that could had overturned his mother's fate which he had once given up on, thinking that it had been set in stone. He crawled into bed, the creaking of his exhausted body seemingly mocking him for his weakness. The following morning, as he opened his eyes from that dread-ridden slumber, he stood up and looked out the window at the snow falling. That had been the last merchant that would come for the year as winter set in. Upon his 19th birthday, in the beginning of summer when his 19th birthday neared was when the first merchants would come from neighboring villages to trade again. He would leave his home for the first time in 2 decades and depart on a journey to uncover all that which he had been so blind to. He would devote himself to attempting to uncover the world around him and discover the truth beyond the haze that he grown ever-so accustomed to.