Far From Home

[GoodGuyMatt 7064]

BARCLAYMAN: FAR FROM HOME

 

 

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Spoiler

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Long had it been since he last visited Karosgrad, or any populated area really. Six, maybe eight years since he was amongst any society. Leon had left before Sigismund III’s death, under whom he had become a page. He was young, still in his twelfth year, he had departed to conclude the trials set up from his house, the Trials of the Stallion. He had completed his Humility trial, set to work the fields for months, he had grasped a notion of what manual labor was, despite being of noble blood. It hadn’t saturated his hunger for work, on the contrary, it had deepened it. He didn’t know what life was, he had barely seen any of it, yet, he was told much about it.

After long months of idleness and meditation, he made up his mind. Two trials he had left, those of the Lone Hunt, and the Pilgrimage of Saint Tylos, trials that would take the average Barclay about three or four months to complete at most.

 

But he didn’t want to be the average Barclay. 

 

It was excellence he was after, dedication and pride. Much he had read of his ancestors, Wilheim and Brandt Barclay, from whom he descended. Living a youth filled with ancestral veneration, he wanted to become like them, he wanted to set a legacy, to become one of the distinguished. Some would call this a trait of pride, a sin in a good amount of contexts. He knew this, and simply nodded to the idea. It was pride he was after, glory and legacy. After all, it was in his blood, any Barclay worth his salt would have at least felt the same ambitions once. 

 

Leon took the first step that all took, deciding to run the next steps that were to come. He committed to his resolve, and set for his trials, but this time, he knew he wasn’t coming back anytime soon.

Years he spent on the road, hunting and pilgrimaging, finding himself through travels. It didn’t take him long to complete the hunt, he had been trained by abled Reinmaren warriors, he was prepared. Yet, he didn’t appear home as he was expected the fourth month, neither did he within the year, or the year after. From one forest to the other, from one path to the next, Leon Barclay’s teen years were spent amongst travelers, caravaneers, and sometimes even bandits, though he’d not tell such in public. He was raised in the world he had not known about before, and he stayed strong to his resolve.

Many events transpired during this period, so many that they could fill a book, but at the end of it, Leon was a new young man. Now in his eighteenth year, he decided to come back, and traveled to Reinmar, his home. He went to his old room, still unkempt by the Illatian maids within the Whileburg castle. He met his family, Ser Reinhardt his grandfather, Ser Emil his father, Herman and Reinhardt II, his brothers. 

 

A few months later, he disappeared again.

 

This time not away from civilization, but towards it. With newfound experiences and knowledge, his Barclay blood called to him once more, this time to a new land, a land of opportunity. He set to travel to the Kingdom of Oren. Long was the journey, but he didn’t mind. He entered the city of Vienne, much smaller than her predecessor Providence. He searched city square and tavern, he seeked for a familiar face, which he hadn’t met yet. Then, it appeared, wearing a military beret above its head, short brown hair unlike his, poking out of its headwear. Despite the difference in color of hair, Leon greeted his cousin, Dietrich Barclay.

He had read about him, his Savoyard origins, and his ambitions and plans in Oren. He’s why he came to such strange lands, far from his own home. His blood-seeked exploits, hoping Dietrich would offer saturation for such hunger. To Leon’s luck, it appeared he did. Welcomed with open arms, the Barclay cousins merged into a single effort, their ambitions aligning, their goals parallel to one another. It was more than Leon had wished for.

 

Only a couple hours into their union, the cousins were already called to serve the King through service-at-arms. The threat of a Carrion vampire and an accomplice olog within the square of Vienne presented itself soon after Leon’s arrival. With a sense of what some people would call bloodlust, the Reinmaren lad made quick to jump into the action, years of experience in the treacherous roads had shaped him to act such. The threat was quickly eliminated by those guards present, including the Barclay cousins. With a Barclay’s efficiency then, Leon made haste to find work, his callused hands wished for nothing but work, and so he was hired under the Inquisition, experiencing himself with the notions of law and its upkeep, perhaps in hopes of gaining valuable experience in such for later down the line.

 

Two years later, the Barclay cousins had worked towards their goal. In oldened Reinmaren fashion, they had founded a Warband, that of Saint Theoderic, named in honor of the old Reinmaren Chief, Theoderic. The two believed they had found the reincarnation of the oldened chief, as the tribal Reinmaren myths went, the chief were to reappear. They found this myth come to life in the person of Valens Vlastos, once a bartender they found in Oren, they saw in the man what other Barclays soon were to see. The spirit of their Reinmaren ancestor. Valens were brought to Reinmar soon enough, where he was to complete some of the Trials of the Stallions, which he accomplished with almost inhumane capability, further concreting the Barclays’ beliefs. Valens, or the “Uber Chief” as they called him, where to meet with a council of Reinmaren elders, with Ser Reinhardt at the front, the old sage of Reinmar, with decades of experience and wisdom, he confirmed in Valens what the rest of the Reinmaren suspected, the spirit of Chief Theoderic. There, in the church within Wilheburg were the King Paramount Reinhardt met Valens, it happened, an apparition!

 

A man dressed in white, beautiful and shiny clothes descended from the roof of the church, so witnessed the Reinmaren gathered around. Any Barclay recognized the apparition, it was Saint Nicolas, their kin, who appeared as he had before. As the Saint descended, he recognized Valens as the reincarnation of the legends and the myths, blessing him as the Uber Chief. Thus, it was set in stone, Valens joined the Warband, to be trained as the Chief he was to be, to be shown the ways of the Reinmaren living within his soul, for which it roared.

 

The Warband had grown now, and it continued to do so with other notable members like Marro, Leopold and Martin Barclay, Waldemar von Reinmar, and others. Things were looking up, Leon felt the same sense of accomplishment he had when he decided to leave his home before. He saw it as a sign that he had made the right decision once more.

 

Now far from home, he had found a new one, continuing work with his cousins and brothers from the Warband, the young Barclay looked ahead to what was to be his life, one full of fresh opportunity and glory to achieve. With the first big project as the founding of the Banardian party alongside Alstreim friends like Mathilda, Leon felt confident as ever. Anyone who’d meet the lad would see a wide smile on his face, as if having found peace.

 

Spoiler

Big thanks to @MadOne @TheBreak @TrickyToucan @Chennster @Pyrite and @valecu for a good lot of the RP and opportunity so far, been a blast :)

 

[rep2k 2477]

Erhard packs his bags, saying the last farewells to his Reinmaren relatives before setting his foot onto the new path, eager to experience a new kind of life alongside his kin in Vienne.