Tillie’s childhood was a poor one, her parents both being from the serf class, though they were both proud Heartlanders. Her father was a steelsmith, making weaponry and tools for the local farmers and passing adventurers. Even her older brother, Arlen, who was only 4 years older than her, needed to do odd jobs to be able to put food on the table. Tillie usually stayed at home with her mother, taking care of her, until she turned 12, when she was allowed out more and began exploring her father’s forge. Her interest in smithing grew as she watched her father making basic tools for the village and even some swords for passing soldiers. The young girl longed to explore the world around her, not having been allowed to due to her needing to tend to her sick mother. Tillie’s mother used to be a seamstress, though illness and frailty kept her from doing much at all after birthing Tillie.
And what with the War of Two Emperors going on, her father found himself increasingly busy with demands for weaponry and repairs, overwhelming the poor man to the point his children almost never saw him during the day, except in the forge. Tillie and Arlen had always overheard the town gossip, hearing about bloody battles and warring, burning fields, destroyed cities... it was horrifying to imagine. The stress only grew as her mother became weaker and weaker, until she could barely move anymore... her death was inevitable, leaving her whole family grieving. A tired and broken man, Tillie’s father eventually threw down his tools and gathered up his children to leave home, as he’d gotten word of armies heading towards their settlement.
Tillie, ever the stubborn child, was outraged at her father giving up his life’s passion due to the war, refused to leave her childhood home. Her mother was buried her. She was born inside these walls. There was no way in hell she’d let some soldiers take that from her family. Yet they were giving in?
No. She wouldn’t stand for it. So, when her father and brother, Arlen, were loading the cart with their belongings, young Tillie, only 17, took a pair of her brother’s clothes, a raggedy cloth shirt and pants, and changed out of her simple dress. The nearby butcher shop usually didn’t mind her coming in and out, as she had made friend’s with the older man who ran the place. She apologized to the old man as she snuck into the back, taking a bucket of blood beneath a hanging deer carcass and splattering her dress in it. It was a gruesome trick, but it would work.
Tearing up the garment and tossing it near the woods, dragging it and creating a trail that they could find, before hiding herself away in a nearby trustworth friend’s home. It wasn’t until days later she’d gotten wind of gossip about the smith’s daughter’s remains being found on the outskirts of the forest, how tragic it was, but little did they know... it was a new beginning for Tillie. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the soldiers came, barreling through the town and busting down everything, burning it all to make way for the main forces to get through. Her home demolished, her father and brother gone, Tillie no longer felt safe in the place she once called home. Survival was all that was important now to her, as Tillie spent the next few years going in and out of cities, until she finally set foot into the nation of Curon.
