XOCO

Ezekiel's recollection of much of his childhood is blurred, blocked out of his mind. What he does remember is small and insignificant, like the sound of spoked wheels travelling along dirt roads. His memories of recent years, however, were instead filled with intense anguish and fear. By the time Ezekiel was in his prepubescent years, he was already subject to hours upon hours of daily labour. Despite the back breaking work he had in the day, he was taught to read and write at night, scratching words into desert sands illuminated by moonlight. Travelling with the orc clan, he had also learned to pick up a bit of Blah, just enough to speak barely coherently. As he grew older, his master saw fit to use him as a gladiator, battling other slaves, for gambling and entertainment. Through sheer will alone, he persisted, fight after fight, until he finally lost. On the brink of death, his orc captor decided to finally end his suffering, offering a coup de grace. His parents, despite still in service, offered their lives in servitude to the orc to spare Ezekiel. Though the orc agreed, he was not willing to keep dead weight like Ezekiel in his party, choosing to leave him in the deserts north of Atlas. Somehow, perhaps through the intervention of some higher power or simple chance, Ezekiel survived and, miraculously, even recovered. Cared for and escorted by a cloaked stranger, Ezekiel travelled to the heart of the continent, to the Orenian Empire. Yet, even once free from his captor's grasp, Ezekiel was plagued by nightmares of the orc. Intense emotions of hatred and anguish wreaked havoc unchecked in his mind for months as the pair travelled. What of my parents? When he had finally reached one of the border towns of the empire, he was a reformed man. Inspired by the military might of the large nation, Ezekiel swore to not just take out his vengeance on the orc, but also to free his parents. It was then that he decided he would enlist in whatever warband was willing to hire him, whether it was sanctioned by the empire or not. His ultimate goal now was to become powerful enough to find his parents and pay the life debt they owed to the orc, by Klomp or other means, even if it would kill him in the end.