PhantomMask

Oda Shingen was born in the far-off land of Yulthar, a land plagued by demons and other-worldly creatures. He was born into the noble Oda Clan, a powerful clan who ruled as Daimyos in Western Yulthar. He was born the son and heir to the Clan, and was trained as such: given the education and training befitting one who would one day be a Daimyo. However, the day that he reached the age of 18 all of that changed. Shingen had fallen in love with a beautiful young maiden from a nearby village. However, the maiden was considered an unsuitable bride for a future daimyo, and Shingen's father Hideyoshi refused to allow them to be married. So, ignoring the wishes of his father and the honor of his family, Shingen eloped with the young maiden, taking her hand and her maidenhood in a secret ceremony. His father, furious, declared that Shingen would be slain if he ever set foot in his lands again, disinheriting the young man. Shingen and his young bride traveled the land of Yulthar, searching for some sort of solace and peace, but only war, bloodshed, and misfortune met them at every turn. They lived like this for over a decade, traveling from village to village in attempts to support themselves and their children. Shingen took jobs killing monsters, killing men, anything that he could do to keep his family fed. Then, one day, when Shingen was 29 years old, he returned to the makeshift home that they had made for themselves to find that his wife and children had been slaughtered in their sleep, and all their worldly possessions stolen. Shingen was left with only the armor on his back and the swords he carried with him. Over the next year he hunted down the bandits who had killed his family, but he found no solace in their deaths; only emptiness. He attempted to live on his own in Yulthar for the next few months, but found that everything he saw in his homeland reminded him of the life and the family that he had lost. Finally, with no other recourse, he returned home to his father's castle. However, his younger brother was now daimyo, his father dead. his younger brother, fearing that his lordship would be taken from him by his elder brother, drove Shingen away. Shingen, with all lost, was ready to end his life when he heard of an expedition to a far-off land called Atlas. With nothing left to lose, Shingen set off to this new world of opportunity, in the hopes that he could find there the salvation that he had been denied in his homeland.

Aeslir was born to a humble family of Forest Dwarves from outside the City of Haelun'or in Axios in the year 1574. His clan, the Durrathin, had grown poor and desperate in the early days on the continent of Axios, and so Aeslir's father Arton led raiding parties closer and closer to the High Elven city, desperate for food. Eventually the raiding party was caught, and the high elves led a raiding party of their own to destroy the root of the problem, the settlement of the Durrathin. Nearly all of the clan was wiped out on that day, including Aeslir's father and mother. However, one of the High Elves, a man by the name of Para'quin Ervalar, took pity on the toddler Aeslir, and secreted him away to his home. There Aeslir lived as a servant for his youth, being raised alongside Para'quin's sons, Para'tan and Para'shin, and his daughter Para'la. Here he learned to fight with grace and speed, but more importantly he learned all manner of knowledges, from military to scholarly. However, after several decades the High Elf nobility learned of their arrangement, and many of them were aghast at a dwarf being raised alongside noble high elves. They sent armed guards to Para'quin's home, attempting to seize Aeslir and make an example of him in front of all of Haelun'or. However, Para'quin would not have it. He fought the guards off singlehandedly, providing Aeslir the time he needed to escape Haelun'or. Aeslir knows not what happened to his adoptive father, nor his adoptive siblings, but he can only think that they must be dead, or worse. For the past nearly two decades Aeslir has wandered the wilds, searching for some semblance of meaning with both his true family and his adoptive family dead or missing. He tattooed in black and red ink upon himself the stories he had learned of his clan, the Durrathin, as well as tales of his adoptive family and their bravery. These tattoos are both in the language of his forebears and the language of his adopters. When the last of his ink had run dry, Aeslir had decided upon a course of action. He was to go out into the world, and learn what there was to know of it. He was to train, in body and mind, for the coming storm. Then, he was going to write a new tale upon his skin. The tale of Aeslir Durrathin-Ervalar, Man of Two Worlds.