I, Aramaes, was born the 3rd son of a king in the hundred kingdoms, and a wealthy merchant in nexus. My mother, Meera, is a paragon of wise and cautious trading diversifying her wares slowly over time, crawling rung by rung up the economic ladder. She began in food stuffs and linens, playing off of the small wealth she herself inherited which consisted mainly of the agricultural (including cotton and wool) holdings her parents had constructed before her. She finally advanced to a minor title and no small amount of wealth when she was 28 and began trading in arms and armor. From there she worked herself to a vertical monopoly, owning tanners and smiths, weavers and artisans of all forms. She continued working on making things run smoother and more efficiently for years. She “retired” when she turned 35 and began focusing on the bigger political fish in the water. That was about the time she met my father.
My father is the 114th regent of the small kingdom, called Iridan, directly to the east of great forks. The capital city, Nathir, lies in the middle of the plains between that great eastern fork in the river. The country has an over abundance of food stuffs and basic agricultural supplies, but suffers from not having any great mineral deposits and having to import ALL of their tools and metals. Because of the great yields of crops (due to centuries old magics and the already extreme fertility of the soil between the rivers) the people are never in much danger of going hungry. Want for warmth, weapons, and luxuries are much greater though. Most of the houses are sod or thatch with some timber beams. The large majority of the fortifications are motte and baileys with wooden palisade walls. The few great cities are either the ruins of ancient cities or had most of their stone imported.
Most of the supplies the Iridani import come from their neighbors to the east, the Aswaren. Aswar lies in the beginning of the great forests that stretch forever into the east. The land is littered with ancient mines and mineral deposits varying from deep chasms of iron ore, to seeming rivers of silver or even jade. The Aswaren and the Iridani have been cautious allies for many years, trading with each other to balance the incredible wealths and absolute lacks each of their nations has. This has been the only way they have been able to stand against the other kingdoms for so long.
Youth
As a young boy I spent most of my time with my mother. Having had the wealth and leisure of having set up her own little trade empire she had more time to spend with me than my father. She taught me the intricacies of bureaucracies, how to run and manage larger organizations, the subtleties of bribes, and blackmails, and little whispered words. She also got me one of the best tutors she could find from great forks to teach me words language, and calligraphy. I took to languages quickly and was quickly speaking many of the languages spoken in nexus with ease. While I took my linguistic lessons, I also trained with Meera’s bodyguard to learn to handle a sword, an axe, a knife, and my fists. I took to the sword almost as quickly as I took to the pen and by my 12th birthday I was besting most of my mothers guard in combat and holding my own against her most elite. Just after my 12th birthday my father, Ageon, asked that my mother send me to Lookshy to have me trained in generalship and tactics. Meera, agreed on the condition that one month of each year be spent with my savant tutor.
In Lookshy, I was often bullied by the larger cadets and treated as any other soldier by my superiors. As I trained, I rose through the ranks. By my 13th birthday I was awarded squad leader, and by my 15th I was put in command of what would be a scale had the academy followed Realm legionary breakdown. During calibration, but a few weeks before my 16th birthday, I was on the brink of being promoted to talon leader, the first person to command so many men so young in over 50 years. My superiors had each been vying to make me their personal prodigy, and I had gained the respect of not only my fellow cadets but many of the lifeterm soldiers in my district. Then something drastic happened.
While hunting in the woods outside Lookshy with a squad of fellow cadets, I received my exaltation. The squad’s prey got away but luckily for me I had my fellow cadets’ friendship, not just their respect. They vowed to do their best to keep the experience a secret but told me it was a great risk to stay. While Lookshy’s policy toward Solars wasn’t as extreme as the Realm’s they still were unlikely to accept a freshly exalted youngling such as I. They helped me sneak out and cover my tracks as best they could and told me that I should head east, to my father’s kingdom at the least.
This is where my story truly begins.
**note** this is the backstory I wrote for an exalted campaign that never took off, I am thinking of continuing it here because I rather like the character.
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