A rugged recovering alcoholic desperate to save those closes to him and redeem the failures of his past

My name is Evendur, I don’t remember much from my childhood. I don’t even recall my last name. I remember growing up on a farm, we never made very much. My mom and dad would work on the farm every day breaking their backs. During the winter we were always afraid of our stores running out and starving. Some years we thought we would, we always made it though.
When the war began it did not really affect our lives. When we went to town to sale our goods visitors would make mention of it. My dad would talk about it on the way home and that would be that. Then the war started to come closer, first the refugees began to come. They would tell tales of whole cities burnt down. Armies that would kill all they saw and burn all the lands so no one could live it on again. Second you could see the smoke from the war off in the distance.
One day while I was working outside the “recruiters” came. They told me all man of fighting age were to be enlisted in the kingdoms army. My father was too old but I was 16 and just old enough to fight they said. I didn’t know anything about this supposed King I was to fight for and I didn’t owe anything to my kingdom. They kept telling me, “You are doing great thing for your people” or “Don’t look so sad you will be famous for your deeds someday”. I didn’t believe them. The equipment was in ill repair, all the weapons in fighting condition had been sent to war effort. We were being rushed through training at an insane pace. As I went through training I missed my parents but I began to feel a part of something. I had food every day and I even heard we would get paid by the Kingdom someday.
After training we were sent to the rear of the frontlines to reinforce a unit that was preparing to go to frontline. Our new equipment was only mildly better than our training equipment. The swords were dented and chipped, our armor was barely holding together. We fought on the frontline and saw plenty of action losing guys left and right. Our unit would be maneuvered around many times seeing all the different fronts by the middle of the war. Our company became a tight knit band as the war went on. Eventually we had fewer losses as many of our fighters became veterans, survival of the fittest I guess you could say. One time during combat my team leader was killed. As I looked around me I found that somehow I was the senior soldier, I was the team leader now.
As a a team leader and eventually a squad leader, the battles continued and the wars went on. We fought all over the world. Somehow I survived, my men were fierce and loyal soldiers. We protected each other and we fought together. We mourned our losses and we celebrated every battle we survived. We drank and we fucked when we could. Sometimes even starting a relationship with a camp follower. We knew that it could never last but we could pretend for at least the moment we had something permanent in our lives. Somehow through the years I began to believe the things those recruiters had told me all those years ago, “You are doing great things for your people”. I held my head high. We had protected countless lives in our day fighting the people in the towns we stopped at. We put our lives on the line to protect them.
One day on routine scouting mission everything changed forever. We had sent to scout out an enemy platoon operating in our area. We located one of their patrols and tracked them back to their camp. It was a sleepy camp and not manned properly, I figured that I we could get the squad down here and stage an ambush. I got all the men down and we prepared to strike. We were moving towards the camp broken up into two squads coming from opposite directions. As everyone approached a scout saw a glimmer that came off one of the soldier’s sword. Immediately, the alarms were raised, war horns were being blown and arrows flew through the air. I yelled, “Charge! Don’t let them gather themselves!” and charged at the nearest archer. I shot one soldier with my crossbow and threw it to the ground drawing my great sword. The archer made a feeble attempt to block my blow but my sword cut through his arms. The bow he had bin brandishing in protest fell to the ground. I then stabbed through the stomach at an upward angle my sword exiting through his back near his heart. As the life drained out of his body, I used his limp body as a body shield while I surveyed the battle field. My man were standing their ground but it did not look like they were making up any ground. How had the unit gotten ready so quickly? I looked on in horror as the tide began to turn in their favor.
The company had been waiting for us to attack. They had hidden soldiers ready to fight in side their platoon tent. As soon as the alarm was sent they rushed out to meet my men. As the rest of the unit that had been pretending to not see us joined the battle. We didn’t have the element of surprise and they outnumbered us. My men didn’t stand a chance. As I watched my man dying in front of me I took a few arrows to my back. I lost consciousness….
The bright light I saw as I awoke told me I was dead. I had gotten all my men killed, I was glad I was dead. Then my eyes adjust and I realized I was still alive. I was looking at the sun. I do not know how long I had been laying there unconsciousness, had It been hours? Days? Judging by the burning thirst in my throat I had been laying there for at least a day. As I lay there struggling to get feeling back into my limbs I heard no sounds of movement around me. They must have broken down camp as soon as they killed us. After some time I was able to stand up. I looked at my squad slaughtered around me, their bodies left to rot on the floor, no graves for them. My water skin had some water that I sucked down greedily. I grabbed my sword and a water skin full of water and I set off. I struggled through the woods disorientated from blood lost. At some point I found myself on a farm and the farmers took me in. I don’t recall much of that time only glimmers of people working over me and feeling pain as they tended to my wounds. Weeks passed as I recovered from my wounds. The war moved on.
I found myself for the first time without anyone. My unit was gone and my Army presumed me dead. I was too weak to fight and I did not have any orders. I knew I should track down my side and report back but I couldn’t go back. After all the years of seeing men who I fought side by side with die in front of me, I couldn’t do it anymore. I used the money I had scavenged off of dead soldiers I crawled into a bottle. I helped the family that had saved me with their farm and they let me stay with them. The farmers soon tired of my drunken spouts and they kicked me out. I had no money left, I had drank it all away. As I walked to the local village, the alcohol withdraws beginning to kick in, I had tried to figure out how I was going to get my next drink? How was I going to put a roof over my head?
As I was going along the road I came across a tree with a paper posted on it. The farmers who owned the land near the tree needed help slaying a monster that was terrorizing their farm. Killing their livestock and even going after one of their small children. I needed the money and the only thing I had left was my sword. I offered my services to farmers and they gave me half upfront. I took my earnings to down and got a drink. After defeating the dragon wyrmling I got the rest of my payment. I have been the same thing ever since. Journeying between town to town and helping the people with their minor problems. In towns I drink generously and don’t get close to others. I am constantly haunted by dreams of my greatest failure. I hope that someday I will come across a chance to redeem myself. Until then I can simply enjoy my break and fight little monsters.

Gender

Male

Eyes

Blue

Hair

Dark Brown

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Tan

Height

6'0"

Weight

190lbs