Fragg Blaethwyn

Fragg Blaethwyn is now known across the Empire of Nara Tok as the great explorer of the south. Originally from eastern Thragea, Fragg first made his way south in 176 IF at just 17 years of age. His family were refugees from early disputes between the Cyrinese rulers of Adeiros, and local imperial townsteads.
A year after his arrival, Fragg had joined up with the local militia, and earned a place on several of their exploratory missions into the Aelder Wood. It was on one such mission that Fragg's life would take a fateful turn: the patrol was ambushed by a tribe of Aeldrin, and Fragg was taken captive.
Fragg would spend the next sixteen years as a prisoner of the Ai-Vala elves, travelling captive across the western Aelder Wood. While Fragg was initially treated poorly, over time he earned the trust of his captors. Fragg had brought many empty journals with him on his mission, and his captors allowed him to fill them with drawings and descriptions of many of the strange creatures of the forest, which would provide the basis for his book, The Ancient Woods, one of the best-selling publications to come out of the printing houses of Nara Tok.
During his captivity, Fragg became especially close with his chief captor, a warrior by the name of Volodar. Over several years, Fragg began to gain a rudimentary grasp of the Aeldrin language, and provide his own knowledge of Imperial to his captor/companion. Both Volodar and Fragg found a shared desire to learn and understand in one another, and by all accounts their eventual friendship was as genuine as any. The two exchanged stories from their respective homelands, and eventually learned to trust one another's advice and care. In 191 IF, Volodar had earned a place as the leader of the Ai-Vala, and Fragg was officially given his freedom, but Fragg could not abandon his friend. Fragg became one of Volodar's advisors, teaching him the tactics of the Imperials and allowing the Ai-Vala to earn an even more fearsome reputation as defenders of the woodland.
Yet, Fragg could not help but fear for the future of his captors. The Ai-Vala had suffered little compared to many other Aeldrin tribes, but still their numbers dwindled. Knowing the vast pools of manpower and resources the Empire might pull from, Fragg continued to advise Volodar that he must seek peace. While his advice fell on deaf ears for many months, eventually Fragg was able to convince his friend. At the council of 193 IF, it was Volodar who convinced the gathered Aeldrin to seek a treaty with their imperial enemies, and Fragg's guidance. This soon led to the signing of Volodar's Pact, which Fragg directly helped to draw up. 
After the signing of this treaty, Fragg sought news of his family, but learned that the Blaethwyn family had long since disappeared from the south. He settled down, instead, in the newly formed Dual-Exarchy of Volodaria, helping to set up the local administration, and acting as an official for Volodar's Astrian government. In 197 IF, Fragg established a college in the fast-growing town of Astria, which had drawn many Volodarin refugees. He taught courses on the Imperial tongue, as well as Imperial history in an effort to help the displaced wood elves better assimilate into their new lives. He stayed in Astria for another thirteen years until the death of his closest friend, Volodar in 210 IF. Stricken by grief, Fragg left Volodaria for good, spending a couple of years touring the great northern courts and telling stories of his adventures.
By 212 IF, Fragg had grown bored of luxury, and yearned once more for adventure. Fragg had grown increasingly enamoured with tales of the land beyond the Broken Spires - green-skinned warriors and piratical ghoblins. Fragg employed his contacts among the nobility and found several patrons willing to fund a 60-man expedition through the Broken Spires. The party arrived in the city of Lucria in the spring of 213 IF, spending little time in the city before heading west, in search of a pass through the mountains.
Disaster struck almost immediately. His expedition met with a large band of orkhish raiders that had been descending towards the rich farmlands around Lucria. They were massacred almost to a man - only Fragg and his manservant living long enough to be taken captive. Once again Fragg had become a prisoner of foreign raiders. Fragg would later claim that it was only his knowledge of Aeldrin that kept him alive - the song-like language proved sufficient to enamour the mountain orkhs and earn him a place as their entertainment.
This time however, Fragg found no friends among his captors. His own records of his time among them are filled with petty humiliations and brutality in fact, but Fragg endured, even outlasting his much younger manservant. Over the course of the next few months, Fragg would learn the greatest secret of the mountains - their golden core. The intrepid explorer noted that gold was so common among the orkhs, that even their children were given golden baubles with which to play.
This secret would have been worth little to Fragg, if not for a strict of incredible luck. The annual flu struck the group especially hard, nearly wiping the tribe out. Those that survived could not afford to keep a captive and so Fragg was left to die. Alone in the mountains, Fragg was able to gnaw his way free from his bindings over the course of a week, and forage the scarce berries of the mountainsides. Details of his journey back remain elusive, but somehow Fragg was able to escape east and arrived in Lucria in the summer of 214 IF.
Clothes encrusted with dirt, whispering of golden treasures and laughing orkhs, Fragg served a week in prison before at last convincing the local militia of his sanity. Eventually he was able to gain audience with the town's mayor - one Baron Luca di Mari, scion of the powerful Di Mari Family. Fragg's reputation as an explorer and administrator provided sufficient evidence for the Baron to believe his tall tale, and the news of gold beneath the mountains set him to plotting. Fragg's account is considered one of the primary causes of the Goblin Crusades which raged for over half a century, and continue to define Lucrenian geopolitics to this day.
At the age of fifty-four, Fragg's desire for adventure had finally run dry. He returned to his hometown in Thragea soon after, where he finally rediscovered the last remnants of his family. He lived out the rest of his days in their company, succumbing to old age just shy of his seventy-second birthday. Fragg's legend lives on , however, ink and paper. The books he produced in his fading years would inspire generations of pioneers from the north to explore the wild frontiers of the south. Indeed, Fragg's adventuring spirit would set the stage for the Empire's Quest for the New World, and the eventual discovery of Neosia. Born a fisherman's son, Fragg's drive to discover brought him to the very pinnacle of achievement, and earned him a place as one of the most famous and influential adventurers in all of Aelderin's history.