Elias of Stromgard
It was near dusk when Elias left the embers of Brynjar's fire. Warm, fat rain drops fell from the gathering clouds, and thunder echoed through the mountains around the village. A thin wisp of smoke rose behind one of the nearer peaks to the west; the lightning there must have started a small fire. With any luck, the rain would put it out before it got out of control.
Brandt's words were heavy on his mind, a weight he could almost tangibly feel as he walked back to his house. He had already packed his most valuable possessions and had them sitting in a haversack near his door, next to the longsword that the elves had left with him when he had been sent to the North. He latched the door behind himself and looked them over. A folded piece of parchment on the ground in front of the door caught his eye, and he picked it up, unfolding it.
The rigid, angular script of the northern kingdoms was scrawled in a rough note.
He stared at the note for a few moments, then crumpled it into a ball and threw it into the corner. Brandt was right. He would leave as soon as night was deep enough.
NOTE: This article contains spoilers for the Warrior's Trilogy. Read on at your own risk!
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Elias was born to a scout at the military outpost of Silva Aestas, in the coastal province of Lonwick. The outpost had grown in size from a simple barracks and keep to a small town, and the soldiers were permitted to have their families living there with them. That meant that children would be born, which was more useful than expected; they could be trained into soldiers themselves.
Before Elias was born, Elias's father was sent out on a routine scouting patrol. While on patrol, they encountered a large group of orcs. Though they were victorious, the scouting party suffered a few casualties. Among them was Elias's father.
When Elias was born, it turned out that he was one of a set of twins. The first child did not cry upon being born, unlike Elias, who was every bit the healthy baby. When he was older, Elias would be told that the other twin had died shortly after birth.
His mother passed away when he was very young, and he was raised by the village as an orphan. Unfortunately, the circumstances of his birth, his mother's untimely death, and the fact that he was growing much larger than any elf ever had made him an outcast amongst his peers. He was already as large as an adult elf by the time he was barely a century old.
During one of his training sessions, he lost his temper with a boy who was bullying him, and pressed his attack more ferociously than normal. His wooden training sword broke and, before he realized it, he impaled his sparring partner with the sharpened end.
Elias felt something rise up inside of himself, a white hot fury, born from his years of abuse at the hands of the bully before him, and he pressed harder. He was vaguely aware of someone calling his name, but the red haze that clouded his vision and the thundering in his ears left absolutely no room for anything else in his perception beyond Ayluin. With both hands gripping the handle of his waster, he drove his advantage home.
The other boy swung hard for Elias's head, and Elias blocked the strike savagely. The sound of cracking wood barely filtered through his haze just as he saw Ayluin raise his waster above his head for a hard two-handed downward strike. Elias took the moment and drove the point of his waster into the boy's sternum just Ayluin brought his weapon down on Elias's skull. There was an explosion of light and pain, then darkness.
When Elias came to, he found that he had killed his sparring partner. The elders of Silva Aestas convened and decided that due to his extreme size and apparent rage, he was too dangerous to be allowed to live in elven society. He was sent to the Northlands to live with the humans, whose aggressive lifestyle was seem as more suited to Elias and the challenges he posed to elven society.
Lord Torbjorn of Valtheim Hold, the closest province (and also the most friendly to Lonwick) accepted Elias as a ward, and there he lived for the next 64 years, passing to each king in line. Hjalmar, Torbjorn's son, was tolerant of Elias, but they were never very close. Torbjorn's grandson Brynjar, however, instantly took a liking to the oversized elf and they became fast friends.
When Elias was 168, however, Brynjar took ill with an affliction of the lungs, and passed away at the age of 70, just before the summer solstice of year 4368. Brynjar's son Brandt was set to take the throne; unfortunately, several of the lord of the Northlands had planned a coup and laid siege to Valtheim. Brandt warned Elias of the coming coup, and Elias was able to escape Valtheim before the rebels attacked.
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