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The Tale of Talderan the Wizard

In the southern part of the Kingdom of Rhen, along the coast of the Sea of Storms was the small port town of TownName. On the outskirts of this town lived a human named Shalard. He was a tailor well known for creating elegant robes, including those made for some of the students at the nearby magic school MagicSchoolName. He had a wife named Therisha who spent her spare time writing poetry.

One day Bringleward the Wizard, a frequent customer from the magic school, was visiting Shalard to place an order for some robes for the newest class of students. When we saw that Therisha was quite pregnant, he was filled with joy for the happy couple. He plucked a round, flat stone from their garden and enchanted it with protective spirit. He told Therisha to place the stone in their baby’s cradle and it will protect him. Therisha gave the old wizard a hearty hug, thanked him for the gift, and placed it in the cradle.

After Talderan was born, Therisha spent most of her days at home taking care of her son. Her poetry never became popular, but she beautiful writing style did. One day, Bringleward brought her some books to teach her how to read elvish so she could translate old books to help with the family income. As she worked more on the translations, Talderan spent more time in the cradle with the enchanted stone. Thanks to the enchanted stone, Talderan was never sick as a baby, but the stone’s magic started transferring to him.

By the time he was 5 years old, Talderan would spend the days with his father, learning to tailor clothing. He especially enjoyed creating bags and packs. He spent his evenings with his mother, learning calligraphy with the stylish flourishing that made his mother’s work so very popular. All this time, he still slept with the stone under his pillow.

The years went by, with Talderan learning from his parents and having a relatively normal childhood. Once in a while Talderan would make small objects move when he wanted them, like a quill or jar of ink sliding across the table when he was practicing his calligraphy. Once he was able to have a needle and thread stich together fabric without even touching anything. His parents knew something was special going on, but they never told anyone.

When Talderan was 15 years old, his father sent him to deliver an order of apprentice robes to Bringleward at MagicSchoolName. Bringleward had long sensed that the magical stone he create had transferred its magic in Talderan, even without Talderan’s parents telling him. Bringleward ask Talderan if he would like a tour of the school, to which Talderan was most excited for the opportunity. After spending half the day touring the school with Bringleward, Talderan realized that too much time had passed and it would be late in the evening before he could get back home.

That evening, while Talderan was returning home, there was an attack on TownName by a tribe of Orcs from the south. They killed several families on the outskirts before the city guards were able to fend off the Orcs. When Talderan finally arrived home, he found his cottage door smashed, his parents were dismembered, and on the wall there was an Orcish symbol painted in blood. It was the symbol of Karl’goth, an Orc raider well known for slaughtering several nearby villages, but this is the first time they made an attack against the city. This attack lead to a retribution attack against the Orc village where Karl’goth lived, leaving what was thought to be no survivors. Except there was one survivor…a baby Orc by the name of Grimlock.

Talderan mourned his parents for several days but refused to leave the cottage her was raised in. Now that Talderan was an orphan, he tried his best to cleanup his family’s cottage and continue with their businesses. He finished up the tailoring orders and translating the last elvish book his mother was given by Bringleward.

Several days later, when the MagicSchoolName heard of the attacks, Bringleward became worried. He had expected Therisha to have delivered the latest book translation by now. He travelled to Talderan’s cottage, and found the young boy working on an outfit that Shalard had been working on. Bringleward realized what happened to Talderan’s parents, and insisted the boy accompany him back to MagicSchoolName. Talderan took a 3-pouch backpack he had made, placed his mother’s quills and his father’s favorite tailoring tools in it. Then he went to his bad and took that special stone he had under his pillow and placed it with his parents’ items inside the backpack. He left everything else behind and went with Bringleward to become a student of magic.

During his years as a student, Talderan became especially talented with mind spells to read peoples thoughts or to share memories. He felt great pride in his ability to use magic to discover the truth from people and their environments. He fancied himself a bit of an investigator, like the detectives in some of the books his mother would read to him as a child.

He also spent a lot of time with Bringleward who was the instructor for the evocation school of magic. Talderan grew a strong bond with evocation, mastering those spells with greater skill when he kept the enchanted stone in his pocket. For Talderan’s 20th birthday, Bringleward had one of the other instructors make an amulet from the enchanted stone, so Talderan could wear it at all times to help with his magic.

When Talderan graduated from MagicSchoolName, he wanted to stay and learn more. He would spend time in the library, translating old books like his mother used to do. On occasion, Talderan would teach classes for Bringleward when he was away from the school on business. Other times, Talderan would get work as a magical investigator, tracking down magical artifacts or interrogating prisoners for nearby town magistrates.

Bringleward was old, and his health was starting to fail. Talderan eventually succeeded Bringleward as the school’s instructor of evocation and spent many years teaching. He would still take the occasional investigation jobs when the opportunities arose.