In life I feared for nothing.
My name was Arthur Goldum and I was a king’s knight. One of three, we took up sword, shield and cause to honor the name of a man we cherished. Ask me not the name of my former lord for it escapes me; a detail like many others that no longer hold importance in this story. I remember my brothers in arms, though.
Not their faces, no. I remember only their presence and the echo of their names. Jacob was a devout of Pelor and a student of the histories of man. Torald was a fighter in all things and my closest friend. We were three and in the name of our king we bloodied the land so that he might rule without the burden of such necessary violence weighing upon him.
We commanded legions and where we three went death’s specter followed. Under the red banner I was a hero. Under any other, my presence was an omen that the Raven Queen herself was to visit. Perhaps that’s what started this new chapter. Perhaps it’s simply what ended the last. What I remember is little, but of great significance.
We three kneel before a figure blotted from memory. “For these deeds may you never know death. I pray this boon will not be your curse.
I’m no longer the man I used to be. What little I know haunts my dreams and waking memory. I know not what my purpose is in this new life. Whether I am to atone for my memories or right a wrong of my own doing is a mystery. My only certainty is that I want nothing more than to know the quiet respite of death and yet I am compelled to live.
My twilight has not come. I am my own man now. My oath is null and my kingdom long forgotten. My name is stone for the dark, cold depth in which I awoke to this world and the cold with which it greets me.
I’ve spent the last 10 years of my exploring the depths of this world. The dark, cold places call out to me. I have visited many of the major libraries and sat silently in the great halls of learning. My maps and papers circulate under many names, none of them my own but all of them growing in notoriety.
I find myself in Winterhaven, now, at the behest of Parle Cranewing to locate the Old Keep of a ruined empire.
