Micheru

Micheru was an Avariel Bladesinger, who first appeared on the isles of Mystara as a Bard, but later became part owner of the Royal Oak Tavern, and shortly after ariving, returned to his ancestral duties as a Bladesinger.

Early life
Micheru was born within the mountain fortress of Dareth in the land of Faerun. His memories of his time are still hazy, but he does remember being taken from his parents at the age of eight by the guardsmen of the Avariel lands. He was tested and trained, taught to hold a sword, to value it as an extension of himself.

When he was thirteen, he had passed many trials, including his test of survival in the wilds. He returned to Dareth a hero, wearing only a leather tunic and breeches, with only his own wits, he had downed and slain a rabid lioness that had posed danger to the people of his land.

His skills with a blade had become renown, and so it was when the Bladesingers came to Dareth, that they showed much interest in him. Micheru was sent to learn the way of Bladesong from the Teu-tel-quessir in their homeland.

Young Adulthood
Micheru returned to Dareth triumphantly, having trained himself in the Art. He now stood six inches tall, and was about to reach his sixtieth birthday. He was hailed as a rising star of justice. Taking over second in command of the local order of Bladesingers, he began serving in a new initiative: A crusade to strike out against any threats to the Elven people in the mountains where his people lived.

For ten years, Micheru's order and the local guardsmen worked together. The Bladesingers would lead a legion of soldiers into the domains of the Elves' enemies. The crusade grew to such a fervor that even the non-warlike Avariel began to support it. Resources were poured into it. The Avariel of Dareth made a lot of enemies.

The mountains became clear of any who would strike out against the Elves, and Dareth became a sanctuary.

The War
The actions of the crusade would not be seen for another twenty years. Life was good for the Elves of Dareth, but they didn't think about those that they had sent away. A force grew, hidden in the base of the mountains. Humans, Orcs, Goblins, and many other perceived threats to the Elves had grown angry that the Avariel had razed their homes and exiled them from the mountains.

The discontent lead them into a series of caverns long left alone, belonging to an ancient Dragon that had spent hundreds of years in hibernation. Their anger and their noise woke it up. The Dragon burst forth, but rather than eating them, offered to aide them in the destruction of it's hated ancient enemies.

The first day of winter had come, when the skies darkened, and a flight of Dragons appeared upon the horizon. The Avariel had grown lazy in their duties, since the roads were now known as a death trap to any non-Elves and the mountains themselves were nearly impossible to climb. The dragons attacked from all directions, and so the panicking Avariel civilians were pushed to take the roads.

Hundreds died, as the trap was unleashed. Boulders were released onto the pass where the Escaping civilians were fleeing. The survivors were mopped up by flung spears and vials of acid. It was a complete massacre.

The dragons ravaged the outer portion of the fortress city, while those within it's mighty walls kept them at bay with spell and threats of volleys of arrows. However, the Avariel were not prepared for the kind of fighting they were forced into, and starvation ensued. The Bladesingers rallied the people, and gathered the city into three legions. Micheru was placed in charge of the southern defenses.

The war was bloody, and the Avariel, many of who were untrained in combat, did not fare well in the first few weeks of the siege.

A Demonic Pact
Micheru knew hopes were grim, and it was then that the Demon made itself known. It had been watching the battle gleefully for days, soaking up the negative emotions brought on by the slaughter. But moreover, it could feel Micheru's rage.

It manifested before him one night, within his quarters, and offered him a deal: A sacrifice of his enemies in it's name, for victory. Micheru had long been taught never to listen to malificent entities, but the war was dragging on him. So he agreed. The devil manifested a staff, and gave it to him, along with instructions on how to use it.

The next morning, Micheru drove his legion forwards into the center of the flight of attacking dragons. From the rear, he raised the staff, and recited words the Demon had taught him.

It was then that he learned why one should never make such a deal. Fire the color of amethyst burned out across the battlefield. It overtook his own forces, consuming their bodies and spreading out further. The blade grew in strength with the more it consumed. By the time the wave of fire reached the center of the Draconic attackers, it was a raging inferno. With the leadership dead, the Dragons fled. But Micheru was the greatest traitor his people had ever known. The staff exploded within his hand, embedding pieces of itself into his flesh.

He turned himself over to his brother Bladesingers, and was promptly dragged into the darkest dungeon beneath the ancient fortress. Clasped in irons, he was surrounded by his peers, as they called upon the weave of magic, and then upon the Gods.

Terrible things were inflicted upon Micheru in that chamber. His wings were torn apart bone by bone, feather by feather, leaving only nubs of bone protruding from his back. Sigils of the Elven gods were sealed upon his throat, and he was inflicted with a ring of scars around his lower torso. His memories were sealed within the Akashic records tended to by the Gods, and his left eye was put out.

He was flown to the Human city of Waterdeep, where he was left, naked in a dark alleyway.

A New Life
Micheru spent several weeks living like an animal, wandering the alleyways and sewers of the city, living like an animal. He ate trash, and slept in the gutter, with no memory and no coherency to his mind.

Micheru was found by a notable local, a Dwarven artificer. He was taken in and bathed by servants, given clothes. As Micheru's mind started healing from the torture, with the help of several clerics and a mage, he became more like a person again, rather than an animal. The Dwarf, Boltrak Longbeard, took him in as an adopted son. The fragments of the Demon's staff that were still inside of his body were removed, and Boltrak forged them into a new left eye for him, unknowing that the Demon who had caused the entire issue was within it.

Micheru's personality had reverted to a childlike demeanor, as and so he was raised by the Dwarf. Micheru became a resident of Waterdeep, and several years after he had been found, he was knee deep in training. His father was famous, as an artificer, but also as a recluse. Boltrak did not like to be disrupted during his work, and so he had Micheru trained in the ways of a diplomat. Micheru spent much time around the Nobility in the royal courts.

Over the few years that Micheru served his new father, he learned a number of useful skills for dealing with the nobility, and was often hired by other nobles to deliver messages, or negotiate diplomacy with their rivals. He studied strategy, and aided several military tacticians during hostile negotiations. He was also often sent to local merchants for his father in search of reagents for his work, and learned appraisal through trial and error.

Boltrak Longbeard died eighteen years and seven days after he had found Micheru. The Dwarf had no other children, and left everything to Micheru. After mourning his father, Micheru appraised the assets of his father, and sold off most of Boltrak's creations, along with the tower he had been raised in. This resulted in Micheru suddenly having a fortune with no real goals. Most of the money from those transactions still sits in a bank vault today. While sorting through his father's items, he found an odd sword of a green glass that seemed out of place, and something within him told him to keep it.

Micheru had no real goals, so he merely stepped up his services within the courts, becoming a well known courier, scribe, diplomat, and later, a paid companion for women within the courts.

Love and A Ride
It was during this period, that Micheru met a young man named Raki. Micheru had been courting to a noble woman, when he met Raki, her Halfling attendant. Little above a slave, the bonded servant had belonged to her family for ten years, since his parents sold him as a child. Micheru and Raki engaged in a secret romance for a time, beneath the nose of his mistress.

As the two romanced, however, things grew serious, and Micheru was determined to free the Halfling. In a tavern, Micheru met Koka'me, a shaman who had been making waves in the local community, by openly disagreeing with things that had been considered the standard for hundreds of years. There were rumblings that Micheru had heard that the constabulary was preparing to hang her. However, when they got to talking, and she heard of his plight, she dedicated herself to aiding their cause.

Over a mug of terrible mead, they swore kinship to eachother, and then assaulted the house of the noble woman. Koka'me called upon several elementals to cause chaos at the front gate, while she and Micheru slipped in the back and made off with Raki. They stole three horses at the city gates, and rode hard as far as Daggerford, before mercenaries caught up with them. Their camp had been found, and Micheru was read a writ of sentence to death, before a crossbow was aimed and fired at him. Before he could move, Raki lunged before Micheru, taking the bolt to the heart. Micheru's rage grew intensely, and amethyst flames from his eye consumed those who chased them down.

Koka'me and Micheru fled Faerun, and traveled together for many years, before eventually drifting apart.

Chana
Micheru eventually learned to harness the powerful magice embedded within his eye. He could use them to track people across the planes -- or even across the woods. And he could use them to travel between worlds across the Prime Material Plane.

So it was, that he began a trek through the realms. He spent a few dozen years exploring the other spheres close to the one he had been born in. During one of these wanderings, he came across a young child, living much like he had when he was found by Boltrak. Her blood pointed her half elven and half orc, and so he took her in and raised her as his own daughter.

Micheru had learned to play many instruments during his time with Raki, and taught Chana to play a flute called the Shawm. Together, they traveled, making their coin through bardic performances, as Micheru traveled across dozens of worlds with her, seeking out sages, wizards, and clerics of thousands of faiths to restore his memory and his wings.

Nothing ever worked, and eventually Micheru's mind returned to that of Koka'me. He harnessed his eye to seek her out, and opened up a gateway into the mists to travel to her.

That's how he and Chana took their first step onto Mystaran soil.

Arrival
Micheru's first interactions were inside of the Royal Oak Tavern, playing music for his supper. As he became to be known, he met a number of the denizens of the isle, and once more hooked up with Koka'me. A small hermitage was built in the woods for Chana and him to stay in, comprised of a driftwood awning and a small tent with their bedrolls.

Over several weeks, Micheru came to know Tre, a local tavern wench, and Aurah, a pirate woman. As he came to know and love Mystara, he began to seek out a way to restore his wings. When the Werewolves attacked the town on a full moon, he began to dedicate himself to defense of his new home, and trained with Aurah and Oskar, the town guard lieutenant, to learn swordplay. He joined the local Elven court to keep an eye on the local interests, and came to know several high profile figures.

One night he overheard the owner of the Royal Oak, Annie Ibanez, discussing sale of it to Tre. Joining the discussion, he appraised the diamond thad had been put up. When Annie demanded more, he made an on the spot deal with Tre for co-ownership, and it was approved. The deed was signed over, and the two became the new owners of the Royal Oak.

During his training with Aurah, the two became lovers, and established a romantic relationship, Micheru's second and only realationship with a woman. After a time, he declared himself in love with her, to her face, and she fled for her ship, having had all of her previous loves killed. Micheru attempted to chase after her, but was thrown to the ground by a spasm.

His body contorted, as all of his muscles tightened into knots. His body shook, as the curse upon him shattered. Wings plunged outwards from his torso, and his memory returned in a flash. He knew this was a gift, a show of mercy and forgiveness from the Gods.

Micheru took to the sky in chase of Aurah, and landed on her ship, convincing her to give him a chance to love her. She came back with him to the isle of Mystara. Micheru's memory brought back with it skills he had long forgotten-- returning to him the mastery of Bladesong, the martial art of Elven swordplay. He declared himself a renewed Bladesinger, and dedicated himself to the way. He had fallen, and risen again, this time having learned piety, humility, and love for his daughter and his lover. The hard road he'd taken, the hell every moment he'd endured without the ability to simply fly away had made him a good person.

The Bladesinger once more began his service to the Elven people.