Edward The Churl

[Ouroboros]

Details of his history are fuzzy and yet to be fully known, but so far this is what he has shared:

Edward is an exile from a distant land lost behind an ever-shifting moongate. 

He hails from the Duchy of Blackbriar, which occupies the southern portion of the great Meadwood forest, where his Father Duke Clotho rules with a mailed fist.
He was given the option of Death or Disinheritance and Exile as punishment for the murder of his brother Cedric, the eldest of the Duke's sons.

Alone and lost in a strange new wilderness in another land, he came upon the walled city of Trinsic.  After wandering the streets for a time, he stumbled into
the Keg and Anchor tavern, where he was met by a most unusual group of people who surprisingly accepted his presence after hearing of his crime and punishment.
He was offered food, lodging at an inn, and a blade in place of the one he was not allowed to bring into exile.

In return, he continues his swordsmanship training and has committed himself as a man at arms to his benefactors.

More will be added as his story unfolds.

--====--

Edward has dropped the pretense of falsehood with his new friends in Trinsic and explained a slightly different version of history and events:

Edward was raised by Duke Clotho as a royal bastard, the union of the Duchess and a common servant.  Edward's lineage was initially hidden from the Duke.
When he discovered the truth some time later, he had the true father imprisoned and starved to death.  For years afterward he would punish his duchess
with jealous cruelty, as well as the young Edward - whose bastardy was also publicly declared.

Edward had brothers, both eligible heirs before Edward by law of primogeniture.  The eldest, Cedric, was beloved by the Duke and made every effort to emphasize this fact to his bastard brother with growing malice - He particularly enjoyed recounting childhood memories of hearing edward's birth-father pleading for food and mercy echoing up through the halls from his dungeon cell, and otherwise using the truth of Edward's lowborn status as weapon against him.

The younger heir, Harold "the half-wit", was an born an idiot and was entirely useless as a member of nobility.  He never understood the web of jealousy and anger he was born into. 

[Ouroboros]

Edward grew up educated like his elder Cedric, but painfully aware that it would do him no good in life as a scapegoated low-born  surrounded by scornful nobility.
He was commonly referred to by those in court, as well as the commonfolk as "Edward the Churl".  A sobriquet originally promoted by Cedric.

Edward decided young that he would take revenge upon Duke Clotho for the wrongful imprisonment and execution of his birth-father, as well as the cruel treatment he thereafter showered upon the Duchess and himself.
As Cedric and Edward approached adulthood, the duke failed to produce any further heirs or progeny of any kind, and according to the laws of the land, Edward would be skipped in inheritance in favor of Harold the  Halfwit if anything should happen to Cedric.

Rumors whispered quietly of the Duke being poisoned by his duchess in some manner which was rendering his male virility inert and unable to produce offspring.  When Edward was fifteen, his mother the Duchess died after a period of illness.  Rumor in the court held that her fits of bloody coughing had been caused by Clotho administering to her a poison of his own.

Edward, whose ear cleverly caught all the rumors of the day, smoldered with hatred for his step-father and had decided upon a plan to blot out the Duke's name of Blackbriar through treachery, even before his mother's eventual death.

He knew that he must act before the Duke had any chance to produce a viable heir, so he put his plan into action.  He challenged Cedric's ability as a Hunter, offering to clean his chamber pot daily for a full year if he could but bring down one meadwood hare without the aid of dogs or servants. Cedric was an able hunter, and edward was well aware of his likelihood of losing the bet, but it had it's desired effect:  Cedric leaped at the chance to demonstrate his superiority to Edward, and relished the idea of watching him carry off his own shit for a year.  He agreed to a competitive hunt without servants, dogs, or anybody else -  Just He and edward.
Edward waited for what he knew would come, the insults and cruel words which Cedric often used to attempt to demoralize Edward during any competitions they shared.  He allowed himself to be overcome with the pent up rage of his existence, spurred by Cedric's razor tongue, and when he found himself properly seeing red, he leapt at Cedric with dagger in hand. 

Wounded, but still full of fight, Cedric fought ferociously against his lowborn brother, wresting the dagger from his grasp and putting his eye out with it in the struggle.  Staggering back, hands clasped to his bleeding socket, Edward screamed oaths and obscenities.  Cedric, bleeding freely from the wound in his side, drew his longblade and prepared to finish it, denouncing edward as a treacherous shit-handler without an ounce of nobility in his blood whose mother had been the great Sow that howard so dotes on in the piggery of afternoons.

Edward drew his own blade during Cedric's rather creative historical revision, and waited for him to strike, pretending to still be preoccupied with his lost eye. 

As Cedric flew at his brother, swinging for the neck, Edward tucked into a roll dodging to the side and wheeled.  As Cedric turned, he recieved the toe of edward's boot sharply right in the cod.  Edward swung his blade, taking off Cedric's right hand at the wrist as it dropped the sword.

Cedric fell to the ground, writhing and squalling in pain.  Edward stared down at him with his remaining eye for a good minute or so before finally putting an end to the show by gulleting the Blackbriar prince.

He snatched up the fallen hand and fled into the Meadwood.