Well I've decided to start writing down my memoirs, just in case I fall in battle. First let me start by saying how much this slaving duregar is starting to get under my skin! If he so much as intimates anything about slavery again, surely we'll come to blows. My dislike of slavery reaches far back into my childhood.
My people have long roamed the plains, with no real place to call home. It's a lifestyle that has always suited me. When I was younger (and still accepted among my people) I saw a terrible thing happen. "Civilized" men descended upon our tribe. Referring to us as "barbarians" who had no rights. My people were a peaceful people. There were many great bowyer's among my tribe. The hunters felled many a beast, which we ate during celebratory festivals. However for all of their great bow work, we had no blades other than useless things of flint for skinning and carving of bows and arrows. That was our downfall. When these so called “civilized” men came upon our tribe they had great weapons of war. Blade made of metal that were in some cases up to 5’ long! They butchered most of the hunters, and took all the captives they could fit in their wagons… Only about ¼ of us made it out alive, and un enslaved.
From that day forward I vowed to teach myself to forge such wonderful blades. However we still had no metal with which to do so. Nor did we have any way to melt such metal (as I have recently discovered you must do for forging). So I began carving swords from flint and training myself in their use. I decided then at there (at the young age of 8) that no slaver would ever take any of my people again. So single minded was my determination in defending myself and my people that it made something snap within me.
Soon while out on the hunt at the young age of 16 an awful thing happened. I was with a group of hunters when a small party of orcs stumbled upon us. Suddenly I was in the thick of battle with my newest flint blade (some 4’ long). The other hunters withdrew to fire their bows, while the orcs rushed me. Suddenly I felt a warmth flow through my body and my eyes started glowing silver. An arc of rainbow colored light shot from my eyes, while my body got covered in a light grey goo (which went away almost immediately). It startled both the orcs, any my fellow hunters. I tore into the remaining 5 orcs and made short work of them. By the time my battle fury had subsided I noticed my companions had fled. After I made it back to camp there was a council in session. They made short work of banning me from the tribe for witchcraft… I fled in shame.
After weeks of trying to survive in wild I was reduced to a scrawny existence of scavenging for food. I wandered far from where my tribe dwelled during their seasonal routes. Eventually, half-starved I was wandering aimlessly when a monstrous storm broke. Lightening was striking down from the sky. It seemed even the gods hated me. In a bright flash of lightening I made out a cave some distance ahead. I made my way there hoping for some shelter. It turns out the cave wasn’t as abandoned as I hoped it would be.
After reaching the cave I noticed it sloped down a little bit, so the floor was too wet for me to want to lie on for fear of getting sick (something that would surely kill me in my state). I began blindly feeling my way down deeper and deeper with only the occasional flash of lightening slightly illuminating my way. Eventually I noticed something extraordinary. I could see! It seemed there was some sort of glowing lichen on the walls. By that point I had journeyed far into the cave, but the floor was still wet. After what seemed like hours I stumbled upon a vast, majestic cavern. It was elevated in the middle and had a forest the likes of which I’d never seen before. It was made of crystals of various colors! It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
As I wandered toward the crystal forest I forgot all about my hunger. I began to gape at the wide variety of colors, sizes, and shapes. Soon after arriving in the midst of these glorious crystals I found myself face down on the ground with a sharp pain in my back. My warrior instinct kicked in, and as I rolled to the side I called upon my inner power again. What I saw standing over me took my breath away. It seemed a monster of pure crystal with the shape of a scorpion. The battle that ensued will be burned in my memory forever. It seemed I would never be able to stop the thing, until a strange thing happened. Suddenly I smelled my mother’s bread, and was covered briefly in that goo again. It seemed vigor had suddenly filled me. I leaped to my feet and began slashing wildly at the creature.
At first it seemed my blade couldn’t penetrate it’s thick crystal skin. However I could tell I was slowly chipping parts off. After dancing back and forth trading blows with this monster twice my size suddenly I lunged forward and buried my blade in the things head. It shuddered and fell to the ground. I noticed a crack in my flint blade then, and when I tried to pull it out of the thing’s head, it fell into pieces.
After resting for what seemed like days (but was probably only hours) I stumbled to my feet and began to search the rest of the cavern. I came upon a grove of strange glowing mushrooms in the far corner. Mushrooms had long been a part of my tribes diet (all but the ones the elder’s pointed out to be poisonous). I figured poisonous or not, I was doomed to die if I didn’t eat something. I made myself a fine meal of mushrooms, and drank the rain water that had collected on the floor.
After a couple of days of recuperation in the cave I decided I needed a new blade. After examining all of the crystals in the forest, I settled on a particularly large clear one (to give me more room for error). All I had to slowly chip it down into shape was my flint knife. It took me almost a week to carve it. I used my flint knife to sand it down to a keen edge, and buff all of the rough spots out. After that my knife was no more, but the blade was truly wondrous. It was light and well balanced, with a razor sharp edge. I modeled it after the blades the orcs used when they descended upon us. A long curved blade (almost 4’ long), that seemed made for gutting foes. I took the rawhide wrapping off of my broken flint sword to wrap around the hilt.
I spent almost 2 weeks getting accustomed to the blade in the forest of crystal before venturing forth. But once I fully understood it’s use, it seemed almost a part of me. I suppose that’s why the people in the gladiatorial pit of Sutan began chanting my new name, “Clearblade”.