Melody Grimwind

Name: Melody Grimwind

Race: Half-Orc

Gender: Female

Age: 19

Occupation: Blacksmith

Location: Cardend, Venago

Melody was the child of Turk'el Grimwind, an Orc of the Splitrock Clan, and Carillon Tocsin, a Wood Elf. The High Elves, assuming that Melody was the product of rape, disallowed Carillon and her half-breed daughter from entering their cities, seeing them as "sullied". Even protesting the truth: the Orc that she had a child with was in fact her husband, was of little use, and in some cases made the high elves look down upon them even more.

There was also no way to hide her orcish blood, Melody had green skin and pale eyes, something never seen in a full blooded elf. On the other hand, there was Turk'el, who's clan gave him a simple choice: regain his senses and abandon his elven wife and child and find a new wife in the clan, or abandon the clan all together.

So the three of them traveled. Unwanted by the Elves, unwanted by the Orcs, they traveled and picked up whatever odd jobs they could obtain. They headed north up towards Anchorshim (what the humans call the kingdom of Penn Yan) and found their way to a dwarven fortress high in the frozen mountains.

Melody was only 7 when they reached the gates of Helderheim Fortress, but her family found a home among the dwarves. Turk'el found work pushing carts of jewels and metal ores up and down the deep tunnels where the dwarves mined. Carillon found work as a teacher, teaching the young dwarves how to track and hunt game, how to tan the hides, how to prepare the meat to be salted and saved to be sold during the winter months, and how to extract the fats to make oils, candles, and balms.

The family didn't lead lives of luxury, but they had found a new home, and a community that accepted them. It was during these developmental years where Melody found a passion that would follow her for the rest of her days. She woke up before dawn every day and hurried to the forge, where she would spend all day watching the dwarven smiths do their work. She was endless fascinated by the craft, in total awe of the smiths power and persistence, and engulfed by excitement every time she saw sparks fly or saw them move the molten metals. At the age of 9, Melody had begun apprenticing for the blacksmith Dulgor Drubber. He was a kind old man who she liked talking to because of his funny accent and the fact that he called her Greenbean. He was also a master of his craft who taught Melody day after day, instilling every bit of wisdom he could. 6 months later, she forged her first dagger all by herself.

When Melody was 13, tragedy struck. The Merge. As it were, the mountain where Helderheim was hidden was stuffed full of valuable resources; a fact that was not lost on the humans. So it was that the human mines combined with the dwarven mines, which caused a complete cave-in. Most of the denizens of the fortress were killed, including Melody's Father and Master Drubber.

A small group of survivors spent days digging themselves out of the rubble, but eventually a starving and exhausted Melody saw the sun again. The dwarves, Melody, and her mother had descended off the mountain and made a small camp at the base of the mountain. Melody and her mother lived in a small pup tent by a river bank, and this was a time of great despair for them. They were in mourning, they were dirty, they were constantly cold, constantly hungry as the ground was too rocky to grow crop and the area too barren to hunt game. Over the course of a couple of months, Carillon had stopped eating completely, she had grown frail and sickly. She slept all day, and cried throughout the night. Melody did her best to support and care for her mother, but she could not get her out of her deep depression. Carillon Tocsin-Grimwind died in her sleep on a cold spring night, leaving her daughter with no family.

That was not to say she was alone though, the dwarves that remained were as tightly knit as ever, and they had cared for Melody since she was a young child. To them she was a vital part of their community, no different from any dwarf. Melody was moved into a larger (but even more cramped) tent with several women who took care of the young girl. Her passions reignited by the love and care she received from her community, Melody began planning a way to make life easier for her people.

She spent the next months using river water, rocks, and clay to make a small but functional forge. Her plan was to return to the ruins of Helderheim to find raw ore, forge weapons and tools, sell her crafts to the village she had scouted out a few times that was only a few miles down river, and then use the money to buy wheat. She could then make ovens in order for her people to make bread. She could also make spears to fish the river. She knew it was a short term solution, but at least she could make it so they didn't have to go to bed hungry every night.

She set her plan in motion, scavenging raw materials and the tools she needed in the cover of night (unbeknownst to her guardians), making weapons during the day, and she left one day to sell them. This was where her plan fell apart. She had failed to take into account the xenophobia, the racism, the pure hatred that the humans were capable of. She went to the village to sell her goods, at first the humans seemed standoffish, but over time she was talking to some of them. She told them of her people's plight, and that she was there to sell goods to help them, and that they were like neighbors because their camp was so close. Some people bought some weapons, and talked with the girl, and as she walked home that night with less product than she had arrived with, and some coin in her pocket, Melody felt good. It was in that moment she realized how long it had been since she felt happy.

That night she woke up to the screaming. The townsfolk had moved in on the camp, and were burning tents while the dwarves slept inside. Anyone who dared tried to escape were slashed down by men with weapons...Melody's weapons, they had bought them from her in order to slaughter her people. Melody, the 14 year old facing slaughter head on, did the only thing she could think of, she ran. She ran to the ruins of Helderheim, she ran to those collapsed halls that she had come to know so well. She hid in the ruins of her childhood home, while what was left of her people were slaughtered like cattle.