Gordon Bangle

**Gordon Bangle** (though he has gone by many names throughout his career of swindling) is a "recovering" con artist, artisanal jam producer, lumberman, and aspiring sellsword who operates out of **Ancontinople** and **Riversedge**, locations in the Uraki Heartlands and Drak Yamar respectively. While he has a history of dishonorable dealings, he is looking to reform his image under the guidance of the patriarch of the **Flumina** house, **B29**.

## Early Life

Born at the height of Eldham's colonial period, Gordon was raised in a chaotic, ever-changing environment. His father, a mediocre con-artist, was able to provide for the **Bangle** family, but at the cost of never being able to settle down, always discovered and pursued by bounty hunters before long. On the eve of Gordon's 10th year, his mother fell ill, and in a desperate attempt to afford a medicinal elixir imported from Rathnir, he scammed a colonial officer with shoddily debased coins. The following morning, Gordon awoke to guards bashing down the door to his home, his father carried away in irons as his mother lay weak and motionless in bed. Before noon, his father was hanged, and his mother took her last, raspy breath.

Living as an urchin, Gordon grieved, growing into a young man without many skills, a poor reputation, and no family. One day, he decided finally to leave the streets and alleys he had called home, still plotting his vengeance against those that took his parents from him. He wandered eastward, roaming from town to town, doing odd jobs, hustling a few too many people on the way. Marketing himself as an "artisanal jam salesman", he became a purveyor of random mixtures of fruit and produce, advertised to have "life changing regenerative effects", "the strength of ten men in one bottle", and "remarkably delicious flavor" - none of which were true. Following in the footsteps of his father, Gordon failed to see history repeating itself, as a group of disgruntled townsfolk who purchased his wares pooled their coin to hire a mercenary to bring the young conman to justice, dead or alive.

## Riversedge

An arrow sailed through the air, the fletching skirting just past Gordon's right ear - he had been running for nearly an hour, the mercenary running him out of town with his blade drawn. The forest was dense, but his pursuant gained on him, held back by the heavy armor he wore. Another arrow flew, lodging itself in the body of a tree, perhaps an inch from piercing Gordon's neck. His hope fading, Gordon looked ahead to sunlight shining through a thinning canopy, a silhouette standing before him at the entrance to a clearing. A sharp pain jolted through Gordon's body as his breath escaped him; an arrow had finally found its mark, lodging deep into his back.

Falling to his knees, the heavy footfalls of the mercenary grew louder, dried leaves and loose twigs crunching under the weight of his boots. The silhouetted figure approached, then stepped past, as the sound of grinding metal echoed through the forest, and Gordon's consciousness faded to nothingness.

Gordon's eyes opened to unfamiliar surroundings and muffled voices; he lay in a bed, dressed in clean linens, though his body was horribly weak, and his breaths were short and painful - he remembered his mother, and imagined her pain compared to his. Some time later, two men entered the room, one nursing a bandaged arm, the other, an older man, looked to Gordon with pity in his eyes. They introduced themselves as Henry Chappelle, the man who fought off the mercenary, and **B29 Flumina**, patriarch of a royal house originating from this very town - **Riversedge**. Too weak to respond, Gordon smiled as pained tears welled up in his eyes; B29 expressed his knowledge of Gordon's past, as well as his father's past, and tells him to look to Henry, who also had a troubled upbringing. B29 offered a decent living, and more importantly, a family to Gordon. Fighting through the pain, Gordon spoke, accepting the offer with a hoarse whisper.

Slowly, Gordon recovered, learning the ways of honorable business from B29, and learning to fight with Henry. He learned that jam could actually have wondrous effects on the consumer, so long as the recipe was known and followed for the desired boon. He learned to fell trees by axe or by saw, and his body grew stronger as he spent long hours lugging evergreen trees to the Riversedge sawmills. As Gordon grew closer to the people of Riversedge, he formalized his connection to them, becoming the adopted grandson of Patriarch Flumina, and Henry's brother.

## Current Ambitions

Prior to the fracturing of the Errine alliance and the subsequent admission of Urak to the Triple Entente, Gordon opened a shop to sell the lumber he felled in the forests of Drak Yamar. However, as the wood market collapsed with the removal of magical auctioning services, his income dwindled. Gordon grew tired of a meager living, and resolved to find a semi-honorable way to make money: buying and selling high-ticket items. He found himself in the possession of a surplus shipment of netherite armor and weaponry, and managed to make a name for himself as a reputable arms dealer. With the rise of a new golden age of banditry in Eldham, few places in the wilderness are safe, leaving commerce and exchange subject to the will of thieves and highwaymen. Still training alongside Henry to become an stronger warrior, Gordon has dreams of becoming an elite legionnaire within the Uraki Imperium, though he still has much more practice to do before becoming a famed fighter.