Rylan/History

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## History

Born the third out of six boys in his family, Rylan would probably describe his childhood as chaotic at best, and most of the early memories he can recall were of him fussing and fighting with one or more of his brothers at any given time. While his parents kept their children fed, clothed, and ensured they had a warm place to sleep at night, apart from that they seemed to be content to let their boys sort out things among themselves, and very rarely ever stepped in to stop a squabble, or break up a fight, feeling that it allowed them to learn how to 'deal with their own problems'.... Only there wasn't so much of dealing with problems, as there was of simply fighting between all of the boys. The rule was a simple one; Whoever won was right, and the loser was wrong, regardless of anything else. It was a rule that was especially unfair to the younger siblings, as they simply weren't strong enough to ever win. This style of 'problem solving' never set well with Rylan. He disliked that there was no real sense of fairness to it all, it was just a plain case of 'the strong taking advantage of the weak', and even from a younger age it never sat well with him, and as he grew older it came to disgust him.

As a younger boy, there was little he could do about it, but when he grew older, he made plans to leave as soon as he was old enough to take care of himself. He decided that when he was sixteen he would be plenty old enough to strike out on his own, and make his own way in the world However, his plans were changed when he began to fall for a pretty, young woman that lived not far from them. Hoping that he might win her heart, he decided to stick around for just a bit longer. There was just....one problem, his eldest brother also had his eye on the same lady, and so he challenged Rylan in the usual family way, with a fight. Whoever won the fight would have the first chance to try to win the fair lady's heart. Rylan agreed, for he was nearly as big as his brother by this time, and figured the match would be fairly even between them. So, one evening the two of them went off by themselves, and settled the affair in a rather savage duel between them. Despite fighting his hardest, Rylan lost in the end, and as he had given his word, he surrendered his plans to win the young lady's heart to his brother. As his brother left, Rylan, unable to bear the consequences his defeat meant, simply turned, and vanished into the trees of the nearby woods, leaving his home without so much as a goodbye to any of his family.

In the following years, Rylan roaming aimlessly from place to place. He had no real idea what he wished to do with his new life on his own. He was free to do as he wished now, but had no clue where exactly to go from here. He'd never been taught in any kind of trade, and his temperament made it difficult for him to hold down any sort of job for very long. He soon discovered that he could not stand a job that gave him no outlet for his physical energy, nor could he stand being stuck inside all the time doing anything that was overly monotonous or involved much repetition to it.

It was actually by accident that he stumbled one day into the forge of an old blacksmith. The smith was in need of assistance, and hired Rylan simply for a few days to help him with some of the heavier lifting, and other such chores around the forge, and since Rylan was rather in need of a job, he took it without hesitation.

In the few days Rylan worked for the smith, he found himself quickly drawn into the older man's work. It was a job that required strength, but also skill, and some imagination in the execution of more detailed, and ornamental pieces. Rylan was captivated at the thought of creating things that were not only works of art, but art that was useful, and which served a purpose.

It took quite a bit of work on Rylan's part, but in the end he finally pestered the smith enough into taking him on as a real apprentice. The first few weeks were not the easiest on either of them, but after giving the young rascal a few, hard blows, Rylan finally seemed to yield to the older man's authority, and gave his new teacher the respect he demanded. Once this was taken care of, Rylan quickly learned to be a quick learner, and a useful assistant, for the younger man embraced hard work, rather than shirking it, and for all his faults, Rylan seemed to have a true talent in his newfound work.

Rylan worked for many, many years under his old mentor, and after the old man finally passed away, Rylan simply stepped in to fill the role on his own. Since the old man had no family, he left everything to Rylan, leaving him with everything that Rylan would need to continue on as he had been doing since the days of his apprenticeship. Even now, the gruff, Therian still works the forge, providing those around him with everything from nails, and door hinges, to fine weapons and armor.