Reinar Daen

Reinar Daen is a half-elf Shadow Sorcerer played by Jacob in Among the Bones of the Second Age.

## Backstory

In the cold of winter, a boy was born to a beautiful woman - Evara - and her elven husband - Rhisko. They named him Reinar, and they cared for him deeply. During his youth, he watched his parents work as healers for whoever needed their services, and he learned a great deal from them. However, they made it very clear to him that the true nature of their healing was not to be revealed.

Reinar didn’t know why this was the case, but he withheld the information about their arcane abilities. Truthfully, he admired his parents’ abilities, but he was only able to learn one spell from a book gifted to him on his sixth birthday. From this book, he could summon a friend - a friend who would help him through the darkest times in his life.

Years passed, and the boy showed no aptitude for the arcane. To his parents, this was both a gift and a curse, for in their land, arcane magic was punishable by death… though they knew that their son deserved more than to be a simple farmer.

Their lives soon changed with the eavesdropping of a passerby. Word of their magical prowess quickly spread to the church and the crown - which are very close in Wincelian - and outriders were sent to quell the arcane flame.

That night, Reinar was stolen from his bed, never to see his parents again (though he later learned of the torturous killing that was performed on unregulated arcane practice in this region). He was taken up by the soldiers, who tried to no avail to teach Reinar the ways of the blade or bow. Time and time again, the boy - now 9 or 10 - failed, heartbroken and depressed. The crown held no patience for those they deemed useless, and the boy was soon cast into the streets.

Days he wandered, eating scraps and wearing rags and sleeping under dying trees, until he was discovered by a spectacled man in a black coat. This man - a professor at the academy, Reinar learned - took the boy in and brought him to his home on the campus. This man - Antioch Brambille - was a scholar of the Shadowfell. He had devoted his life to learning the ways of the dark plane, and he had scores of books and relics to show for it.

For three years, Reinar’s newfound aptitude for learning was explored and encouraged. The professor taught him of the Three Ages, of the various planes, and, of course, of the Shadowfell, but one thing was made very clear: the relics were not to be touched.

In his 14th year, Reinar had grown into a budding scholar, himself. Driven by the world’s many mysteries, he found himself compelled towards a small black stone encased in glass one evening after the professor had fallen asleep. Gingerly, he unlocked the case and reached a hand towards the stone, his amber eyes glistening in the firelight.

The moment his finger touched the cool stone, the world went dark, and the boy could feel nothing. For what felt like an endless spanse of time, he floated there, frightened. Moments seemed to turn to hours, and Reinar began to grow frustrated. He thought that this was such an unfulfilling way to die, and that he hadn’t had a chance to make good on anything that had happened in the past. He found himself enraged by the thought that people in power get to decide who gets to live and who gets to die…. And most of all, he was furious that his parents had died just because they used magic.

Out of the darkness then shone two brilliant purple eyes. Reinar felt almost drawn to them, but he could still not move. They blinked at him, and he heard whispers in his ears. The whispers turned into a cacophony of voices, and he screamed out soundlessly. An eternity of pain.

He awoke quietly that night to find that no time had passed at all. In the glass’ reflection, he found purple eyes staring back at him, and he let out a gasp. Time slowed for the boy, and he felt flames dancing in his palm. For the first time in his life, he felt magic coursing through him. He felt the arcane ether that binds all things flowing around him, and he felt *intoxicated* by it.

In the dead of night, the boy fled from the academy. That night, flames were his tool of retribution. The next morning, the church would discover several charred corpses, he expected, but he wasted no time. Drunk on his newfound power though he was, Reinar soon heard the alarm bells ringing in the city, and he knew that he had to flee Wincelian.

For months, he traveled west, knowing that somewhere in Senecal lived his uncle. Together, he and his familiar, Evara, eluded many of their persuants, and they eventually found themselves entering a small village called Crey.

For many years thereafter, Reinar lived with his uncle Bertrand and helped him tend his crops, all the while hearing whispers from the shadows and trying to learn more of his abilities. All the while, he never told Bertrand the true reason that he had fled Wincelian, only that his parents had died… and he intended to die with that secret.

That is, until an inquisitor from Arbante showed up at Crey and began asking questions of the villagers. Reinar, unwilling to let these people be exploited and murdered as his parents had been, chose to flee Crey, knowing full-well that his story was only just beginning.