Roetten Strom

**Roetten Strom** (*row-ih-tin strawm*) is a veteran legate hailing from Doban.

* Graying brown hair and mutton chops linked with a mustache. Wears his hair in a *morlan*.

### Personality

Because of how much older he is than the others in the group, Roetten is often left "out of the loop" during discussions, unfamiliar with the younger generations' current events. He gets very excited whenever he can share something he's knowledgeable about with the others, since those are the few times he can feel like he can give of himself.

### Habits

Roetten caught on to his indoctrination at one point in his life and educated himself in both Eastern philosophy and even Western traditions. He incorporates a Sitaran chant during his invocations.

Licks his bottom lip with the tip of his tongue when he's anxious.

## Biography

### Early life

The Banermount - the family homestead of the Roetten Family. It is located in the Ledgers, terraced mountain slopes in Doban that are worked and owned by a single clan. Banermount is said to have been where the first Roetten Strom planted his king's banner and built his family home in the same spot.

Strom was born in his family home, the Banermount, as the second son of hops farmer Roetten Salder. He was named for his ancestor that founded their clan. Strom's mother Berela had one stillborn child (burial urn shaped like pregnant goddess, the Earth Mother, protector of children), followed by a daughter, Bretne, who only lived a few years due to sickliness.

### Adolescence

*"He told me, "You marry your brother's wife or get out!' So I got out! Found my own wife, had my own kids, lived my own life."*

Strom was sent to study at the navassa. While away, Bretne passed away. Her death devastated the Roetten clan and a rift in the family formed.

Salder arranged a marriage for Baldorim, to which Baldorim complied. When Strom returned to the Banermount, Salder arranged for Strom to marry into Baldorim's wedding, which Strom refused. He was shunned from the family and he returned to the navassa to pursue a career in arcane study.

Doban decided it didn't need more civilian warders and assigned Strom to the army

### Family

- meets and marries Gioana; it is a faulty marriage, he was rushing, trying to prove himself. He didn't truly understand who she was yet

- had two sons; very happy family

"I realize now, my dad's greatest fear was that his family would fall apart after he died. He wanted us to stay together, he just pushed too hard."

- Salder lost many siblings growing up.

### Loss

- Roetten is devastated; becomes an alcoholic

- Gioana's depression brings her into the arms of fellow grieving families, who are swept up in the new Awakener intrigue that has been trickling into the bagharn

- Gioana wheedles Roetten into attending a seance; he is off-put by all the creepy company, but she is fascinated with a mage there, Harmiggan Edorad. Harmiggan is actually a necromancer.

- (?) Gioana goes to the family crypt and brings her sons' corpses to Harmiggan who (incompetently) reanimates their dead son Orman, into a limp, lifeless cadaver that sagged as it walked. In her desperation, Gioana tried to pretend it wasn't a complete disaster, but Roetten is disgusted and destroys the revenant
- Gioana and Roetten separate, but never formally divorce. They haven't spoken in years.

### Recently

Roetten was a freelance legate who passed the time doing ward R&D projects in collaboration with ArEm and completing low-urgency commissions around the Duchies, Austen, and the eastern bagharn.

## Trivia

* Roetten offers the perspective of magic on warding (copyrights & espionage, how it works, Promatlean glyphs) and magic in other cultures.
* Roetten devoted his life to the Canon after dealing with his alcohol addiction because he distrusted his own motives, believing he would choose wrong again if left to his own agency.
* As a result of studying at the navassa, he was trusted with many wards kept as national secrets by Doban.
* Has a great fondness for poetry, reading it and writing his own.
* Roetten one day dreams of visiting Sitaram, which is currently forbidden because of the Velvet Curtain. Freyhe promises to take him, since Ushanra is the only CC country that extends past ArEm's imaginary dividing line.