material~ pics and fics ~ Southerner, an introductory minific
In a nutshell
I'm Rumal, currently Raykin's best swordsman. I grew up south of the Main Road and hated it, so I got out in the first way I could think of, by signing up for army training. I never exptected to get into the Own, partly because I never expected Majesty to let me even take the challenge.
On the south
There's a reason that the southern districts have a reputation. I overhear so many people saying it can't really be that bad down there, it can't be as dangerous as it's made out to be. Take it from one who's lived almost half his life there: it is. There are at least two deaths down there every day, one from sickness and one from violence.
What I hated most about living there was the attitude of the southerners. They can't see beyond the next day. They have no concept of future. They say they hate it down there, but the vast majority can't be bothered doing anything about it. Instead of looking for something better, they continue on with what they know, mugging the rich northerners or stealing food from the merchants to live. And then they try and blame their miserable lives on those with better lives than their own, and think that laying this blame on them means they should be the ones to fix it. Except that whenever Majesty tries to help, building better houses or repairing streets, it gets destroyed in an act of rebellion against the higher powers.
I couldn't stand it. I would have taken the first job I came across, washing dishes in a pub, sweeping out camel enclosures, anything to just get out of there. Thankfully, the First General at the time saw something in me and let me start army training.
On the finger
I'm missing the little finger on my right hand. I also have four parallel scars on the back of my wrist. They are completely unrelated. Yes, the scars came from what you're thinking. I stole a bread roll, a dagger, a basket of dates and eight silver coins. Of course, there was more than that, those were just the ones I got caught for.
People always think once they've seen the stump of my finger that the scars explain it. That is the biggest insult I could ever receive, and it still gets mention. I lost that finger on a mission four years ago in Kazin. We'd come up against a group of Kazinians on black horses (basically, the Kazinian Own) and one of them cut my finger off. I killed him and saw an archer fire at me, so blocked that arrow with my sword, and it reverberated in the stump of my finger so much that when his next arrow wasn't going to hit me, I didn't block it.
If I had just been thinking... Kazinians on black horses do not miss. He didn't hit me because he hadn't been aiming for me. I could have blocked that arrow, but I just... I don't know. Naraan died because I just wasn't thinking. It was my fault. If I'd lost my finger to an officer in Ni-Yana like everyone else, I wouldn't have lost it in that battle, I would have been thinking and I'd have blocked the Aeia-damned arrow. If I'd lost it the way everyone thinks I did, Naraan would still be alive. He should be, anyway. Missing finger or no, I should have blocked that. Just... Aeia.
On the King's Own
The Own has been my life for the last thirteen years. I love going on missions as much as my life in Ni-Yana. I don't care a bean for everyone else's thoughts about how cushy our lives are here. I know where I came from, I know I worked to get to where I am, and I know I still work to stay here. There's nothing forcing me to associate with those people, anyway.
The missions always have the same mood around them as a night in the 'Thrai, but there's nobody around judging you. It's good to see the same rivalries in the army still prevail in the Own. The archers think they're the best; the swordies know we are.
Kazin... I'm over it. I've been there enough now that it's just another place. Roads and towns are familiar to me, I know where the best pubs are, the ones most likely to have Raykinian beer behind the bar, the best places to stay with the warmest blankets. I'll never get used to their food, though. Far too spicy for my liking, though it has to be hot with the weather they get.
Anything else?