Perrin Drackus

Born the son of a blacksmith, he was raised to be his father’s son. He would learn to be a blacksmith from his father as his father had learned form his father before. He was a large child and started help his father in his shop when he was just ten. His father never had the money to register his name with the guild masters as his apprentice, but always promised that he would. This didn’t matter to Perrin, because he would just work for his father until he became a guild licensed smith and take over the shop when his father was too old to work.

When Perrin was six his parents enrolled him in the school at the Temple of Gond.. When he started school he noticed that people treated him different, and talked to him very slowly. He was not sure why at first, but later found out that people thought him to be stupid. Perrin was neither slow nor stupid, but he was large for his age. In fact at six he was as big as some of the ten year olds. It was because he was so much bigger then the kids his own age that people thought he was older, and if he was older then others in his class he must be slow in the head. He quickly proved these people wrong; showing that he was not only bigger then kids his own age but smarter then most as well.

One day just after starting school, some of the older children were beating up one of Perrin’s smaller classmates. Perrin stood up to the bullies and told them to stop. One of the children pushed Perrin and told him go away, but Perrin stood his ground. When the child tried to push Perrin a second time Perrin punched the child in the stomach, causing him to fall on the ground crying. From that day forward no one picked on Perrin, or any of the small children because he would always stand up for them. Perrin’s father let him know that he did not like him fighting, but standing up for himself and those weaker then he was the right thing to do. He also told him that some times doing what some may think as wrong could be the right thing in the end.

The next five years were mostly uneventful. Perrin would go to school in the mornings, and then help his father around the shop afterwards. In school he studied mathematics, and engineering, as well as learning about religion, not only Gond’s but some of the other gods and goddess as well. When he was 10 Perrin stop doing odd jobs for his father and became his apprentice, learning to be a blacksmith. For the next year every day after school he would work the billows and swing the hammers and all of the other task that make blacksmith strong men. By the time Perrin was 11 his father would jokingly say that Perrin was already as strong as most men.

Perrin and had been his fathers apprentice for a little over a year when at school one day he found four of his classmates beating up a smaller child. Perrin grabbed two of the bullies and threw them to the ground and then pushed the other two off the small child. He helped the small child up and sent him on his way. One of the bullies, a child named Matt, confronted Perrin and asked him why he had stepped in. Perrin looked Matt in the eyes and asked him if he remembered being picked on when he was one of the small children. Matt replied no that he had never been picked on. Perrin reminded him that the reason he was not beaten up by the older children was because he had stood up for Matt and the other children when they were to small to stand up for themselves, just like he was doing now for the small child. Remembering this irritated Matt and, since he had never been accused of being to bright, he charged Perrin. Perrin punched Matt in the jaw, knocking Matt off his feet. Matt landed on the ground unconscious, with his jaw broken and blood running from his mouth. Perrin was horrified at what he had done. He knew that standing up for the smaller child was the right thing to do, but he never intended to hurt Mat as he had done. Perrin’s father took him out of school the next day.

For the next five years Perrin worked as his father’s apprentice full time, learning to be a blacksmith, and growing stronger everyday. He also continued his studies on his on by going to the library and reading any books that he could find. When Perrin was 16 four men came into his fathers shop. His father told Perrin to go in the house and wait with his mother while he took care of this business. Perrin watch through a window as his father talked to these men. Though Perrin could not hear what was being said, he could tell that his father was upset. The men started to wreck his father shop, and Perrin could see his father’s knuckles go white on the sledge that he was holding. Perrin’s father caught one of the men upside the head with the sledge, and the man fell to the floor. Perrin started to run inside the shop, but as he stepped out of the door, something hit him on the back of the head. When he awoke his mother was there tending his wounds. He looked over and saw the body of his father lying on the floor bloody and lifeless. Perrin went to the authorities, but when he describes the men and the outfits they were wearing, the authorities would do nothing. They said that it sounded like his father had attacked first and the other men had just defended themselves. Since he had not heard the conversation, or saw the men kill his father there was no case.

A few days after his father’s death, the creditors came. Neither Perrin nor his mother new of any debt but when they ask, they were shown a letter of credit signed by his father to the Slaver’s Guild. It was then that Perrin knew who had killed his father, for the Slaver’s Guild symbol that was on the letter, had also been on the outfits of the men who had killed his father. Perrin also knew that his father would never have taken a loan against the house. Something wasn’t right, but he could do anything about it then. When the Slaver’s Guild representative posted the evection notice he also begin having men remove his father’s tools. Perrin protested to the constable who was there that the note was against the house not the contents. The constable, one of the few good men working for the local government, agreed with Perrin, and told the representative that he could post the notice but could not touch the tools. The representative was furious, since he had already brokered a deal for the tools. Perrin and his mother sold the tools instead of the representative, and used the money to pay the back debt that was owed. The constable, who was killed two weeks later while breaking up a fight, made the representative take down the evection notice and watched as Perrin and the man signed an agreement for payment. Now Perrin and his mother just had to find the money to make the monthly payments.

A dwarf that was unloading the shop stopped in front of the forged and noticed the small shrine to Gond the Wonder bringer, and asked Perrin if he worshipped. Perrin answered yes that he and his father had, though his mother worshipped Ilmater. The man introduced himself as Master Smith Cronwell, and asked if Perrin was his father’s apprentice. Perrin and Cronwell talked and eventually Cronwell offered Perrin an apprenticeship. Cronwell’s shop was located at the arena, where he made all of the weapons and armor for the gladiators. He informed Perrin that the minimum time for an apprenticeship was six years, and since Perrin had never been registered with the guild, that he would have to spend the whole six years with him. He also told Perrin that while apprentices were never paid, he would find him extra work to help him pay off his father’s debt. So Perrin worked for Cronwell for three months, as a blacksmith apprentice and did odd jobs around the shop for extra money. Cronwell noticed that Perrin’s skills as a blacksmith were good enough to pass the guild test, so he moved him to making weapons. Perrin worked there for just over six years, learning to make fine weapons, and eventually becoming a licensed black smith as well as a master weapons smith.

It was shortly after Perrin moved to working with the weapon smiths that he met Noradak, a dwarven gladiator. Noradak liked hanging out with the smiths and talking shop as he called it, so he and Perrin got to know one another. Noradak and Perrin were never friends, Noradak didn’t have any, but they got along well enough. Noradak begin teaching Perrin how to use the weapons and armor that he was making, and between Noradak and Cronwell Perrin also learned the dwarven language. Perrin trained with Noradak, in the hopes that he would learn enough to keep what happened to his father from happening to him. Perrin had developed a routine while working at the arena that he kept even after he stopped fighting. He would work in the forge for 10 hours, and then at the end of the day he when he was tired, he would practice with his weapons. As Noradak would tell him, “Mastering a weapon while your fresh is easy, but to be able to use it when you are tired, that’s what keeps you alive.” Noradak would have him work with a different weapon ever day so that he could use whatever he had to. When Perrin fell in love with the great axe Noradak still had him work a different weapon ever day, but allowed him to focus some time each day just for the axe. After about six months of training, Noradak tells Perrin that it was time for him to step into the arena. Perrin was reluctant because fighting in the arena would mean killing, and killing for no reason was wrong. Perrin however found out that he could make more money in one fight as a gladiator then in two weeks doing odd jobs for Cronwell. Perrin agrees to the fight, because he is despert for money and what he is making for Cronwell is just enough to pay the monthly payments. Perrin then spends the next five years apprenticing to Cronwell as a weapons smith seven days a week, and then fighting in the arena two more.

Perrin never enjoyed the killing as most of the gladiators do, but he knows he has no choice if he wants to take care of his mother and save his father’s shop. He tells himself after each fight that this is for his mother. Perrin knows that his mother would be suspicious of the extra money, and would never approve of him fighting, so he puts the extra money toward the house payment, bringing only a little of it home. With the extra money that he is making, Perrin is able to pay off the debt on the house in just over five years. After the house and shop were paid off Perrin continued to fight while working for Cronwell, just long enough to raise extra money to buy the equipment that he needed to open his own shop.

It is while working in the arena that Perrin finds revenge on two of the three men who killed his father. The first happening almost four months after his father’s death. Perrin is walking home for the arena late at night, when he sees a man running toward him being chased by four other men. Perrin is startled, he doesn’t have a weapon on him, not that he knows how to use one anyway, and he is afraid it’s a trap. The man that is being chased rushes up to Perrin and begins begging for help, the other four men stop about ten feet away looking at both Perrin and the other man. Perrin knows he should do something to help the man but when he looks into the man’s face he realizes that it’s one of the men who had killed his father. The man also recognizes Perrin and starts to back away, but then turns around and faces the four men who have been chasing him. The man starts to run, but trips in his hast. Three of the men jump on top of the fellow lying on the ground, one slipping a dagger in between his ribs. The forth man stares at Perrin, who returns the look. Perrin tells the man “make sure you finish what you started” and then he turns and walks away. With tears in his eyes, Perrin prays “forgive me father, but that was for you.” The next morning on his way to work, he hears about a man who had been murdered the night before, and who’s body had been found exactly where Perrin knew it would be.

It was now almost three years after his father’s death and Perrin had been fighting in the arena for just over two years. He always hid his face when he fought and went by the name of “The Giant” in the arena, because he didn’t want anyone to know who he was. One day a man walks in and announces that he wants to fight that day. Perrin immediately recognizes the man as one of the two remaining men who had killed his father. Perrin accepts the man’s challenge in the arena, though the other man has no idea who Perrin really is. When the fight starts Perrin waste no time in quickly taking the other man down. When the man is lying on the ground begging for mercy, Perrin raises his visor, looks the man in the face and tells him who he is. The crowd wants then mans death, so Perrin brings his axe down and loops of the man’s head.

It’s now almost seven years since his father was killed. Perrin has opened his own shop and has been working as a weapons smith for a little over six months. Things seem to be looking up for Perrin, and he’s finally happy with his life. It’s at this time his mother becomes very ill. He takes her to the temple of Ilmater for healing and treatment. She has been there for about a week and was ready to come home the next day, when the temple is burned down. That was over 10 days ago and his mother’s body still has not been found. Perrin’s world is shattered. He knows that he must go on, but he wants answers. He needs to find out what really happened in the temple, and to his mother. Though he still opens his shop every morning, every night he is out asking question and searching for answers.