Role

Chapter 1

Son of Garron, the human gladiator famed for representing Udgaard
in many victories in Galadon's arena, and Chrysilin, dark-elven mistress
of Udgaard's necromancer guild, much was expected of the young
half-breed, Larnu.

For a time, his parents believed that their boy, who showed talent
for everything he tried, would live up to that promise, becoming
a great mage, or a warrior of reknown. Unfortunately, Larnu had
other ideas. Specifically, he liked drawing. And painting. And pottery.
Sometimes a bit of woodwork if it was for ascetics rather than utility.
Stone sculpture was a favorite of his too. But his talents exceeded
those of most artists, and Larnu was able to create art from the
interplay of light, the indirect effects of mana, and the randomness
found within nature and within battle.

Disappointed with their progeny, his parents packed him off to Galadon's
Academy, famed establishment where many a hero, and leader of factions
political and religious, had been honed and shaped. Larnu, however, was
going to study Art. And frankly, if his parents cared about art,
they wouldn't be kiving in Udgaard, would they?

Now in his third decade, Larnu was fully under the effects of puberty.
Which is why he wasn't paying as much attention to the enrolment
paperwork as he was to the various females of human and elven
parentage. And so it was that Larnu, having gathered together his paint
brushes, entered what he expected to be a studio, only to find himself
beset by leathery creatures in the Academy arena. Being so talented
(did I mention his talent?) he rapidly dispatched the creatures, using
his paint brushes in a variety of innovative, painful, and ultimately
fatal ways, pausing only to admire the effect of the arterial spray
on the arena floor, and perhaps the effect of various other bodily fluids
(or part-solids). It was, in its own way, something of a masterpiece,
he fancied.