History
Krah'ge was born in the Eypharian lands of Eyktol to a powerful and crafty merchant father and an artistic housewife. As a young child, his father talked openly of his plans to mold his son into an intelligent and business minded boy so that he could one day take over his trade empire. His mother, however, pressed that he must also get to know the beauty of nature and have a kind heart or else he would not be worthy of their fortunes. Of course this caused conflict as his father put knowledge ahead of anything else.
In the end, the two parents came to the agreement that he should have a well rounded education to make sure he could be the best possible heir they could forge. His family hired the best tutors that could find to teach him from an early age, training him to speak in his native tongue as well as common; so he could speak with the other lowly races. Mathematics, linguistics, business, art, writing all of it and more were shoved into his head from the ages of five to twelve. However, one subject took his interest over them all, history.
While the young boy was striving to do his father proud and be the best merchant he could be, as it was his lot in life, he could not help but take utter fascination in the historical knowledge he could dig up from old books. Stories of epic quests and grand wars, of myth and legends of gods and monsters to the tales of Kings long dead. All of it was strikingly appealing to the young mind, so much so that he would devote almost all his free time to studying it. His mother did insist that he pull his head away from books every so often to appreciate art, however, but particularly her art.
She would tell him stories of great artists and painters and would let him watch her pain the beauties of nature that were around them. It took awhile, but in his elder ages the boy truly began to appreciate every stroke of the brush. "Whatever your mind can imagine, you can achieve it with enough devotion" was what his mother would say as she painted scenes upon the blank canvases she had piled in their home. If that was what she could achieve with but her imagination and her devotion, what could others achieve? That question gave Krah'ge and new purpose. When he was older and achieved the throne of his fathers merchant enterprise, he would devote part of his life to discovering all the great arts of the land.
A child's dream perhaps, but one truly worthy of anyone appreciative of the arts. Unfortunately, while these childish wishes were being threaded a dark scheme was being hatched. Agents of a powerful slaver had been specifically dispatched to Ahnatep to find an Eypharian child who fit their master's strict profile. The child was to be strong and with six arms, one that was intelligent so that he could be more easily trained in the fighting styles needed. The child had to also be of or below the age of thirteen, as any older could run the risk of strong rebellion against their captors.
These agents searched for months, evaluating different stock. The lower-class children they found weren't intelligent enough and most of the higher-class children who fit the description were family members to royalty. The predicament was that they appeared to need to take someone of upper-class standing in order to get a specimen who fit the description. Most of those someones, however, had family members too powerful to trifle with. That was, until a rival merchant to Krah'ges' father discovered the plot. The rival merchant told them of Krah'ges' intellect and suggested they try to take him, as his father did not have nearly enough standing to muster up the loyal forces needed to chase down the slavers.
The rival asked nothing in return, for he knew that Krah'ges' father would spend excessive amounts of money to find his heir and would lose focus on the markets, giving him the opportunity to dominate. So, the agents took the bait and staged a kidnapping of Krah'ge. On the evening before his thirteenth birthday, Krah'ge and his mother were assaulted by the agents after exciting into an alley of an arthouse. The men beat them both unconscious and then carried Krah'ge off to a carriage that they then used to transport him to Sunberth.
After arriving, the agents delivered the young Krah'ge to their master who was pleased with boy's physical attributes and intellect. This slaver, known as Jacen Salvolus, quickly made the decision to brand the boy as his own and begin his training to become a gladiator. For a full year, the boy faced brutal training regiments. Training often broke bones and he was whipped twenty times if he was not able to complete a full exercise or had lost a spar. Ill talk of the gods around him was common and other slave children were executed before him and the others to instill fear among them.
His hope was bled out of him by the scourge and his dreams crushed by the heel of his new master. The boy of fragile heart and soul had been born anew in a river of sweat and dried blood and so, he faced his first combat at the age of fourteen. He has been fighting ever since, both in the blood pits and in the underground fighting rings of Sunberth. Still, he defies his master with words and actions that have begun to rise with frequency. His latest offense being the killing of a gladiator whose owner Jacen had an arrangement with. For this, Jacen plans to make money off his death in a bloodpit match. To ensure his defeat without affecting the outcomes of the bets, he has used hot steam and light contact burns to permanently damage his left eye.
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