Europa Wilderness, la route vers Alexandrie
Le souffle froid de l'hiver a trouvé son chemin à tisser à travers la terre dans le capot d'un voyageur voilé. Le voyageur sentit la morsure de vent sur son visage alors qu'il enfonçait le long de son cou jusqu'à ses orteils et frissonnait doucement en cassant les rênes d'une courte touche de ses poignets. Lentement, la voiture battue rampait le long du sentier bien entretenu, une vieille route de transport située précairement à côté d'une chute et d'une colline en pente raide. Situé au fond de la colline était un lac bien visible, gelé en partie dans un motif visuellement attrayant en forme de jambage, comme les mâchoires d'une grande bête. Partinant son regard du lac, le voyageur regarda devant lui pour voir le col mince commencer à s'élargir dans une route plus large, pavée de pierre. Il n'était qu'à quelques jours de la ville et il pouvait déjà entendre au loin la commotion des gens et les bruits des créatures majestueuses. Un rire doux a échappé à ses lèvres, son souffle comme une bouffée de fumée dans l'air frais. Cela faisait longtemps qu'il avait commencé son voyage et cela l'a amusé de penser qu'il y avait encore plus à voir, et un tel événement comme un mariage royal aurait sans aucun doute des opportunités commerciales lucratives pour lui de tenir. Les divers articles et bibelots qu'il avait acquis au cours de ses voyages se vendraient, espérons-le, à la myriade de consommateurs d'Alexandrie, mais il était certain qu'il y aurait une concurrence commerciale féroce dans les rues et il savait qu'il avait besoin de connexions dès son arrivée ainsi qu'un agent d'exécution ou un garde du corps d'un certain type. Créer un magasin dans une telle grande étape sans amis ou sans protection était un mouvement amateur et de telles actions n'étaient que des moyens de perdre de l'argent.
À l'extérieur de Dragon Keep, Marketplace
Après la longue débâcle de la navigation de sa voiture à travers les rues lourdement emballées pendant des heures, Orphée s'était finalement installé confortablement dans un marché en vue de Dragon Keep. La structure était imposante et tenait un certain visage déprimant sur les gens inférieurs, ou du moins c'est ce que Orphée voyait, pas l'opinion commune des gens qui se tenaient autour de lui, épinglant les caractéristiques majestueuses de l'édifice. Tout ce qu'il pouvait imaginer était le dos des gens ordinaires sur lequel il était construit quand il observait la structure, et regardant autour de lui, ils semblaient tous ignorants à leur dos étant utilisés. Avec un soupir, Orphée revint à ce qu'il avait fait avant d'être distrait par ses idéaux, quelque chose qu'il trouvait le distrait plus que souvent.
Après avoir conversé avec un grand nombre de commerçants, Orphée a commencé à entendre parler d'une sorte de concurrence bardée au sein du Keep. Une idée intéressante, et il pourrait y avoir des choses à gagner en participant à un tel concours. S'il se joignait à lui et placeait bien, il aurait la chance de faire connaître son nom dans certaines régions de la ville. Ayant un nom était une lame à double bord, il est venu l'influence et de plus grandes opportunités, mais il y avait aussi un risque plus élevé impliqué. Les malfortunes étaient fréquentes à cette époque et l'envie et la cupidité avaient vu beaucoup le long de ses voyages pour rencontrer ces rayures de malchance. Bien que risqué Orphée a décidé qu'il n'était pas venu dans cette ville pour se cacher comme un rat du marché cette fois-ci comme il l'avait fait jusqu'à son arrivée à Alexandrie, il utiliserait son temps ici pour chercher ses ambitions et prendre des risques.
Il a pris le temps de troc avec les autres stands près de lui et d'apprendre à connaître le flux d'or dans la ville. Un visage poli et des manières bien gardées étaient assez pour presser l'information sur les producteurs plus qualifiés de marchandises dans la ville des commerçants plus naïfs, mais il a fallu un peu d'or de la poche propre d'Orphée pour apprendre les marchés des plus vieux marchands grizzlis. Il a visité divers endroits après avoir fermé sa voiture et payé un propriétaire de stand de fruits moins ambitieux pour regarder ses marchandises en son absence. L'une de ses premières destinations a été les forges de forgerons, une destination déjà bondée par beaucoup de tous cherchant à passer des commandes des ouvriers de la métallurgie. Orpheus s'est contenté aujourd'hui de se présenter aux forgerons et d'apprendre à connaître leur niveau de compétence et la qualité de leur travail.
Orphée se pencha en arrière dans son tabouret contre un baril derrière la table de son stand de marché et soupira, d'habitude ces temps derrière son propre stand étaient les seuls moments de vraie détente qu'il ait jamais obtenu, et même alors ce n'était pas le repos complet. Il a gardé un œil vif sur ses marchandises pendant qu'il se détendait, s'assurant qu'aucun voleur à main ouverte ne profitait de sa détente. Ses articles s'étaient accumulés au fil du temps de simples instruments des arts musicaux à des instruments de toutes formes et de toutes tailles. Il avait tout ce qu'il aimait, des bibelots, des bijoux, des livres et des armes, tous des pays qu'il avait parcourus avant d'arriver à Alexandrie. Il avait constaté qu'il y avait plus d'or à fabriquer à partir d'une grande variété de produits plutôt que de se concentrer sur un type particulier de produits sans être le producteur de tels produits. Il a montré les quelques armes qu'il avait rassemblées plus en avant au spectateur de passage, il y avait aussi un tournoi de combat en cours pour célébrer le mariage royal et c'est à Orphée que l'on espérait que certains des candidats potentiels permiraient les marchés à la recherche d'une bonne lame pour répondre à leurs besoins dans la prochaine compétition.
**Name:** Orpheus Taygetus, Descended from the original Orpheus
**Titles:** None Yet
**Affiliation:** An amateur travelling trader and musician, Orpheus has ties with many merchants and musicians of his homeland but in the place of his mother’s ancestors, Europa, he is in a place unknown to him.
**Gender:** Male
**Age:** 22
**Birthplace:** Hellas
**Origin:** Orpheus and Eurydice
**Race:** Human, A mix of Hellas and Celt Blood
**Appearance:**
(
**Occupation:** Travelling Merchant and Bard
**Resources:**
-Trade Commodities from his Homeland
-A bag of coins
-A Golden Lyre
-An Ivory Lyre
-A wide assortment of instruments
-A Dagger
**Skills: **
Merchant/Business Minded- Orpheus is skilled in the art of marketing and obtaining money through many means. As well as good at marketing, he has developed at least an amateur sense of identifying lucrative opportunities
Eye for Potential- Orpheus can tell the worth of a man with just a short look, a useful tool in negotiations as well as finding useful friends.
Silver Tongued- A natural born utilizer of words, Orpheus has always been well gifted with an outgoing personality and an open plethora of words to get what he wants. Preferring the use of his tongue to the use of his dagger, he speaks with strong persuasiveness. Just as well as he can convince people he can also lie with similar ease.
Musician- An extremely talented musician, Orpheus plays his Golden Lyre beautifully having learned how to play since a very young age as well as a wide plethora of unique instruments he has learned
**Personality:**
Orpheus is an earnest young man with an outgoing and charismatic personality. Sharp of wit and even sharper of tongue, he is quite intelligent and seeks to utilize his own talents to their furthest extents. Beneath the face of the cheerful young musician lies the mind of an old wise fox, clever, sly and ambitious who will do many things to reach his goal. To sit upon a throne of his own wealth obtained through the use of his own talents and looking down at the backs of the people of power he has toppled to reach the pinnacle is the basis of his final goal. To reach such a shining stage from his current standing, Orpheus, even at his age, has a basic understanding of the morals and means necessary to make such a dream happen. Though an opportunist and ambitious, Orpheus still knows the meaning of companionship and loyalty and has a moral obligation against betrayal of those he considers true allies. Even further beneath his burning ambition is a smoldering distaste for those of noble blood.
**Biography: **
Born the bastard of a Hellan nobleman and a Celtic musician, Orpheus was raised in the lesser known areas of his father’s rural estate as a lowly servant alongside his caring mother. His mother was a comely maiden from Europa with a strong talent in music who had been captured by slave traders on the road while she and her caravan travelled through Hellas. She was sold as a slave to a Hellan nobleman captivated by her fair skin and golden hair. A year and a half later, at the horror of the lady of the house, Orpheus was born, a young child with the same fair skin and blonde hair as his mother. Since a young age he discovered the beautiful music talent he inherited from his mother and with his mother, he spent the little amount of hours in his free time fostering his skill with instruments provided as gifts to his mother from his father.
Through the years, Orpheus acquired enough freedom that he could leave the estate when he wanted as long as he returned within reasonable time. It was with this that Orpheus entered the market streets of Parnassus, a captivated rural slave bumpkin wandering around the city for the first time. While wandering the streets he found himself in a winding maze of the back alleys, it was here he found a small market stand in the shadows of decrepit pillars sitting atop ruined walkways. Standing within the stall was a hooded old man leaning quite still against the rotted olive wood posts in his stand. As Orpheus approached the hooded figure, it spoke to him in a surprisingly enchanting voice that radiated with warmth, “Come hither child, need not be cautious child, you are not lost, this was your destination whether you knew it or not. I have a gift for you child”, as he spoke the old man fumbled through a linen bag slung over his shoulder.
Standing across the stand at this point, Orpheus strained his eyes to see the face of the old man, shrouded under the hood. The old man lifted his face towards Orpheus, thought the rest of his facial features were hidden by the shade of his hood, Orpheus could see clearly the brilliant glowing golden eyes that lay beneath the shroud. Quite apprehensive and nervous, the 13 year old Orpheus watched anxiously as the Golden-eyed old man pulled a beautiful golden lyre from his bag, the bow and handle of the lyre wrapped in gold and embroidered beautifully, the strings appeared to be thin strands of gold themselves.
Orpheus was captivated by the beauty of the instrument and could look only with awe at the delicate inscriptions and folding on the lyre. The old man spoke his voice still warm and sweet, “I will give you this instrument, child, take it, a gift.” He said as held out the lyre. Awestruck, Orpheus mindlessly reached his hand out to take the Lyre and then nervously retracted his hand as he came back to his senses and suspicion. “There are no such thing as gifts, sir. I must ask, there are surely strings attached to such a lucrative gift, and I fear that such strings are not the type I want to be tied up by, so what is the catch?”. said Orpheus as he looked into the golden eyes of the old man. The old man let out a soft chuckle, “You are certainly sharp of tongue for a young one. Indeed, this gift may seem too good to be true but it is a true gift. One from me to you with honest intentions, not quite like the gifts you know of that your father gives to your mother with the intentions of receiving affection, your talents have impressed me child, and perhaps you will be someone worth mentioning in the future.” The old man leaned in closer to Orpheus, his eyes burning ever more brightly as he drew closer, within seconds the dark alleyways was being bathed in radiant light and Orpheus, shielding his eyes, could hear the old man’s voice close to his ear, “The only intention behind this gift is in gratitude of entertainment you have given me so far, perhaps you will be someone to continue watching in the future...perhaps like you great-grandfather...” The voice faded as the shadows of the alleyway slinked back. Orpheus cautiously opened his eyes, the stand and old man had disappeared and all that remained was the Golden Lyre laying atop the linen bag.
Sometime around the fourteenth month of his eighteenth year, a now well established peddler in Parnassus who had been given his own freedom from his father as a gift to his mother, Orpheus would sell his wares and play his beautiful music regularly using a Lyre he bought with his own money within the streets. He received news that his father had passed away as a result of a mysterious illness. Orpheus was aware of the gravity of the issue with his father’s passing. His father had been the one who stood between his official wife and Orpheus’ mother, and with his passing his mother was no longer protected. Hurriedly, Orpheus travelled to the estate to find his mother but was destroyed to find he was too late. The lady of the house’s cruelty had already reached his mother. He found her laying in pig stables, her beautiful blond hair scalped and her fair skin burned. Horrified, Orpheus wrapped his mother in a cloth and carried the corpse away into the nearby forest. He buried her beneath a small oak tree in a wide open field. With sorrow, he placed his lyre that he spent so long saving up for on her grave and left. That night, he packed up his things, spent the last of his gold on a carriage and two mules, gathered all his goods and set out on a journey.
**Notes: **
-He dislikes nobles