“I am Canu Aybury, son of Anselm Aybury. My life began when I was 12 years old. I do not remember a second before that. My earliest memory is awakening to dreadful sores all along my body from the slave chains that chafe my wrists and ankles. I spent a couple years like this, and although I look back on those years with dread and child-like fear—it was those years that I learned how to survive. Under the slavery of a Terragar desert lord I met my best friend—who is with me to this day— Emonu.

We escaped on a chilly, winter night when the guards were frozen to their stations with their hoods drawn down so far over their faces that they did not see me grab their keys from their belt, nor could they hear the clanging of the keys over the loud wailing of the wind. I freed Emonu too, and from there we began our lives as free men in Terragar.

What you should know about Terragar (and all regions south of the land bridge) is that there is no order. There are no laws. There are no morals. Nor are there formal marriages or organized kingdoms, or even a class system. We are all bandits. We are all thieves. Everybody whores. Killing is more commonplace than prayer. The soil is infertile. Food is stolen off traders and merchants. This is the land I found myself in—and I always deep within me that I was not meant to be like everyone else. I sought to be different, for I was one who knew what it means to be a slave and to suffer at the bidding of a fat lord with wealth unimaginable.

And thus, I started my own tribe. My own band of warriors. Emonu remained my friend, but he was not interested in adventures and killing and thievery, so he did not join. But I would free others from their bondage, and then as repayment I offered them a place with my tribe. We became a brotherhood, and soon I had a group of men that would go anywhere with me. I established rules and order and a way of doing things. We stuck together—for the land of Terragar was full of wicked men, and our neighbors in Bargetar were much worse and they would come to our lands often to prey on our women and to steal from wealthy men.

I avenged these bad men. I had a warrior’s build and a strong hatred for these bad men, and so I used this anger to fuel my work. I would steal and plunder these wicked men, and then give up what I did not need to those who were suffering. I developed a reputation, and soon people weaker than I would come to me with tasks and pleas to exact vengeance for them. And that is how I satisfied my thirst for blood. I still had much anger about my enslavement—and much unresolved emotion at not knowing where I came from or who my family was.

Eventually I became feared, and no one dared to mess with Canu of Rulzan—for Rulzan was the town I had settled myself in and built a property for my men to dwell within. Years passed by and eventually I was into my early 20s. It was at this time that strange things began to happen. I had never believed in magic, nor had I ever encountered odd men whose tricks were real. Odd stories and even queerer men began to emerge from farther south. Farther south entailed an odd region called Mekdah. The fact that I am even writing the name of that land sends the hairs on the back of my neck straight up. That is where the inventor of wickedness and evil things dwells—chained into the Abyss by a legend who came long before us.

We ignored the coming and goings of these odd men of magic, but when they were referenced, we called them sorcerers, for what else could they be? Eventually, through time, they became commonplace, and they were trickier to deal with than the average powerful man. They had begun to use a more corrupt form of something we called Chamra, which is found in nature and is good for many things like medicine and nutrients. But this altered form we called Ansik, which was a bad type of Chamra.

The influence of this dark sorcery touched the south and we became fiercer. I would not let it touch my town of Rulzan, and I refused to mesh with that foul thing called Ansik. Even the more wicked of men in the busiest towns of Bargetar didn’t dare get involved, for it caused nasty side-effects and gruesome decay to its users. But dark things lurked in these lands continually, and I soon became a slayer of these dark things.

I believe my time here has prepared me for this journey, and my loyal tribesman desire greatly to inherit land and soil that can yield crop. For no land here in the south is a man’s own, but it is said that in the north a man can own a large plot of land and be lord over the land and its people. I might even have the rights to one of these lands, and I intend to find out.

But first, I must acquire this woman who is a special breed of woman. She is a Floweress, which are renowned for their use of Chamra and their healing abilities. She was taken from her home in the north, so we share that same mission. Something tells me that she will be a key to my journey, as she has already saved the life of myself and my dear friend, Emonu. So off I shall go, with not a clue what is in store for me.

All that I do know is that there are things bigger than myself waiting ahead, and it shall be by the grace of Ulda’s first man, Kavinar, that I am safely delivered to the place which I do not remember, and it is called home.