(Character Background)


Ever since he was young, Kaz had always wanted to grow up to be a warrior, like his father was. He wanted to defeat evil, wherever it reared it's ugly head, like his father did. He wanted to save the people from monsters and bandits, like his father did. The list goes on and on. He even wanted to die with honor, in a fight to the death.. like his father did.

For years he had practiced with his father's over-sized dagger, which was the size of a short sword to Kaz. He spent hours outside, swinging and cutting, or running, or punching trees to make him tougher. On his 14th birthday, he abandoned his mother, just as his father did with his own family on his 14th birthday. His mother had warned him before, that it would be the death of him, and that it would bring him no good, and that the road to High Palace was long, and dangerous. But, as a young teenage boy, he didn't listen. He knew he could take the world on... Or at least, that's what he knew in his head.

The long winding road to High Palace was patrolled by local Bandit groups and Thieves, but Kaz followed it anyway, determined to get there, and become a great Knight like his father was. The journey took him about three days, which was faster then most could boast. He crossed the Great Bridge, and walked into the courtyard of the High Palace, and yelled, "I'm ready to be a Knight!".
The soldiers, and squires, and Knights, and servants who were there were surprised by this little voice, and were first stunned in awe, which was quickly replaced with snickers and laughter.

Ashamed and angry, Kaz stormed off, crossing the Great Bridge again, and followed the old road home. Even 3 days on the road could not quell his anger, or stop his tears. The only thing that could was the large plume of black smoke that raised up in the sky, in the direction of where his home was. He dashed home as fast as he could, running faster then he ever had in his entire life, clutching that little sword tighter then he ever had.

He burst through the front door of his cottage, and was immediately over taken by two bandits. They held him up in the air against a wall, while another bandit searched him for valuables. As he was pinned, he watched in horror as another much larger man violated his mother, who had many long, deep gashes in her body. Blood was everywhere. Once the bandit found nothing on Kaz, he took the boy's sword and stabbed him in the chest. Once this was done, the man finished with his mother, and did the same with his own sword, killing her instantly.

Kaz slowly blacked out, as the bandits walked away, laughing, leaving him to die in the flames with his mother.

A few days later, the boy awoke in the charred remains of his home, staring into the cold, dead eyes of his mother. He screamed at first, trying to move, but could not. The sword still pinned him to the ground. He clutched the blade's hilt and drew it from his body, and crawled to his mother, falling unconscious yet again. When he awoke again, the wound in his chest had been healed, as if it never existed, and he found a new found strength coursing through his body. He stood up, and slowly drew the blade from his mother's corpse. The sword was 3 times his size, and he held it as if it were his little sword he had been pinned by before.

Some say that a healer came to him in his sleep and revived him, granting him the strength of 10 men. Others say the gods blessed him the passage of vengeance. Regardless, the boy left his old home and tracked down the Bandits who had slain him and his mother. They lived in a small camp just outside of the little forest he resided in for so many years. Kaz casually walked into the camp, and slew everything he came by: man, woman, child, it didn't matter. They were all filth. He just kept walking forward, swinging at everything that was within his field of vision.

Days later, the very same group of knights that had denied him had been dispatched to investigate the raging fire from that camp's location. They arrived to find a bloody Kaz, sitting in the Bandit King's throne, with the head of the man who killed his mother on a pike next to him. The Knights were both terrified of the bloody boy, and amazed. From that day forward, Kaz allowed the Knights to recruit him into their ranks.

But his days were soon to meet more grim then the ones he had experienced just a week before this one...