Pull up a seat, ye lads and lasses, these are quite the tales.
Murgash gro-Ogdum was born in Dawnstar, although his ancestors (great-grandparents and above) hail from Orsinium. He grew up in a clan-style family with six other siblings on the outskirts of the town as the third born. As such, his role as the middle kin was a fine balance between taking after his elders and teaching his younger blood-kin. The family was prosperous enough as far as working in a relatively small settlement like Dawnstar went. His father worked as a foreman for the workers at nearby Quicksilver Mine, and his mother worked as the town’s blacksmith for a short time before retiring prematurely in an effort to care for her young. Along with his other siblings, Murgash trained to become a warrior, specializing in greatsword and battleaxe alike. For a time, the family prospered as Dawnstar’s protectors.
However, only a fortnight after Murgash came of age, his father was killed when Quicksilver Mine suffered a partial collapse, crushing the elder Orc under several hundred pounds of rubble. The family grieved, although their patriarch’s death had an even more profound effect on young Murgash. A day earlier, a wandering mage had visited the town in search of an apothecary, babbling to himself under his breath. Although he initially didn’t even give the mage the time of day at first, something the latter had said had sent his mind into a hypnotic daze.
The mage had been jabbering about necromancy and its supposed potency on the recently deceased. That meant raising the dead, even but for a few brief moments. By now, Murgash’s mind was reeling: Could he truly raise his father from the dead? He had no magical ability as far as he could tell. To salt the wound, magic of any kind was forbidden in his family, save for enchantment. Nevertheless, the determined Orc’s lust for power reigned supreme.
Nightly, Murgash snuck out of the household to scrounge up and sort of books pertaining to the arcane he could find. Reading became a fast hobby for him; soon enough, he felt himself enter the mindset of an aspiring scholar; more specifically, a scholarly warrior, intent on unlocking the potential of a deep and all but forlorn realm of magic.
A year passed, and Murgash decided to take matters into his own hands. He attempted a necromantic spell out of sheer intrigue one night; however, he was caught abruptly by his peeping mother. Predictably, in the wake of the infraction, the indignant family presented him with two choices: leave and never return, or be reported to the town guards and spent the rest of his days behind bars. He selected the former option, and began his trek to the College of Winterhold, a mystical institution he would join if he ever became proficient enough with Conjuration.
Thus began Murgash’s downward spiral into the vagrant, necromancer-knight he is today. Presently, his ability with magic is steadily improving.
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Ruaidhin, an orphaned Bosmer, was raised in Riften by a foster family of Dunmer after he and his parents were assaulted by a passing bandit caravan en route to Vvardenfell from Valenwood. The incident, in which both of his parents lost their lives, occurred during infancy; however, he does not recall the ordeal, and prefers to keep it that way.
Needless to say, the Wood Elf’s development was still plagued by hardship. The aforementioned Dunmer couple was frail and frequently sick; as such, they were unable to make much money to sustain Ruaidhin or themselves. Still fresh into his teens at the time, the former elected to make money in the only way he felt comfortable with, in the trademark dubious sort of manner he had acquired observing the denizens of Riften: theft, mainly pickpocketing. In order to cover this up, he took up an apprenticeship with a local herbalist, involuntarily becoming a decent brewer of potions and poisons alike. The herbalist was also a hunter, thereby also teaching the young Ruaidhin how to use a bow.
Though the Dunmer couple passed on eventually, Ruaidhin felt a certain thrill in larceny and hunting alike, which led him to his present profession of being a thief/assassin-for-hire, as well as an expert toxicologist. Moreover, the coin he could accumulate on any given day was respectable at the very least.
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Lucius Domitius Cato was renowned even at birth, as the sole son of his heroic father, a Great War veteran and hero (though an eventual martyr upon his death in Bruma).
As such, the young Lucius, afraid of the chopping block, elected to pursue a path of righteousness and religious morality. He enlisted in the Imperial Legion (where he picked up a few fundamentals of magic and trained with the sword and shield restlessly) and swore fealty to the Eight Divines and Emperor alike.
After two years of diligent service, he was promoted and stationed in Skyrim to assist in containing the Nordic uprising.
