Origin of a Warrior: Yberre Hammersmith

Born to the son of a smith in the small village outpost of Geantautomne in Southern Hibernia, Yberre Hammersmith was born into a life of hardship. Geantautomne was a village of fiercely independent Hibernians who resented the Empire. Living a simple life of farmers and trappers, most the people of the village lived on self subsistence and trade with the local hill tribes. Yberre's parents, Remy and Martine, lived in a life of relative comfort for this village, owning a home of hardy thatch and mud. Martine was an excellent cook, and though the family often had to forage for food in the wild during lean times, they always ate good food.

The life of a smith provided regular income for Remy as a small imperial fort was being built to watch over the locals, and the legion had regular need for iron braces and nails as well as horseshoes, weapons and armor to outfit their men. Since Remy had to buy most of his iron ore from the legion and then sell the crafted items back to them, his profits were slender, but in that part of the Empire, any source of regular work was a great boon of security.

It was this relationship with the Legion and the relative comfort that came with it that made many of the least fortunate people of Geantautomne envious and distrustful of the Hammersmith family. Constantly exposed to torment and abuse from the older children, Remy took his son into the smithy to protect him and begin his learning the trade at the tender age of 8. Remy raised his son with a nose for fine steel, and Yberre fell fast in love with the art of blademaking. He spent many long hours pumping the bellows for his father, while Remy pounded and folded the ore, filling the long days of toil with ancient tales of Giants and Gods to teach Yberre wisdom. After years of working barrow and bellow, Yberre had grown enough to lift his own hammer, and spent many long hours mastering the folded mystery of a brilliant blade. In very short time, Yberre grew from the slight boy of his youth, to a hulking young man hardened by the toils of the forge.

At the age of 16, with the small fort complete, Yberre was delivering an order of iron goods to the Legion when the officer in command, Tibertine Aurelicus, noticed the strength and size of the local boy and solicited him to join the legion. After a long discussion with his family, they decided that to join the Legion would be an opportunity for Yberre to rise up above their simple lifestyle and find a kind of security unknown in their village. Yberre trained for 2 years with the legion and was granted his sword with the highest honors for courage and strength in combat.

Yberre settled into life at the garrison with his duty firmly in mind and all was quiet in his soldiers life until a particularly bad winter left the ground frozen through spring planting and many livestock dead. The hill tribes, desperate with starvation, had risen up to pillage what they could from and settled land. The people of towns and villages had no choice but to join the marauders, or be killed. When they came to Geantautomne, the Hammersmiths resisted. When the barbarian horde reached the fort, they laid siege to it that lasted 3 days, but with only 20 men to hold off the efforts of hundreds of barbarians, the outcome was inevitable. Most fo the Legionnaires were slain, but wounded and alive, Yberre was not killed as he was a local.

Spared for his local ties, but still hated as a soldier of the Enemy, Yberre was sold into slavery with some others off the western coast to pirates who traffic in human flesh. Brought to a secret and infamous pirate island, Yberre was kept as a slave for 5 long years by his captors until the Imperial Navy located the secret base and liberated all enslaved there. Once brought ashore, he was asked by the Legion as capture din the line of duty, was granted 5 years of back pay with valorous service compensation and offered a chance to return to the Legion. Tired of servitude after long years of slavery, Yberre opted to seek out his own way and retired from the Legion. With what gold he had, he invested in hearty arms and armor, and went to go find his way in the world with dreams of some day having a simple place of his own, a place where he could lodge travelers, hear about the world, serve fine food and never have to wander far from home, wherever it might be.

In looking for work, Yberre came across a group of pilgrims traveling across the Empire who needed a bodyguard and though they had little money to offer, Yberre gladly took the work to give him some direction. It was in this job that he came to his current companionship. Keeping guard at the front of the caravan, the party was forced to stop to shouts of, "thief, murderer, devil!" Rushing to the main store wagon, Yberre found a large group of pilgrims had gathered around a strange gold tinted fey being. He seemed confused and out of sorts, while the pilgrims in a fanatical fury, seemed determined to hand him for being an instrument of devils. As the lynch mob closed in on the frightened elfen creature, Yberre saw a great injustice unfolding before him and felt he must intervene. With a drawing of steel and a bellow only a man of his stature might be able to muster, Yberre demanded the pilgrims cease their assault. WIth a flip of coins to the paymaster to return his wages, Yberre took his new found companion and they set off away from the fanatics to find their next untold fate...