Biography of Sir Jain Galewarden ap Fiona – Player Justin M.

Everything falls apart
The center doesn't hold
Blah blah blah…

Okay, so it's actually true from time to time. Well, all the time really. In the end, everything turns in upon itself whether you want it to or not. All we can really do is hold back the entropy for awhile. I suppose that's where I come in. That's my job. Holding back the entropy and making life just a little bit easier while I can. All the while ensuring that the entropy does its job elsewhere. Not the greatest outlook I suppose, but it suffices for me.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. I'll start at the beginning for those of you who don't know already…

First there was birth. Not so surprising really since it happens to everyone but that is, after all, the beginning. Most of us tend to get a bit of time to get used to the human condition before becoming something more than human (or not human at all in some cases). I wasn't afforded that luxury. I barely got to the point of self-awareness before chrysalizing. Three years is all I got. Three years as a mortal, though it could have been worse. I might never have chrysalized at all. So I'll take what I can get.

I was born in the southern part of the state of Indiana . My mortal parents had been college sweethearts at Vincennes and just never left. So I entered this world in 1980 and apparently did alright for myself. I don't really remember. My first real memories start occurring in the latter half of 1983 when I started to find out just what exactly I was destined for. I've talked to quite a few of our kind and for many the change is a shocking, invasive, frightening moment. One day you are just like everyone else, and the next you find out that you are ‘other.' My change wasn't so invasive, though it was very strange. Imagine for one moment that you are three years old, and suddenly you gain a great measure of clarity. You see everything around you for what it truly is. If that's not strange enough, then imagine that not only are you seeing everything in its true form, but that you understand it. You know what it means when that sparrow you were watching flit from tree to tree suddenly turns into a person and begins walking down the street. That's the way it was for me.

Despite however much you want to, no one can completely hide their extraordinary abilities forever, especially to their own parents. At five my power over others began to really take form. Though it could have just as easily been that I began to figure out how they worked. As I grew, the mark of my true heritage began to show more blatantly. Unearthly beauty is damned hard to hide. When you're little, people pass it off as just being a cute kid, but usually kids start to lose that cuteness. Obviously I didn't.

Also, my parents split up when I was five. I don't think I ever did find out why. All I know is that dad and I moved to Sullivan and mom moved away. Dad was from Sullivan, and my grandparents were still there so that's where we went. Dad was an author. He felt that he'd do better writing among the places of his youth. I didn't really mind. The town was tiny, but there was so much of the faery there. I spent the next years among rich tales and local legends. My grandmother seemed never to run out of one interesting story or another. I liked the stories about my kind the best. Most of them were spun way out of proportion, but even still they were the most fun. So life with dad was pretty good. Mom I never really heard from again. She ended up in Oregon and started up a small publishing firm. I think she did it just to spite dad. He sent her a manuscript once, on a lark. It didn't end well. That was just after high school. The story was sent back unopened with a letter from mom that pretty much just told dad how horrible of an author he was and that there was no way in hell she would ever publish his sub-par work. He took that hard. The one person he was closest to told him his life's work was useless. A month later he hung himself in true morose author fashion. I'm not the one that found him, fortunately. I think that would have unhinged me. I always was closest to dad. I found a kindred spirit in him. He fueled my love of tales and legends, even taught me how to really read them, find the meanings behind them. He and my grandmother taught me to think in ways most people don't.

After dad died I just kind of started wandering. I was out of high school, and I had my whole life ahead of me. I knew that there were others of my kind around so I started looking for them. It was pretty much by accident that I wandered into Highground. In '98 I just happened to be hanging around St. Mary's when I ran into Eleanor.

Okay, so it wasn't so much a random occurrence that I was hanging around the campus. To be completely honest, I was 18 and male and it was an all girl college. The random part of it was that I happened to be spotted by Eleanor. She found me, introduced me to our world, and gave me a position in the court. Eventually I managed to secure a teaching gig at St. Mary's in their folklore program. I have to admit, that's where the Indiana Jones thing got started. There was a scene in one of the films where he's doing a lecture and a girl in the class has written “I love you” on her eyelids. It actually happened to me one time. From that point on, I adopted the hat and coat and the rest was history.

It's been six years now since My Lady took me in. She gave me a home. The first true home I'd ever had. I was finally among my own. I felt like I belonged. I will forever be indebted to her for that.

Which brings me to the interesting part of the story. I'm a spymaster. That is the position I was given. It is my calling. I deal in information and danger. I'm the one who goes behind the lines and does the dirty work. I am a spy, a relic hunter, and an assassin. And what's more? I like my job. I'm good at it. I suppose you can make an argument that I walk the line between seelie and unseelie. I don't really care. I do what needs to be done. Meaning I do what Eleanor tells me to do. Granted, I'm afforded the leeway to do things in the way I see fit to do them, but at all times I am a knight of Highground. My job is not without its dangers though. I've been deep in ancient ruins, searching through the dust for artifacts of a time long past. And yes, I have been chased by a giant rolling boulder. I've also confronted enemies so horrid that it would shatter a normal mind to gaze upon them. And while I'm still alive to do my duty to Eleanor and Highground, that duty is not without it's cost. I have made many an enemy in foreign lands. I have offended powerful spirits in the pursuit of their secrets. One in particular punished me most severely. I still have nightmares filled with pain and torture, doomed to relive the horror that the spirit endured in life. Most recently I have made quite the enemy of the armies of the Feathered Serpent. I've spent a year and a half fighting against the hordes of the blood goddess. Despite my successes, however, I have not been able to stop their advance. I'm sure more than one bounty has been placed upon my head for my ‘crimes' against their warriors. I will not even begin to get into their crimes against our people. The death and destruction they have caused. And I'm still not entirely certain why.

But now I have returned. I came to late to save Highground. Many of my friends have fallen. I have grieved for them all in turn. But I have found deliverance from my shame. I have been granted forgiveness for my absence. And now never will I allow Highground to fall again. For as long as I draw breath will our home stand against all invaders.

Change is coming to Concordia. I have seen its harbingers. I feel that it was no accident that drew me home. The final battle is coming and I'll be damned if I am kept from it. I intend to be in the van, displaying the colors of Highground and screaming vengeance on all who would come to destroy her. Woe be to any who might think to betray us, for they will pray for the sweet kiss of oblivion when I come for them