Tanus Feydark: The Past

Tanus, international man of mystery and loved by women everywhere. Oops, wrong character. Regardless, they do share quite a few traits. Tanus thinks very highly of himself and tends to act like everyone owes him a favor (sometimes they even do). At times very flirtatious, he nonetheless has been more unsuccessful than he’d like to admit (for one thing he still hasn’t gotten Aerin in bed). For someone that appears to be such a socialite, it’s therefore surprising that so few people know anything about him and his past. In fact, one sometimes wonders exactly how much of his persona is really him, and how much is for show.

To truly understand Tanus, you have to understand his past. Raised in a large community of Gold Elves in Southern Galendale by his parents, two former adventurers, he appeared to lead a more or less normal life. That is until one day his mom and pop didn’t come home. No one knows exactly what happened. They had gone off to see a neighboring seer and seemingly vanished. They did have quite a few ennemies (it’s hard not to when you do a lot of adventuring), and so after a while they were presumed dead. Divination spells soon revealed that they were in fact no longer of this world. Tanus was sent to live with his uncle, a recluse, who couldn’t handle him and promptly put him in boarding school. Needless to say, this did have quite an impact on poor little Tanus, and he soon learned that in the world there was only one person who would take care of him, and that would be himself. He convinced his uncle to sell off the house and magical goods that his parents once owned, and transferred himself to the prestigious Academy of Sciences, where he began to study Wizardry.

Tanus enjoyed the arcane arts, and did quite well. Through the academy, he was introduced to the various leaders of the community. There he learned to polish his wit and enjoyed toying with other people’s minds, which made him both disliked and respected by his peers. Despite his reputation, or perhaps because of it, he caught the fancy of Lady Riatha. She soon made him an offer he couldn’t refuse (not that kind of offer, silly), and he began to do odd chores for her. Things developed, and let’s just say he had the time of his life. There were a couple of minor, um, complications. She was about twice his age, and more importantly still married to Lord Corvyn. Young Fendrick, son of Lord Corvyn, eventually came upon Tanus and his mother in the act. Going instantly rabid, Fendrick rushed Tanus hoping to kill him. In the chaos that ensued Lady Riatha took the blow that was meant for Tanus, and, seizing the opportunity, Tanus grabbed a fire place poker and stabbed at his adversary. Hoping to hit him in the stomach (a rather painful place to receive a wound, but one from which you can heal), Tanus instead struck his chest, and Fendrick died moments later.

Needless to say, the community wasn’t too thrilled about this when the whole mess came to light. The Academy threw him out for inappropriate behavior, and while Tanus had indeed killed in self-defense, and as such was beyond official reproach, he knew he would be forever ostracized by the community. Denied his request to visit Lady Riatha one last time, at this time recovering from her nearly fatal wound, Tanus left in voluntary exile and took up with his Uncle in the woods.

Uncle Duras was extremely unforgiving and harsh, but that was exactly what Tanus needed at the time. The mind games that he enjoyed so much at the Academy would not work on his taciturn uncle. Instead, Tanus learned to respect his uncle and in the process learned (some) self-discipline. He soon learned to survive in the woods, and took up the sword and bow. Tanus more or less developed into the person he is today. Still extremely independent, he has nonetheless learned to be more caring and responsible. Eventually seeking his own fate, Tanus left for a while to explore the world. Perhaps some day he will return. Only then will he realize the harm that has befallen Duras and the depth of Lord Corvyn’s hatred. But that’s another story...