"Right, then." Hyperion sits down. "We might be here for a while...
"First, I was born in Velen. That's a large coastal town in Tethyr, and it's very close to the Pirate Isles. It's constantly under attack, from pirates, from invaders off the Sword Coast, whatever. It's also heavily infested with ghosts and spirits, mostly leftover from the aforementioned raiders. I wasn't particularly wealthy, or particularly poor, just normal. I grew up, joined the Royal Navy under Captain Orhotek. It wasn't half bad, once you got used to it. I was pretty good at fighting off pirates, and ghosts too. I had a pretty good time at first, but I was greedy. No matter what I had, I always wanted more, and the Navy didn't pay much. Not nearly enough for my hedonistic lifestyle, anyway. So, I started taking bribes. Little things at first, you know. 'Look the other way', 'open this gate for us', 'give us this document', etc. But I couldn't sustain myself on that for long. See...I had uh...let's just say I indulged myself. A lot. Drinking, *here, his face turns red like a tomato* prostitution, and gambling. Especially the gambling, so I got into deep debt, to a lot of...bad people. They started threatening me, so I took started taking bigger bribes to pay them off, because I was...*he gulps* I was scared. Once, I took a bribe to abandon my post intentionally while a bunch of raiders attacked the town. They promised they wouldn't kill anyone, they were just gonna grab the money and split...they lied. *He points to a few names on his chest, near his heart* These people, these people were the ones that suffered for that mistake of mine...some of them I didn't know, others were very good friends of mine from the Navy. Anyway, I was caught about a week after that. Expelled from the Navy, flogged, put into stocks, publicly reviled, disowned, the whole nine yards. So then I left. I ran away from that place, as far as I could. I was still very young, even by human standards, maybe sixteen years old, and I was all alone. So, I joined the Tethyrian military. They were in the middle of yet another civil war at the time, and frankly, they didn't care who they recruited as long as the person could lift a sword. I was actually quite good. I didn't care how I did it, but I got the job done. *He points to several more names* These people are innocent people who got in the way of me doing my job as a soldier, and I...let's say I pushed them out of the way and didn't bother to pick them up again. So anyway, after a little over a year of fighting I was promoted. Several times, actually, to the point I actually became an officer. And you know what, I was trying to do better. Really, I was. But I slipped into old habits again. Drinking, gambling, you...you know. So I stopped killing the people that I fought, the enemy soldiers, and I stopped leaving alone the citizens. I started taking-indiscriminately taking-prisoners of war. And I mistreated them, badly, and I let the soldiers under my command do the same. Torture, starvation, ****...and keep in mind, not all the people I took prisoner were enemy soldiers, as I said. So, I sold the prisoners into slavery in countries where it was still legal, and I made quite a profit off it. Paid off everything, quit the army, etc. Then, I returned to Velen. I got a message, something about...something. Some kinda big pirate raid, and they needed everybody who could fight. Said they were willing to forgive me. So, I headed back to Velen, I was forgiven by everybody for returning, including my family, etc. I really was determined to help them. And I did, I did the right thing that time, I did my best, but it was not enough. The pirates, they decimated my home, they killed my family, right as we were starting to reconcile, too. And I guess you could say I was driven mad by revenge. I spent every ill-gotten coin I had on this crazy venture, to kill *he pounds one fist into the other with each word* every...last...murdering....pirate...scum that I could get my hands on. I did okay for a while, actually, killed quite a few of them, but then they recognized the threat. A bunch of them got together, and ambushed me. Beat me nearly to death, tied me up, and tossed me off a cliff into the sea. To die. And I would have died, too, but I repented. *his eyes start to take on that 'fanatic zealot' light again* I repented of my sins. I apologized, sincerely. And I was forgiven. The Triad saved me, they spared me, they forgave me. They gave me the strength to crush evil, the will to resist my former temptations, and I intend to utilize it to crush evil and redeem myself. That brings us to the present time, or at least, the Triad saved me a little less than a year before we met. So...are you two satisfied?"
