You see a man standing by the shore staring out across the sea at the setting sun. His hair is a bright flaming red, and falls to his shoulders in waves. He has chiseled features and the weather-worn, leathery face of a man who has spent decades traveling across the land, staring down countless enemies with his piercing green eyes.

"Greetings lad," he says without turning his head in your direction.

"It is a beautiful sight, is it not? My father used to say that the sunsets in Ispar were the most beautiful he had ever seen. He was never happy here."

"Ahhh. I see you are confused son. I suppose our motherland isn't mentioned often these days. We are all to busy just struggling to survive to worry about what must seem like a fairy tale to you children who were born in this land. In fact, It seems like a fairy tale to me as well…"

I was too young to remember the crossing from Ispar. But according to my father, Llewelyn Fawr, it was a prosperous time in Aluvia then. When our ancestors received the call from Asheron, few of the truly great and powerful warriors were willing to leave their comfortable estates and come to the aid of this foreign land. Instead it was the foolish or destitute that went, which would not necessarily be a bad thing, except that many of the Lords of Aluvia decided that they could clean out their overcrowded dungeons by throwing all the criminals in the land into the portals to Dereth.

In a way, my father was a criminal as well. He was once one of the most well-known and honored Aluvian Knights in all of Ispar, but my family had fallen into disgrace and we had lost all our holdings. They decided that the only chance for their children to live a free life was to flee into the portals as well. My mother carried me through the portal as a young child. I have some visions of the event. But I was just a young child, no more than 5 winters old.

Upon coming through the portal, my family was met with a world in the grips of chaos. As the men of my family spilled through the portal first, there were mobs of gangs waiting on the other end, looking to end the life of anyone who followed them from Ispar to this new land. A battle quickly ensued as many of the noblest members of my family died that day. As I came through with my mother, an arrow found its home in her neck hardly before she had time to materialize.

My father and the others were able to drive off the brigands, but my father was seriously wounded. A sickness seeped into his bones that day that never truly left. They managed to make a home in the northern mountains where I grew to manhood. My father died when I was 12. He had been bed-ridden from his injuries and sickness since the battle and escape to the mountains and was never happy. He mourned the loss of my mother every day and died cursing this land and its inhabitants. He had hoped to find a new home for our family here, but insetad found only death and tragedy.

I have vowed to bring the thieves and murderers of this world to justice. The lords of Ispar doomed this land and Asheron by infesting this land with the worst dredges of society. I fear Dereth is worse off than it was before Asheron sent his plea to my ancestors. Perhaps one day, we can make this world safe again and perform the duty that Asheron intended for us. It will be a long hard journey, but with noble comrades and fellows-in-arms, I am confident that Dereth can be tamed and the Empyrean refugees freed to return to this land. This is the home of my family now, and it is our duty to make it safe. I can only hope that others answer my call and we can defeat the evil that infests this land on all sides.

A great red dragon on a blue field has always been my family's standard for battle, so I have begun forming a Circle under my family's totem. We shall rally under the standard of the Eternal Dragon and cleanse this land of evil and anarchy.

-Owain ibn Llewelyn

aka Owain Goch (the Red)