Bruton



Bruton was born in the far south of Belkzen on the border of Lastwall, in a village belonging to the Broken Spine Clan. The very rare progeny of a male human and female orc, rather than the other way around. The product of rape following a human raid on the village, in retaliation for an earlier orc raid in which his father’s wife had been raped and killed.

He lived as a virtual outcast within his village until the age of 7, during which time he was constantly ridiculed and abused, even by his own mother, until the village was wiped out in an attack by another orc tribe. Saved by his isolation, he was out avoiding his tormentors when the attack came, but returned to find nothing left, and struck out on his own.

After weeks of wandering and living off what little he could find, subsisting on rotting carcasses, grasses, and insects, Bruton accidentally crossed the border into Lastwall and was picked up by a human patrol. Seeking favor, the leader of the patrol sent him in shackles as a gift to a local nobleman as a slave.

Fed and clothed, he rapidly grew large and became the best laborer on the estate, quickly learning to show subservience to the humans around him in order to avoid constant beatings, though he could see clearly that they hated him. Taking notice of his size and strength, the lord of the estate pulled him from the fields and armed him, teaching him to fight so that Bruton could train his sons and prepare them for fighting against the orcs across the border

All the while, as he taught the sons how the orcs would fight, he was himself learning how humans fight and use their weapons. Despite the realization that he could easily beat the young nobles, he knew to let them win, as it was better to suffer their jeers than the lashes and blades of the slave-master.

When the time came for the sons to join the patrols and raiding Bruton was taken along as a servant, but not being trusted once back along the border he was chained to the equipment wagon. When the party was ambushed by orcs, the humans were slain and Bruton thought that his slavery was at an end, but after killing the men the orcs simply wounded Bruton and left him chained to the wagon to die.

He eventually freed himself, and knowing that he could never live on either side of the border, he has been making his way south ever since towards Westcrown, where even if he is hated he may be suffered to earn a living as a blade-for-hire, though working for the humans in Cheliax may be little better than the slavery he escaped.

Bruton now languishes in the dungeons of Citadel Rivas, the guest of the Order of the Rack.