Ardyn Sand Story
Ardyn Sand grew up in Carracosta as an orphan of the "Sand Castle Home for Displaced Children" that gave him the family name of Sand. in his early childhood, Ardyn was quiet and mostly kept to himself rarely interacting with the other children. The owner of the Sand Castle and primary caretaker of the children, an elderly Firbolg woman Adrianna Short always described Ardyn as kind-hearted but, shy, and lacking in any passion. While the other children found hobbies and talents they took to, Ardyn showed little enthusiasm for much of anything. He was never adopted in his time there and he eventually aged out of the program at the age of 15.
As part of his send-off from the Sand Castle, Adrianna arranged for Ardyn to be employed as a dockworker under an old friend of hers a surly old Dwarven man named Oddwin. Oddwin described Ardyn as a "Purebred Workhorse" with an unprecedented work ethic, unyielding focus, and an astounding talent for following direction both complex and simple. Having to frequently be reminded by others to take breaks and stop working for the day. Oddwin grew to appreciate Ardyn's impact on the docks and took Ardyn under his wing to teach him more and more grooming him for a leadership position. Ardyn's dock work continued until Ardyn reached the age of 19 where tragedy would strike in the form of a foreign attack on Carracosta's ports.(note: I know we didn't really cover a lot in session zero in the way of conflicts/wars either current or past in Roost's history so, if we need to, I can help work some stuff.) During this attack, witnessed his mentor and father figure in Oddwin being unceremoniously cut down by an invader. Ardyn describes the incident as something in him "just snapping" as he picked up a fallen combatants swords, and proceeded to effortlessly and decisively cut down 20 to 30 invaders forcing them to retreat. When the local detachment of Felcrom's army arrived on the scene, they looked on in shock to see the corpses of Ardyn's fallen opponents strewn around Ardyn who was quietly weeping over Oddwin's now cold body.
In the wake of the attack, Ardyn was recruited into Felcrom's army to join in the conflict where Ardyn spent the next decade distinguishing himself among his peers. Displaying what could only be described as a prodigal level of strategic intelligence, masterful tactics, expert-level swordsmanship, and an ability to make morally difficult decisions. At 21, he was promoted to Lieutenant and given his own squad that under Ardyn's leadership, successfully completed a number of missions others would consider impossible with zero casualties.
After years of a prolific military career, Ardyn began to question his place in the world. He grew tired of fighting for a cause he didn't fully understand, he grew tired of growing attached to people to only see them die for some vague set of ideals, and began to care less for the vested interests of people he's never met. These feelings of doubt culminated until one fateful mission that saw him lose his entire squad. He doesn't get into any more detail about what specifically happened that day but, after this, he abandoned his post. He roamed aimlessly until he had reluctantly joined the Mercy Unit.