My family is no stranger to wealth, power, and privilege. In the glory days of Neverwinter, my parents were the count and countess of Corlinn Hill, a large estate located in the hills northeast of the city; however, disaster struck when Mount Hotenow erupted twenty-nine years ago, which devastated Neverwinter and erased Corlinn Hill from the map. As one of the few survivors of the devastating eruption, I was on the road at age eight. As a child, I was fascinated with maps and had a very keen mind; as a result, I was able to find my way to Triboar, a nearby town, with a map and a compass.
According to my calculations, I was only a handful of kilometers away from the town; however, it was getting dark and I had to find shelter for the night. I ran into a tavern and asked for accommodations. Before I was able to pay with what few copper pieces I had, a man offered to pay it for me. As it turned out, the man was the leader of the Travelers of aka-Karna, a small fishing village in the Moonshae Isles, and his name was Corm Paolo. They were traveling south from the Ten Towns to Saradush on a mission to map the world for the king of the Moonshae Isles. The leader saw my skill in transcription and memorization, so as a result, he offered me a position in his band of travelers: I would be their scribe, and they would take me with them on their series of adventures.
I spent the next fifteen years of my life with that band of travelers carefully drawing, writing, and looking out at the world. In the first few years, we traveled north to Luskan and ventured east towards the mystical yet cruel region of Thay. Baikal Kuhn, a regional leader in Thay, offered us lavish wealth and safe passage through the region if we stayed at his court for two years. Corm Paolo accepted, and we spent those two years investigating the hostile region of Thay. Baikal Kuhn especially took an interest in me, and he helped train me in the wild magical world of divination. Although I did not learn as much as I would have liked as I was busy traveling, I did learn the foundations of magic and learned some powerful spells, such as fire bolt and magic missile. I would have loved to stay longer to go farther in depth in the wondrous field of magic, Corm Paolo insisted that we must take the long journey west and head towards their home.
Over the next six years, we traveled past the Sea of Falling Stars through Mulhoran (which possesses the City of the Dead), Unther, Chessenta, Chondath, Chult, and Calimshan. We spent six months in the fortress of Saradush evading the army of Erg Hortative, and eventually fled to Esmeltran. Completely mixed up, we asked a local where the nearest port city was. "Why, the bustling economic powerhouse of Athkatla, of course!" he responded. As we walked into the city, a good feeling surrounded me as if my god was telling me something. We spent a few months in the city investigated what life was like, and I fell in love. I eventually said goodbye to my friends from the Moonshae Isles and set up a cartographer's shop with Dniren Mustier, a local bookkeeper, in Waukeen's Promenade. Our shop was a massive success; after three years of hard work, we created a map of the known world with the help of my travels in the past fifteen years. In honor of my late father, Mercator Valentinus, we called our map the "Mercator projection." Our map caught the approval of merchants and travelers everywhere and is now the accepted map of the world. Volo himself even stepped into our shop once to buy our map.
While aging into my 30s, I knew that I had to do something else with my life; something more. Upon Dniren's death, I closed the cartographer's shop for good, which is why the Mercator projection can never be attributed to one shop anymore. I spent the next 7 years enhancing my wizardry and I dabbled in adventuring. Upon my 37th birthday, I was approached by a dwarf who knew I was an up-and-coming adventurer. He asked me, along with a few others, to deliver a parcel of goods to Phandalin, near my old home. All I needed to do was to travel down to Neverwinter. Excited, I packed my bags and left Athkatla.
Personal Goal: Civilize Phandalin. I was meant for nothing more than being a ruler of nothing at all. Rebuilding Corlinn Hill is impractical, thanks to the volcano. But in the last three or four years, hardy settlers have been rebuilding another ruin near the city: the old town of Phandalin, which orcs sacked five centuries ago. Clearly, what Phandalin needs now is a civilizing influence — someone to take the reins and bring law and order. Someone like myself. You’re not the only one with such ideas. A knight named Sildar Hallwinter recently set out for Phandalin in the company of a dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker. They plan to reclaim an ancient mine and restore Phandalin to a civilized center of wealth and prosperity. Since our goals align, Hallwinter should be willing to assist me.
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