Martin’s childhood and teen years were spent mostly within the walls of a temple of Lathander, upon the steps of which his parents had left him. Martin never knew his parents, having been too young to remember their faces. Their only legacy was his name, left on a scrap piece of parchment on the side of his baby basket. The temple was on the tradeway between Triel and Scornubel, so he always assumed his parents had been merchants, too busy traveling to raise a child.
Ownership over Martin passed from person to person within the temple. The priests often left on missions or to find a new life, so not many people stuck around long enough to raise a child from such a young age, especially not when there were other orphans to take care of. The only constant in Martin’s life was Friedrich Basil, or Father Basil to the temple. It was Father Basil who had the greatest influence in Martin’s upbringing. Of all the temple’s children, he spent the most time looking after Martin, assisting his studies and sharing personal stories, trying to help him understand the world and his purpose. Father Basil invited Martin frequently to help prepare and deliver sermons and when he was of age, he bestowed upon him the title of “Brother Martin.”
Upon Brother Martin’s 16th birthday, or really the 16th anniversary of his arrival at the temple, Father Basil began training Brother Martin as a cleric. Brother Martin and Father Basil fashioned a holy symbol out of brass in the shape of sun and every morning Brother Martin would invoke it and pay homage to the rising sun. With the help of books and scrolls, Father Basil taught him to channel Lathander’s power to use magical and divine abilities. They acquired a mace and began martial training. Father Basil had a shield fashioned by a blacksmith in Scornubel that would display Brother Martin’s allegiance to Lathander.
After a few years of Brother Martin training martially, magically, and ceremonially, Father Basil became gravely ill in his old age. He tried to hide it from Brother Martin to avoid unnecessary emotional pain, but he found out and vowed to cure him. Even after training for so long and searching desperately for a cure, there was nothing Brother Martin could do. Father Basil passed and the funeral rites were held. With his teacher and closest friend gone, Brother Martin decided it was time for him to move on from the temple, so he gathered his things and set out on his own mission to spread Lathander’s, and Father Basil’s, good will.
He arrived at the Keep several months ago and, finding the local chaplain to be intolerant, looked about for some useful work to do during his stay. He settled on being the baker, the local baker having recently died. While he's not exceptionally skilled, he can provide adequately for local needs; much of his time is spent baking trailbread (a type of hardtack) for the use of travelers, adventurers, and caravans.
Recently he has begun to feel restless and is thinking about moving on; thus he has been training a teenaged orphan in the baking trade. She has already mastered the rudiments of the craft and seems likely to surpass his skills once her apprenticeship is over. He insists that everyone have a chance to speak up when debating important decisions.
A reasonable man in an unreasonable world, Brother Martin is unusually tolerant for a cleric; he worships Lathander, the morning lord, but believes that the many gods are all worthy of worship, although not necessarily of encouragement. Thus he respects evil deities, but actively opposes wrongdoing by their minions. He questions all he meets about their beliefs, seeking to add to his store of knowledge and understanding.
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