3. Mark and Raven Swiftblade

Mark and Raven Swiftblade

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    THE BACKGROUND OF THE SWIFTBLADE BROTHERS

    Mark Swiftblade (Played by Minion)
    Raven Swiftblade (Played by ShadowLord85)

    Author: Minion

    MARK AND RAVENS CALM CHILDHOOD:

    It all bagan in the city of Baldurs Gate. The swiftblades was a family of average wealth and it was respected in the city. Mark and Ravens father was a respected man and a captain over a small group of guards in their district. He was a skilles swordsman with a noble heart, always striving do do the right thing and help those in need. Their mother on the other hand was completely different. She was a good mother, and nice to those of the family, but she worked as a spy and made a lot of doubtful deals with different criminal organizations all over the city. She was nibmle and an exeptional spy, being able to hide even in the middle of the day when the sun shined as most. How these two people could live together noone understood, but they loved each other and never talked about their jobs at home to avoid conflicts.

    Despite their differences they where blessed with two kids. First she gave birth to the older brother Raven, a nimble dark haired boy with blue eyes and he looked like his mother in many ways. Two years later Mark came to the world and he had the same dark hair and with his deep blue eyes he was almost an exact copy of his father. Mark was very strong even as a little kid and he had was inspired by his father and dreamt of becoming a skilled captain and often played with weapons and tools in their home when the parents was away. He learned to handle weapons fast and grew even stronger by all the training. Of all weapons he had tried he most of all prefered the scythe, a weapon that is said to be a difficult one to handle, but Mark mastered it early and achieved considerable skill with it at very low age.

    Raven was different though. He wasn't that strong as his little brother Mark, and he prefered to remain in the shadows using tricks and traps to get what he wanted. Raven was very curious about his mother being a spy and wanted to master the art of stealth as good as she did. He asked her a lot about it, but she couldn't tell about her job since it was top secret and usualy not legal. However, she taught Raven to sneak, picking locks and much more and he learned fast. He looked up to his mother like an idol and wanted to become a spy himself.

    Mark and Raven was getting along better than most brothers, despite their many differences. They always played together as kids and everything they did, they did together. Their strenghts and weaknesses complemented each other very well and they worked well as a team. Raven was confident, but still he did not talked very much. Mark on the other hand was very timid and felt very uncomfortable in big crowds of people. When he talked with Raven or other boys he didn't seem shy at all, but when he met girls he mostly hided behind his big brother. Even a quick look from a cute girl made Marks face go all red and he got very nervous and started to talk stammer. Mark tried to help his brother getting over his problem, but never really succeded. Mark and Ravens childhood was pretty happy except for some minor issues and life went on well. When Raven was 18 years old and mark 16 something terrible happened that changed their future.

    It was a saturday morning in the spring in Baldurs Gate. The sun shined, the sky was blue and everything was great. The boys father was having a day off and he was sleeping inside the house after a tough week at work. Their mother was out on a stragne asignment and had been away all night. Mark and Raven was sitting on a bench outside their house and watching the ladies walking by and Raven tried to convince Mark to go and talk to some of them, but Mark was too shy to do it. Everything was like normal until they suddenly notices their mother was comming in the street. She was running and had a worried look on her face, and when she noticed them she ran over to them and whispered "Quickly, run away and hide. I'm in trouble and don't want you to get involved. Promise me to not come back here, not even if you hear someone screaming. Mother loves you both!". Without letting them answer she motions to them to leave quick and the runs inside the house. Mark and Raven looks confused on each other before running to a nearby alley and hides there. Raven peeks around the corner and watches the house. He noticed a group of six men in black armors and their faces covered with helms, walking towards the house with weapons drawn. They breaked through the wooden door like if it was made of thin paper. A few seconds after they had entered, Mark and Raven could hear screams from inside the house. Mark runs forward with his fists clenched so hard that his knuckles is whitening, but Raven stopped him and whispered "Don't do it. Mom said that we was not to go there even if we heard screams. She knew this was going to happen. She told us just to save our lives. Going there would be suicide." Mark stops and looks at the house with the broken door, with his face filled with anger but his eyes looks sad and afraid, glitering with tears. After maby two minutes all of the six men came out from the house again. When Mark saw them and their weapons covered in blood he tries to run and attack them, but is stopped by his elder brother again. "Attacking them would be our undoing. Mom and dad sacrifised themselves to save us. Remember what dad told you. Knowing when a fight cannot be won makes the difference between life and death." Mark stops by these words and thinks. Raven follows the six men with his gaze and when they turns around the corner he rushes forward to the house with Mark close behind.

    VIOLENCE IS INTRODUCED TO THE BROTHERS IN A MOST CRUEL WAY:

    Inside the house they are met by a terrible sight. The walls is covered with fresh blood, and the table in the room is completely covered with blood and they clearly heard the sound of the blood dripping from the table and landing on the solid cold stone floor. At the left side of the table they saw the upper part of their mothers body, in the middle of a lake of blood. The rest of her body lies on the couch several meters from the rest of her remains. In the other side of the room they saw their dad lying in his bed and the white cheets is completely soaked in his blood. They could see the hilt of a sword sitting in his back like a small crussifix, with the rest of the blade right through his body and stuck in the bottom of his bed, nailing him to it like a spike through a wooden plank. His right arm was still streched in the direction of his sword, just a few inches from its hilt, and you can see his face twisted by terror and anguish as he finaly gave in to death. The furniture lies all over the place like if a bomb had detonated there and the walls over the bed is splashed with blood. The boys was met by the horrible stench of newly slayn corpses.

    Mark bursted into tears and ran out again screamin loud "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! I SWEAR ON MY OWN GRAVE! MURDERERS!", before falling to his knees in the middle of the empty street crying. Raven stayed in watched the result of the mayhem with a terrified look. As his eyes crosses his mothers desecrated body he burst into tears as well and he walks forward hugging the upper part of her body crying and and saying with a tormented voice "Why mom, why… This is a dream, it must be. Such cruelty cannot possibly excist". After both Raven and Mark has cried for an hour they became calmer and started to search the house for hints telling why this happend and who those men where. Raven found a small crumbled note, all covered in blood in his mothers pocket. Due to the blood it was very hard to read, but with help of the parts that still was readable, they found out that those men came from some kind of evil cult that their mother had worked for and then left to start working for someone else, apparently someone in conflict with the evil cult. A word found several times on the note was "betrayal". Raven understood that their mother has betrayed her former employer and they obviously took that very serious and therefor acted extremly violently.

    Mark and Raven cleaned the house and burried their parrents in their backyard. The didn't dare to tell anyone of it since they had no idea what their mother had done and how deeply her betrayal was. They spent the rest of the day and also the night infront of the graves, mourning the loss of their parents. They didn't eat and only drank some water from a small water stream running through their garden. The day after they left. They travelled as far away as they could from their house.

    A DARK AND DEPRESSING TIME FOR MARK AND RAVEN:

    Neither Mark nor Raven talked for several weeks after. They used some gold they found in the house and rented a room on a tavern in the other side of Baldurs Gate. They spent a almost a month there, still mourning their parents and they where both depressed and had absolutely no idea what to do next. They only had short conversations with each other, and it usualy ended in tears as one of them accidently mentioned their parents. The spring had changed into a hot dry summer and the brothers where running low on gold. They started to discuss different methods to get their hands on more gold, but they had little luck finding a solution. Noone of them wanted to have a job in Baldurs Gate, due to the bad memories still hunting them. When they talked about thievery they only got reminded of their mother and feared that they might suffer the same fate as she did. This is how it went on for several days and the only thing they both could agree on was to leave Baldurs Gate and start anew. The problem was that they hadn't enough gold. The gold they currently had was only enough to get themselves to the edge of the city. Their situation looked grim and they was about to give up, until one day when luck turned to their favor.

    PLANNING AND DEPARTING TO NARFELL:

    It was an early morning and Mark and Raven was sitting in a small local tavern and looking depressed. They talked about what cities they wanted to see and drank one last ale each for their last coppers. In the middle of their little conversation a tall, well built man entered and took a seat at Ravens side. Mark and Raven continued to talk and as they metioned the word travelling the strange man looked up and said "Are you two leaving Baldurs Gate?". Raven and Mark looked at each other before telling the man about their lack of gold and their wish to start a new life somewhere else. The strange man smiled and told them that he was leading a caravan with Narfell as destination, and that they could join him without having to pay as long as they behaved and helped him out with all the small tasks during the travel. This was an opportunity they could not miss, so they gladly accepted and the next day they started the long travel to Narfell. All went well, and at last their ship docked in Peltarch in the middle of the night. The two brothers disembarked the ship and said farewell to the strange man before renting a room in the Dancing Mermaid for their last gold pieces, filled with anticipation of their new life that just had started.


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