My father tells me that the day I was born was an auspicious one. To this day I cannot glean any reasoning for this statement, but I have found no evidence to the contrary, so it is this way that I like to begin my story.

Thusly, on this auspicious day, I was brought into the world. My father had recently been promoted, which had put him in a jollier mood than usual. This was probably best for my poor mother, who must have found it difficult to juggle the demands of loud husband and unborn child both. Most who meet us say we are very alike, my father and I, in the way we carry ourselves and order others around.

So anyway, the day I was born was a cause for celebration in my household, and the way I heard it King Altador himself sent his congratulations to my parents. Whether this was true or not, my parents certainly needed all the blessings they could get. I was a precocious baby and demanding toddler. My father likes to joke that not much has changed.

My father gifted me with a wooden sword on my seventh birthday, and I gleefully took to practice whenever I was not at my mother's book. It is those days that I remember best, dipping and jabbing until I was too dizzy to stand, then being called in by my mother to dinner as the sun faded from the sky. When my father was away, I would explore the rocky coasts of Altador, with its heavy salty breeze, bleach-white buildings and olive trees heavy with ripe fruit.

On weekends, Mother would take me to Market, and I would get to see the splendor of the city. I never grew tired of the bejeweled citizens and vendor carts overflowing with exotic treats. Each time my mother ran into an acquaintance I would sneak away to the fountain, where the water ran thick with suspended flakes of gold.

When I was twelve my father enrolled me in the Altador Academy. He expected great things of me, and I intended to please. I took in everything with an avid interest that my father joked could only be found in my mother's young. It was there that I met a young Kougra with a similar bright wit and quick grin, and he became my closest friend. As the two of us grew, we dreamed of no greater honor than victory in battle, and both looked ahead to the day when we would venture out to war together. Under the boughs of the oldest olive tree in Altador, we vowed to to be friends through ephemeral life and beyond. We swore that nothing would tear us apart.

But we overlooked one thing, and all too soon, a woman did.

My dear friend did not know the pain he caused me that day, when, bright-eyed, he confessed his love for the girl I had so fervently adored for years. I said nothing, thinking that one broken heart was bad enough, and continued on as best I could. It was when she began to take obvious interest in him, however, that I felt myself drifting away. Our friendship was never the same.

Soon after, we got our wish, as the King called his forces together to defend our beloved homeland from invaders from the north. The two of us rode out to battle together, though I could not offer him the friendship I once could, and I think I knew this. We parted silently. Had I known what would become of that day, I never would have left his side.

News of his death reached me shortly after the battle had ended. Though we had won, with this news it did not feel like a victory for me. I sobbed bitterly for days after, and my heart broke again when I thought of the one who waited his return, her young heart as vulnerable as mine.

Soon after I left Altador. I wanted nothing to do with the celebrations. I could no longer live peacefully under my parents' roof, and I absolutely could not face her. And so, I left the golden banquet halls of Altador and went east, across the scorching desert, through the dreary woods, across endless plains until I came upon the kingdom of Brightvale.

The citizens of Brightvale prized intelligence much the way I did, but their kingdom was nothing like my own. There was nothing there to remind me of what I had left, and so I stayed.

My exemplary performance in the Brightvale University soon caught the attention of the kingdom's Archmage, a Master Archimeadese Salamín. He took me on as his pupil and I idolized the fountains of knowledge he had to share with me. Under his tutelage, the pain and regret of home slowly began to fade away, and I became absorbed in my studies.

Now I have graduated from the University and am no longer Archie's subordinate, though I stay here in Brightvale all the same. There is more to learn here, where all energy is put towards knowledge, and not divided by war. Occasionally I visit Altador to see my dear parents, but it will be a long time before I return, if I ever do.