Bane’s Background

Nearly two decades ago, when Bane was but a small child, a horde of marauders, Worshipers of Evil Gods, ransacked a barbarian tribal village, laying waste to everything in their path. Hopelessly outnumbered, the tribe’s people were slaughtered. Among the barbarians, Bane’s father and mother fought desperately to survive.

Killing one of the marauders, bane’s father took their mount and lifted his wife and child into the saddle. “Fly like the wind”, he cried. “Win free with our son for if he lives my line does not die.” For a moment husband and wife looked deeply into each other’s eyes. They knew this was the end but there was no time for goodbyes. “Go woman”. He thrashed the horse’s flank and turned to meet their enemies who were bearing down on them. He killed many that day before he died.

Bane’s mother spurred the horse onward, crashing between the riders who tried to bar her path. Swords, spears and arrows whistled around her but she bore them no heed, shielding her child with her body and pressing forward regardless until they broke free. Some of the marauders pursued them but she never looked back, riding the mount as hard as she could out into the barrens. After many leagues the beast’s heart eventually burst and it collapsed, throwing them to the ground, but by that time their pursuers had given up and left them to die.

During the escape Bane’s mother had been wounded a number of times and her life was slowly bleeding away but she refused to die. Taking her son in her arms she set out on foot, marching day and night to carry her child to safety.

Some days later a group of merchants came across a young child huddled against the dead body of a woman. The boy was very young and either would not or could not speak of what had befallen them. He did not cry but there was a sense of sadness and anger deep within his eyes.

The merchants took the child to a nearby city where he was taken in and cared for. But it would never truly be his home.

As he grew he was taught at the temple of Pelor with the other children. But he always remained apart from them. He was a barbarian at heart and belonged out in the wilds where his mother and father’s people had once roamed.

He did not attempt to leave however. Despite the sense of him being out of place in the city, He remained there throughout his childhood. But there was always the impression that he was only biding his time, and that one day he would depart.

When the time came, he packed a small bag with his possessions and bid farewell to the few people who he had formed any kind of bond with. Then he set off into the wasteland and never returned.

A few years later, some heard tell of a lone barbarian warrior named Bane who roamed the land seeking vengeance. He sought those who bore the mark of a chaotic spiral. A symbol he remembered from when he was a small boy. The mark led him to the followers of the One Who Must Not Be Named.