Thomas Eicheim; Background story. Legend of Thomas

Thomas was born deep in north in a village known of producing strong warriors. This is because of their harsh living requiring good deal of farming or mining where kids at usable age are sent to spend most of their time. Then the village traditions forces every warrior's son to train in the art of warfare.

Thomas, too, grew up to be proud example of Eicheim line. Heavy labour had blessed him with strength and durability renown in sons of Eicheim and he adapted to the teachings of his father well. He was even proposed knighthood if he continued to excel as well untill age of 18, but his father died by disease at the start of lesson which were to civilize Thomas to be good knight of both skill and manners.

Without no one left to supply Thomas' dreams of fame and glory, he set on a journey, a grand adventure to become a Legend he was supposed to be, carrying the shield and sword of his family. He carried an oath with himself; An oath to return as noble warrior commanding a regiment of troops, riding a horse with saddlebags full of wealth and fortune... But all did not go well as he found himself doing oddjobs requiring sword and strong arm, mainly escorting caravans and generally fighting his way across the lands to get his living.

At age 19 and during a rough year, Thomas found himself in Nharati borders. He got inside the kingdom as it needed swordsmen for special cause.
With high hopes he managed to catch the attention of Marshall and to him, Thomas spoke of his needs. While not very impressed the captain did put Thomas to fight against captain himself with wooden variations of their weapons.
This was a long, winding battle as wooden shields catch wooden blades repeatly. What the audience, composed of guards and minor nobles, did not see in the battle wasn't elegance or dancing of blades, but more likely a battle of will, strength and durability. As the sun started to set, the captain called the duel off and with a firm handshake Thomas was enlisted. Instead of serving as guard to protect the kingdom, he found the true call for foreign swordsman like him as he was assigned to "The Bannerless" regiment, dedicated on plundering gold for the crown. This regiment of nearly hundred men, looking more like a large caravan full of armed men instead of real military section was set to wreck havoc around the world, from kingdom to kingdom they rode and fought to fill their caravans with wealth. It was a long and harsh campaign where the regiment ventured in hostile lands, living off the land and using their loot to repair or replace damaged gears. On rare occassions they managed to settle in a town to comfortably live through winters, but in most case they suffered famine and cold during the winters. It picked apart the best survivalists from the poor. Every time they had accumulated enough gold in their caravans, they headed back to home to deliver the gold to the crown while wishing an order to make them return, but no, everytime they were sent to resume their mission without even crossing the border.
After 10 years of marauder life, the regiment received an order to head home with coffers full of wealth to satisfy the crown. Long, perilous jorney of dodging officials of other kingdoms was ahead of them, but once they rode inside the Nharati borders the relief was heavenly. The regiment was cut down to half from the ten years, replaced by sellswords who were denied of access to Nharati.
After presenting their massive loot to the crown in secrecy they were disbanded and integrated with guard forces. The commander of the regiment was presented with lands and servants to keep him in wealth and food for the rest of life as he was disbanded from active duty. Thomas was awarded with a job as guard. He had practically bought his way in Nharati with those ten years.

And starting from the that day, the citizens of Nharati had to be get accustomed to the large barbaric man with crimson hair as he quickly rose in respect in the eyes of fellow soldiers. The ten years had taught him prodigious fighting capabilities and tactical sense, but killed manners and scarred his righteous sense for the rest of his life time.