Aldrych Afanas
Aldrych Afanas, “ZaubererKönig”, of Arrantor, Goldenvale.
Early Life
Etsel Fulco Burkhard (Father People/Folk Strong Protection) was born into little means, and had a very unremarkable upbringing. He worked the farm with his Father, a Yeoman, until the age of sixteen. With his father’s blessing, he left for neighboring towns and villages. He travelled from town to town in Germany, begging and learning all that he could. He met people, earned pocket money at odd jobs, and even shadowed skilled laborers for short periods.
It wasn’t for a full year that he met his calling, however. Now seventeen, Etsel knew he had to find work. He came across a small monastery where he met a monk. This monk was a young man, who took Etsel in and taught him how to read and write. It is believed that this monk had experience in magic, and served as Etsel introduction to it.
Family Years
Etsel met Anastasia in the winter of his eighteenth year. She was sixteen, a maid. They married the following summer. Etsel continued to study and learn with his friend the monk at the monastery. Once he had surpassed the monk’s own knowledge, showing a strong intellect, he decided it was time to move on.
He moved with Anastasia to a small village in the Black Forest, Schwarzwald. There he worked as a teacher, a healer, and a jack-of –all trades. What he did not make in gold, he made in the admiration of the villagers. He never hesitated to help thatch a roof, or mend a door, so his neighbors took care of him and his wife. They never went hungry, not even after the birth of their daughter , in Etsel’s twenty third year. Anastasia was 22.
A second daughter was born a year later, and the family of four continued to live happily. Etsel seemed almost beside himself with joy at any given moment, whether he was emptying a chamber pot, felling a tree, or picking flowers. After teaching both of his children to read, when they were eight and nine, Etsel decided that they needed real books. He packed up a few small belongings and pledged to be back bearing gifts. He left the home in good order; plenty of salted meat, stacks of firewood, and the protective watchfulness of the neighbors.
Tragedy
Etsel was gone for two weeks, returning as quickly as he could. What he found destroyed him. His home had been ransacked. The door was ripped from its hinges, chunks of stone missing from the walls, gaping holes in the thatch. Inside, the house was chaos. Furniture had been strewn and splintered, clothes were ripped and tossed around, what little valuables there had been where gone. But none of that mattered; only what lay in the corner seemed important.
There lay Anastasia, her dress torn and pulled high. Her neck and face were bruised. A small line of old blood ran had run from her mouth, traced half of her bottom lip, fell from her chin, and dried on the vastness of her exposed chest. Her arms were outstretched to either side of her, in a cruciform manner. To her left lie both daughters, their throats cut and gaping. Their bodies were broken, damaged beyond description. What was happy in Etsel died that day, and he was not heard from for years after that. After burying the bodies of his family, he fled into the hills.
