Bio: Sorvel Hormalan

In the small southern city-state of Barth, the merchants and sea-captains exercise control over the trades and industries of the city. The Hormalan family has controlled a fair portion of two industries within the city: the textile industry, and the caravan industry. Carnen Hormalan was the most recent heir to the family's two mills and underwriting business, and was, like most of the family before him, ruthless and motivated. Carnen paid the dowry for a nobleman's daughter named Tila, who was a kind and gentle woman. Carnen was as cruel to his wife as he was to his employees, but Tila was able to escape Carnen's wrath by staying home and raising their two children, Sorvel and Rei. Sorvel was taught by the best tutors his father could afford, and soon became the resourceful, cunning, and quick-witted man his father wanted him to be. However, Sorvel resented his father. Sorvel resented him for being cruel to his employees, for striking his wife, and for favoring him over Sorvel's sister, who he loved. At around 12, Sorvel began skipping lessons to wander around Barth. It was at that time that he met the bard Feyn. Feyn was a halfling who wandered with his "family" of travelling minstrels, thiefs, and other miscreants. Feyn also took pity on orphans wandering the streets, though he was surprised that Sorvel was a merchant's son who hadn't been robbed blind on his first trip to the docks. So, Feyn took him under his wing, teaching him how to cut purses, open locks, and use a knife. Around the age of 14, Sorvel stole a rapier and set of travelling cloaks from his father and disappeared into Barth to travel with Feyn. The journey was only to a neighboring state, but the young Sorvel honed his skills, and learned how to use the sword that he stole. After 6 months, Sorvel returned to the Hormalan estate to confront his father. His father was ashamed at what he had become, but offered him the chance to become a shewd businessman. "A thief and a merchant are only different in how much the law likes them," his father said. This infuriated Sorvel, who denounced his father, his father's business, and pretty much everything having to do with the Hormalan name and business. His father clearly had no verbal response to this. Instead, he dragged out Rei, Sorvel's sister, and beat her viciously, forcing Sorvel to watch the assault on his beloved sister. Sorvel could not control his anger, and stabbed his father in the chest with a foot-long hunting knife. He later learned his father had survived, but not until he had stolen his father's bullion from the house, as well as a fortune worth of spices from the Underwriter's warehouse his father had stock in. He then went and, as a final act of emancipation, burned down the warehouse and his father's newly acquired textile mill. That night, he snuck his sister out of the house, and went to Feyn. Feyn told him that he was already wanted by the watch. Not wanting to risk the lives of his sister or his greatest mentor, he left Rei in Feyn's care, then started up north. By the time he had gotten to Dirg, he had spent almost all of his money on bribes and safe passage, and was left with only three bars of bullion. After staying in the town nearly a week, he decided to leave with an ore caravan to Helios, the floating city presumed to have the most infamous thieve's guild in the northern continent...