Mord comes from a large family, the Arnas. They seem to be everywhere in Faerun. Mord''''s particular branch of the family was suprisingly small, just Ma and Pa, and his little sister Brie.

Mord grew up bigger and stronger than everyone else his age.. which lead him to being teased by the other children, and sometimes the teasing resorted to violence. Even Mord''''s own parents didn''''t know what to make of him, but luckily he had his little sister Brie. Brie was only a couple of years younger than Mord, but she was a very intelligent child. She thought the world of her older brother, and her unconditional love and sense of goodness brought out the same in Mord.

Even without the other children egging him on, Mord would get himself into the worst situations. When they were very, very young Mord and Brie were trampled by a stampeed of cattle. Mord, never that bright, took a devestating blow to the head and Brie''''s legs were crushed. But somehow they survived. After they recovered, Brie commented that they had the "luck of Tymora". Mord didn''''t really understand who Tymora was, no matter how much Brie tried explained it. Yet she might have been on to something, because there was certainly some "dumb luck" that was always looking out for him.

Mord and his sister Brie grew up to be an odd pair. He was strong but dim while she was lame, but very, very smart. When they would needed to visit town Mord would carry her on Brie on his back. The bond between them grew closer and closer as they grew up. They seemed to complement each other, with one making up for what the other lacked.

When Mord was a teenager, he was apprenticed to the blacksmith in town, a man named Wayland. It was there he started with his facination with swords. Unfortunately Mord wasn''''t really bright enough for the job. The blacksmith knew some travelling merchants though, and Mord got a job travelling as a caravan guard. The pay was alright, and he got a first taste of adventure, but he missed his family greatly, especially his sister Brie.

During one of Mord''''s frequent trips home, there was horrible accident, and the Arna homestead was burned to the ground. Of course, Mord wasn''''t there because he''''d passed out somewhere on the road. He was the only one who survived. The villagers say that he was lucky to be alive. His little sister wasn''''t as lucky. Mord isn''''t sure who Tymora is, but he hopes his sister is with her. He blames himself for not being there to carry her out of the flames.

One of his biggest fears is that someone he cares about will get hurt.

Mord spent a lot of time alone after that. He spent what little money he left on booze and gambling. Strangely, Mord would win most of the rolls, so he always seemed to have enough money for more drink. One time when Mord was very drunk he "paid" for the services of a tavern wench. She was very cold and callous about the entire affair, which he didn''''t fully understand. He felt even more alone after that night and decided he would have leave the area and get away from the memories that were drowning him with sorrow.

Mord''''s friend Wayland saw how sad Mord was, and being a blacksmith he made Mord a sword of his own. Mord took that sword, and hit the road without looking back. With the sword in hand, Mord didn''''t feel quite so lonely anymore.

Over the next few years, Mord went on a lot of adventures. He learned the basics of fighting, and about the different monsters that plague Faerun. He would constantly pester any nearby clerics until he learned the how to heal wounds using healing kits.

The only disparaging comments his friends ever had about him, was that his curiosity could lead them into trouble, and he easily distracted by any new shiny thing.


Mord in a nutshell:

Negative traits: - large human male with bald head that shows scars from all the times its been hit - speech impediment, sometimes hard to understand him - always reffers to himself in the third person - talks a lot, quite often about mundane things that other people don't care about - has trouble grasping the big picture and overall plots - misinterpretes things people says based on his limited understanding - makes social faux pas without realizing it (ie: telling widow in graphic detail about how they found her husband's corpse) - drinks and gambles more than he should - really likes to shop, takes hours to get him out of the stores - acts on emotions more than thinking - easily manipulated - stupid phobias with some kind of strange story behind each one (cows, boats, bridges, snow) - he *really* likes swords, don't get him started on talking about them - he'll wear really stupid looking clothes when he's trying to impress people (ie: meeting the mayor of the town), because he thinks they look good

Inbetween traits: - magpie, he likes collecting stuff (although they are usually stupid things, he isn't greedy) - tries to befriend everyone he meets, even the bad guys - he loves animals (that he doesn't have a phobia about), now has a pet rat - he tries to mimic his friends abilities and is successful at it in an idiot savant kind of way (this has lead to him now having the ability to use magic scrolls, disarm traps, items that replicate minor cleric spells, evade fireballs, do sneak attacks) - he is facinates with magic and traps

Positive traits: - he has a child-like innocence - always smiling and cheerful, when something does bother him it doesn't last long - heart of a giant, he cares about everyone, especially his friends in his party - for him adventuring is more about going where his friends go and keeping them safe - although chaotic, he'll follow his friends orders because he trusts them and wants them to be happy - when he doesn't understand what's going on, he's more than willing to just go with the flow and let them make the decisions - very dependable, would never leave his friends behind or do anything that would hurt them, because they are the most important thing to him (his life was rather empty before he met them; he's a people person that most people just don't understand) - he doesn't like seeing people get hurt, and the knowledge that his actions are going to help keep people from getting hurt is usually enough to get him to do anything (we had a great session where he convinced the rest of the party that interrupting their quest to save a small community from a rampaging dragon was a good idea) - he's a survivor, almost impossible to kill, he'll take everything on himself and survive so that his friends can regroup and heal - he has extraordinary luck, the kind of guy that falls into a pit of tar and climbs out wearing a diamond tiara - sometimes he gets really lucky and does something stupid that ends up solving the complex problem everyone was facing, or he manages to completely avoid a dangerous situation because he stopped to smell a flower and can come from behind to resurrect all his friends - he is really great when it comes to combat, he has very good instincts of when to run and when to fight, he always has some extra heal kits to help his friends