Eradan, Captain of Kelda's Pride

Character Name: Eradan

Name Meaning: Doesn't have to be in-depth, but this may help with understanding personality.

Age: 8.

Date of Birth: June 12, 3002.

Race: Man.

Residence: Originally from Esgaroth, though wants to make for Gondor to serve the Steward and is travelling now about the wilds.

Profession: Professional scrappy ragamuffin and waif.

Appearance: Eradan is young, has dark hair and dark eyes. He is covered with dirt and grime more often than not, and lean, though his facial features are at the moment rounded. His hair is partially curly, and unkempt for the way he has been wandering the wilderness. His clothes are bedraggled and coarse, nicked and muddied on his trip from the Long Lake to the gleaming white city. His skin is slightly tanned from being in the sun.

Personality: Eradan is a fighter who thinks he’s tougher than he is, or at least wants you to think so. Realistically, he is a softy, who has seen far too much in the most recent months to allow himself to show that he is.



Parents:
Swain, 28, father, deceased.
Kelda, 30, mother, deceased.
Farman, 34, uncle.

Sibling(s): None

Spouse: None

Children: None, but he treats his makeshift raft as a child and has named her like all the ships that Esgaroth has in her harbor: Kelda’s Pride.

History:

Eradan was born to a loving family in Esgaroth, his father working as a bargeman, and his mother a merchant in the market for the fish that he brought back to sell in the markets. Eradan remembers spending a lot of his time as a youth running around the city with the other children, making messes and getting into scraps and trouble, but always having a warm home to return to with parents that loved him. Swain took ill one winter, and never fully recovered. Since Swain could no longer take the barge out to fish and generate income, Kelda and Eradan began to take to the water to work the nets, and Swain kept the market stall. Such a turn made Swain very melancholy, because he no longer felt like he was providing for his family. 

This was the first blow to Eradan's safe and comfortable world, and the first indicator that his family was not as well off as he had thought. His father never recovered, and though he lived a few more years, succumbed to the disease that had taken hold of him and sapped his strength, though Eradan and Kelda knew it was no other sickness than depression at the end.

Now, with no ability to sell the fish they caught on the barge easily, Kelda and Eradan had to shuffle between doing both jobs, and the wages the family was able to earn dwindled until they were barely enough to live on. The house was reclaimed by the landlord, and they were forced to live in the dingy shacks near the docks in order to have a roof, and food became scarce. Kelda prioritized Eradan's care, skimping on her own meals to see the boy fully fed. Soon, she was taking ill as well.

As soon as she noticed her own declining health, Kelda sought help from Farman, Swain’s older brother. However, the man was uninterested in assisting his brother’s family because he was too preoccupied with growing his own mercantile trade with the folk of Erebor. 

Kelda declined quickly, catching ill beyond her malnutrition when a strain of something swept through the docks. When she passed that winter, Eradan had nowhere to go, and though the officials of Esgaroth wanted to pass his care along to his uncle, it was immediately clear to Eradan that Farman did not want him. A scarppy fellow, he began to take matters into his own hands. Swiping small things from the market for a few months, he was able to amass a fair bit of gear and supply needed to take to the water, and he vowed to make for Minas Tirith, wanting to serve the Steward himself.

He stole a boat, and having grown up in Esgaroth and worked alongside his mother on the barge for a few years Eradan was very sound in watering, He took to the river with his stolen prizes, disappearing down the long lake and up the river. He’s run into a few scrapes on his way, but he is certain he will make it to the White City and convince the Steward to let him serve.