Gram of Rohan

Character Name: Gram

Name Meaning: Fierce

Age: 14

Date of Birth: February 12th, 2996

Race: Man

Residence: In Edoras with his adoptive family

Profession: None Yet

Appearance:

Gram is a brown haired young teenager, not scrawny for his age but definitely looking like he’s lacked a good meal in some time. As a homeless youth, and former slave he wears tattered clothes made of whatever animal furs he can manage to get his hands on. He’s not much to look at, but carries himself with enough determination he does not let himself be looked down upon, too much.

Personality:

There are two sides to Gram in general. On one hand he is a strong and hardened young teen. He does not let others take advantage of him, anymore at least. Willing to defend himself and others at the drop of a hat. He’s undyingly loyal to anyone who gives him shelter or extends a hand of friendship - even if they are not always the same to him. This is not to say he’s insanely naive, he’s seen the evil in man’s hearts and he will not be treated indescently if he has anything to say about it. Turn on him - and he is liable to be your worst enemy.

On the other side, Gram behind closed doors is also gentle and kind hearted. Having worked as a slave around all sorts of animals he has learned to befriend many of them. This side tends to come or around them especially, as he treats them with a deep respect. When it comes to younger children, or to those he is closest to this is also extended. He will easily be your shoulder to lean or cry on.

That said, on top of all of this - Gram is to put it mildly a broken hearted individual. He has never known what it is like to have parents, brethren, or siblings and as such has faced his trauma mostly alone. He yearns for companionship that he feels will never come. And often found himself overcome with the emotion seeing happier people brings. After all, he’d never say it, but Gram quietly wondered why he had to be cursed to a cruel life.

Now that he has been adopted into a family in Edoras, Gram finds himself faced with a new set of challenges. Learning how to live life as a youth and to trust others. He feels he owes a great debt to his new family, and would go to great lengths to make them happy. Though he struggles with concepts such as genuine affection and love, he can truly say for the first time in his life - he feels safe.




Parents:

Unknown Biological Parents - Family sold him into slavery.
Heruthain (Adoptive Father)
Katila (Adoptive Mother)

Sibling(s):

Oswin (Adoptive Brother)
Swithin (Adoptive Brother)

Grandparents:

Grimsi (Adoptive Grandfather)
Aronora (Adoptive Grandmother)

Uncles:

Grefi (Adoptive Uncle; Deceased)
Radithain (Adoptive Uncle)

Cousins:

Valdimar (Adoptive Cousin)
Berhard (Adoptive Cousin)
Haki (Adoptive Cousin)
Astrid (Adoptive Cousin; Deceased)

Spouse: N/A

Children: N/A

History:

Gram knows very little of his parents or birth. All that he knows he learned from his master - who claimed he was born the bastard son to a rich man of an even richer family. His mother, to his knowledge, had him out of an affair and after she died in childbirth, his father’s family did not want the knowledge to get out.

As a result, they took the baby and dealt with him in the quietest way that would not put blood on their hands. They sold him into slavery to an older man from Haradwaith, who gladly added him to his “prized stock”. He was nursed by a female slave in his master’s harem.

By the time he was four, he was put to work for little to no food. His master made him work with his many prized animals, who he made clean up after and groom from sun up to sun down. As the smallest slave he had, other slaves often took advantage of Gram, often taking rations from him and beating him even harsher than his own master when he questioned them.

For his part, his master treated him as somewhat of a favored pet throughout his life given he came to him so young. When he was not working, he was cleaned up and presented to his many guests at party upon party. So few had slaves so young, and often it amused his friends to see him do tricks for a bite from their plate of food. He soon became little more than a beast of burden to his master, to entertain his friends and do the dirty work with his own animals.

During one of his masters parties, around the time he was eight, another man brought a young slave of his own. Much to his horror, Gram was told to fight the slave, and if he won he’d be given food and be waved of his masters beatings the next day. He won, and in earnest, his master made this a reoccurring event, telling his friends to bring their best young slaves to fight him.

When he won, Gram feasted like a king, and even might have been given bedchambers for the night. A luxury rarely afforded to a slave. But should he lose, his master would give him the most brutal of beatings to beat into him he was there to please him. And if he was not pleased, Gram’s life would become even more of a living hell.

As he got older, these matches became far more violent, involving weapons into the mix. Gram was taught to use a sword, and given simple combat lessons while attending to his duties as a slave. Following which the fights seemed to become more and more violent. By the time he was eleven the masters began to gamble for hours on this small gladiatorial combat. It became a fight until one slave was knocked out, or in some cases dead. Gram killed many slaves to secure his own survival and so his master may show him mercy. The better he got at this kind of combat, the more he was put up to it, and the better he became with a sword.

His only comfort came from the animals he took care of and in whose stalls he bedded at night. They were the closest thing he ever had to a family, and he especially enjoyed taking his masters horses for rides when he had long gone to bed. Hoping that one day he might escape the life he’d been given the more that he taught himself to ride.

Finally, at age thirteen, his chance came. A few other slaves lead a small rebellion, and while Gram never learned the outcome, he fled. Taking a horse of his masters, he took off in the night with only the sword he had used in his “combat” and the clothes on his back.

Over time, he sold the horse in order to secure himself some money and traveled alone. Eventually he ended up penniless and homeless on the streets of Rohan, resorting to begging in order to stay alive. Most people look down on him as less than dirt now the same way they did while he was a slave. But inside, Gram yearns to prove himself and find his place somewhere in this cruel world he was born into.