Heruthain of Edoras

Character Name: Heruthain

Name Meaning: sword-servant

Age: 55

Date of Birth: March 11, 2955 Third Age

Race: Man

Residence: Edoras

Profession: Training Captain of the Eored

Appearance: Tall and broad shouldered, with copper beard and hair slowly greying, and brown eyes; standing at 6'2, with a resting face that could appear aggressive; though breaks into round laughter without warning at the slightest humor.

Personality: Heruthain is loud. His deep voice carries, his commands carry, his laughter carries. He is a leader. Confident in most any situation, and charismatic. Very much a 'people person', he has an eye for recognizing the talents in others and pressing them toward a goal, encouraging them loudly along the way. He is also not afraid to point out flaw, hoping people will take the honest criticism and better themselves for it.

Heruthain loves a good challenge and thinks rationally when faced with one. Sometimes the perfect decision takes him awhile, which makes him prefer working upon the training grounds as opposed to riding out on the plains with the Eored. The challenges of working with young males tend to often go beyond simple training with sword, spear, and horse; he finds himself often teaching lessons in honor, dignity, and self control.



Parents:

Father: Grimsi .86. - An oat farmer from boyhood, Grimsli is now late in years, bearing physical weakness yet his mind lingers on, sometimes drifting and forgetting most everyone but his present family, but bearing many old memories. He lives now with Heruthain, and is usually quiet though watches the family as they go about their days with great interest from his chair near the hearth. He loves and cares for his wife as well as he can; her name spins most often to mind. He enjoys talking much about farm life when given the opportunity and can spin countless tales about the farm animals of his youth, remembering them all by name and look and personality.

Mother: Arnora .85. - Was a hardworking farm wife for many long years, now aging and residing with Heruthain and his family. Though she still physically gets around quite well, her mind is addled, bearing a cherubic personality almost as that of a young girl. Her cheeks are rosy, always blithely humming and smiling, commenting on occasion though most often playing with, sorting, and restringing her lifetime collection of beads; wearing most all of them on any given occasion and always delighted with an addition to her wealth of colored treasures.

Second Parents: Adalrikr and Bera (both deceased)

Brothers:

Greifi: (deceased - would be 67)

Radithain: .55. Heruthain's twin brother, several minutes older than he only. He lives upon the Eastfolde, now tending the oat farm along with his own children, and his nephews by his oldest brother.

Wife: Katla .54.

Children:

Valdimar .51. (ward- nephew) - Eored Captain out of Aldburg

Berhard .50. (ward- nephew) - Farmer in the Eastfolde

Haki .48. (ward- nephew)- Farmer in the Eastfolde

Astrid (ward- niece) (deceased – would be 47)

Agnarr and Agni (deceased at 2 months, would be 34)

Sissa and Sigga (deceased at 1 month and 10 months, would be 33)

Valka and Verun (deceased before 1 week, would be 31)

Swithin .29. - Eored Rider out of Edoras

Oswin .29. - Eored Rider out of Edoras

History:

Heruthain grew up on the plains of Rohan, born to an oat farmer, and the youngest of three sons, though only close reaching to the second. His mother had only planned on two children; though Heruthain came as a surprise; bearing no midwife to tell her in advance that she had been carrying twins.

The boy was strong, loud, and hard working. He did everything asked of him, along with his twin brother. They were able to ease their Father in the farmwork, learning all the ways of tending field and animal, and ploughing the soil. Their elder brother worked alongside and helped to 'teach' them as well, though oftentimes his lessons to them were merely a way for him to get out of his own labor, for he was lazy and taken to drink at a young age.

It was when he was fifteen years old that Heruthain asked for permission to travel to Edoras and take up training for the King's Eored. With nothing to his name but the clothes on his back and a small pack, Heruthain walked a week to the city and began to take himself to daily training. He would take to sleeping in the stables for a time, sneaking up into the lofts in the evening through his first autumn, until he was one day discovered by one of the older stable workers, Adalrikr, living this way and taken in by he and his wife, Bera. Room and board in exchange for what small labors they needed, and of course company. They enjoyed his youthful nature.

The two became as second parents for him, and he stayed on first for two years, finally helping to care for Adalrikr when he became feeble, and caring for Bera when he eventually passed.

When Heruthain was only seventeen, word came from home that his eldest brother, Greifi, had finally succumbed to his drink, destroyed by a kick in the stall of a plough horse he had gotten rough with. His wife had left him long ago, nobody knowing where she had departed, abandoning her children, and now the children were parentless. Being thirteen, twelve, ten, and nine, and never well disciplined nor taught, the children were reckless. They would heed no word by their grandparents nor the uncle that yet lived on the plain, and were making struggles upon the farm, pining to move to the city as Heruthain had.

It was his second mother, Bera, who was aged, who suggested bringing the children to Edoras. This was how Heruthain became like a father to four youth when he was only seventeen years old; not even old enough to have borne them himself.

His training was waylaid for two years, while the children adjusted; being raised by a young man and an elderly woman. They were troubled though gained trust after a time. The eldest eventually took up training like his Uncle to work in the Eored, as fond of swords and horses as Heruthain had been. The middle two boys were found apprenticeships, and the youngest girl, Astrid, helped Bera about the home and ran her errands through town.

Katla came into Heruthain's life when he was nineteen, shortly having re-enlisted for a last year of training before being able to join the Eored. He found his youngest niece a place to work at a grocer, under Katla's supervision, though at the end of the first week.

It did not take long for Katla to become attached to the motherless girl, and then to the uncle who was raising her, and she too soon joined Bera's household and the ready-made family. Minding not the size of the cramped household, she raised her half grown nephews and niece along with Heruthain and Bera, and Heruthain was finally able to take up his duty as a Rider of the Mark at the age of twenty.

Katla, to their despair, had difficulty in bearing children. She lost half a dozen pregnancies early on, and of those her body carried to term, she managed poorly, labor always coming early, the babies were small and weak, taking quickly to illness and failing to thrive. Of her first six children, all departed to Bema's halls before two months of age, save one. Sigga lasted ten months in her arms, though the baby was weak and never lifted her head, she did coo and smile at her Mother. A line of tiny barrows dot the plains outside the city where their infants are buried.

It was over the course of seven years that the losses preceded, and Heruthain and Katla raised their nephews and niece as their own, seeing the boys all grow and eventually leave their home. Bera left as well, to Bema's halls, though well cared for in her last years. Astrid lived with them the longest, though had proved to be a difficult child had lost herself to poor choices and drink, eventually locked in her bedroom and passing out in her own washtub; drowned when she was barely a woman.

Trying, perhaps, too hard, Heruthain and Katla's loud and vivid home that they had enjoyed was emptied until it was eventually just them alone. Never taking enough time to recover between losses, loving her nephews as their own, but desperate for a baby, and cursed with unhealthy sets of twins.

When her last pregnancy came to be, Katla lasted nearly nine months; assured in her own mind that her children this time would be stillborn for their length of time in the womb. Yet out they came, first Swithin, and less than two minutes later, Oswin, with their strong lungs and wisps of copper and golden hair. They were born in the spring, grew in the summer, and were still healthy by winter, passing first the dreaded two month mark and then the ten month, then moving to their first nameday, followed by each thereafter. Loud and laughing boys made their home joyful again.

The boys grew strong, taking after their father in temperament and voice, and interested; learning to wield the sword and spear, and to ride. The nephews took to wife, one by one; raising families of their own. The farm on the plain thriving with all the hands. After at time Heruthain's parents came to retire and live in the city with them, so they became a household of six once more.

Heruthain excelled in his swordsmanship, growing steadily stronger and more qualified as the years went by and eventually coming into Captaincy and leading an Eored of his home. After nineteen years in service, he decided to transfer back to Edoras and work in what he found to be his true calling; training. The boys he trained were fifteen through twenty, readying for their first stints of battle and warfare, training them hard, but with care; all youthful, some confused, others foolhardy, some angry, and some zealous and fervid for the cause.

The Captain sees himself as a father figure among the young boys, weaving throughout their personalities and trying to find connection with them to push them toward their best. Even beyond, he keeps a sharp eye on those who come from the fields as he did, sometimes boarding them a year or two if they are in need, making sure they have home placements while they train, and food in their bellies until they are grown into men and ready to take out on their own as he once did.