I took some time recently to write up a short biography for my character within the game I play, which is LOTRO (The Lord of the Rings Online).  Here it is for your review and comment.

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My name is Givias Aloysius, and I am a man who has seen the changes sweeping this land first hand. I was born to a captain of the Minas Tirith guard some 35 years ago. My mother was a simple tailor, and when my father was not captaining the guard, he was a prospector. As early as 6 years old, I began learning how to use a sword, a dagger, a bow. The bow was my favorite weapon. I loved the simplicity of the wood, the string, the arrow…the thrum of the arrow flying through the air straight to the target. I fell in love with that sound and it soon became my weapon of choice.

Being a captain’s son, I had to learn to use many different weapons. On the battlefield, you may find yourself without your own weapon and having to pick up the weapon of a fallen comrade, or enemy, and continue on with the battle. So I learned the spear, the axe, the mace, the hammer. I also learned that I could inflict greater damage in close range if I wielded two weapons at once. I became proficient with the crossbow, and even though it could inflict greater damage than my bow, I felt encumbered by its weight and the time needed to reload such a weapon. No matter what weapon I mastered, I always returned to my bow.

One reason I became a hunter was that I was a slighter build than my other brothers. Givian was the largest and oldest of the three brothers. He was born from my mother’s first marriage, and was adopted by my father after his father was killed in a battle at Osgiliath. Givian grew to be a hulk of a man, no doubt the spitting image of his father. But my father learned to love him as his own. Givian took up the sword and heavy shield as a guardian of the realm, but met an untimely end himself upon the blade of a particularly gruesome orc riding through the North Downs. I was greatly saddened by his loss.

Givric is the maverick of the brothers, and the youngest of the three…always going his own way. Givric learned to use the two-handed sword with great ferocity, and soon became a captain himself. He remains in Minas Tirith to this day, leading a unit of the Guard there. I do not speak much with Givric, as he and I do not see eye to eye on who should lead Gondor to future glory. He feels as if the Steward of Gondor should assume the mantle of leadership. I believe, as my ranger friends from the North believe, that the line of Kings extends to them, and it is their right to reclaim the throne of Gondor. Alas, because of this divide, conversations between Givric and myself remain terse.

Like my parents, I learned the trades of tailor and prospector in order to earn a living. I’ve become proficient in tailoring, refining materials, and gathering materials like ore and leather. And when I became of age, I wanted to make my mark upon the land and help rid it of the darkness that was ever approaching. One spring day, I was speaking to a friend who told me a tale of a once-proud group of soldiers and true men called the Osgiliath Guard. He said the Osgiliath Guard once stood as the last bastion of defense against the forces of Sauron in the Second Age. I gave it much thought, and after talking with my friend again, we decided to reform the Osgiliath Guard to combat the forces massing in the East.

Our ranks grew quickly and we became a formidable force. We had members reaching as far as Evendim and Lossoth, into Angmar where only the bravest of souls dare to tread. We were prospering and things were going so well…until…

I took a severe injury during a battle at Carn Dum. One of the many goblins there slipped through our defenses and pierced my side with his dagger, which was tipped in poison. I was able to extricate myself from the battle, only to find myself huddled against a mountain in Angmar in the middle of the night. I dragged myself to Gath Forthnir where a ranger there took pity on me and began to heal my wounds. I was in and out of consciousness for nearly three months.

When I had fully recovered, I return to the Guard’s house in Bree to discover that things had changed…dramatically. I had been supplanted as leader of the Guard, and the focus had changed. No longer was the Guard a group of like-minded free men who worked to defeat evil. Now, the membership was concerned with personal gain and personal achievement above defeating the ever-growing darkness. I did not recognize many of the members that walked the halls of our home, and they looked upon me with disdain. Many of my own friends, people I had relied on in battle, had departed in search of a group more closely linked to their own beliefs…the beliefs that had once been the foundation of the Osgiliath Guard.

Everything had changed. Dejected, I submitted my resignation to the new leader and left quietly in the night under the cover of darkness. Now I wander the lands of Eriador alone, searching for a band of free men and women who feel, like I do, that community and fellowship are the things that make us different from Sauron’s minions. It is the very soul that we possess that brings forth the light from the shadow.