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By Steve Gorman

Varr, the seventh son of proud warrior clan, began to follow the Sublime Way at a young age as his older siblings were beginning their training. With a natural talent and near unearthly concentration for such a young child Varr was accepted for training at the family dojo along with his older brothers and sisters. The way of the Warblade was a close but not perfect fit for Varr. He felt the Sublime Way pulling him in a different direction.

The Tsubo clan was once rumored to have perfected a devastating fighting style called Vaapad and every family member sought to recreate the style of the family founder. The style was a purely offensive style that allowed the master to channel his chi into destructive energy and to redirect bad energy away. The style was lost with only bare scraps of knowledge remaining on ancient scrolls. Even though this lore is incomplete, nobles from all over the Morraki lands send their most promising offspring to the famous Tsubo clan for peerless martial training. Varr and his siblings spent their childhoods dreaming of the style and how they would recreate it.

For generations the Tsubo clan has served as members of the military caste and the Emperor's personal guard. But it caused a tremendous stir when one day the Emperor appeared at the Tsubo doorstep with his full entourage. The family assembled instantly prepared to lay down their lives on what was surely a grave situation. But the Emperor did not require war. He was looking for something different.

A noble gaijin family was seeking a trainer, bodyguard, companion for their twin scions, Declan and Beatrice MacManus. The family all volunteered, eager to serve. Varr's father presented the family and selected his eldest son, a brillant tactician and stoic crusader, and his eldest daughter a terrifying and beautiful Jade Phoenix mage. The Emperor praised the choices and commended each personally on his or her exploits, of which he seemed to be intimately aware. Nevertheless, the Emperor asked who else might be willing to complete the five-year term of service...perhaps someone closer to the twin's own age to gain their trust..

The Emporer met each of Varr's twelve older siblings, praising each personally but politely passing. Finally Varr's father, with a nearly undectable sheen of perspiration, turned to Varr, the youngest of the family's trained warriors. Varr's gaze met the Emperor for one brief moment and Varr felt his head reel as if the Emperor knew his soul. Calling on his inner calm he stopped his constant fidgeting and focused his mind and everything became clear. Varr stood and bowed deeply with a warrior's salute. In a clear, commanding voice Varrichiban said, "On my life, I will befriend my charges, teach them all they can learn and learn all they can teach." The Emporer nodded and Varr, at age 11, began a new life path.

Varr was given time to study the family scrolls on training and of course a final glimpse at the precious Vaapad scrolls. As a gaijin wizard prepared to teleport Varr his father reached above the mantle and handed him his grandfather's axe. The entire family bowed before the awestruck boy.

Varr was true to his word and befriended the twins who, while his age, lacked his focus. They were able students however and the trio were inseparable. The family was kind and offered Varr the occassional chance to speak to his mother and father via magic and were lavish in their praise of their children's instructor and of the Emporer's wisdom. Even Varr could hear the pride in his father's voice on their infrequent talks.

Finally the term of service was over. The family offered Varr a place in their house. Varr regretfully and politely declined, citing his duty to report to his father. But Declan and Bea knew that Varr was eager to continue his own training in the Sublime Way and his quest to unlock the secrets of Vaapad once he had fulfilled his family obligation. The trio made promises to always be friends and reunite when Varr was able or when they would come to him. The Tsubo clan and Emperor were notified of Varr's excellent service and Varr was given a letter of merit from the MacManus Family that detailed his exemplary service.

The MacManus family secured Varr a stateroom on a state-of-the-art military ship bound for the Morraki lands. Varr was treated as a prince but everyday offered to help the crew and did so. On the third day out of port a pair of black sails were sighted. The ship made for the supposed pirates sails. The black-sailed ships flanked the larger vessel and instead of catapults or ballista flying there were fireballs coming from each side. Varr's ship was crippled as its masts burned and the pirates began to pound it with traditional siege weapons and the captain ordered the crew to surrender before they sank.

The ship was boarded by the pirate captain, and by a terrible man named Varytur. A wave of horror passed through the crew as they repeated rumors of the horrible soulknife assassin. Varytur spoke to the captain and in a flash Varr could barely follow the soulknife drove his fist into the the captain's chest. When his hand withdrew he held a glowing scimitar that vanished an instant later, dropping blood and gore to the deck. The assassin turned to the crew. "That's the one person I was paid to kill. Don't give me any trouble and he will be the last. Who among ye are crew to this ship and who are passengers?" A few crewman tried to pull Varr in with the crew but the boy stood his ground; he was one of five non-crew members. Varytur took time to speak to each of the the passengers asking their backgrounds, training and such. Varytur selected three of them and under armed guard forced them to drink a slimy, viscous liquid. The first to drink was a young noble boy who vomited violently and then seemed incapable of coherent thought and began gibbering wildly. Varr and a young Countessa gaped at each other and then their captors, weighing their odds of in a fight. Varytur stepped forward and tried to calm them. "This is not poison. Sadly it affects some people... um, poorly. There is an upside. If you survive you may gain staggering powers." As he said this he manifested a glowing green sword out of thin air and it began to crackle with glowing energy. "If you you gain the power, I will train you so that the power doesn't consume you. Now drink."

And the assassin stepped forward putting his sword to Varr's chest. Seeing no choice Varr and the Countessa drank. Varr's mind exploded and he nearly wretched as every one of his senses seemed to explode. Turning to his training, Varr grabbed onto the Sublime Way with his mind and tapped into his inner center and an unearthly calmness smashed into the chaos of his mind, turning it into a glass smooth lake with a path, over the water, leading far into the distance. Varr opened his eyes and turned to see the Countessa clutching her bleeding hand as a thin blue blade poked out of her skin. Varytur, was overjoyed, "Excellent! Well done young lady!" Turning to Varr, Varytur sighed, "Nothing eh? No urge to create a sword from mental energy eh? Too bad, because you usually either get the power, you die, or ya go crazy." Varr just stared ahead. He was feeling something strange inside of his head. The urge to bite the hand that gripped his shoulder so tightly was suddenly powerful, and he could amost feel his teeth sinking into the soft bones of the pirates hand. However, Varr said nothing.

"Who wants to work for me?" the pirate captain called out. The pirate captain divided the crew among his two ships and set a crew to repair the nearly scuttled ship. "Bring her along to town as soon as ye can."

The two pirate ships left, leaving a repair crew behind after taking the captain's body and looting the ship. Varr wondered what the captain had done to attract the attention of the soulknife assassin, but realised he had bigger problems. He and the other loyal crewman were locked below decks and Varr was tied up for fear that he would soon go crazy, as Varytur predicted.

In a few days the ship sluggishly got under way. The pirate repair crew had no time for the captives other than to occassionally feed them and even let some of the crew outside to work the riggings or help with repairs. Word spread among the crew that they were headed for Lonely Cove, the pirate haven, to be sold as slaves. The crew freed Varr and began to hastily plan to take over the ship. But they were found out, and the unarmed crew were being cut down by pirates. In the battle Varr was grappled. He felt the urge to bite grow in him and did so. As he did, his jaws distended and his teeth grew to fearsome proportions and he began to tear his way through the pirate crew, allowing the loyal crew to grab weapons from his fallen victims.

The pirates defeated, Varr and the remaining crew were lost at sea, with more then a few people talking about "the werewolf" amongst them. The few surviving pirates corrected them, saying the draught worked and something about "a psion". Varr was given a wide berth. Lost at sea on a cloudy night and with only the distant lights of some unnamed town to guide them, the eight remaining crewmen decided to make for the town. As they approached, a small barge moved to intercept them. Even though the ship was still limping, it easily out-paced the barge, thinking it best to get to land and off a boat that bore a potential werewolf.

As they neared the docks, the crew saw two familar black-sailed ships, one of which was raising it sails. Realising that they were trapped between the trailing barge and the pirate ship, Varr had the crew prepare the life boats and then ordered the ship to head straight for the pirate ships. The crew lashed the wheel onto a course for the pirate ships and took advantage of the strong winds blowing toward land. One life boat was for the surviving pirates and one was for the loyal crew. Both boats were lowered and released as the wounded ship shot away from them and slammed into the two pirate ships and the docks. One ship exploded, taking a large part of the docks with it, but the other ship seemed to slip away mostly unharmed, fleeing the port.

The crew rowed along the shore, allowing the current to take them south away from the city. Two days later they reached Renthaven and Varr and the crew went their separate ways. Varr hired on as a ship's hand/guard in Renthaven and went upriver looking for ways to earn money for passage home and to avoid the soulknife, Varytur.

Varr eventually made his way to Harria as a deckhand and caravan guard. Here he learned of the College of Singers and their library. He has been trying to earn enough money to gain entrance into this library in the hopes of finding a treastise on Vaapad or other martial lore, and has ended up in Leaf Port in Relum, serving as a guard for the town docks.

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