Jackson

Found my original backstory for Jackson, the sailor from Derek's game.

Jackson Daniel Gareth Karter Samson Fletcher Sounder was born in Cyre 20 years before the country was annilhated. His mother was the promiscuous daugther of the innkeeper of the main inn between the Metrol and Eston.

Only his mother knows why he was given so many names, but the creul joke often said behind her back is she named it after all the men that could have been the father.

The fact was she didn't know for sure who was the father though she had a hunch that it was a man named Jerold d'Deneith, who at the time she slept with him in the inn was a young lieutentant in a House Deneith mercenary company.

When her father learned of her pregnancy he demanded she have the pregnancy terminated and he locked her in a room in the Inn and went out to the local herbalist/physician. Her mother let her out and gave her a small amount of money and told her to come back after the baby was born.

Infuriated that his wife would do this the innkeeper beat his wife within an inch of her life. Mortified by what he had done, the innkeeper blamed his daughter for inciting his rage and decided that she was dead to him. To the day he died he refused to acknowledge his daughter from that point on.

When the child was born, she returned to the inn, but was rebuffed. Her mother, afraid for her own safety, not wanting to endure another beating warned her daugther that her father meant to kill the child once she returned and so if she wanted the child to live she should never ever return.

Having no where else to go, Jacksons mother tracked down Jerold. She figuired he was a man of power and influence and he probably had more money than any of the other possible fathers. Jerold flat out denied being the father and refused to have anything to do with the child. He was married with 5 children of his own and if word got back to his wife (a dragon marked Deneith) that he'd fathered a child with a commoner she'd likely strip him of all title and likely make him work in the clerks office. Jerold however upon seeing the Baby knew for certain that he was the father. Out of guilt, he told the young mother that he felt 'sorry' for the young baby and he would make arrangements for her to get some stipend from his salary.

The stipend proved to be paultry as Jerold couldn't afford to give her much in order to not make his wife suspicious. The stipend wasn't sufficient to feed and house the two of them so Jackson's mother had to find alternate sources of income. So to aggravate Jerold she followed him place to place as he was moved around in his duties and she would find a man in whatever town Jerold was stationed in and shack up with them.

Some of the 'fathers' jackson had were nice or funny or mean and abusive. In one town he was loved by the man his mother was sleeping with, in others he was nearly drowned (Jerold had that one murdered). Jackson learned many things from those many fathers. When he was 13 Jackson was living close the the border of Karnath in Cyre. He and his mother were living in the house of the blacksmith. The blacksmith was a monster of a man and very superstituous. He had two sons of his own, one named Jon, was even his age. The summer of 989 Jackson and Jon were best friends, they played together, fished together, camped out together and did everything that best young friends did together. They even developed wierd marks on their bodies together. Neither of them knew it but they were developing dragonmarks. They decided to keep it their secret and not tell anyone.

The next year in the fall, the fighting between Karnath and Cyre had intensified and Jerold was killed in the fighting. Jacksons mother was sick of the life she was leading and resented her son. She hadn't in fact even loved him. She was just using him as tool for her petty feelings towards Jerold, and now with Jerold gone and no stipend she wanted to get rid of him. Her opportunity wasn't long in coming.

Jon and his father the blacksmith weren't getting along. Jon was in love with a local girl, but his father and her father belonged to different churches. The Blacksmith went as far as forbidding Jon from seeing her. Over the course of a few months any time the two fought over his seeing this young girl, some of their food spoiled. Jon had developed an abberant dragonmark that caused decay any time he was angry. One night, shorty after Jacksons mother had learned of Jerolds death, the father and son fought at the dinner table went all of the food at their table spoiled in an instant. The blacksmith swore and blamed a demon, but Jon stood up and said 'It's no Demon!! I did it!' And he tore open his shirt exposing the dragonmark.
The blacksmith took his son by the throat and dragged his son out to his shop. Jacksons mother tried to stop him but received a viscious backhand and was told 'you stay out of this whore'. Jackson cried all night as he heard his best friend scream over the next few hours as the blacksmith tried to burn the dragonmark from his sons flesh.

Jackson, in his room also tried to use a knife to cut out his dragonmark with a knife he had. The pain was too much though. His mother came in the room and saw what he was doing. She saw the dragonmark and she hated Jackson even more. He was Jerolds son that bastard. Jerold must have known. Why had she wasted her life going from one man to the next? Jerold should have paid for this. Goddamn Jerold would pay for this. The son would pay for the crimes of the father.

"He knows you have that and he'll kill you next Jack." She lied to her son. "You need to run, and never come back. They will kill you for having that and their is nothing I can do to stop them. Go far away, because they'll follow you, and if you don't go far enough, you die too."

Jackson fought through sobs as he ran into the forest. He lived in the wood for a time but as winter approached he had to find better shelter. He'd stolen some thick coats and blankets from trips back to the blacksmiths house, and some other houses but had to find somewhere warmer. He stowed away on a caravan to a city. Once there he begged and stole what he needed until a local thug approached him and "told him the rules".

He joined the local theives guild as a begger/informant. Things we're going great until he and the thug fell for the same girl and he felt the need skip town.

Around this time he also became very paranoid that someone was looking for him because of his dragonmark. His paranoia helped him stay out of trouble often but he couldn't shake the feeling he was going to eventually be killed because of the dragonmark.

Over the next few years Jackson roamed from town to town always paranoid of the eventual death that followed him, but he began to accept it. He lived well when he had money, and begged and stole when he didn't. He lived in the wild when it suited him, and in towns when he wanted to be around people.

Eventually his current personality conflict arose. He believes he is going to be killed, so he finds adventure. The more dangerous the better, but he isn't suicidal. If he had to choose between stealing from a butcher or a fruit vendor, he steal from the butcher because, well the butcher is good with knives, maybe he'll kill me, but he certainly wouldn't challenge the butcher to a duel. This choice of the more dangerous road happens subconsciously, Jackson has come to terms with his eventual death but he wants it to be on his terms.

So three years ago he joined the crew of a pirate vessel that opperated in Kraken Bay and the Thundering sea. He was always first man across in a boarding party, and always the first to start a fist fight in the sailors bars among the many docks they called home. He even participated in two mutanies on the ship, the second was a bloodbath that saw one-quarter of the crew die.

After the war ended, and after the second mutany, the new captain turned his back on piracy and they began to do legitimate trade. They even made considerable money. However, legitimate trade bored Jackson, so he drew his quarter from the ship (a sizeable sum at that point, mostly due to his support of the mutanies) and he set ashore in sharn.