Trouble had a way of finding young Yonnus Octoni.
It knocked on Yonnus’ door three times daily, or so it seemed. It sought him out like a mongoose digging into a cobra’s hole. And trouble, like that mongoose, would not be denied—it would find him, and it did, kicking and scratching and drawing him out into the open. Yonnus never looked for trouble per se, but it found him nonetheless, for he was always eager, brash, and ready to strike, just like that cobra in its hole waiting for the mongoose.
Yonnus, or “Yo” as his friends and family called him, was hotheaded and rash, quick to act without thought. It was almost as if a devil sat on his shoulder, instilling him with urgency. His mother termed this rashness as “fiery” and reassured him fiery personalities were common in their family. She shared stories of her father and brothers and how they had lived life fully, often with reckless fiery abandon. She encouraged Yo to not ignore his nature but embrace it instead. Rather than admonish him whenever he had a scrape with trouble, she encouraged it. Not in so many words, of course—she didn’t want to see her son hurt or sent to the stockades, but she wanted him to live life freely, unchained. She was always there for him: loving, caring, inspiring him with words of fiery greatness.
Yo was Ardayan, born in the east in the vast Endless Desert of Ardaya. His father—in truth, his stepfather—was a blacksmith. But his father’s talents in metalworking were mediocre, uninspired, and the man faced difficulty competing with more accomplished smithies. Rather than face bankruptcy, ridicule, and dishonor, Yo’s father decided a change of scenery was in order. So, the Octoni family gathered their lives and business and moved to the west, to Augstat in the kingdom of Hesse. In Augstat, Ardayan blacksmiths were unknown and almost treated as something exotic, and so despite his average talent, Yo’s father brokered an above-average business.
But the Hessen city of Augstat was the largest city on the continent of Niessia. The city was a treasure trove of worldly affairs, populated with people from all over the empire, with a dubious underbelly where nefarious folk and dark sinister things lurked. These people were trouble.
And trouble had a way of finding young Yonnus Octoni.
