Gael of Wyreswich

Gael of Wyreswich is a novice knight, not yet knighted.

Birth
Gael is the bastard son of Lord Gregory Grafton and an anonymous housemaid, born in the depths of winter in 997. Due to the circumstances of the birth, the mother was forced to give up the child, and Gael was smuggled out of the Grafton household by the guard captain by nightfall, being given over to the monks of Wyreswich Abbey to safeguard. As not to tarnish the rising Lord's reputation, all details surrounding Gael's birth and parentage were kept very quiet, known only to a few elite members of the Grafton House Guard and the higher-ranked members of the Abbey's clergy.

Childhood
Because of this secrecy, Gael spent his childhood believing himself to be an orphan, much as the other few children who had been adopted by the monks at the abbey. He lived a somewhat sheltered childhood, and although he was well known within the abbey and the hamlet that surrounded it, he was rarely allowed to venture far from the abbey's walls. He seemed to be treated differently to the other children; he often noticed the senior monks would keep a close watch on him, and he often seemed to recieve anonymous gifts as he grew older. In particular, in his eleventh year at the abbey, he anonymously recieved an well made and ornate bastard sword from the lord's own armoury that was longer than he was tall.

Although the monks did not permit him to use the sword as anything other than an ornament - not that the young Gael could lift it, at that point - nor for it to leave his bedchambers, it did inspire Gael to consider more martial pursuits rather than the quiet life of a monk or wandering missionary. Before that point, he had spent his days inquisitively studying holy texts and generally annoying the monks as they went about their business; after, he befriended a retired knight who had settled in the hamlet when he had retired in the years previous, and under him began to be tutored in the art of swordplay. This began to worry the senior monks, who wanted to keep Gael as far away from the prying eyes of the public as they can - and his lust for the life of a hedge knight would draw him directly into the world and possibly into the eyes of Lord Grafton's political enemies.

Recent
In the year of 1014, Lord Grafton fled into self-imposed exile after failing to reclaim the throne from Edward Lloyd, who then was crowned Emperor Edward V. Given this turn of events, the clergy of the Wyreswich Abbey began to panic about potentially having a traitor's son under their care; should Gael's parentage be discovered, then the Emperor could well turn his wrath on the monks. Fearing for their safety, Gael was cast out of the abbey and into the wider world. Taking with him the bastard sword he had been gifted when he was younger, a suit of old scale mail that the elderly knight had found him, and an old, battered kite shield of the Grafton Household Guard, Gael set out for the city, hungering to see the world he had long had hidden from him.

Personality
As a very young and cloistered individual, Gael holds a very naive outlook on the world, believing that everyone holds the same good intentions as the people he grew up with. Having little experience beyond the hamlet he grew up in, he quickly finds facination with many of the places that he visits - even those only within the city he lived on the outskirts of. His constant wonderlust sees him wonting for the road and the outside world, and he aims to follow in his mentor's footsteps and become a knight errant, wandering the lands to help those in need.

Beyond his noble heart, however, Gael's upbringing has grown a darker side to his persona. His childhood made him very stubborn, as he always seemed to be entitled to more than the others who were with him, but his status also made him very suspicious of those around him. Somewhat ironically, as much as he wishes to travel the world and help others, his inherent suspicion of those who offer him something without anything in return makes him refuse the very aid he wants to give those in need.

Favour
Having grown up in an Abbey devoted to the Church of the Day, religion holds deep significance to Gael. In particular, he utilises what he learned from the monks of Wyreswich Abbey to invoke minor invocations in Bulunx's name, the deity who most closely appealed to the young boy. As he aged and began to understand more about what the deities sphere's encompassed, Gael eventually chose to follow the tenets of Bulunx's nobility and resolve.