Description
Deep brown eyes peer out from under light brown brows.
They give a simultaneous impression of thought and mirth.
A slightly crooked smile shows underneath a long and wispy moustache,
as if he was trying to look older than his years.
You catch a slight scent of wood-smoke from well worn leathers.
He seems to be humming a tune under his breath, almost unconsciously
and you can hear a faint, if familiar tune.
Role
The song begins.
Added Sat Mar 11 17:21:19 2006 at level 10:
Bolen, who had not been given that name at birth but
rather took it as his 'stage' name, had always wanted
to tell stories. Which quite often caused either a large sigh
from his parents and a huge laugh from his friends, both
of which did little but encourage him further.
Then one day while trying out a new story on a tree
he heard a bluebird nearby sing out almost in time
with his words and a sense of wonderment overcame him.
See until this point, the elf who became known as Bolen had lived
in a house with no songs. This was of course strange for elves
but his father was almost terminally tone deaf and hated
music in the house because he just couldn't get why everyone
else hated his playing and singing. Thinking is was personal envy,
he had forbidden all music around the house on the premise that
if he couldn't do it, no one else should be able to.
The things his poor mother had to put up with, but the pregnancy
was unplanned and the marriage rushed and well elves tolerate
a lot.
Nevertheless, the little elf found the music from a little bird
and the songs filled him with a pleasure unknown before.
Like most young males, he immediately decided his entire life
(as if he really knew what lay ahead, his poor mother) would
be devoted to gathering the songs and spreading his stories.
This is all rather conventional for a bard he would learn, except
this elf thought that music was only in the wilds from animals.
And he thought it was his 'calling' to bring the songs to the people.
It didn't take long, well, not long for an elf anyway, about a hundred years or so
before he learned different. But being a stubborn elf, he decided that
it was his story and he was sticking to it.
The trees.
Added Sun Mar 12 14:01:29 2006 at level 13:
The elf who the world would come to know as Bolen, mostly felt
out of place in towns. Which was a strange affliction for a professed
bard to have, but it was his cross to bear, so to speak.
Instead of hovering near the closest Inn, hoping to cadge some free
drinks, the elf took to raiding the wine cellars of the nobility.
With the purloined spirits, he would steal away into the woods and
sing to trees. He would tell them stories and play music for them.
And he noticed that occasionally, just occasionally, they would sing back.
Which of course delighted the strange little elf to know end.
He also tended to make up stories, featuring himself as the grand hero
where, under severe tests of fortitude, he would persevere and save some
poor nymph or dryad whereupon they would shower him with love.
After enough wine and enough time singing to trees, the little elf
began to realize it was getting harder and harder to find trees to sing to.
Too often near town, the music was drowned out by the sounds of axes.
So, the elf who became known as Bolen set upon another task, along with
learning the music, he would try to save the trees so he would have an
audience. And off he went on yet another crazy adventure.
How Bolen got his name.
Added Sat Mar 18 12:55:01 2006 at level 20:
The elf who became known as Bolen was usually a cheerful sort.
But one sore point of contention was the name his parents had given him.
While they thought it grand, the way parents always do,
Bolen, as he became known as, hated it.
You see, the family already had one of the more impressively long
family names because of the long and illustrious careers of the ancestors.
So his parents, in the wisdom of all parents, named the poor lad
Tharrneallyrranbollendar.
Really. It was more than the poor lad could bear.
I mean elves are bright, but he had to wear extra large underwear
just so his mother had a place to write his name!
That and all the 'wedgies' from his school mates with more
reasonably sounding names gave him.
So of course he resorted to simple humor to defuse many
a tense childhood situation.
One day his best friend Laenael just called him 'Bolen'
Because he was always 'bowling' them over with his puns.
and it simply stuck. And Bolen liked it. Short, sweet, easy for the crowd to recall.
However, he never forsook his family name, no elf worthy of his ancestors would.
So he became known as:
Bolen Da'llarienaelarrallaen