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Gibbet/Michael
As a man climbed the stairs to stand under the gibbet, noose hanging in front of his face, a woman in the crowd went into labour. Her gasp of sudden pain and the wetness of her clothing revealed her state to those around her, and an old woman cried out to the Justice:
"Ye be taken her man, ye bastid!"
In a rare display of compassion in the city of Caskas, the Justice pardoned the man about to hang; he was banned from ever working in the City Guard again, for his dereliction is what he was to hang for, and the woman gave birth to a healthy boy. While she wanted to name the child Wilhelm, her husband overruled her, as a husband may.
"Nah nah. The child saved me from the gibbet, so he shall be known for it. Gibbet's his name."
Hardly the illustrius start to my career, don't you think?
I grew up in the City of Caskas, on the River Murat. The city was corrupt to the core; wealth from trade had made its center soft, then mouldy. Sometime in the distant past some war had been fought and a tent-town had sprung up on the west wall; over the hundreds of years since, it became known as The Paths; the place where the poor and destitute lived. And that is where I lived.
I trained in the Temple of Aeline; there I met my best friend, Kuma. And there, I almost became a priest. What changed my mind, you ask? A priest hardly leads to spy, after all. Well, let me tell you - those priests, that Temple...killed my best friend. Locked him in a cage and drowned him, like a bag of kittens.
May they rot in hell.
Despite his rough beginnings, Gibbet escaped Caskas. Taking on the name of a holy warrior in mythology, Michael, he used his friendship with the ailing King to get himself a place in the Royal Court, and his experience in Caskas enabled him to become one of the King's best spies. Yet after the death of the King, and the ascention of his son, Elthas, to the throne, Michael found himself on the outs with the Royal Family. His intelligence told them that the war they planned was foolish, but none listened.
When Aarde went to war with Ijs, they succeeded! They took mile after mile, thwarted all attempts of resistance. They stretched themselves out...and the Ijsian Army cut them to pieces, as Michael had warned. Now, with Valourdown the most recent town lost to the Ijsian, King Elthas has had to swallow his pride and ask for Michael's help...