Freca con Arthain was a character I played in a campaign with a different game system on a world I had created or put together from various existing detail informations. As things turned out, I had made Freca a native of the city of Carse (Corrinis in the German translation we used at that time), and with a background which knitted him to some of the surrounding areas.
I have played Freca for several years. He is a scoundrel and sometimes quite unscrupulous, but at other times he was known to act very responsible.
That campaign ended when I switched my game (and most of my fellow referees') to RuneQuest, on another world I wrote up to fit the magic concept better. (It would have been hell to translate the characters, even though the earlier game was skill-based, too - the main problem being magic conversion for the magician characters).
Now, with my Gloranthan experiments in Heortland, I ended up with another incarnation of the city of Karse, with very much the same characters and layout as my old campaign used to have - I know that at Chaosium the supplement City of Carse was used for that city, and why re-invent the wheel?
I also have been toying with the idea of the urban culture of Kethaela as somewhat separate from that of the various Sixths, combining elements of these but being a distinctive culture in itself. Zero's Nochet definitely is no cultural part of Esrolia, nor is Karse in any way representative of rural Heortland.
Thus, I combined Martin Laurie's initiative to write Gloranthan stories with my desire to define that culture further, and started to write up the reminiscences of Freca in his Kethaelan incarnation. I will use the PC memory of certain adventures Freca went through, but I'll try to avoid a scenario retelling style.
Freca was born as the first son of Jarec con Arthain (con Arthain meaning from the lineage of fishing stead Arthain, a bit southwest of Seapolis), a citizen of Seapolis (on the Rightarm Isles in the Holy Country), in the year 1578. Jarec had married Estrid na Deasciath, daughter of another comparably wealthy lineage of that same island. Both families were of old Islander stock, the Deasciath were even known to have a Waertagi in their ancestry.
Jarec made a living as a sailor on the Choralinthor Bay. That body of water had been friendly to the humans living upon its shore ever since Faralinthor had covered Esrola, and after an initial sweeping had shaken off the Closing, allowing fairly regular trade by boat and ship between the cities on its shores. Choralinthor was the favourite deity of most of the Islander families, followed by his associates and friends of Sea, Air and Land.
The Arthain family had run a couple of small vessels at a time through most of the history of the Godking's reign, and claimed a tradition back before the curse of the Closing. Their house lay amid a typical Islander fisherfolk village on a tidal canal opposite the main city island of Seapolis, about two miles away. Within their community the Arthain had transported their sea-harvest to the more lucrative markets lining the mainland shores of the Mirrorsea Bay, returning with goods not available or more expensive on the Islands. From these beginnings they had started a regular trade venture, with branches of the family living in the ports of Nochet and Rhigos, but the centre of the family's venture still was here on the Islands. Jarec was the second son of the family head, and rather than manage the stead and entire business, he had served on one of the family ships for most of his adult life, finally upon his marriage to Estrid gaining command of the vessel he had piloted for the last three years.
The Deasciath had been fisherfolk for their entire history, but they also had a tradition as pearl merchants and boat builders. Their Waertagi ancestor gave them an edge over other boat builders around Seapolis when it came to hull design and an understanding of the waves, and was frequently invoked and consulted by the family. The Deasciath hall formed the core of a village on the northward shore some 8 miles west of Seapolis, above a tidal lagoon which offered anchorage even to medium-sized Mirrorsea craft when Brastalos chose to fight it out with her kin. Estrid was the fourth of seven children, and the second daughter. She had been prepared to a spiritual life, as a possible successor to the spirit woman of the family, but when one day the Arthain family came to order a new vessel, she made the aquaintance of Jarec con Arthain, which affected her spirituality somewhat. Jarec returned more and more often, until Estrid was married to him when Freca was on his way into life. Part of her dowry was a small relic shrine to contact her ancestors.
Married life must have inspired Jarec, because he started a successful business shipping Heortland wool to Nochet, and Esrolite grain and pottery back to Heortland. After Freca's birth (in the Deasciath house) he moved his family to relatives in the Wharves District of Nochet, a quarter dominated by folk of Islander stock.
Nochet was as busy a city as ever, with all sorts of strange people and undertakings going on. Jarec spent most of his time in town with his wife and son, but he also entertained a growing circle of aquaintances and friends, mostly from the other pilots and travellers, but also including merchants and even sages. One of his friends introduced Jarec to an odd fellow named Dormal, a visionary according to his friends, a lunatic according to the majority of the people who knew him. Dormal was a middle-aged traveller who had seen most of Maniria, and he had participated in several strange events, including even one Tournament of Luck and Death to determine the new host body of the Godking. Dormal spoke almost a dozen languages, including the major non-human ones spoken in and around the Holy Country, and he had been a scholar of sorts. He spent long days and nights in the lectory of the Great Library rummaging through half-forgotten manuals from the Jrusteli Age, and even older tomes, and he had researched the Only Old One's Fleet of Black Ships enough to gain his sagehood from a paper he claimed to have written while he was snowed in for three weeks in the Skyreach Mountains.
Dormal was curious about anything connected to sailing, and he could spend entire evenings interviewing (some people even said interrogating) sailors or boat-builders. When he had learned of Estrid's ability to speak to a Waertagi ancestor (he never let on how he had learned that) he was eager to learn about this individual's experiences, and spend many an evening in Jarec's house, in casual conversation with Freca's parents watching the boy play with replicas of Jarec's ship, as well as with a couple of models he used to bring along, for inspection by Estrid's ancestor. Since Dormal had gifted Jarec's family richly and proved to be a good friend, Estrid did contact her ancestor twice for Dormal, the first time just giving judgement (quite harsh, actually) on a couple of Dormal's designs, the second time spending almost an entire night in vivid discussion of ship-building minutiae even Estrid's older brothers (who continued the family business of boat-building) would have found irrelevant.
Jarec followed Dormal's project with friendly interest, but kept to his profitable route connecting Nochet with the Heortland ports rather than join the ship-building project Dormal had convinced the Godking to support - or tricked, as common opinion went. Jarec did sail escort for Dormal's "tub"when he started his famous first voyage, though, actually as a gesture of grief for his friend. He was overjoyed when Dormal returned from a voyage deemed impossible for more than 600 years, over to Handra and then out to the Threestep Isles which no man had seen in at least this time-span. Upon Dormal's triumphant return the Godking ordered a fleet of ships built, and this time Jarec joined the action, leaving his vessel and trade routes to the able hands of his Nochet relatives.
Jarec was a captain in the Godking's fleet accompanying Dormal on his second voyage, later that year. In Handra they were joined by local people who had adopted Dormal's techniques on his first visit, and set sail further west. After losing two complete crews to the spears and torches of superstitious natives on the Ramalian shore just trying to purchase some food, and beset by Dark Season storms, Dormal's fleet took anchorage in one of the many bays of the island of Alatan. They were ambushed by that Island's ruler, Jobar, too, but in a couple of battles they first fought him off, and when that did not deter Jobar from harrassing them further, campaigned against his ragged force of hillmen and slew the self-styled King of Smelch. His successor was more sensible, and spent a lot of time with his guests, admiring their vessels. After Sacred Time they set sail again to the West, to the land of Zzabur, to further combat his curse. Their arrival at Pithdaros and then Noloswal caused great commotion, and the local Shipwrights' Guild and the Duke greeted the combined Kethaelan and Handran expeditionary fleet enthusiastically. Jarec contacted several merchant houses in Noloswal, and prepared deals for Heortland wool and Rightarm Isles pearls in exchange for iron ingots and other western produce. Heartened by this progress, he remained with Dormal's fleet for next year's expedition to Brithos.
Following ancient maps obtained at Talar Hold in God Forgot, Dormal led his fleet on westwards, along the Pasos archipelago and across the Neliomi current to the Vadeli Isles. They did not spend too much time among this pitiful brown-skinned people living in the ruins of once fabulous palaces, but set out for the fabulous Island of Brithos, mother of the Western peoples.
Jarec stayed with Dormal's fleet for the entire winter, spent at first in impenetrable fog fathoming out a seemingly bottomless sea for the shores of Brithos, and then a dismal stay on the volcanic isles they discovered south of the expected position of Brithos, not marked on any of the old maps. The red-skinned people of that archipelago were eager to learn about the world outside, although there had been unpleasant incidents with several crewmen gone missing. When Dormal used the Sea Season winds to land at Laufol, and was treated with utter disdain by the Arolanit Brithini, Jarec (and other captains) parted company with Dormal's fleet, bringing back the news of their discoveries (and failure to locate Brithos) back to the City of Wonders.
The while Jarec spent overseas Estrid and Freca lived with her parents' family on the Isles. Estrid's brothers were busy building their first sea-going craft, a joint venture including finances from several Seapolis merchants, and the Arthain family as well. Estrid's long discussions with Dormal paid off, and the vessel was finished by mid 1582.
Jarec returned from Noloswal and Handra in late Earth Season 1582. By sheer luck he and his crew had escaped the victorious Alatan fleet which had sunk the Holy Country fleet in Fire Season. As one of the most senior captains of Dormal alive in the Holy Country (most of the captains who had returned from the 1581 Handra venture had been sunk in the battle) Jarec was invited to the City of Wonders to help build up a new navy for the Godking. Thus Freca lived for three years in the capital of the Holy Country, while his father divided his time between his family, the Godking's Pilots Guild, and the deep sea vessel of the Seapolis consortium joined by his family. In 1585, Jarec was second in command of a flottilla of five vessels being part of the Godking's navy combing the Mournsea for the Alatan escapees. Aided by the Ludoch of the Mournsea, the Kethaelans caught up with the Alatan fleet, and took revenge for the lives of their comrades sunk four years before. Jarec returned from the fighting marked by a deep scar across his brow, but with rich booty from the Alatan pirates. He spent this on a larger share of one of the new naval ships built on orders of the Godking, but financed by citizens who in return received a share in the expected revenues from trade and booty. The family relocated to Seapolis, where 7-year-old Freca spent some time in the office of the consortium trying to make sense of all the numbers and writings. When one of the clerks actually explained the meaning of the bookkeeping, young Freca proved adept at handling numbers and letters, as well as other facets of Issaries' ventures.
One year later Jarec was called into the Godking's service again. He became Fourth Captain of the fleet sent to explore the Rozgali Sea and the eastern realms, commanding the "Pharaoh's Pride" of which he held a twelth share. Jarec promised Estrid that this would be his last greater expedition, and left his son and pregnant wife at the City of Wonders. After one-and-a-half seasons of swampy coasts, treacherous reefs, fever-bearing giant moscitoes and ferocious savages the fleet reached Teshnos, and established the port of Dosakayo. Jarec left part of his crew - including his cousin, acting quartermaster of the ship after the previous holder of that office had caught swamp fever and wasted away - at the new port offshore the fire-worshipping theocracy, to cure their wounds and illnesses, and to provide trade goods for their return voyage. The crews of the most damaged ships were distributed among the fleet to make up the losses and left-behinds, and the remaining ships set sail further east. They sailed through forests which spread past the shore into the sea, were attacked by female savages in dugout canoes, other savages on rafts made from living trees, and yet other savages in turtle carapaces, but somehow persevered into a foggy sea. The mermen they met warned them of other mermen, less friendly than the Ludoch allies of the Kethaelans, and also of vast dragons hidden below the surface. Still, the Admiral pushed onwards, even though some of the more experienced captains counseled to return to the Holy Country. The fleet entered an inland sea from the east, suspecting no danger on the surface of the sea, when disaster in the form of a large fleet of enormous barges towering over even the largest Kethaelan vessels descended upon them, rowed by apparently tireless rowers, and manned with fierce warriors using devilish magics. The proud Kethaelan fleet was shattered in the first onslaught, a few surviving ships made it badly damaged to the high sea, while a few others were captured. The Pharaoh's Pride was among the escapees, but badly burned by draconic breath of the assailants there was no way to perform the magics of Dormal properly. The torn hull of the ship carrying Freca's father was found later on one of the Sofali Islands, its crew disappeared but for a few dead buried on the beach.
When word of this disaster reached the Holy Country in 1588, Estrid relocated with 10-year-old Freca and his 2-year-old sister Jara to Jarec's family, selling the Seapolis house. Two years later she learned about the fate of Jarec's ship, and finally accepted her fate as a widow. The following year she sent 13-year-old Freca as an apprentice to her younger brother Brin, who had inherited his former master's jewellers shop in Karse, while taking Jara with her to her new husband, a fisherman living not far from the Zoo on the southern shore of the archipelago.
Freca spent the next four years as an apprentice to his uncle Brin. He made the aquaintance of the Ulerian girls living and working next door at Margala's, a clique of younger and more daring Mockers (the Lanbrili thieves' ring in Karse), a quite renowned swordsman from Rhigos whose life he once saved but which he failed to repeat two years later, and of course the more regular citizens of this independent city on the border of Heortland. He picked up a couple of skills from his aquaintances, including some of the arts of Uleria, beginners' burglary, Rhigosan two-swords fencing, a taste for horse-races, and an uncanny skill in altering jewelry beyond easy recognition overnight.