Pris Note: Just archived here for memory.
Until the scandal, Ethan Fairchild was perhaps the least notable member of his family. Despite his particularly bright eyes and handsome features, it is easy to see how he would be overshadowed.
His father, Marcus Fairchild, and his two elder brothers are towering figures in the community. Each standing six and a half feet tall (Roland even taller still), they work at the local tin mines where their father has been a foreman for more than as long as Ethan can remember. The Fairchild men are a rough and brutish sort who enjoy showing off their strength and keep to the parts of town where the authority of their size and aggression is seldom challenged.
His mother had been a quiet, diminutive woman. Although she passed away when Ethan was only eight, she was still occasionally discussed in the community — regarded as a beautiful, but simple woman whose eyes were always staring out the window, and seldom paying attention to matters at hand.
Ethan’s two older sisters were also more noteworthy. Victoria, the third child, has much of her father’s height and strength and is a skilled hunter with a bow. Ellie, the fourth child, is similar to Ethan both of whom are much closer to their mother both in height and appearance. Ellie is remarkably attractive and quite bright; she works constantly, taking on an unpaid apprenticeship with a baker early in the morning and working as a serving girl at a local tavern in the evenings - known to be a flirt when tempting one to spend coin on a drink, but has rebuffed the advances of all the boys in the town so far.
Ethan himself was called “the little one” or “the quiet one,” growing up. A couple inches shy of six feet, he is dwarfed by the other Fairchilds, save Ellie, and his contentious relationship with the family is well known.
His mother took ill after giving birth to Ethan and she never seemed to recover. She remained sickly until her passing. There is resentment from much of the family that her sickness was somehow Ethan’s fault, as his was the only difficult birth of the five children. The relationship was strained further still because of Ethan’s failure to maintain the family legacy of strong men; Ethan was not asked to return to the tin mines after his first summer working there. He also was unable to endure the daily demands of an apprenticeship with Maerd Fellhander, the local blacksmith.
Having failed a second time, and being a disappointment to the family name in general, his father sent Ethan to live with his uncle. Jon Fairchild is a strange recluse who lives in a large house on the outskirts of town. He is said to have had a great deal of money at one point, although the origins of that wealth has been the source of local speculation for more than fifty years. The eccentric figure has rarely been seen in the past several decades. Among the many rumors is that Jon has a well built inside his home to prevent him from having to leave for water.
The towns people can only speculate about the strange things that happen in that strange home at the edge of town, but it’s not uncommon for Ethan to get pondering looks as he comes and goes near the end of the day.
More than his failures as a miner and his association with his strange uncle Jon, Ethan Fairchild is best recently known for the Omelet Scandal. Most anyone in the town can tell you the story, or has at least heard it once or twice, about how young Ethan Fairchild asked for the charity of old Herman Kelly and Margaret Farmer - who gave him the runt potatoes and undersized eggs from their harvest, believing the boy was being malnourished living in the strange home of Jon Fairchild.
Soon, however, the teenage boy had opened a small stand in the street market called “Small Potatoes”, where he had taken advantage of their generosity and used the potatoes and eggs to create morning omelets to sell to those on their way to the mines.
The rumors and outrage about the boy’s treachery spread quickly through the town, and it’s even rumored that he tried to bribe poor Mr. Kelly and Ms. Farmer to keep them quiet about what had happened. Once word if the scandal reached his family, it was Ethan’s own father and brothers Marcus, Roland and Erik Fairchild that took hammers to the boy’s omelet stand while Ethan was forced to watch.
Many in the town have called young Ethan by the moniker, “Small Potatoes” ever since.
It took several months, but eventually Ethan was able to find a job at the Talesfast Inn, at the recommendation of Talith Elinasti, despite the owners skepticism. Ethan soon discovered that he had a knack for conversation with most travelers who hadn’t heard of his sour reputation. Ethan now he spends his lunch sitting at the tavern within the inn, with a deck of cards and an old dragonchess board. A small sign sits on the table reading, “one copper for a game; FREE if you win!” He gets an opportunity to meet many of the strangers that pass through their little town, to hear their stories and sometimes even learn new card games or tricks. Otherwise, he spends his days caring for his ailing uncle. He doesn’t speak to his family, aside from Ellie who will occasionally make time to have a picnic or grab a draft.
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