Hagas Greatgoat

Hagas Whitemore- Greatgoat

Born among the High Elves of The Golden Wood Hagas Greatgoat was very charismatic but very rarely serious. Because of this, he didn't feel that he fit in very well with his kin, and when his friend was facing banishment Hagas agreed to take their place, he left his home and began his life as a wandering bard where he developed a reputation for writing heroic ballads of the people he met. In this manner, Hagas was able to bring many unsung heroes from all walks of life into the spotlight of musical entertainment. Hagas strongly believed that everyone had a story worth telling and would often frequent taverns on his travels just to chat with the patrons. By the end of every night, he had written a new song based entirely on someone he had spoken with earlier that day. It was in this way that he even managed to convince characters such as Nadagor The Prince of Shadows, The Darksoul Knight, and even Niki the Immortal to share their stories with him.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The Song Begins

Hagas Greatgoat was born among the High elves of The Golden Wood but left when he took the fall for his friend's crime and was banished from his homeland when he was one hundred twenty-one (or 22 by human standards). Before he left his mother gifted to him the "Silvar Dalarie" or woodland boot of swiftness which had been passed down in his family for generations. Armed only with the clothes on his back, the boots his mother had given him, and a small backpack of supplies Hagas set out alone on what would one day become one of the greatest legends in history.

The Appearance of Valery Vine

Hagas wandered the world for some time while he tried to build a new life for himself. At first, he attempted to live among the Moon Elves but their secretive ways and alien form of magic didn't sit well with him and although they taught him many things including how to expertly handle a dagger he left not long after he arrived. after saying goodbye to his friends among the Moon Elves Hagas sampled many professions; He sailed with the Slat Elves, tired his hand at magic alongside the wizard Vasril and even apprenticed as a blacksmith under a kind dwarf who lived in one of the few multi-racial towns within the elven homeland. Hagas made many friends during this time but none of his professional endeavors ever bared fruit for the poor elf and with nowhere else to go Hagas traveled to Colarand where he had a cousin he hoped would house him. However, on his way to the city, he came upon a girl on the road known simply as Val. They were traveling to the same place and so they began to chat in an effort to pass the time. Val heard Hagas' story and took pity on him saying that if he was interested, she would let him sleep at her apartment in Colarand and teach him to be a musical performer. Hagas had never been fond of the music he had known in The Golden Wood but without a better option, he agreed.

One Could Not Wish For a Better Teacher

Hagas was skeptical about singing or even playing an instrument. The Golden Wood was known for their strict demeanor, not its music and he had heard a surprisingly small amount of music on his travels since his banishment but Val assured him that he had a real talent and for almost four years she taught him to play the elven flute and the human lute. Luckily he was a naturally talented musician and he mastered the instruments insanely quickly; Hagas was grateful for his talent because it was only after he had mastered both instruments that Val allowed him to accompany her on stage in front of an audience. It was then that Val showed him a kind of music he had never heard. Until he joined her on stage Hagas had viewed Val as simply as a playful bard. She treated life like one big game and was very rarely serious about anything, but whenever she sang, she was a different person and Hagas could not ignore how many people came to listen to her. Her songs were almost always about the hardships of the people she had met from all across the world and wherever she sang reform followed. In the few years Hagas lived with her he watched her convince one of the High Priestesses of the Moon Elves to send support to a small dwarven community near the base of the Northern mountains and similarly convince a Slat Elven captain to sail east and lend aid to the noble family of House Whitemore. Hagas was truly inspired by his mentor's dedication to her work but found that he struggled with approaching his work with the same dedication. He begged Val to tell him what he was doing wrong and her answer was uncharacteristically straightforward.

You're talented Hagas there's no way around it. You could be one of the greatest musicians the world has ever seen and I honestly think you want to be but you have to mean it. Stop singing about crap you don't care about and go find something you do. When you find something worth singing about, really worth pouring your heart into you will be a legend.

Valery Vine, Mentoring Hagas Greatgoat

Hagas decided to take her advice and once again gathered his few belongings said goodbye to the small apartment he had begun to call home and went back out into the world in search of something he truly cared about.

Everyone Has A Story

Hagas walked to the ports of Colarand and found Ninrie, a Slat Elven Captain he had met in the early days after his banishment. He asked them to take him to the human kingdoms to the east, Ninrie agreed, and within a month Hagas found himself in the small town of Tekford. It was in Tekford that Hagas finally found his inspiration. On his first day in the city Hagas was passing the town courthouse and saw a little girl sitting on the steps and fiddling with a lute that was much too big for her. Hagas decided to join her on the steps and asked who she was and why she was sitting all alone. The girl replied that her name was Annabelle Drake and that she was trying to learn how to play the lute but couldn't practice inside because her father was in a meeting. Later in his life Hagas' future wife Charlotte Whitemore wrote his biography and it speaks of the conversation between him and Annabelle with fond remembrance.

I asked her why her father wasn't worried about her out there on the steps and she told me that her father was Nath Drake and that he slew dragons for fun. She told me that nobody would even think of bothering her. She then proceeded to say that I was interrupting her lesson and to leave her alone. Instead, I just laughed and played her a little song on my own lute that Val had taught me years before. When the song was over she just stared at me for a while before she finally asked if I was famous. I told her that I was not and that I was at that very moment looking for something worth singing about. "Sing about me!" she said and I laughed again. "Have you done anything worth singing about?" I asked her. Her reply has never left me in all my years and I doubt that it ever will. "Everyone is worthy of a song. They're just too caught up in their mistakes to realize it." I smiled at her and listened closely as she told me her life story. Her father eventually came out of the courthouse and I wished her a good day and promised that I would visit the local tavern the next day to perform a song inspired entirely by what she had told me that day on the steps of the courthouse.

an excerpt from, "The Life Of A Wandering Elf", written by Charlotte Whitemore

Sure enough, the next day Hagas visited the The Magic Flute, greeted Annabelle and her father bought a drink for himself, and then sat down in a corner and started to play. The tavern instantly quieted and when his song ended everyone cheered and Hagas even earned himself a few coins. After the crowd relaxed and life returned to normal Hagas was approached by two men. One was Nath Drake who asked Hagas to come with him to Drake Mannor and teach Annabelle to play the lute-like she wanted. The Second was a man by the name of Elliot who claimed he was a member of a somewhat exclusive organization known as The Grateful Wanders. He said that anyone who would take the time to write a song about a normal little girl simply because she asked them to was worthy of learning the ways of the goddess Kip. Hagas agreed to both men saying that he would learn the ways of Elliot's religion and then travel north and join Nath and Annabelle at Drake Manor.

A Friend To All

Hagas lived in Tekford for a full year spending his days learning about the goddess of Friendship from Elliot and his nights in the taverns of the town hearing people's stories and writing songs based on everyone who was willing to share. He drew such a massive crowd that Hagas had to make sure he switched the tavern he was staying at every now and again to ensure that no one went out of business because of his presence elsewhere. Kip does not hold her followers to a strict code and Hagas was able to learn all that Elliot could teach him in just one year. After his training was complete he set off for Drake Manor.

Life At Drake Manor

The Journey to Drake Mannor was not long and Hagas made good time reaching the estate in just under a week, stopping every night to meet people in the taverns he passed and add their stories to his ever-growing list of songs. When he did arrive at Drake Mannor the guards at the gate were skeptical but when Annabelle saw him through her window she quickly rushed outside to greet him accompanied by her father and mother and a number of her cousins who were astonished that their shy little cousin was running out to meet a young elf that they had never met. Nath dismissed the guards at the gate and introduced Hagas to his elven wife Thalia Drake whose name Hagas recognized as a high-elven princess. For the rest of the year, Hagas lived at Drake Mannor and befriended as many of the residents as he could while still teaching Annabelle the lute as he had promised. He was even named an honorary member of the family but it wasn't until the next year House Drake hosted the annual noble feast that Hagas' life really changed with the introduction of Charlotte Whitmore.

Spoken Straight From the Heart

Hagas and Charlotte met by chance when Annabelle decided to play matchmaker and one to dance on behalf of the other during the family ball. Hagas was instantly taken aback by Charlotte's beauty and she quickly fell in love with his outgoing and friendliness. Over the next two years, the two stayed in touch and wrote to each other regularly. By the third year of their relationship, they were engaged and they were married in the fourth. Charlotte was twenty-three and Hagas was twenty-four (by human standards).

To Man Who Sang To The Sea

Some years later Hagas and Charlotte were on a diplomatic mission to Port Brink. They had already concluded their business for the day and Charlotte was sitting with their young children while they all watched Hagas perform for the rest of the tavern that night when they all heard shouting from outside. Everyone in the tavern ran to see what was happening and many ran when they saw the ocean rising far above even the tallest buildings of the city. Hagas, on the other hand, refused to leave he wasn't sure what he could do to help but despite the fact that charlotte begged him to run he could not leave the people of the city to die. Charlotte Relsead that she would not sway her husband so in an act of love that could be viewed as either stupidity or loyalty she stood by his side against a wave so gargantuan that it blotted out the sun. With no idea what to do Hagas prayed to Kip for an answer. The goddess answered him and explained that Celafor the god of the sea had decided that mortals were not worthy to walk the world and that he was going to remove them from it. She said that she had already tried to convince him to reconsider but that he wouldn't listen. She urged Hagas to run as the rest of the people in the city had. Hagas, However, was still unconvinced. He stood unflinching in the face of the god and with his family by his side he started to sing. He sang of everyone he had ever encountered, he sang of their lives, their hardships, and their victories. He single-handly painted the most complete picture of mortal life that the god had ever seen, and as his fingers danced across the strings of his lute and his soft voice echoed in the empty city even the spirits of heroes long past cried at his behest. Unable to ignore the effect that Hagas' music was having on his domain Wick reached out to the young bard.

" Little elf," siad the voice as it echoed soft and cold around my head. "My name is Wick, your music reaches even the realm of the dead and my poeple are crying for you, they wish to lend thier voices to you. All you must do is accept."

After the wick finished speaking and withdrew from his mind Hagas opened his soul to anyone who would lend him aid and one by one the souls of the dead began to join his choir. As Hagas sang, the spirits of the dead began to sing with him. Before long thousands of voices were emanating from his mouth, Hagas had been effectively passed by countless souls and all of them were now singing through him. The music became so heart-wrenching that even Celafor was forced to listen. The wave slowly shrank back into the depths of the sea and when The performance was over the god even personally apologized to Hagas for his anger. Afterward the godCold North approached Hagas and his family on their journey back to Whitemore Castle and offered Hagas A Magical Ring that would one day save his life.

Personality Characteristics

Virtues & Personality perks

Hagas Greatgoat was an elf of many virtues he was a loving and present father and he was always willing to help people. It didn't matter if he had known them for years or if they were a total stranger. Furthermore, he was very charismatic, he had a knack for turning enemies into friends.

Vices & Personality flaws

Everyone has their flaws and Hagas was no exception. Despite his strengths, he very rarely took anything as seriously as he should have and this often got him into trouble. Beyond that, he had a tendency to shoulder other people's problems. He treated everyone's issues as his own and while this occasionally improved the lives of others it usually just disrupted his own.

Social

Religious Views

Hagas Greatgoat was a member of The Grateful Wanders and as such, he worshiped Kip the goddess of friendship for the large majority of his life. It was largely because of his belief in the goddess that he always helped whoever asked him to.

Species

High Elves

Life

993 BC 1083 AC 2076 years old

Family

House Whitemore

Pronouns

He/Him

Gender

Male

Eyes

Silver, Almond

Hair

Frizzled brown

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

White tanned

Height

6'

Belief/Deity

Kip

Aligned Organization

House Whitemore

Other Affiliations

• House Armaranten
• The Grateful Wanders
• The Sisters of Kip