Ezekiel Nathaniel Gardiner
Ezekiel Nathaniel Gardiner (a.k.a. Zeke)
The Gardiner family
Ezekiel Is the firstborn son of the prestigious Gardiner family, who have served as the Ocila earldom's personal healers generations. Ezekiel's parents Baxter Gardiner and Olivia Marsden like most nobles married not for love but obligation, So when Olivia died Baxter quickly remarried Theodora Matson. Baxter's desire for a quick marriage and the fact that he already had an heir limited the number of houses willing to marry off one of their daughters, So Baxter would have to settle with ambitious Theodora whose family standing was extremely low. Baxter and Theodora would go on to have two children a boy, Lenard and a girl, Elena.
Childhood
Ezekiel lost his mother when he was five years old and just a year later his half-brother Lenard was born. Ezekiel hated his stepmother who treated him very poorly whenever his father wasn't around, in the span of a year she had either turned all the servants to her side or gotten rid of those that wouldn't aid her in tormenting Ezekiel. At the age of seven, Ezekiel started his training to continue the family legacy under several tutors, and his sister Elena was born. Despite Theodora, Ezekiel loved his siblings and would sneak in to see them whenever he could.
At the age of ten, Ezekiel started training under his father learning family secrets and the techniques that had risen the Gardiner family to great heights. Ezekiel worked very hard to learn seeking to make his father proud spending much of his free time in the library. One night after Ezekiel's twelfth birthday, he returned to his room after a particularly late study session when he felt a pain on the back of his head and blacked out.
The Fall
Ezekiel awoke in a sack bound and gaged, it was still night so he didn't think he had been asleep for very long. From where he was he could hear two men talking in hushed voices. As he lay there trying to quietly free himself he heard the sound of a horse and carriage followed shortly after by a familiar voice.
"Well were you successful?"
"Y-y-y-Yes mom, h-he's o'er there"
The sack was opened and staring down at him with a wicked grin was his stepmother Theodora. She didn't offer so much as a single word to Ezekiel before the sack was closed again.
"Wah should we d-do w-with him n-n-now mom?"
"I don't care what you do with it, just make sure it never gets in my way again!"
With that, the carriage left, and Ezekiel felt himself be picked up and thrown into a wagon.
"W-wah you fink we do wit him, Mac?
"Don't know, could just smash his head in and toss him in the lake"
"Th-th-that awful! Y-you fink you c-can do that?"
"Oh! I know why don't we sell him to a slaver, that way we get paid twice and we ant got to do no smashing"
"G-g-good idea Mac, yous so sm-m-mart"
A lucky Break
Ezekiel's kidnappers, either by ignorance or stupidity didn't tell the slaver of his healing magic. Ezekiel figured he had a better chance of escaping if they thought him an ordinary slave, so he hid his abilities. He was quickly sold and before he knew it he was on a ship bound for an unknown land. Three days later while working on the deck Ezekiel was knocked overboard, not knowing how to swim there wasn't much he could do and he quickly lost consciousness.
Ezekiel awoke on a beach sometime later, and other than being a little damp he was fine. He sat down under the warm morning sun and began to contemplate his next move. Going home or making himself known seemed like a bad idea, his stepmother could just fain innocents, then make sure to kill him the next time, and trying to live off his healing magic would just make him a target for anyone who felt like using him. Ezekiel settled on changing his name to Zeke and becoming a thief, after all, he had spent the last seven years hiding from his stepmother and the servents and stealing food from the kitchen.
Zeke started small stealing scraps of food here and there, soon he began to pickpocket and cut coin purses. He bounced around a few street gangs but never found a place to call home. By the time he became an adult he was living quite well, he was staying in an inn at night and eating almost every day. Around his nineteenth birthday, Zeke discovered he had a knack for games of chance, so from then on, he became a grifter. He would go from bar to bar fleecing drunks of their hard-earned coin, If his luck failed him his quick fingers didn't.
Zeke is now 24, and lately he had begun to feel rather bored, it was no longer difficult for him to live. So he has started looking for something new.
Social
Family Ties
Lucky and probably lying, a fallen noble doing what he must to survive.
View Character Profile
Alignment
TN
Age
24
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Green
Hair
Brown
Height
5'10
1st Journal Entry
1st of Zarantyr 1028 PA
So I found this book and I figured I would start journaling again like when I was younger, I think I'm going to start with the day I found this book as I feel things are going to get interesting from now on.
Like many other days, I awoke in a jail cell, the night before I had cheated some of the guards out of some money and they got a bit upset. In the cell were three chumps who also ran afoul of the powers that be. Eldric, a naive self-titled "Master Wizard" who has yet to show his ability to manipulate the Vital so he may also be delusional. Rorvin, your typical want to be badass but, as of right now all I see is an over agro hunter with a chip on his shoulder. Mavroc, a brute and simpleton, and a blacksmith who has given up his trade to chase a bedtime story.
Next thing I know the CUNT! of a warden, Warden Pendell forces the four of us to work together to do some wet work for him, he lets us out and threatened to put bounties out for us all if it's not done in five days. So we go to an inn to get some food and talk, and for some reason, these dumbasses don't want to skip town and started coming up with harebrained schemes for this job. I manage to talk them out of their lunacy and into just getting them drunk then dealing with them after they pass out. After getting our food we started talking, Eldric told us about an old empire ruin, Mavroc seemed to think that it could lead to info on his bedtime story and wanted to join Eldric, and I must say I kind of like the idea of treasure hunting maybe ill tag-along.
Later that day as night began to fall we set out to the warehouse where our prey the Brown Swords made their base, we spilt up as we got closer, I made my way to the front of the warehouse and the other three found a safe place to watch from. I was able to almost walk right in just by saying I want to join, all five of the targets welcomed me in and we started drinking. As we drunk I tried to pull info out of them about their leader but all I got was that he wasn't here at the moment, later I found a note with the name Shrawcross on it but I'm not sure if that's the bosses name or just someone paying the group. At one point after I had made friends with everyone they even gave me a wooden sword the symbol of the group and let me join, at this point I briefly considered joining them and turning on the three outside, but the idea of treasure hunting sounded more fun than being a two-bit thug, even if they were all really nice guys. After a while, three of them fell asleep so I pickpocketed the key and let Eldric, Rorvin and Mavroc in, Both Rorvin and Mavroc entered and killed the two members of the brown swords who were still awake, then Rovin and I kill the ones who went to sleep. Afterwards, I found Two hundred silver however Eldric saw me so I had to share it, We then put all five bodies in barrels and rolled them off a cliff after I said a few words.
I never enjoy killing but this time was particularly hard, all of them seemed like good guys and thought me their friend. I don't think ill forget today anytime soon and I hope I never have to do it again.
