BYRON: LIFE IN THE PITS
Born to a Korvosan whore Ruby who worked at the Red Rose Lounge a low rent brothel in one of the more seedier parts of town. Not sure who his father was, probably some passing trade though his mother often when deep in her cups would hint at a more noble lineage, but she was often caught in flights of fancy. However, despite her many flaws Ruby cared for her son as best she could, rearing the boy within the brothel with the help of the proprietor Madam Devlin and the other working women and men.
For a few years all went well but in Byrons 7th year a double tragedy would befall the young boy with the death of his mother possibly at the hands of trick turned violent, a constant fear of her trade and then the burning down of the Red Rose turned Byron out into the streets of Korvosa to be an orphan in city populated with orphans. For six years Byron lived on the streets and it turned him feral. Then in his 13th year, Gaedran Lamm enters Byrons life when was picked up by one of Gaedran's band of thugs picked up the young boy ready to sell him into child slavery. Whilst held in custody Byron came to Gaedran's notice as a feral beast as he fought for scraps of food. After beating, breaking and biting other young children who tried to bully the young Byron Gaedran started to put the young boy in the gambling pits as he fought other boys and even on occasion dogs! Though brutal and often injured Byron began to enjoy the vicious deadly sport and as he got older, he grew into the role, amassing muscle, and a grim reputation, earning the nickname Gaedran’s Korvosan Bear.
Eschewing weapons such as knives, swords and bows Byron would rely solely on his hands with the wraps around his hands often being stained and saturated with the blood and flesh of his opponents after his many fights. With every victory Byron would have his skin marked he was soon becoming heavily tattooed. Becoming skilled in close unarmed fighting when Byron, turned 17 he became one of Gaedrans enforcers beating down on other gangs and ensuring Gaedran‘s own street troops stayed loyal. Indeed, Byron's own loyalty to Gaedran was never in doubt and he himself was one of his most loyal soldiers and held Gaedran in the highest regard.
In his time working for Gaedran he did a lot wrong. About 4 years after he started working for the vile man, roughly 6 years ago, a murder was committed by Gaedran. Byron intimidated a fisherman into identifying someone else. A noble. The noble’s younger sister, he doesn’t remember her name, confronted the fisherman and got him to confess he'd lied so Byron killed the fisherman. Gaedran arranged for an attempt on the younger sister's life, (or maybe even did it himself you're not sure) but it failed when a member of the Korvosan Guard, a woman, intervened. The guard was killed and that's all Byron knows. (It wasn't him who killed the guard! That may be important.) Byron doesn’t even recall the name of the fisherman or his family, he became one among so many.
While working for Gaedran there were other enforcers, in particular a drugged up brute of a half orc called Shiv who knew no bounds. Byron only knew him once he’d started working for Gaedran, he’d never seen him before. Byron also remembered a halfling called Benny Hophoodle, who was somehow connected to Shiv though that connection was never clear, sometimes Shiv allowed him near and at other times Benny couldn’t approach. The halfling was annoying to Byron, he kept getting underfoot, but was also a gem at helping Byron into and out of his hand wraps. A true blessing after a fight with bloodied knuckles. Benny made weird jokes about people and was prone to make fun of Byron’s opponents.
Then one day Benny made a bad choice of target for his jokes and offended someone from a rival gang, Byron thinks it was someone from the Cerulean Society, The Main Thieves Guild in Korvosa. Byron’s not sure what happened to Benny but he found Shiv cradling Benny’s drained and broken body, a look of anguish on the half orc’s face. The most humane feeling Byron’d ever seen on the usually violent brute. By the time Byron returned with more of Gaedran’s men Shiv was gone. Byron has not see him since. Byron also knows Gaedran’s right hand man was Yargin, a sour faced man who was obsessed with acid. He sometimes used acid to burn the children kept in Gaedran’s “employment” by way of punishment. Yargin had a vicious dog called Bloo, an ex pit dog, Byron never faced it in combat but it’s victories rival his own.
Byron might have continued working for Gaedran for a long time, but in Byron’s 26th year his world would once again be torn asunder as he came across an elderly woman begging on the streets for coin and being moved along by one of Byrons men. Upon spying the tall grim looking warrior the woman rather than look in fear walked up to him and spat in his face, cursing Byron and before he could react, retaliate or respond she called him by his name and used the name of his mother. In that moment Byron recognised Madame Devlin who had provided him and his mother a home but had now fallen on hard times.
It was at this point that Madam Devlin told Byron a appalling truth, that it was one of Gaedrans thugs, a man known as Brack that killed his mother and burnt the Red Rose for Gaedrunn because they refused to join his protection racket, the same racket that Byron was now enforcing. The scales falling from his eyes about the character of Gaedran Byron swore to avenge his mother, not only on the body of Brack but also his own master Gaedran. Taking Madam Devlin under his wing he rented her some rooms and gave her his winnings garnered over the years from his many fights in the pits as a means to absolve himself in some small measure, a means to absolve himself of his many crimes perpetrated in the name of his mother's killer.
Madam Devlin would in time take the gold that she was given and return to the business she knew and set up a new brothel called Ruby's Rest. Byron himself after leaving Madam Devlin made for Gaedran confronting him with what he had learned hoping that Gaedran would tell him he was mistaken, that it wasn't true but all Gaedran did was laugh and owned the act as if it was nothing. Some whore not someone's mother and when Byron lunged for him Gaedran ordered his thugs to beat down on the young Byron. Beating him within an inch of his life Gaedran and Byrons former colleague's dump his body in a local river. They threw him into a part of the river expecting him to be eaten by Gobbleguts that Gaedran keeps as a pet but he landed just outside the reach of the chain it was on.
Byron near dead crawled out of the river and made his way back to Madame Devlin (for he had no one else he could turn to), and her rooms. She helped nurse him back to health, which took a while and Gaedran turning his back on his former profession instead providing his own security for those who could pay and trying to protect those in the poor quarter where he lived. Many still don’t trust him due to his previous life and previous connections and this has slowed his operations to cut the claws of Gaedran around where he lives. Indeed, on occasion when he came across a former colleague or a known thug of Gaedran's strong arming a local merchant, business or landlord Byron would find the brigand and break his legs, his jaw or any other body part just to send a message. He was still here; these were his streets and Gaedran would pay.
This is not virtue though, this is vengeance. Byron is in his 27th year, he now has rooms at Ruby's Rest and tends to patrol the area for a few blocks around the poor quarter talking to local businesses and people ensuring that all is well, that none of Gaedran’s men have come calling. At times he takes commissions when there is work and still supplements his income with a few low key pit fights hoping to come across his mother's murder Brack whilst also still planning to get to Gaedran.
He knows Gaedran moves bases from place to place, he has a knack for finding abandoned building in which to live. He also know that followers of Gaedran change over time, so Brack may no longer work for him. He’s been quietly looking for signs of habitation in abandoned buildings as well as still keeping feelers out for Brack, he definitely wants to break every bone in his body, preferably in the pit as a public spectacle.
