"Greetings.

Where shall I start? The beginning is generally a good place, so lets go there. I was born on March 6th of the year 4251 in the beautiful county of Alinshir. My father, Tobias Dutton, is a wealthy land-owning merchant.. My mother, Naomi, was the second daughter of Avram Lorimer, the late Lord of Northbrook. At age 11 my mother, who had always been a woman of poor health, took ill and died.

The following year my father remarried a woman scarcely nine years older than myself. I thought, at the time, that she was a wicked step-mother, but we both did our fair share to try to ensure the misery of each other. From the time they married until the day that I left home, things became increasingly ugly within our household. I was quite often engaged in fighting with one or the other of them. It usually ended up being poor Mona since Father was often gone on business. For the peace of mind of everyone involved, it was decided that I'd had enough formal schooling at age 18 and could leave home and try to make my own way in the world.

I was ill prepared for the world outside of the family manor. If you'll allow me to gloss this part of my life over a bit, let me just say that in a very short amount of time I found my financial support discontinued due to the very disgraceful way I was behaving. Bah, why gloss it over. I was a user and a loser, my friends. I gambled away more money then I can bring myself to think about, drank like a gasping fish, and bought women when they didn't throw themselves at me. When I was disowned the party came to an abrupt
halt. I was forced to turn to the necessary evil of working to keep myself alive. Somehow, I managed to swallow my pride and find work as a stable hand on the manor of a mage. I lived and worked in his stables.

It was at this point that I discovered two people who would change my life. Cecily was a young waif I'd picked up off the northern road. I took a little of my meager income and paid for her to live at the Reaver's Latitude Tavern. Eventually I cleared her out place in the stables to live. I had also started seeing a horse groom from the Waes stable, Darian Bastelle. We decided to marry, and together managed to get together enough money to build our own cottage. The three of us lived in that cottage for several years, sometimes joined by my natural daughter, Katelynn, when her mother allowed it.

We were often in debt in our early years. Money was very tight. To help ease the strain of our financial burden I accepted a job from Armand Denarian. I completed various minor tasks for him and was paid well for doing very little. When he was given command of his own company of Irregular troops, I eagerly joined up. I had trained with a long sword when I was younger, but I'd never had the chance to use any of those skills. I learned quickly that there is far more to armed combat then knowing how to wield a weapon.

Various skirmishes with Debarre's men and the many grueling battles of the exile war sharpened my skills and tested my mettle. I trained with many fine swordsmen and others who had interesting skills to teach me.

It was sometime in 4273, I think, that I began my career in architecture. I had always had something of an interest in it. Having seen the nice job I did in designing our cottage, an old friend of mine asked me if I would see to the building of one for him. He offered me a good deal of money to complete the task. As I worked on the project there was no doubt in my mind that this was what my true calling was. I contacted my father to ask him for a loan with which to get the business going. To my surprise, he accepted me back into the family and provided me with a great deal of assistance in getting started.

The business proved very successful. I have built homes for the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy alike. Eventually, King Valiere took note of my work and appointed me as the Royal Architect. I was successful in other areas as well. I took over command of the 7th Irregulars from Armand after he retired. My work with the irregulars in rooting the Outlaw Debarre from his keep eventually led to my Knighting in the Order of the Hammer.

The past few years have proved stormy for me. Following my capture by the rebels during the Southport Revolution (For which I was raised to the honored Order of the Rose), I divorced Darian and lost my lover Jaden to another. I suffered two terrible emotional breakdowns from the stress and pain of my situation. Gradually, over many months, the pain began to subside. A few months before he had been crowned, King Bradley gave me a quest to retrieve an artifact from the Western desert for him. The two months I spent in the vast wastes provided me with much time to clear my mind and think about where I wanted my life to go from there. I came back with my spirit refreshed and strengthened. I also came back just in time to see the new King crowned. On that same day I was raised to the rank of Baron and given the land of Wilmont as my own.

In my life, I have accomplished much and I have done many wrongs. I continue to strive to better myself so that I might not repeat the mistakes I have made in the past. As a wise and beloved friend of mine once said to me in a dark hour, "You only truly fall when you stop getting up again."