Clifraid

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Information

Player: Zenethen

Character Full Name: Brighella Clifraid

Character In-Game Name: Clifraid

Nickname(s): Biggs, Biggs the Bard, Biggs the Big Bellied Battle Bard

Association(s): Argent Crusade, The Bards College

Race: Human

Class: Bard (OOC Priest)

Skills and Abilities: Biggs is a follower of the 'Way of the Bard', a very small and insignificant group of minstrels and tale-tellers who pay heed to the Light for power in their most dire hours. In summary, he is a minstrel who uses his music as a vessel for his abilities of the Light. Among these, he is able to raise morale, increase the damage caused by allies hearing the music, aid in the defense of allies hearing the music, and increase or decrease other mundane attributes by small degrees for whomever hears the music. With his music as the vessel, the Light's subtle hymns can be detected in his voice and fingers. He binds his Light-gained graces to his music, thereby making his music either a helpful tool or a potentially harmful weapon.

Age: 49

Sex: Male

Hair: Originally brown, grayed with age – receding in the front and on the top a bit early in his years, but full all around.

Eyes: Hazelnut

Weight: 213 lbs

Height: 5' 8”

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: Biggs is always in his fine clothing; a nice brown shirt with brown gloves, brown pants, and some simple boots. Anyone can recognize him from his (somewhat famous) hat with a green feather and red pin on it.

Other: He is quite overweight. His belly hangs out, but he is definitely not obese. Packs and pouches litter his clothes which carry instruments of all sorts. With a constant meditative and cheery mindset, Biggs is able to manage keeping the weight of all his stuff tolerable (with a little help from silent hymns here and there).

Personality

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Biggs is an outgoing and cheerful man. It could be said he has no real bad side as even when surrounded by enemies he speaks in his rhymes and over all happy tone. His main duty as a Bard is to make sure that as many people are cheered up by his music as possible. However, his mood can change with the event of his music being played. If it's a funeral, he will be a somber man, and if in 'glorious battle', he will be a cheerful and supportive man, to raise morale at best.

History

In a small village named Northdale in the kingdom of Lordaeron there was born a young lad named Brighella Clifraid. He was born a larger child than the average child in the village, and so he was rather frequently teased by the other children of the village. But one of them was to be a good friend of his for a long time - Richart, son of a local farmer, Jalen. The village life between the two was that of two good friends spending much of their early lives together. Brighella adopted the nickname 'Biggs' by the other children of Northdale, which he did not mind - it fit his appearance, and his character; outgoing and cheerful.

For many years Biggs and Richart would spend their time listening to tales of heroics and great adventures, sung by bards from near and far traveling through the small village. The young Biggs took a liking to music, and practiced frequently with both a lute and his family's heirloom piano. At just eleven years old, the young boy was faced with a terrible tragedy - his mother and father simultaneously caught a deathly fever, and it took but days for them to pass away. He and his family's possessions were accepted into the household of his good friend Richart, and the two became like brothers while Richart supported him through the death of his parents.

When he was thirteen, an astonishing thing happened; an elderly bard visited Northdale seeking an apprentice. An uncommon thing, as Northdale was common to the less-intelligent farm folk, but this bard believed that even a farm boy could learn to be a bard. After briefly examining most of the brawny, muscular examples of those children that had once teased Biggs, the bard set his eyes on the overweight teenager. He concluded that the young Biggs definitely did not require physical strength to be a priest, and he obviously saw that he had the heart for such an undertaking. Biggs was reluctant to leave his friend Richart, but eventually it was his friend that told him to take the offer; it would only come once. The two teenagers embraced each other as brothers, and then Biggs departed from his small hometown beside his new master.

The bard, name of Thein, gave Biggs a grand tour of his small hovel in the eastern hills of Lordaeron on the brink of a small village. One of the rooms contained a variety of musical instruments, and Biggs was immediately attracted to this. Biggs' initial apprenticeship was rather simple. Thein would teach Biggs that the bard's attributed music and power would come from the Light, a graceful presence that was the hold-point for most of human religion. To become a bard with the music of the divine, Biggs would first have to learn of the divine and of knowledge in general. Biggs learned the Light's lessons, and the basics of what it took to be a priest, though this was all only towards the path of being a Bard. He also taught Biggs of the difference between the 'Bards'. There were the simple minstrels, playing instruments and singing, and there were the followers of the 'Way of the Bard' like himself, those who used the Light or Arcane to bring grace and tales of greatness to the common folk, as well as being able to aid many with the powers given by their reigning aspect.

When Biggs was eighteen, Thein was ready to announce the now grown-up villager as a masterless bard, independent but still learning. However, the event was interrupted when a very daring group of bandits assailed Thein's home in the eastern kills. The bandits were aided greatly by special equipment that reflected many forms of magical attacks, and proceeded to decimate the residents of the nearby town, turning then on Thein. If it were not for the anti-magic equipment, the elder bard would have won, at least as Biggs recounts, but the elder bard fell to the bandit's attacks. Before the bandits turned on Biggs, a local patrol of the Lordaeronian Regional Guard arrived with reinforcements, and the bandits were slain.

Biggs was left without a mentor, and without an official recounting of his independence as a bard. He did mourn for the late Thein, but eventually he tried to figure out what to do - he was left in charge of Thein's possessions as well as what remained of Thein's servants (the elder bard had a number of the village people that he hired to tend to his hovel). Biggs let the servants off to rebuild the village that had been assailed nearby, but himself packed up what he could carry from Thein's home; namely instruments and as many books of history and tales that he could fit. Aided by some of his Light-given hymns of strength that Thein had taught him, he was able to carry much more than a normal person of his age could tackle.

At nineteen, Biggs set out from his former mentor's home in the hills and set out to become a true follower of the 'Way of the Bard' - he sought out rumors and tales of epic heroics and great adventures, and began to sing of them and practice as he went. He would eventually become a part of a small party of adventurers, his companions being of some of the strangest origins he could think of. Among his party was a female dwarf cleric named Jeriska Bronzehand, a female elven archer named Arina Silverstream, a male gnome thief named Baneran Lockertinker, and their leader, a retired soldier of Lordaeron, Janus of Andorhal. While initially Jeriska and Baneran looked at the young Biggs as nothing but a homeless minstrel, Arina and Janus accepted him readily for his knowledge in the Light and magic - a required trait for their many adventures.

For many years, despite great wars and conflicts raging across the lands, Biggs, now called Biggs the Bard, earned his place in the party of adventurers, even ending up catching the alluring eye of Arina, and being accepted by the dwarf Jeriska and gnome Baneran. In many dungeons and through many adventures the party continued to dwell across the land of Lordaeron and beyond, and one day Biggs met his old friend - Richart Jalenson. The man had entered into the church and became a friar, and now traveled the roads of many kingdoms preaching the words of the Holy Light. They spent a day sitting in a clearing in the forests and discussing how their lives had turned out, and it caused Richart to smirk when Biggs began to dwell on what feelings he might have for Arina. The old friends then had to part as Richart was expected at an event in western Lordaeron, and they embraced again as brothers.

Amidst these years the relationship between Biggs and Arina ceased to stop growing, and often in their travels the dwarf, gnome, and leader would crack jokes and snicker at their slow-paced relationship, as both of them were slightly hesitant of going too far. During a rather flirtatious conversation in a tavern of Lakeshire one day, the cheery couple were startled by the news a town crier spewed - Half of Lordaeron had fallen to an undead plague, including Andorhal right at the center. At this news, Janus dipped into a deep depression as he lost hope of ever going home on his retire. His fellow party members supported their leader through the hard news, and yet it just kept getting worse - within barely months, word came from two more lands - Gnomeregan, Baneran's homeland, had been invaded and then irradiated beyond current in-habitability, and Quel'thalas had fallen to the Scourge. While Baneran was not wholly affected, he did mourn his fallen brethren, leaving Jeriska to tend to both the leader and gnome as Biggs led Arina away to a glade at night, and he comforted her in her sadness.

The party of adventurers decided that they should split up after twenty years of a united struggle. Jeriska would go to Ironforge and her family, Baneran to his people in Tinkertown, Janus would see what could be done in the north, and Arina would follow in the trail of Biggs. They gave their final farewells before parting ways. Biggs decided to travel north with Arina, and the farther north they got, the stranger the stares were by passing travelers. Eventually a group of humans who formerly were part of Garithos' men would stop by them and attempt to slay Arina, calling her a 'traitor to the Alliance'. The bard and archer were able to narrowly knock the men away and then flee, and that was the day when Arina faced her first signs of the arcane addiction. Biggs supported her through the addiction as the couple continued north, where they were pointed to a group of high elves in the Hinterlands at Quel'Danil Lodge. Biggs spent several nights at the Lodge with Arina before he was beckoned to leave by a message from Janus.

Janus called Biggs to Chillwind Camp, where the Alliance planned their major motives of potentially retaking what had become the Western Plaguelands. After a few missions against the Scourge in the Plaguelands, Biggs felt lost in the military service - he was not cheering many people across the world with epic heroics and tales of great adventures, and so he bid his old leader farewell once again and began to travel the world, listening to many rumors and tales of battles and wars and collecting knowledge and songs, learning the history of many far lands and grand continents.

One day, his feet landed on familiar territory. A hill watching over the town that was once Northdale; now ruins. Biggs was greeted by Richart - the friar too had come, and was actually expecting Biggs. The two talked over the matters of the past years, where Richart began to speak of his ultimate goal in life; to serve the Light in all matters. Biggs was slightly ashamed when he heard of Richart's purity in life when he himself had 'sinned' in many occasions. Eventually their conversation fell to Biggs and Arina's relationship. While Richart did not indulge on any of acts of love, he did casually support his old friend when he spoke of his lover. The day passed on, and the two had to part ways yet again. They embraced yet again as brethren, and together gave a silent prayer to the lost souls of Northdale.

Of the latest news Biggs has received of his former allies was hopeful; Jeriska had been accepted back into her family in Ironforge, and had also found a husband among the smiths of the Great Forge. Baneran had joined the reclamation efforts of Gnomeregan, redeeming himself of his former reputation as an all-out thief and rogue. Janus still lived as Alliance reinforcements continued to pour into Chillwind Camp, and he pointed the adventurers on their way of attempting to reclaim Andorhal, but so far the cause had been unsuccessful. In a finale, Biggs received word that Arina had left the Quel'Danil Lodge and gone to Dalaran just prior to its departure to Crystalsong Forest, signing on as part of the Silver Covenant, having resisted the draw of the fel that made her former brethren the Blood Elves fall. This lightened Biggs' heart as he knew his lover to be safe.

Biggs the Bard has since then traveled about the world, but as of late he has found himself as part of the Argent Crusade - during a visit of the reclaimed Hearthglen, Biggs found himself amidst an attack by a Frost Wyrm and some cultists. Through stunning bard magic in the sanctuary of Hearthglen's keep, he slightly impressed one of the commanders of the Argent Crusade, and so signed on as a lenient recruit. Even more recently, he has been found by a certain Faelara Sunsong. The pregnant Sin'dorei woman sought to be his apprentice in the 'Way of the Bard', and so he called her out to a trial. Faelara succeeded in the trial, and Biggs was inspired to make an organization for the training and instruction of bards - a college for bards, the Bards College. With some funds acquired during Faelara's trial, he formed the College by name at least, and now maintains a small room in Hearthglen's tavern where he holds recovered artifacts and treasures, hoping to one day buy a building or plot for the College. However, Biggs the Bard has not forgotten about Arina, but keeps his love of her to himself, so as to not cause drama among his fellow humans and other elves, as their couple was a strange one, and often looked down upon.