Benno the Blue Elf

Benno is one of the few Vinkenti elves to have joined the Rebel Forces. He is roughly 250 years of age, though no one know for sure how old he is. Like many of the blue elves, he is a quiet and reserved sort and few claim to know him well.

Benno was always an impetuous, eager youth, and while growing up in Norsa, he chafed under the restrictions and limits placed on him by Vinkenti culture. Blue elf society is characterized by an extremely matriarchal structure and strong isolationist tendencies. Benno, a boy with dreams of climbing the peaks of the Klevarcht Mountains and sailing across the fabled Great Land Sea, was a rebel. At the tender age of 65, Benno resolved to leave behind his home, and everything he had ever known, to explore all the world had to offer.

As is the custom for their people, young Benno approached Svava, ruler of Norsa, and informed her of his plans to leave. Immediately, Svava motioned for her band of guards to grab the boy and take him to the ancient clearing, where the Ceremony of Banishment would be held. Benno was tied to a pole in the center of the clearing, and sat stoically, still firm in his decision, while the clearing slowly filled with his neighbors, family, and friends.

Eventually, Svava came into the clearing and untied Benno. She announced that Benno wished to leave, and to go elsewhere. She turned to Benno and asked if this was true, if he intended to abandon the forest which he, by his very nature, was born to protect. Benno nodded without hesitation.

"Very well," said Svava. "You may leave if you wish, but know that you may never return." Suddenly, Benno saw a bright flash of light come from her open hand and almost immediately felt a searing pain on his cheek. He yelped in pain and sank to his knees as Svava continued, "This scar shall bear constant witness to your choice and will mark you as one who has no place here. Should you ever return to this land again, you will be killed, and the pain will be far more excruciating that what you feel now." She, along with all the other elves of Norsa, turned then and left.

Benno's first explorations as a banished Vinkenti were through the Klevarcht Mountains. Benno scaled the jagged peaks (through the help of his magical abilities at times), and felt an enormous sense of triumph. He spent some time in the desolate mountain range, living a solitary life while exploring the strange and foreign magic the mountains held. It was here that Benno first met mages, who travel through the mountains in no small part because they are so isolated. Benno, however, was in many ways as hermitic and reclusive as the typical mage, and those he met remember him fondly.

After he learned all he could in the mountains, Benno continued on into the Dark Lands. He was unnerved by this strange place, as it was the first location he'd ever been that seemed totally devoid of magic. Benno quickly fell in with a nomadic group of human barbarians who seemed to accept him fully, blue skin and all. Benno spent years with the barbarians, finding their ruggedness and hearty warmth to be exactly what was missing in Norsa. It is said that here he found and lost his first love, a barbarian priestess and seer. Things did not end well, and the resulting tensions motivated Benno to join up with a traveling band of felintarks and tinker elf traders.

He went with the band of cat-people and silver elves to Tarquintia, an important trading city in the San-Kesh desert, on the outer edges of the Elvo-Felintark Empire. Benno took well to the ways of the tinker elves and their pragmatic, economic outlook. He spent more than 30 years in Tarquintia's strange, dusty streets, and split his time between a gardening shop he opened on one of the main drags and trading expeditions with the group he'd joined up with originally.

He was content enough in the San-Kesh Desert, but Benno could never be truly called happy, since he never experienced in Tarquintia the same warm acceptance he felt with the barbarians. Though the cities of the desert are known for their remarkable diversity and lack of racial tensions, Benno was for many the first and last blue elf they would ever see. So, though Benno never felt shamed or judged about the color of his skin, be did feel uncomfortably conspicuous. Perhaps it was this feeling, along with the knowledge that it would never go away as long as he made his home in Tarquintia, that led Benno to close his shop and accompany his friends on one last expedition.

This expedition took the group southwest through the Dark Lands to a Dwarvish settlement in the Klevarcht Mountains. Here, Benno took leave of his companions and set off to find a way through the mountains to find a way into Elothnin. He had heard of a magical gate of tinker elf design that opened a pass through the mountains, but none of the silver elves Benno knew in Tarquintia could confirm or deny this, so he arduously climbed through the jagged peaks once again.

Once on the other side of the mountains, Benno found himself in Susselfen, a mist-shrouded city regarded as a eerie and slightly sinister place full of strange creatures. No one looked twice at him here, but one cannot say whether this was because Benno's coloring was nothing compared to some of the odder creatures that walked these streets, or if it was because Benno's bedraggled and tattered clothing made him blend in with the ruffians of the street.

In either case, the penniless Benno soon realized that were he ever to make it to the Great Land Sea, he'd have find a way of supporting himself in the short term. He had few marketable skills, and resorted to hiring himself out to shady strangers to perform unspeakable deeds. Benno became a hitman roaming the streets of Susselfen, and among his profession, he was quite well-regarded: he did not like his work, and so completed his tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The next few decades were a dark period in Benno's life, and to escape the moral predicament he had gotten himself in, he turned away from those around him and became as solitary as he had been back in the mountains so long ago. Everyone in Susselfen knew the Blue Elf (as they called him), but he called none of them friend. Benno also made a point of avoiding conversations with either his customers or his targets...until the night he met Valiyon, a aged red elf he had been sent to kill.

Benno had been hired by man in Susselfen who was known to be a highly conspicuous (and therefore largely unsuccessful) member of the spy corps. The man gave him an address to go to an no further instructions except to make sure the red elf was dead.

Benno, not one to waste time, tramped through the foggy night to the address directly. Once there, he drew on the skills he'd learned as a hunter with the barbarians, and slipped silently through Skittlefrump's window. He could hear the faint scratching of a quill around the corner and overheard a pair of low, hurried voices.

Benno stalked around the corner and hid in the shadows just beyond the room the voices were coming from. The door was slightly ajar, and weak candlelight spilled into the hallway. The blue elf waited patiently, ready to attack with silent deadly force at the first opportune moment. Eventually, the conversation ended and Benno heard one of the speakers escort the other to the door and quietly shut it again. Benno slipped into the study and waited for his target to return.

Benno heard the footsteps of the red elf make their way back to the study, but stop just short of entering. "I know ye be in there, a-waitin' fer me ta come in. I know tha' Imperial git sent an assassin after me...an' I know ye be an elf, same as me." Benno's keen ears then detected the sound of a bow being drawn taut, and he ducked just as Valiyon burst into the room and fired an arrow at the place he had been only moments before. Benno righted himself in the blink of an eye and threw a silver dagger and narrowly missed the older elf.

As Benno turned to grab a second throwing knife, he realized Valiyon had already drawn a second arrow and was aiming straight for him. "Now, lad, ye've had yer shot, an' I've had mine. Now, ye have a choice. Ye can sit a spell and ha' a chat wi' me o'er a cup o' hot tea, or ye can grab yer weapon but lose yer life." Benno slowly eased up, and moved his hand away from the knife. "Good, good. Let's have a talk then, shall we?" Valiyon asked as he lowered the bow and relaxed noticeably.

That conversation proved to be a turning point for Benno.Valiyon explained that he was elf commander in the Rebel Forces, and had been targeted by the Imperial spies for some time. There had been several similar attempts on his life, but his network of informants in Susselfen was wide enough that none had gone through. He had let this one continue uninterrupted, he said, because of the great help Benno could be to the rebels. Though Benno pretended to be apolitical and not take sides in the Border Wars, he was sympathetic to the rebel's cause and listened on as Valiyon described the oppressions faced by other elves at the hands of the evil queen. Through the long night, he was swayed more and more by the compelling stories old Valiyon told him. Just before dawn, Benno officially joined the Rebel Forces.

The next day, Valiyon and four other red elves disguised as a band of traveling thespians left with Benno concealed in their wagon. He stayed hidden in the wagon across the entire Fethil, only emerging in the relative safety of the Erkenheld Forest. Immediately, Benno was set to work training and supervising a group of elves under Valiyon's command. He has spent the last 60 years as a respected soldier and leader in the Rebel Forces, as well as working as a translator for any of the languages he has picked up through his travels. For Benno, it felt strange to be in a place so familiar, but living such a different life.