Oxford Backstory

Oxford Grimmjaw was born to an Ork father and Drow mother. His birth the result of the taking of drow concubines by a band of raiding orks. Upon his birth his ork father murdered his mother and named him Ox'Vulkaa Grimmjaw meaning 'Black Sun' in Orkish. Ox'Vulkaa was raised among the other Ork half-breeds in the warband; sons and daughters of other race's concubines acquired during raids.

Mainly used as slaves at camp, and combat fodder in raids, or forced to fight each other for sport, these half-breeds had short lifespans once they reached fighting age. Ox'Vulkaa stood out by simply refusing to die. The act of reaching the age of 15 without having died by blade or disease earned him the notice of his Ork masters.

He was pitted against the other half-breeds in deathmatches for the amusement of the Warband. He fought for his life again and again over many days. Eventually he was pitted against a full ork, and received many injuries. Before the final deathblow was struck, Ox'Vulkaa let out an Orkish roar and his eyes burned with pink fire. He let loose a torrent of pink light and flame from his body and the Ork was sent flying out of the ring. Ox'Vulkaa stood up, his body burning with the blinding light of many colors and let loose another roar. A victory roar.

During the next raid Ox'Vulkaa was separated from the other half-breeds by a grizzly Ork. Saying nothing except for a short, terse grunt the grizzled ork tossed Ox'Vulkaa a blade and pointed Ox'Vulkaa in the direction of the Ork detachment with his own blade. From then on Ox'Vulkaa participated as a full member of the warband.

Many years passed, and Ox'Vulkaa was considered with a point of pride among the warband. He was considered an Orkish Wizard. A rarity and a powerful warrior among Ork warbands.

The warband's Chief Blacktooth decided to challenge a much larger, more powerful warband for it's raiding territory, thinking that with his ork wizard he could not lose. Unfortunately the chief was wrong. The enemy had 5 times as many warriors and even when fighting an Ork Wizard found Blacktooth's warband easily defeated. The field was littered with the bodies of dead orks, Ox'Vulkaa's included.

Left for dead, Ox'Vulkaa came to after the victorious warband had long departed. He made his way to the nearest road, where he came upon some traveling elves. All he knew was how to survive, and held no second thoughts about murdering the travelers and using their supplies to survive. He lived this way for months until he came upon a caravan of Irori monks, hauling cargo to the port-town nearby. Upon attacking these monks they revealed themselves to be more than a match for a single half-orc, magic or not. They saw him for the animal he was and decided that instead of killing him like he had so many others, they would teach him instead. They sealed away his powers and had him live with them in Kintargo, where he learned the teachings of the monks. They saw that he would not benefit from the traditional ways of monk's training, but taught him their history, their philosophy, right and wrong, and gave him a new name that would better suit him in a human society. From then on he would be known as 'Oxford', or 'Ox' for short.

During his time with the monks, the other acolytes feared and avoided him. He was often alone and often bore the worst punishments from his instructors since he was slow to learn the ways of the irori monks. However there was one acolyte by the name of Saxon that approached him early on and was not afraid. Saxon approached Oxford and handed him some mint tea, and they became friends. He would often share his food with Oxford, and they would play games. They grew to be even better friends throughout their time together and as Ox's studies progressed, the monks released his magic and allowed him to participate in their martial training. While not being able to fully control his power, due to it's nature; Ox did learn some forms of control.

After Barzellai's rise to power, Ox noticed Saxon's involvement in the politics of the city. Constantly disappearing to take place in protests and other matters, Saxon would be gone for days at a time.  One day, Saxon never came back. Ox decided to investigate. He left the monks with nothing but the clothes he arrived in, one of his first gifts he received from Saxon, and the sword gifted to him by that grizzled ork, many years ago.

Ox knew that Saxon was against Barzellai's mayorship and figured that he probably had something to do with Saxon's disappearance. went about knocking out and interrogating dottari guard. Asking what they knew about Saxon and his whereabouts. After torturing 7 dottari guard throughout the city, he learned of Saxon's involvement with the new rebellion faction the Silver Ravens. He also learned of Saxon's death by the hands of the Dottari under the orders of Thrune.

Upon learning of Saxon's death, Ox was overcome with grief. His only real friend in this life of harship was dead. He murdered the dottari guard he was interrogating and vowed that he would take up the cause of the Silver Ravens in honor of his dead friend, and he also vowed to take his revenge upon Barzellai Thrune.

Now he just needed to find these Silver Ravens.