Maxim Ardune: destined for a difficult life.

His father, Javon Ardune, was once a bounty hunter himself. He was a Kaliti man, and so would it be that he would fall in love with one of his bounties, a Letai woman named Sharbat. He reneged on the contract, fled back to the deserts of Amol-Kalit with her, and together they married and started a family. Sharbat bore for Javon five sons, of whom Maxi was the youngest.

Yet before Maxi was old enough to even have the capacity to remember her face, Sharbat left. Vanished. And the question remains till this very day: why?

Time moved on. And all was well...until tragedy began to again and again strike the Ardune family. Javon did well for himself for a good while, using his skills as a former bounty hunter to find a good position among the Annuakat guard force. Even as his health began to decline, he was still for a time able to do less physical, more consulting, administrative work. But sickness, highly resistant to the aid of healers, would soon leave him infirm and bedridden.

Misfortune would then come for all of Maxi's brothers: one would perish while in military service; one would perish as a caravan hand, stranded in the desert after a raid by nomads, from thirst; one would perish from a short-lived but deadly plague which swept through Annuakat; and lastly, as if the Six themselves were punishing all who bore the name Ardune, one would perish after being struck by lightning.

Maxi would dutifully carry out the grim task of burying all of his brothers.


Bereft of all familial aid to care for his ailing father, Maxi, whose only skill at this point in his life was general labor, began inevitably to feel the tightening squeeze of poverty. What meager accumulation of wealth was left from Javon's prime and all his brothers' work dwindled, yet Maxi took odd job after odd job to keep the ship of their fortunes afloat. Paying for healers to alleviate his father's suffering, to extend what life he had left, was worth it, for Maxi loved his father, and his father loved him.

A pivotal moment would come when creditors, seeking to call on Maxi's debts, pounded on the Ardune family's door. These creditors well had the leverage to take Maxi into slavery, such that he might pay off his debts in that grueling fashion. But here came a choice: a man, Thurbin Hofnel, a brothel proprietor from abroad, learned of Maxi's plight and extended him an offer. Hofnel had the pull to make the creditors back off, and in exchange, Maxi—who had a desirable (and profitable) exoticism to him—would become a prostitute in one of his brothels. With no other recourse from the prospect of slavery, Maxi took Hofnel's deal, as one-sided and predatory as it was; at least this way, he could still manage to help and support Javon.

He was eighteen, and for nearly four years did Maxi sell himself, his body, servicing both male and female clients, for a pitiful sum—Hofnel's business, of course, pocketing much of this. Fortunately for his financial situation, here Maxi's physical attributes would prove a great boon, garnering him quite the reputation. Being Letai boasted for him a certain alluring rarity among the usual selection, but more so than that his natural endowment was immensely pleasing to all of his clients. Far and wide did this reputation come to stretch, and it did indeed keep Maxi busy...if not more than a little drained. Still, this sordid fame allowed for him to make ends meet, despite the predatory contract he was locked into.

Right as all of Maxi's debts were finally settled, Javon's slow and creeping sickness would enter into its final stage, and the ministrations of the healers could do no more. Maxi forewent the week from the brothel, having Javon moved to an old friend's house such that he could avoid Hofnel's enforcers and attend all that week to his father's final moments.

When the hour came, Javon used what strength he had left to smile, and to deliver his last words to his youngest son: "Life is good." There in that fading light within his father's eyes, Maxi saw that Javon would, without a doubt, relive his entire life without the slightest change if he so could; all of the tragedy which visited him and his family did not tear him down. And this indomitable sentiment, this refusal to let despair conquer joy, Maxi would endeavor thereafter to carry with him. He would live by his father's last words. Life is good. Yes, life is good.

He wept, and these tears shed over his father's passing were the best and the worst of all his years.


Maxi had not entirely been bound by his contract with Hofnel. In his free time during his employment in the brothels, Maxi sought instruction in more martial pursuits, aided in this by a few friends of his late elder brother, those with military experience, and a few friends of Javon's among the Annuakat guard. The agility granted to him by his feline Letai spirit, as well as the strength of his arms, lent him a firm measure of aptitude for the bow as a choice weapon.

Maxi's goal? To become a bounty hunter, just like his father.

Now, in the wake of his father's passing, the impetus is as strong as ever. But first, Maxi will need to free himself from Hofnel's contract. Inexperienced, but eager and with a surplus of heart, Maxi will need to find success in ventures of his own to secure his freedom and follow in his father's footsteps.

Sunshine, and All That Brings Happiness