Biography of the Trovian farmer Kvathu

 

Birth and Infancy

Kvathu was born in the difkohae of the town’s Grandhall. The exhausted difkoekvta applauded the birth as the town’s only doctor handed Kvathu to his mother, Tolthi. She was exhausted and pale from the labor but joyous of their second son.   Snapshot of Age 0 - A New Child   After a few days, when his mother was healthy enough to bring him home, they returned to the modest dwelling. A large Grand Room was well over three quarters of the house, with three doorways, one for the parents room, one for Kvathu’s brother's room. Eventually his brother, Thurvig, would share the room with Kvathu, and both with the occassional guest. A third door led to a messy space that Kvathu’s grandfather had started when they lived in this home. One day it would become a bathing room, but for now was simple an enclosed closet with unfinished parts.   Until he was older, Kvathu would sleep with his parents, graduating to sleeping with his brother in his early toddler years. It had only, in fact, been a few months since his Thurvig had started sleeping alone himself. The parents didn’t mind, they enjoyed the feeling of their energetic child near them.   His first years were spent with his mother, wrapped in a heavy cloth diaper and a short brown poncho that kept him warm and dry. She would carry him on her back when she went to town to sell off his father’s excess yields from the farm, and would let him wander on the hand-woven fur carpets at home during the winter. When he could start walking, she let him be more autonomous, following her as she caught up on home mending jobs, and let him care for himself as much as possible.  

Toddlerhood and early Childhood

By the time Kvathu turned two, he was sleeping with his older brother in their shared room. Occasionally they would share the room with guests and family from out of town, but they never minded as the room was spacious. They slept on the same mattress on the floor, cushioned by several pillows and blankets. His days were largely the same, waking up and following Thurvig around when he was home, and when his brother was out with their father or at school, he would explore the areas around their mother.   When Kvathu turned four, he left his mother’s side during the day to be taught by the town's teacher. All the children too young to begin their lives were here learning the basics. Since there was only one teacher, she went from child to child and asked them to do some type of project that she believed would be educational. Older children got less attention, but used the clay tablet to practice their script, design, or arithmetic when they did not read some of the easier education books the town was lucky to enjoy.   By the time he could fully walk, he started wearing loose pants and shirts, things that he wouldn’t outgrow too quickly. They were simple and fairly ugly things that his older brother once wore, and that his soon-to-be-born sister would wear too when she grew to his size. The only thing he had that didn’t change was the necklace his grandmother made him with a tooth from a cat his grandpa killed when he was a teen. People rarely dealt with predators and his grandfather was lucky, so it became a lucky memento to Kvathu.   When he was six years old, he was introduced to his new baby sister, Oshna, and was eager to start sharing his room with her and teaching her about the bugs in the shed and where an owl nested. He would constantly talk to her until their mother shooed him to play with Thurvig. It always made him sad, but he would soon be distracted by the next interesting thing.   Snapshot of Age 6 - Grandpa Norvith and the Tree Stalker   When home with his parents, he would sing to his mother's playing of the bakath, a simple 4-string instrument she got from her mother years earlier, or dance as his father, Gurbar, sang folk songs. He would learn them quickly, but usually sang them too energetically. Occasionally he and his siblings would be read to from a book by their father while their mother tried to match mood with melody. Those were his favorite times. If the family wasn’t together, Kvathu would often chase his brother around when he went out with his friends. Kvathu liked the kids his age, but he wanted to be like his brother and the older kids who could do much more. He especially idolized how his brother wanted to be a smith instead of a farmer like their parents, and even would play smith when he wasn’t around, making pretend nails and rods from sticks and logs.   As Kvathu got older, and was better able to keep up, he would go with his father out to the field and spend the day watching him and learning a little here and there. Most of the time he spent exploring the fields nearby and skirting the edges of the wilds or the roads, but he was still too young and afraid to go much further. His brother no longer wished to farm and was taking lessons from the local smith, which worried their father. If Kvathu didn’t take the farm, then the land would be lost from the family which had been with them for five generations. His father had hoped that one day they could buy it, and a secret stash had been collecting coins since his grandfather for just that time.   Kvathu's sister shared the room with them now, and he would quickly find he didn't enjoy it. She kicked in her sleep and would often spin around through the night. He would wake with her feet in his face despite the spacious mattress. He would sometimes steal a few pillows and sleep in a corner, curled up like a shrew. Despite the sleeping pains, he loved his sister and would teach her all the small things that Thurvig taught him when he was her age. They even tried to nurse a fledgling bird together, but it disappeared one day from their hiding hole, and they guessed it grew up and flew away.  

Adolescence

On Kvathu’s twelfth birthday, he was celebrated for beginning his path to manhood. Though it was a minor celebration with only the family and a few visiting relatives, it was considered a major point of his life. The path determined how the rest of his life would look, so he had to make choices. He watched his older brother decide to be a blacksmith, and though he was only fifteen, he had already begun courting a girl from a nearby village when he was on errands for his master.   Kvathu still had morning classes, but now he was expected to get up at first light and head out on his own. After the midday meal, he would go to his father, and they would head out to the field to farm. Over the winter, this usually became hunting or repairs. Most repairs and upgrades happened over the winter when the equipment wasn’t being used, so it was still busy. Sometimes extra coin could be made by repairing other miscellaneous objects that people just didn’t want to repair. It was hard work, but Kvathu enjoyed it, and he found his body growing wiry and strong from it.   Snapshot Age 13 - Bully of Num Pond   He now had his own clothes that he didn’t expect to pass down to his sister, and his own jewelry that he often crafted himself, or was given as a gift or payment. His favorite was a belt he made with his father one winter when the caught a vilkdur in a trap meant for other prey. The normally passive bear needed to be put down, but the pelt was used for many things. He learned how to make his own clothes from his mother as well, who also taught him the basics of cooking and some music on her bakath.   Perhaps the greatest point on his path was when he met a new family that moved into town. An old traveling merchant had to settle down after being attacked by bandits, so he opened a shop in town, buying it from an older man who no longer wanted the responsibility. They had a young girl the age of Kavthu’s sister, but she was pretty and sweet. When he finally had to leave the grathuldu’s teachings to work with his father full time, he began to pick up odd jobs that would send him into town, just to see her. When he turned 16, he asked her father if he could wed her someday. She was 14 and her father told Kvathu that she was too young, that he had two years to prove himself to her. So he did.   Snapshot Age 16 - The Bridal Wagon for Naidri  

Marriage

For 2 years Kavthu had tried to do everything he could to win over his future father-in-law. She, Naidri, was only two years younger than him, which he found perfect. Most everyone else seemed to just be promiscuous with people their own age, and the men married girls much younger than themselves. His brother, who had moved away last year, was 20 and married to a girl of 15. There was almost a decade between his mother and father.   With his father’s permission and help, as well as help from everyone nearby and the towns remuem, he had built a small cottage on the far end of his father’s farm. It was very tiny, only the size of his parent’s sleeping room, and the bedroom wasn’t fully finished, but had the furniture in the central room ready and a special hitch and side door for his bride's wagon. Pride filled him when he looked at it. He had learned several tricks from his brother on making all the metal parts keeping it together, and even worked some over the winter to get parts cheaper. His rugs were made by his father and the blankets by his mother, but he hadn’t slept there yet. What he was most proud of though, was what he kept hidden in a false floorboard in a small locker.   In the locker he hid the necklace he had made for Naidri. While hunting with his father on his 17th winter, he had found a merchant near the road, bleeding in some bushes. He brought him back to town where the doctyor saved him. In thanks, the merchant gave him one of his precious gems he still had, a pearl. The pearl had been painstakingly pressed into some silver he had melted. He etched a traditional wedding design into it, angular petals, and wove a strong thread dyed a deep blue with lighter blue silk strands within. The thread was waxed and waterproof, so he knew it was high quality.   On the day of his last proposal, he had brought his future Father-in-law to the house he helped build to show him the recently finished central room. He smiled and hugged Kvathu, and told him he had earned permission.   Kvathu showed up in the bridal wagon he had crafted himself and painstakingly designed. Naidri's father stood waiting outside, his smile growing as he watched Kvathu pull up. He called Naidri out, watching her face as she lit up at the sight of the wagon. Kvathu promised her that it was her no matter what, and asked if she would like to see something.   he took Naidri to the house he helped build and surprised her both with the sight of the house and the shoulder he had made her. She enthusiastically accepted both, allowing him to place the shoulder over her head, and proudly wearing it. Both parents, nearby and waiting for confirmation, came over to celebrate when Kvathu yelled out that she accepted. That very night, they rushed to the grandhall and was confirmed by the town's mayor. The mayors soon ran the town to declare the new marriage, and many in the town came out for a spontaneous celebration. What they lacked in preparation was made up for in enthusiasm.   Late into the night, Kvathu took Naidri to their bed for the first time. While they were not unfamiliar with each other sexually, knowing that it was their home, and their bed, and not having to fear being found made the experience the best they had known. Sometime in those first couple of weeks, Naidri became pregnant, and the town once more celebrated. For a newly wed to have conceive in the first month of marriage was known as the strongest omen of a happy and fulfilling marriage.  

Adulthood

Soon after Kvathu’s first son, Raru, was born, his father passed away. It was the single hardest moment in his life. They were working the field together, yelling jokes back and forth when his father didn’t respond. Rushing to him, he found him on the ground. To make the dark moment worse, it was harvest time. Kvathu had no time to properly mourn, he had to go to the field and work every single day. As his brow dripped sweat, his eyes gave tears.   Snapshot Age 19 - Gurbar's Final Song   The farms responsibilities came to him after his father's passing. He knew what to do, but he had never worked the fields by himself and spent more time working than he ever remembered. With his father’s death though, the town's mayor gave him an honest deal for the land. With his mother’s permission, they dug up their savings and bought it. The land was theirs. This also meant that Kvathu no longer gave money for taxes, but harvest, and for the first time, began to truly worry about food. If he didn’t make enough, he wouldn’t make money, or worse, they wouldn’t eat.   His wife took good care of their son and two daughters when they had them three years later. Kvathu devoted a small patch of the farm to lithdub vines, which were used to make clothes and other cloth. Naidri was good enough that merchants would buy them from her and sell them across Trova. They would joke that he provided the food, she provided the roof. It was more literal than not, but it was how they managed.   During the winters, Kvathu recycled old machines and worked to touch up their cottage. Five years after his father had passed, he had doubled the size of their central room and added a large bathing room. On his free time, he played the bakoth like his mother, when she wasn’t there to play it herself, and would occasionally go to the taverns to keep up with the towns people he rarely got to see. His life was busy and hard, but it was good.   When his mother passed, he felt empty and hollow, and his sister Oshna, who had not yet married, moved in with them. They kept their old home clean to pass on one day to Kvathu’s own children, whoever married first, but stayed in their own home that was comfortably full. Kvathu and Naidri stayed in the bedroom, and the sleeping room held his three children and sister.   Snapshot Age 34 - Fruits of Love   When his eldest started his path to manhood, he began to take him out and teach him what he had learned of courting. He even found stones so that his son could practice making his own marriage necklace, like Naidri’s, who Kvathu was proud to explain had never needed repairing. In time, his son had began publicly courting a story mongers daughter, who left her family to apprentice in town.   Life continued much the same. Kvathu grew older, his wife too. They welcomed in a fourth child, a son they called Gurbar, but the abundance of family made the caring of the child easy. Raru eventually moved into his grandparents home, his wife Shanee with him, and the girls proved to be full of life and song every night. While Kvathu grew tired, his life grew bright, and a motionful joy led him forward.  

Elderhood

Kvathu’s eldest son helped him with the farm as much as possible, but he was a day dreamer and did not do well on the more repetitive tasks like sowing, so help needed to be hired, which made life difficult and hard when they needed things. His youngest son became a shy man and stayed at home for a long time before their eldest child found him a wife. Their daughter Thashi married a young man early, like Naidri, and asked to move to the next town for marriage, which they allowed, but this only lasted a few years before he was found to be sleeping with a merchants daughter in the field and was exiled from the province. She moved back home after that. Kvani found a strong farming man in the next town over. She visited frequently, soon bringing twin boys of her own.   Raru eventually decided to take on as an apprentice of his wife's father, and traveled all of Trova to share the stories he collected. His wife and childrent went too. It soon became years between seeing him, and it made Kvathu sad and worried for the future of his farm. Property that had been in his family a long time, now officially theirs, and would soon return back to the village. His youngest son helped, and was good at it, but seemed unenthusiastic. The future kept seeming more bleak in fields.   When his youngest son did marry, he moved into a nearby house and began to take the farming more seriously, which was great for Kvathu, who found it harder and harder each season to work the fields. Even his daughter at home, Thashi, started farming too, but she mostly worked with the tratro's and other animals, eventually adding domesticated animals to the farm. Those animals saved the farm, when a wild fire caught their fields, burning most of it to ash. Kvathu feared that is 40 years were too many to fully rebuild the farm, but his son and daughter helped. It only took a few years before they began making coin once more.   Kvathu began to get arthritic by 45 and was having too much difficulty doing the finer details of farming, and was left with much of the brute work, but even this lasted only a few more years before he would become too fatigued and have to rest often. Thashi never left or found anyone, even after her sister remarried after losing her husband to sickness, which saddening Kvathu and Naidri some, but they both enjoyed her company and she took to the bakath well and even learned to sing better than any in town.   Naidri stayed healthy for a long time. It was sometimes a joke in the family that she passed all her ageing on to her husband as she still looked in good health and had most of her hair color where Kvathu had wrinkled and grayed. He would pretend anger but secretly enjoyed it. As his breathing became labored, he hoped his wife would find happiness after him.   Snapshot Age 59 - Goodbye Hike   Three months after he turned 62, Thashi, still unmarried but practically running the farm, led him to the bath room and let him get in for a warm dip. He asked her to sing to him while he enjoyed the warmth. She obliged him, going back to make some tea and milk for him while she sang a sweet song about a young merchants love.   Naidri was away in the market, getting some more herbs for the meal that night, leaving Kvathu and his aching body to rest. He listened to the sweet song that his daughter sang, imaginging him and Naidri as the lovers in the song. He sank low into the water, the steaming brew catching in his breath a bit, but relaxing him all the more. His arms floated up and his head lolled to the side. A faint weakness in him made the effort to keep them down too much. HIs imagination became vivid, like when he was a child. He heard his daughters word, but in his mind, he heard his sweet wife whispering to him under the Lalu branches. He kissed her in his mind, feeling his own real lips curl up. The image faded, and so too did the world. Kvathu passed from the world, but he passed in peace, with love in his heart.   He was taken to the hallowed fields outside town and cremated with the family and some visiting extended family. Despite his hopes, Naidri passed on a few years later, ageing quickly without him. His son Raru returned less frequently after Naidri, making his last visit when he was 40. The daughter Thashi took full ownership of the farm and tended it well, eventually marrying a widower and adopting his two beautiful daughters and having a late child themselves. His daughter Kvani was happy and had plenty of children but they eventually moved on to the Vulbetonik Fkal to make fortune, where they lived well but modest. Their youngest son, Gurbar, tended the farm and lived in his childhood home. He did well, marrying a local girl and sharing with his children everything that Naidri and Kvathu taught them.