Ploughshare

Ploughshare was made in the middle of the war. They were at the line when the Daughters of Sora Kell invaded Droaam in 986. They were on the front through the entire retreat to the Greywall Mountains. After King Boronel sealed the pass, they’d had enough. They ran. They ran as far and as fast as they could. They found a family somewhere in Shalavant that was willing to hide them, let them work on the farm in exchange for cover. Lots of families there held objectors, forged who had run from the fighting. In 950, Shalavant got a visit from Breland National Watch with orders to search the city, arrest anyone caught with “stolen military equipment” and return all units to the field. Ploughshare doesn’t know if the people who took them in survived, but whatever happened because they showed them kindness, and the guilt of not knowing eats at them, but they don’t even know where to look. So much of those memories are a haze of dread, terror, and flashbacks. They had a daughter, and the daughter told them stories of St. Meighan, stories she’d heard from her grand-aunt, stories of a lone soul that fled a terrible war in ancient past, a war that consumed all who fought in it in a raging conflagration. And when the war was over, or so the story went, St. Meighan was one of the first to return home, and she taught those who survived to bend their swords to ploughshares to rebuild. Ploughshare took the name from those stories, in honor of the stories of St. Meighan. When they embraced that idea, when they took that name, their heart lightened and the weight of guilt and grief and shame lifted. They knew they could take their tools of war and turn them to shields for others.   Ploughshare is eager to help, but they’re… well, they’re not really doing that great. They felt the pull that brought them to the Everglow two years ago, and that was the lightest they’d felt in years. And they got their new body! And it’s been amazing and really, they can’t thank anyone in the Everglow enough. But, well, the world outside the Everglow needed them to spread the world of St. Meighan, didn’t it? And then they got back outside and the old despair set in pretty hard. And then suddenly they couldn’t find their way back; the Everglow was gone behind them, like it hadn’t been there at all. But they a new body, and a new name and a new face! And they had all the old problems and all the old despair.   Most of Sharn’s economy — really, most of Khorvaire’s economy — works on patronage. There’s a few wealthy old families who hoard most of the wealth of Khorvaire, and most of those are either the heads of the Dragonmarked Guilds, or they’re the few good ones in the public eye trying to do the right thing like Kaius III. His whole family’s been fighting evil for three generations! But, well, we all know there’s no Foundries left, thanks to the treaty with the Cannith at the end of the war. We’re all we’ve got, at least for now. So, it’s either become a patron of the Forged, or attract the eye of someone inclined to take a risk. And that’s without the whole pacificism thing on top of it. But… they just can’t. They just can’t.   So, they’ve been floundering a bit. There isn’t much call for a bodyguard that’s sworn an oath of pacifism, except among the Skyways elite as a show-model. They did that a few times, but… not again. So they’re making do with their art and their music, as they can. They haven’t got much money, and they haven’t got much hope. But that’s going to change, now that Milli and Medya are here. They’re Blessed of St. Meighan! They’ve got to keep up appearances! Prove they’re worthwhile! And, well, there’s plenty of work for a crew, but not so much for a single forged who can’t lift a blade.   They’ve got some ideas about patrons they could approach to try to attract some attention, but they’d need to get an audience among some of the House Elites. Ploughshare’s heard a few rumors here and there about things that get them through the front doors of a few buildings. They tried hitting up the Watch for guard rotations, but that doesn’t pay very well and the company isn’t very pleasant. House Cannith policy is to not deal with the forged if they can help it—they would like to part ways from their progeny lest they be accused of refusing to release control—but Baron Merrix d’Cannith is always open to helping forged; Ploughshare thinks they feels guilty, and he’d love to help, but most of their requests require trips to the Mournlands, it’s dangerous to go there alone, forged or not. The Sharn Council sometimes has public works jobs, but those are rare, and most of those involve really menial drudgery. They could try going to the Cogs to find work down there. Both Tharashk and Medeni offer jobs, though those will often take people outside the walls. and Morgrave University can get letters of mark for almost every ancient ruin to explore nearby sites of interest, but that’ll take getting in at the University and that will take making friends.