Arlo Withers

Arlo is a half-breed. A man who has been inflicted with the worst disease a man of Breeston can have. Hope.
  He was born in 2111 of the Minoan Calendar in the Horn Ward. His mother was Nuhrish, a refugee who escaped the many wars in her homeland. She was bought from her father at 15 and never saw him again.
  A Breeston-born garment merchant purchased her indentured servitude with hopes of marrying her.
  She was comely, and he was stricken with a face sullied with pockmarks. The pair married and did indeed love each other. His father made enough from his business to afford Arlo an education, something nine out of every Breeston youth lacks.
  Unfortunately, Arlo lost his mother at age ten to a fever, and his father, from grief, succumbed to consumption after his sixteenth birthday. The lad was often mocked for being a half-breed, born with hair the color of copper and thick brows nesting over intense hazel eyes. His skin always looked flush, and he kept a face that never relaxed, fixed with a permanent frown that intimidated most commoners at first glance.
  A neighbor had pity on the lad. A constable named Felix Troupe took Arlo under his wing and got him appointed as a scribe of the courts. Felix was a young bailiff there and mentored Arlo until he turned nineteen and took a sergeant position in the Horn Ward.
  Arlo was disgruntled with the bribes and thought extorting commoners for petty crimes to avoid the courts was a root issue of the hatred upon constables.
  He was eventually promoted to lead sergeant in the Old Street ward, the highest position behind the captain in his late twenties. He learned good and bad things from his previous captain, Winston Shavers, a bastard of a Guild member from the Childers family.
  The good was how to treat and get respect through fear from his men, and the bad was always being suspectable to bribes and favors if it gained you down the road.
  Arlo was appointed as Captain when Winston was found stabbed in the inn called the Yellow Frog. The previous captain had several prostitutes held in fear of imprisonment if they kept him satisfied. He was killed by one in an act of vengeance for sending her brother to the courts to work the mines.
  That was five years ago, and trying to keep order in the city with limited resources and corrupted men made his task nearly impossible. He is always praying to the Gods for hope and pandering to the Chamberlain, Drew Vickards, for more funds.
  He loves Breeston, despises the Guild, and begrudgingly holds contempt for his fellow men of position. He feels he is a hypocrite as nothing has changed during his tenure, even though he vowed to make a difference.
  Arlo is appointed by Bitters, the captain of the Hayston militia, to watch over Harwin and Edmund Parsons when they arrive. He didn't ask for the task but took it on a promise of favors when the high lord would attend the autumn Guild meetings.
  If he can keep the orphans alive and out of trouble. He will earn support from Hayston and hopefully an ear to his grievances from the Guild. When he first saw the orphans, it was the following day after the Yellow Ravens murdered a Nuhrish man in Butcher's Wail.
  When he heard from Sully Nickles that the orphans were on a cog headed north. He quickly sent a courier south to Bitters to inform them of the dire news.