Raynar Thrul

Raynar was born on 21st of Marpenoth, 1356 in the metropolis of Bezantur, Thay to Odessa Aslani, a highly placed acolyte of Zulkir Mythrella, mistress of the Mektep of Illusion. At the time, the beautiful Odessa was known to have taken many lovers, so the identity of the boy's father was a matter of great gossip and speculation in the idle social circles of pre-Flass Bezantur. It was a mystery that would remain unresolved for many years, until after the Thayan Civil War and the banishment of the Red Wizards by the newly risen Empress Flass when paternity was finally claimed by the powerful Tharchion of Surthay, Homen Odesseiron, shortly before his assassination at the (presumed) hands of agents of the powerful Thayan Empress in Unthalass in 1378.

Raised within the walls of the Illusionist's compound that surrounded Mythrella's Serpent Tower in Bezantur, the young Raynar was tutored by servants of his mother in the scholar's arts. His childhood was privileged by any standard, being housed in the suites of the Zulkir's apprentices with his mother and her servants. His status as the boy of one of Mythrella's most highly placed acolytes granted him virtually limitless wealth and comfort, though it was a deeply lonely life. As a child, he was virtually raised by constant rotation of house slaves and paid servants who disciplined and tutored him, but were barred from showing him any large amount of affection due to the great divide between the Red Wizards and the people over whom they ruled. His mother's duties as an agent of Zulkir of Illusion often caused her to be absent for tendays or months at a time, and in the small amount of time allocated between his constant studies he was left to his own devices. A quiet, but intellectually precocious child, Raynar spent this time wandering the compound, discovering the secret passageways by which the servants flitted about the Zulkir's palace, creating a map of the labrynthine complex in his head, an eidetic memory ability he would, in his later life, use to great advantage. In his solitary wanderings about the palace, his lonliness eventually caused him to feed his imagination, creating a menagerie of close friends, dark villains, and heroic adventures in his own mind, an entire world of adventure that he named Illumar.

In Illumar, he was a valiant knight, or a powerful wizard, or even a dragon-in-disguise. He was able to ride across the limitless plains that he could only see as a line on the horizon beyond the city walls from the highest crenellations of the Serpent Tower. He was able to sail across the blue-brown water of the stinking harbor of the city, to the southern lands of Pharaohs and animal-headed gods. His tutors deeply discouraged the journals he kept of his adventurers in Illumar, populated as they were by thinly disguised pastiches of the powerful Red Wizards, worrying teachers, dangerous Thayan Knights, and self-important ambassadors he witnessed every day from the unique and ignored vantage point of a child. Matters, to their minds, became worse with the arrival of Jalal.

In 1362, Odessa Aslani was dispatched on a particularly long assignment to the southern Realms. She would eventually be gone from her villa for over a year. It was during this long stretch that the six-year-old Raynar met Jalal Hassani. Three months into the absence of Odessa, Raynar was discovered missing from his rooms by his morning valet. As unexplained disappearances were no rare event for the precocious and headstrong child, a routine search of the complex was undertaken. A bodyguard soon discovered young Raynar and another boy, Jalal Hassani, playing at defending the complex from a siege of gnolls atop the northern battlements. Though finding Raynar not abed was not unusual, the appearance of the dark-haired Mulan boy Jalal in the secured compound was a matter of some alarm. While feeding and questioning the two boys over breakfast, it was determined that Jalal Hassan was the son of a wealthy spice trader to Shou Lung who lived some blocks away from the Serpent Tower. Apparently, he had entered the palace compound through a postern-door lazily left open. The two boys were soon separated, the young merchant's son being escorted to the gates and sent home and Raynar being returned to his lesson plan.

As the days passed, Raynar became more and more distracted and stubborn during his lessons. Eventually, he disappeared from his quarters again, only to again be discovered by a guard in the Zulkir's wine cellar, adventuring in "Illumar" with the young Jalal Hassani. Again, the two boys were reprimanded and questioned, and again the young merchant's boy was turned out of the Zulkir's palace compound. Not two days passed and the boys were again discovered running through the halls of the servants quarters. As tendays turned into months, the boys soon drove the villa guardians and his caretakers to distraction. No matter how many times the boy was evicted from the villa, no matter how many guards were put on the detail to keep Raynar on his tasks, time and again the two boys would be found playing at the exploration of the school and compound. For over half a year Raynar and Jalal led the guards of House Aslani on a merry game of cat and mouse, until finally, in the winter of 1363, Raynar's mother returned.

It didn't take long for the boy's tutors and guardians brought their concerns over Raynar's stubborn and infuriating distraction with this boy Jalal to his mother, worried that the child was focusing his attentions on foolish nonsense. Odessa listened to her servants' complaints with great attention. After greeting her son from her long absence, she secreted herself away by her Art and crept into the boy's apartments. There, she discovered, to her lack of surprise, the two boys were telling each outher stories at a time of night when any normal child should be sound asleep. She realized, with a profound sense of satisfaction, that the boy Jalal Hassan was nothing more than a figment of her son's imagination made so real it confounded the attention of over thirty of her house servants for more than 6 months. The next day was the beginning of Raynar's first apprenticeship in the Art.