Ozzimor (CoS Ozzi)

His mother, Mildred Underwoode, was a simple peasant woman. She lived alone in a southern Hamlet called Littlehollow where she was a washerwoman, cleaning clothes for the locals.
Littlehollow was a hamlet that sprung up around a mine. The mine was set into one of the hills of the area and produced nickel, iron and sulphur.

The fields above ground were weakened by the mining. Heavy metals and chemicals leached into the soil, making many crop harvests small or even barren, except for the hardiest of plants. This meant that the hamlet relied heavily upon local trade routes for their food.
One such trade route came to the hamlet with travellers, not an unusual event, but this time one of the travellers caught Mildred’s eye. A young man named Oscar Buckley was among the bunch. He was a charming flirt, and Mildred was besotted with his handsome looks and pretty words.
The group stayed for a couple of weeks to trade and resupply. During this time Oscar and Mildred quickly became lovers.
Unfortunately, while Mildred was under the impression that she’d found a husband, Oscar had no such plans. When the caravan moved on, he left with it- off to his next adventure, leaving Mildred behind.
Mildred was heartbroken. She felt naïve and used. She picked up the pieces and resignedly went back to her work…but something was wrong.
A few weeks after Oscar had left, Mildred realised that he’d left something behind: Mildred was pregnant.

Unmarried, poor, and now expecting another mouth to feed, Mildred’s prospects had plummeted even further.
In desperation, she went to speak to the local landholder Lord Jarl von Ulrich, asking for aid.
Von Ulrich had little interest in Mildred’s plight but allowed her access into his homestead for duplicitous purposes; he saw himself as a budding philanderer. 

Mildred had no interest in the fancies of the lord, but during his attempts to woo the young lady, he bragged about his rare collections of forbidden tomes. Mildred sensed a new opportunity.
As the Lord slept, she sneaked into the library. For once, the Lord’s braggartry held water: there were indeed books of a dark nature. With trepidation but determined, Mildred swiped the only one written in common and hid it amongst her meagre possessions.

Later on, finally alone, she was ready to make a dark pact.
Tallow candles, a cup of salt, a handful of sulphur from the mine, an intricately drawn chalk circle and the blood of a freshly slaughtered lamb. The unorthodox ingredients Mildred gathered to summon a solution to her dire situation.
It was a success. Mildred forged a deal with a devil.
The creature agreed, but at a cost: Mildred’s soul, and her motherly love, though the child was not to be harmed. This deal would come into effect after the birth.

Seven anxious months later, Mildred bore her child.
As she gazed upon the baby, she was shocked.
The child was not human. 

Then shock turned into bitter revulsion. Her maternal love and affection trickled away helplessly like water from cupped hands, the grasping fee of the devil.
The wicked pact had affected the child in the womb: he was now forever tainted by Mildred’s deed. Whole and unharmed, as the devil had promised, but clearly half-fiend. 
As the new mother grimaced at her plight, a messenger arrived for her: Von Ulrich was dead, and without family, had for some reason left all his wealth to her. The contract had a few…stipulations, but the jist of it was clear: Mildred was rich.

Mildred was changed after that day, and not for the better.
The once timid and mild-mannered woman became heartless and sneering. Her caring nature became selfish and egotistical, and coin soon became her only love.

Ozzi was a shy child. Being the only “odd one out” in a small hamlet made him an easy target for bullies. Ozzi ended up learning how to stick to the shadows to avoid people and to hide from bullies.

His mother’s newfound wealth did not trickle down to him, for she guarded it jealously like a dragon guards its golden hoard, only begrudgingly allowing Ozzi the barest necessities to survive: her windfall had come with provisos, most importantly, including that she must keep her son alive.

However, Ozzi was hungry for knowledge. He longed for the normality of learning and schooling but could not join his better-off peers without paying the fees.
Instead, he hung around with the urchins, learning from them. They were a cheerful lot, but chaotic and feral. Ozzi learnt that he had to keep his guard up unless he wanted to lose what little he had scrounged up.
This group were a poor influence on Ozzi’s behaviour. They pressured and cajoled him, urging him to join them in pickpocketing and other petty crimes. Ozzi was nervous.
Eventually, Ozzi grew bold and managed to lift some coin from his mother’s purse without her noticing. Emboldened by this success, he joined the other unfortunates and regularly began to thieve.
Finally, he could go to school.

Ozzi was a studious learner and loved to read poetry. Unfortunately, this also made him a target of bullies. Ozzi would often have to find secret nooks and crannies that allowed him to read in peace. He also kept a journal in which he would write his own poetry, which he guarded with his life.

His closest friend was a boy named Randall.

He also made some friends amongst the children of the merchants and travellers. One such group took pity on the ragged child and taught him how to keep his unruly curls in check. Ozzi took to this with great joy, and some newfound pride of his appearance.
He also learnt of make-up and face paints, which he would experiment with, and later use to bolster his confidence.

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Ozzi continued with the thieving as his main income: Ozzi wasn’t able to work down the mine due to his slight frame, and the miners showed a superstitious distrust of seeing a demonic creature in the depths of the earth, and other employers were similarly suspicious of him.

As he grew a bit older, he found that he had some natural charm and charisma.
With some coin in his pocket, he found he could win more friends: better clothes and flashing cash as well as some minor gambling.
He learnt how to use his wiles, and occasionally even just plain cheat.

Sometimes he would get into brawls and barfights: over gambling, drinking or simply because someone didn’t like the look of him. He quickly learnt how to be nimble and dodge blows. One day he was a bit too slow, and a swipe with a broken bottle took a jagged slice out of his right shoulder.

Ozzi usually avoided stealing from locals, “you don’t shit where you eat”, instead aiming for the merchants and traders that regularly passed by. However, sometimes pride, cockiness or just plain desperation played a hand.
Along with this newfound boldness had come arrogance. This led to Ozzi taking greater risks.

One fateful day, he got careless. He attempted to rob to the house of one of his childhood tormentors, but was caught red-handed. An alarm was sounded, townsfolk rushed to apprehend him, and he was overpowered.

Ozzimor was brought in chains before the highest power, the local landowner for judgement…none other than his own mother.

His mother sneered at him with contempt. She claimed she knew he was no good, from the moment he was born. Harsh words were swapped, voices raised, and tempers flared.

Furious, Mildred ordered the guards give no quarter, and Ozzi was punished harshly: lashed a dozen times and left to bleed until the next day.

Finally, he was cut down and patched up: him mother still needed him alive, after all.
He fell into a fever for some days, despite the balm applied to his wounds. 

Once he had recovered, he bitterly swore to leave this wretched place. 

He carefully, frugally saved up coin after coin. Eventually he had enough to travel and joined a caravan heading North.
He hardly dared to hope, but surely, anywhere was better than this.