Alastair's Story

Alistair was the first born child to Katarina and John Alabaster. His mother, Katarina Alabaster, a white dragonborn, was an adventurer that had traveled all over Termine. When she met John, a blue dragonborn who made instruments in the small northern town of Winterforge, she fell in love. She finally had a reason to settle down. Even though Alistair had a loving family, he often felt sad, and he couldn’t understand why. Not always, of course. He was happy when his dad taught him how to play the violin and when they’d play together. He was happy when his mom taught him to fight. He was happy singing and dancing and exploring the northern woods. He was overjoyed when he became a big brother, and his parents had their second child, Sky. It was in the quiet moments, when he was alone in his room late at night, or when he had to run his dad’s shop by himself and he had no customers, or when he was out in the woods on a cold, dark night, it was at these times when that sadness would creep up on him. For a while, he had no idea why. He felt sad, alone, an unexplained sense of dread. He felt like something wasn’t quite right, like he needed to do something else with his life. He felt trapped and helpless and hopeless, like no matter how happy he ever felt, that sadness would find him again and it would never get better. He was 15 when he finally cracked. A 10 year old Sky found him sobbing in the woods and he couldn’t tell her why, because he himself didn’t know. His young sister hugged him for a while before taking him back home. When he told his parents about this unexplained sadness that had plagued him his whole life, they exchanged glances, knowing exactly what it was. They explained to young Alistair that, like his mother, he suffered from a bad case of Depression. When Katarina was young, she left her home and traveled the world to rid herself of that empty feeling that Depression often causes, and she did! She made lifelong friends and memories in her travels, but she never found what she was truly looking for until she met John. Now that Alistair knew what had been haunting him his entire life, he began to combat it. He began exploring more, finding peace and freedom in the endless woods. He spent more time with his family, finding comfort in them. He began talking to customers who came to his father’s shop, making good conversations and learning what he can. He learned ways to handle his Depression and was handling it better than he ever had, but something was still wrong. He didn’t really feel right in Winterforge. Of course, he loved his family more than anything, but he still felt, trapped. He had never left his small hometown and this bothered him. There was an incredible world out there to see, adventures to be had, people to meet. And he was just staying up in a town in the mountains getting nowhere. He still felt trapped, isolated, like he was missing out on something, and when these feelings dominated his mind, he felt that dreaded hopelessness again. He had to leave, he just had to. It was his sister who finally convinced him to go. She knew how miserable he was, and the only thing keeping him from leaving was his family. “You’re like mom, but a little different,” she told him, “She needed to settle down. You need to go and see the world. If you don’t, you’ll just lose yourself in this tiny town you don’t feel at home at.” “But I won’t have you.” he protested. “Yes you will!” she says, “It’s not like letters don’t exist! And you won’t be gone forever. You can always come back.” He spent all night in the woods that night, considering what to do. He made his decision when he saw the sun rise through the the few flurries flying in the air. He saw the sun light up all of Termine that he could see from the mountain woods, and he went back down to his home. He left that night with one of the wagons that shipped supplies to Winterforge. He said a tearful goodbye to his mother, father and sister. He took his violin, his staff, and his snow owl griffin, Snowball, and he left the town for the first time in his life.