Gram Pyrel

 

General Information

 

Description

 

Tall, broad-shouldered, bearlike. Has a shock of curly red hair and a beard to match. Has a slight limp in one leg, which he can usually ignore

 

History

Gram was born to the Pyrel family in Skyrim, a line of Nords with a proud history reaching back to the First Era, right before the snake men took over the Empire on Tamriel. Gram's grandfather had saved his village from an orc war party, discovering the fabled Coffer of King Orgnum to save his village, and Gram's father, while never reaching the same level of fame as his own father, was nonetheless a respected warrior who had many glorious victories to his name, including a victory over a Flame Monarch, which he slew single-handed and bound into his claymore to create the sword Flametongue. With this rich family history, it was expected that Gram would follow in his ancestor's footsteps and continue the Pyrel legacy of heroism.

 

Indeed, Gram could scarecely wait to strike out and make his name in the world, studying the arts of warfare under his fathers and uncles. However, Gram's father, a stern and uncompromising man, never felt satisfied with Gram's mastery of weapons and fighting; he always extolled Gram to push harder, claiming that Gram was nowhere near the level needed to live up to the Pyrel name. Though he tried to live up to his father's expectations, the two men quarelled constantly, and at the age of seventeen, Gram simplytook up his sword and axe and left his father's house, vowing never to return until he had proven to his father that he was indeed a Pyrel.

 

Gram's early years as a wandering adventurer were marked by ill fortune; what money he made in his adventures was either lost quickly or else spent on mead and women, and having built up unreasonable expectations Gram was disappointed that his initial efforts did not garner him any true fame. He was, in fact, making a name for himself as a lazy layabout who gave empty boasts when he wnadered into the village of Hafgasnar, and met Mista, a charming blond-haired vision of beauty. Gram had never felt for a woman like he did for Mista, and the young Nordic maid was at the time quarelling with her own controlling father, acause with which Gram could sympathesize. The two fell passionately in love and, over Mista's father's protestations and threats of disowning his daughter, were wed.

 

Sadly, while both Gram and Mista had passion, neither was truly ready for the trails of married life. Gram was never one for mundane work, and kept trying to find adventure to support his wife. Mista, far less ready for the outside world, and disowned by her father, tried to make ends meet as best she could, especially when their first child, Loranna, was born. However, Mista had few skills and Gram spent most of his time away, growing ever more desperate to succeed both to support his family and to prove his father wrong. Looking to his family's successes for inspiration, Gram sought the Coffer of King Orgnum, convinced that the riches inside would support Mista and Loranna as they both deserved.

 

Things came to a head when Loranna was four, after Gram had spent several long, lonely years searching unsuccesfully for the Coffer. Returning home after yet another failed expidition, with little to show for his time away, Gram discovered that his wife's latest pregnancy had ended in a stillbirth, and she had snapped, treating the corpse of his stillborn son as though it were alive. Angered and horrified, Gram declared that his daughter would not be raised by a madwoman and dragged Loranna away, intent on raising her himself.

 

It was an overall bad decision. Gram could barely look after himself, let alone a young daughter. Loranna spent the next few years of her life on the run from monsters on the road, or else waiting for Gram to return from whatever adventure he went on in whatever tavern he left her in. Weighed down by grief and the crushing weight of failure, Gram himself finally went mad when Loranna turned twelve, and never came back from his last adventure, wandering from place to place and muttering about the fanciful victories he had attained, claiming to be a great warrior and hero and violently striking anyone who said otherwise.

 

Yet, even in his madness, Gram was still a Pyrel. Though insanity had caused him to forget his daughter, and to lose whatever wealth he found as soon as he got it, he never stopped trying to live up to his family's legacy, and even as a madman, he still, somehow, survived the dangerous places he kept wandering into.

 

Eventually, Gram was discovered by Loranna in Solitude, while she was possessed by Azura, and the meeting brought back painful memories for the young Nordic woman but she at least saw her father act bravely to save someone's life. The events in Solitude also marked the beginning of Gram's return to sanity after many long years of madness, eventually leading him to the company of a Skaal holy man who had himself taken to wandering the world. His mind restored, Gram and the Skaal both became minor heroes in southern Cyrodiil during the Blue Dawn, where Gram showed that he was still a fierce and dangerous warrior. From there, Gram wandered Tamriel again for a time, eventually heading to Solstheim, where he learned of a lich's tower and set out to explore it and defeat the lich therein.

 

Instead of finding a lich, however, he found his daughter, come looking for him after fifteen years of seperation. And since that time, Gram has become the second most heroic Pyrel in the history of the family, a fact he no longer minds, for he can look upon the first with fatherly pride.

 

 

 

Interests

Gram is a warrior, most comfortable with fighting with axes, swords, and shields, though he can use any weapon proficiently. He favors heavy armor and an agressively defensive style of fighting, taunting his foes into striking at him and then capitalizing on their mistakes to land crushing blows. He can take damage all day long and his preferred weapons let him ply the role of the tank with great effecincy.

 

Gram has, through the years, become skilled in the arts of survival in the various climates of Tamriel, and like many solitary warriors knows a thing or two about repairing his armor and weapons and keeping his belly full. He is fond of drinking and can often be found in a tavern, wooing some comely maiden or recounting one of his many stories of his or his family's adventures, for to Gram the deeds of a hero are more precious than any gold or gems, and a hero's wealth is measured by his fame. He has, though, vowed to avoid getting into anybar brawls in his daughter's city, not wanting to embarrass her.

 

Gram remains nearly as terrible a father as he's always been, though he has at least shown a willingness to try and offer his daughter emotional support. For the most part though, Gram finds it much, much easier to deal with his daughter now that she can provide for herself and has a husband to look after her as well, and he looks forward to the time when he can be a grandfather to Loranna's children, for grandfathers ever have it easier than fathers.

 

Current Events:

 

Gram spent the Oblivion Crisis defending Ald Raathim from the hordes of Daedra, leading several succesful excursions into the Oblivion Gates and earning even more Daedra-slaying related nicknames for himself. When the Great Chief of Skyrim kidnapped a girl he thought to be Princess Rinnala, Gram volunteered to go rescue her alongside many other heroes, and had the honor of making the pilgramage up the seven thousand stairs to Fjerdevinden, a feat he had always wished to accomplish someday. Currently, Gram helps his daughter with her ventures by doing what he does best, fighting alongside Loranna's friends in exotic lands and reminding the world that a man of fifty can still be a force to be reckoned with.

 

---

 

To Character Equipment - Gram Pyrel

To Table of Character Equipment

To Table of Characters