Oren, Tavik & Bran
High in the Sentinel Forest, where the slopes of the Emaris Mountain are thick with pine and shadow, three brothers keep the memory of their father’s farm alive. Once, their family raised herds of sturdy forest pigs, beasts prized for their resilience and strength. But when their father died, the herd was reduced, and the brothers were left to shoulder the weight of survival together.
They are young still:
Oren eighteen, Tavik seventeen, Bran fifteen: yet grief has aged them, and the bond between them is tempered like iron in the forge.
Oren - The Eldest
Oren bears the mantle of responsibility with a gravity beyond his years. Since their father’s death, he has been the man of the house, protector of his brothers, and the one who must weigh caution against necessity. Tall and strong, he matches Tavik’s muscle with his own, though his strength lies as much in resolve as in endurance.
• Nature: Steadfast, protective, quietly burdened.
• Symbolism: He is the shield of the brothers, the one who stands between them and the world’s sharp edges.
• Presence: His silence carries authority; his watchfulness is a comfort to those who walk beside him.
Tavik - The Middle Brother
Tavik is fire and sinew, the most muscular of the three, his body honed by years of hunting with the clansmen of the forest. Where Oren is measured, Tavik is restless, his endurance carrying him further than most. It was his skill with bow and spear that kept his brothers fed in the lean months after their father’s passing.
• Nature: Fierce, loyal, quick to act.
• Symbolism: He is the spear, the one who strikes first, who tests the path ahead.
• Presence: His laughter is sharp, his temper sharper, yet beneath both lies a loyalty that burns unquenchable.
Bran - The Youngest
Bran is the river among them, attuned to the natural world in ways his brothers are not. He notices the small things: the shift of a bird’s wing, the scent of herbs on the wind, the way frost patterns the bark of trees. It was Bran who first befriended Nix, when he was only five years old and Nix four, a friendship born in secret at the forest’s edge. Later, it was Bran who began to study with Yilda, the healer of Drakkensund, after meeting her on market days when the brothers sold their pigs.
• Nature: Perceptive, gentle, quietly wise.
• Symbolism: He is the thread, binding his brothers together, softening Oren’s gravity and tempering Tavik’s fire.
• Presence: His curiosity and openness draw others in, even those who live in shadow.
Rumour and Legacy
The brothers’ mother died giving birth to Bran, leaving them only with their father’s stories to remember her by. Some whisper she was of elvish blood, though the brothers themselves bear no such traits. The rumour has only recently reached them, carried by their friend Nix, and lingers like mist—half-believed, half-dismissed.
Their father’s death, when Oren was but sixteen, left them raw with grief, yet it also bound them closer. Together they embody the triad of stone, fire, and river: Oren the shield, Tavik the spear, Bran the thread.
The Brothers’ Place in the Saga
Though young, the three carry the weight of both loss and legacy. They are sons of the Sentinel Forest, heirs to a farmstead carved from shadow and soil, and companions to Nix, whose own story winds darkly through theirs. In them lies the promise of resilience: three lives shaped by grief, yet bound by loyalty, each one incomplete without the others.