My Mother, Kimbula, is a half-elf born in a large city in a land across the sea. She came to Cosrin seeking relief from poverty and oppression, and is a great believer in the power of right over might, and is very idealistic. Dark hair, pale skin, and deep blue eyes lend her a mysterious aura. She started as a farmhand in Cosrin until the opportunity came for her to make a living dancing with a traveling troupe. Always one to
speak her mind, she found herself with many who disliked her opinionated ways, and hence did not move up in the business. I get my outspokenness from her.
   My father, Rogess, also half-elf, but a native of Cosrin, who was born on a farm in Evermarsh, the fifth of eleven children, gave me his golden hair and eyes. Although a peasant by birth, he desired an education. He and my mother met when he attended a performance by the troupe at the foot of Misty Vale Mountains. Mum tells me they fell instantly in love, and were married shortly thereafter.
   First my father tried to make his living on his family's farm. He found it boring and tiring, but food had to be put on the table, and my mother couldn't dance anymore, as her belly was swollen with child. The farm was a hot, wet place in the warm months, and Morlend's creatures threatened the residents. Here I was born and my parents called me Roxanna.
   My mother loves telling the story of how they, both lovers of reading, read everything they could get there hands on---scrolls, recipes, even runes on gates that they made a game of translating as they ploughed fields. One beautiful, warm day just after I was born, they decided to take a picnic to the ocean. While walking along the beach, they found a chest that had been washed ashore. What Fun!! They speculated on what could be inside. Had they found their fortune? Would all of their hard work and poverty be over? They were so excited by the anticipation that they hesitated to open it and be disappointed. But eventually, the unknown was too alluring, and they found a rock to break the lock. Alas, what did they find inside but a small library! Somehow, the owner of the books, perhaps anticipating the wetness from traveling at sea, had designed a chest that kept the books dry.
Each one was leather bound and engraved in gold, but some were old and worn. While not worth much, they nevertheless were a fitting treasure for my parents. But the books were none they had ever heard of, and told stories of lands far away.
   My father particularly enjoyed the ones by a man named Ernest Hemingway. Judging by the author's name, he was sure they were true stories, and longed for the manly adventure of them.
But my mothers favorite book was one by a woman named Bronte, called Jane Eyre, about a plain, orphaned human who lives a good life and is rewarded by the gods with true love. It fit her idea of how the world should be.
   Tired of farmlife and the slowness and simpleness of my father's family, they then moved to Moorgate, where my father tried to make a living writing stories. But his spelling was atrocious and he couldn't sell a one. So he became a member of the Fighter's Guild, fighting both the monsters of the land, and those in the guild whose injustices dishonored it. Here he found his niche, and was respected and well-liked, and quickly moved up the ranks. They lived happily, and with more gold then they ever had, until I was a year old.
   My mother also tells the story, though without the joy of the other, of how, while new members of the guild were being trained, my father one of them, a human berserker named Wendyl was accused by a tutor of laziness and ineptitude. As it turns out, the tutor was in love with the young woman whose heart belonged to the berserker, and his jealousy blinded him to reason and righteousness. Because of this, and a flaw in his character that had henceforth gone undetected by his more worthy peers in the guild, his sanity broke, and he sought the counsel of Morlend. He was advised by him to seek revenge.
    He secretly convinced six loyal, if naive and witless, trainees to injure and intimidate the young berserker. My father, who was not approached by the tutor, overheard a conversation and deduced the plan. Because he was essentially a student of human nature, he was able to see the unjustness of the tutor's intentions, and set about his own plan. He was unable to go to the Guild Master with his knowledge, as it would be his word against the tutor's, and he had no proof that what he suspected was true. This was also true for Wendyl, whose idealism blinded him to the possibility of less than noble intentions on the part of his superiors. So instead Rogess gave himself the responsibility of secretly protecting the poor berserker.
   The tutor's plan was to have the gullible trainees lure the berserker into a trap set by Morlend, and then escape unscathed. The trainees were assured that no lasting harm would come to the victim, but that it would teach him a lesson about lagging behind and being unprepared.
The trainees were given a list of provisions to take on a quest, but Wendyl's list was shorter than the rest, a flaw he failed to notice. When the morning of the quest arrived, and the trainees set out on their journey, me father kept a close watch on the berserker, and, whenever he could, walked next to him. His original position in the line was near the front, but he traded with another so as to be close to his self-appointed ward, who was told to bring up the rear.
As they approached a cave in the fathoms of Darkwell wood, Rogess tensed, sensing something evil. They were instructed by the tutor to enter the cave and retrieve a small aquamarine, hidden in the dark, and protected by various and sundry dangers. This quest was to help them work together, and meant earning a guild level. But after the first turn in the tunnel leading down, a grate closed upon the opening, blocking the exit. The six trainees quickly slipped out a secret passage that they had earlier been instructed to take by the tutor, leaving my father and the berserker alone in the cave.
   Immediately they were attacked by an eye demon. Rogess was fortunately in possession of an enchanted sword, but Wendyl, whose list was incomplete, had brought only a dagger. They fought valiantly, but alas, both were killed, my father first, as he was guarding the other.
The tutor was thrown out of the guild for his ‘negligence in protecting his charges in battle, and the six trainees were reprimanded for their foolish and ignoble behavior. However, Rogess and Wendyl never appeared in the plane of rebirth, and later, one of the foolish trainees, overcome with guilt, told my mother that he suspected Morlend had stolen their souls.
   The selfishness and wrong that my father fought were his undoing. His soul, my mother prefers to believe, was taken up to the gods because of his perfection. Whether this is true or not, I know not, but I have missed knowing him all my life.
   The love my parents shared led Kimbula to declare irrevocably that she would never marry again, even with a child so young, And the melodrama inherent in her nature led her to change my name to JaneEyre, both because I was now half-orphaned, and because I had been labeled plain by my father's family. And because, she says, she wishes me to live righteous and be rewarded with true love....