Jovalson grew up in the wild River Kingdom lands, son of an up and coming merchant family selling a variety of rare spices imported on ships from various far off lands. During his travels with his father selling goods, he came across a beautiful elven woman, and was smitten at a young age for elves. As he grew older, Jovalson fell in love with a beautiful elf named Hithil that had stopped by his father's store. Despite the warnings from both Jovalson's and Hithil's parents, their love grew as Hithil continued to visit the shop to see Jovalson. Their love grew and Jovlalson converted to worshiping Desna, the goddess many of the elves worshiped. After about 3 years, Jovalson proposed marriage to Hithil, but she wasn't interested in marriage to a human.
Distraught, Jovalson left his family and plunged himself into the clergy of Desna, hoping to meet another beautiful elven woman. In his dreams, Desna shows him an incredibly beautiful elven princess. He knew he was destined to eventually save and marry her, should he please his goddess. One aspect that that kept sticking out was around her neck was a somewhat large silver key that had a unique sparkle quality when held in the moonlight.
After serious training as a cleric, he has moved on, receiving guidance from Desna in his dreams. Following the messages and visions of his dreams, he believed the elven princess was somewhere in Castle Urion, near the border of Numeria, Ustlav and the River Kingdom.
Jovalson went to Castle Urion to preach in the street about the benefits of following dreams. He kept a lookout for any elven woman. While he met a few, none had a silver key around their neck. Growing desperate that perhaps his dreams and Desna had led him astray, walked to the edge of the castle and preached to those coming in. After a week, he had grown disillusioned that his dreams, and Desna, had led him astray.
Finally, a young man was leaving the castle to join another crusade. He told Jovalson that he had listened to him preach about following dreams, and he had a revealing dream that he should join the crusades, and thanked Jovalson for his guidance. Indeed, he wanted to pay Jovalson for his spiritual awakening, and handed him a silver key. THE SILVER KEY?! Jovalson asked him where this key had come from?! It was from his godmother, an elvan woman who had watched over him when he was young, and left that key with him when she left him a few years ago. For some reason, for which he could not explain, he had trouble remembering her name (as if he was magically forbidden from speaking the name), but did provide a description that matched the vision from Jovalson's dream. The young man was unsure where she had gone, but that she had left the key with him, but after his dream to join the crusade, he felt he should give the key to the preacher that inspired him.
Jovalson kept the key, thinking it was his link to the mystery of the elven woman from his dreams. He must find this woman. It is his destiny.
Jovalson had another dream, a great city in Taldor, where the beautiful elven princess went. He assumed it was Oppara. He got aboard a ship to take him to Oppara, the capital of Taldo. Unfortunately, because of bad weather, the ship missed the river entrance to Oppara, and instead took the wrong river. Once the boat reached Sandpoint, the captain realized his mistake, and forced all the passengers off the boat.
