Ben’s parents were paupers from Magnimar who, fleeing their debts, stowed away on a trading vessel bound for Korvosa. Laywayed in Sandpoint by a storm, the ship was seized by the churning waters. All were drowned at sea, save one. Ben, merely six years old, was found washed up on shore not far from the little village. He was delivered to the Turandarok Academy where he was raised as an orphan, a ward of the townspeople.
He spent a lot of time playing, then working at the docks. He grew to be an avid pearl diver. Most of all, he loved the open air, the endless blue, and the boundless horizon. He often wonder what lay beyond that line where the world ends.
He took work as a sailor, and took to the sea. There he began to have dreams in which he was speaking to ocean life--fish, dolphins, even an enormous serpentine fish with a rainbow of scales (Ben didn’t realize it at the time, but he was speaking with a suijin kami).
And storms. His dreams grew increasingly dark and tumultuous, reverberating with the basso of distant but nearing thunder. While he was growing up, he saw spirits all around him- entities no one else could perceive, but he had accepted it as real enough.
On his return one year ago, he sought out Madame Mvashti and Koya to help him understand the visions and communicate with these beings. Understanding the power behind his strange gifts, and perhaps sensing the peril in his dreams, they guided him to Shalelu Andosana, the elusive ranger who seemed to haunt the Sanos Forest like an ame-onna.
While Ben’s propensity for magic was beyond her own, Shalelu was instrumental in developing his survival skills, his ability to read the the clouds, wind, and stars, and his understanding of his own place in the natural world.
One day, while out exploring in the Brinestump Marsh, they happened upon a small cave obscured by a boulder. Its entrance had been opened due to a mudslide. But upon entering, they had disturbed the domain of a powerful yurei, a restless spirit consumed by emotional turmoil. The yurei’s bony hand closed around Ben’s throat, and he surely would have suffocated had it not been for Shalelu. She was able to distract the creature just long enough for them to escape the cave and flee back toward civilization.
Today, Ben is older and more experienced, but is perhaps too confident in his own abilities. He believes that sailing on an ocean voyage and surviving the cold grasp of a ghost has prepared him for the worst the world has to offer.
But his dreams are not forgotten, dark clouds that skirt the periphery of his mind, and every stirring of the wind carries with it the distant echo of a rolling thunder.
