Only the strong are worthy to survive. This is the lesson that had been ingrained in Ederet since he was a child.
However, strength comes in many forms.
Ederet was born within the Khanates of Ethengar, a land dedicated to communal strength and complete freedom. These ideals seem very brutal to the outside world, with even rape, murder, and looting of enemies being acceptable and with the strongest having complete control over the dispensation of herds and farmland. However, to the people of these lands, such a thing is simply how life is and, perhaps, how it should be.
Ederet was 'lucky' to have a different path chosen for him. At the young age of ten, Ederet lived with his mother and father on their farm near the edge of the Sea of Grass. Two wandering bandits attacked the farm and killed his father and mother, taking the farmhouse as their own. Ederet hid in the basement and waited until the bandits were asleep before sneaking up and crushing their throats.
Seeing this as proof of a great inner strength and dedication to the ideals of Cretia, the local Khan selected Ederet to train among the Ten Thousand Fists of the Khan, a secretive order created to infiltrate the possible enemies of his deity.
His first master, a man known as Shir Heshang, taught him the basics of his martial style, one which often employed grapples, trips, and stunning blows. It also emphasized the power of a simple quarterstaff, when used to devastating effect. Shir taught many other things to Ederet as well, such as how to disguise one's steps, to appear weak, or to ride among the plains.
After years of training under one master, he was deemed to begin his mission, and was sent to Karameikos to gain an understanding of the order that had been established there.
To start his journey, he traveled to Hillforge to train under the powerful dwarven monk Kelgar Ironfist. He was an apt pupil, though his master wasn't too keen at first to train a "dirty inbred Khan-son Barbarian back-stabber," as Kelgar first called him. His training consisted far too often of trying to knock out the drunken dwarf while dodging mugs of ale, but it did seem to pay off.
After a year or so of training, Ederet left, sure that he was ready now for his adventure. He had, at least, reduced Kelgar's insults to "dirty Barbarian."
