Quentin Stillhome was born in a fishing village along the coast, ruled over along with all its neighbors by a strict barony. His parents ran the local slurry, a business he despised the idea of being fated to take over. So when he was old enough, he took to working as the bar boy and stablehand in the local tavern. It was likely equally hard work, but it allowed him to bring a little coin back to his family and at least he could overhear the fish stories and tales of the sea the fishermen would exchange over their mugs, something that always intrigued him.
In his thirteenth year, a man arrived in the bar who was very different then the others who normally stopped in. While he clearly had the look of a sailor about him, it was also obvious that he wasn't a fisherman. The man wore a fine red tunic and pants, and had a dazzling rapier on his belt, it flashed a beautiful silver and its pommel was carved with charging horses that had small rubies for eyes.
The man sat alone in the corner bar enjoying his mead, and it took some time for Quentin to build up the courage to speak to him, and several attempts before the stranger finally agreed to a story, if only to shoo the young man off. He spoke of battling off a pirate's ambush, of being far outnumbered and battling through because he knew it was just. The story seemed almost intended as a joke, something to send the boy away, but when he saw just how rapt his audience was, he began to tell more stories, of battle and travel and adventure.
Quentin listened eagerly long into the night and it wasn't until the innkeep arrived again nearly noon the next day that his entrancement was broken by being chased home so that he would be awake to work the next night. Before he left he begged the stranger if he would be there for further tales that evening, and the man told him he was retiring from the seas and would be staying in the village til the end of his days.
Near dusk Quentin awoke to the sounds of shouting and chanting. He sprung from his bed and tripped over a cloth bundle laying on the ground. Confused by what his parents must have left there, but more concerned with the noises outside he ran out into the village center. A group of the barons guards stood with the stranger strung up lifeless between them. Much of the village stood around, occasionally calling out a curse at the guards but growing silent when attention was turned to them.
Even as Quentin's eyes filled with tears, the guards announced the execution. The man was wanted for piracy and treason to the baron's laws. Even as the guards spoke whispers spread among the peasants that this man was a local legend among the nearby towns, a ghost at sea who played Robin Hood, capturing the baron's ships and secretely leaving coin for those hardest hit by his tyranny. To Quentin, the rumors brought the stories he heard to such greater life. The baron, even with his own laws at his back, was the pirate and this man fought against him as surely as he would against any bandit he saw plundering the defensely. He fought them even knowing that this day would come and that his memory would be tarnished.
Returning home and keeping his sobs muffled so that his parents would not hear, Quentin stumbled as he stepped towards his bed. That package was still there, and he picked it up and half heartedly opened it across his mattress. Within sat the rapier that sat at the strangers hip with a small note bearing the words 'Til the end of my days'.
From that day, Quentin swore that the man's memory and deeds would live on in him, not just in the local villages but across the world. Practicing with his new blade with every free moment, he left the village as soon as he was able, changing his name so that his deeds would never endanger his family.
