Let me tell ye a tale, laddy, about a elven man from the distant lands of Varisia, born and lost in the city of Riddleport. In a place like that, a boy must become a man quickly, and doubly so for a long lived elf. The Forlorn elf had his work cut out for him, especially with the lack of a parent - his Calistrian 'priestess' mother perished after having her throat slit by an unruly brigand unwilling to pay for services. This left the poor sod under the care of the House of the Silken Veil, where he spent three decades as a male prostitute himself - a young and pretty elf was always in demand, no matter the gender.
Eventually, he would tire of this - not because he didn't enjoy his work, but because he watched as the women who replaced his own mother grow so much older and weaker. Girls who were new now were matronly figures in the church, while he had barely changed since starting. Figuring that there was a better life out in the open waters, he signed on as a cabin boy to the Riddleport ship 'Sea Otter', a protected merchant vessel - at least, it would have been, had it not shirked the dues it owed Riddleport's Overlord. The elf soon found himself embroiled in battle as pirates raided the ship - taking up arms, he managed to slay one pirate with a boarding axe before being cocked over the head and knocked out.
As luck had it, though, the captain of the vessel, the tiefling Daria, had been a frequent visitor to him when he was an easy lad, and recognized him. Sparing his life in exchange for service on her ship (As well as some more personal service) the elf because much more acquainted with piracy as a crew of the 'Chimera's Rage'. He learned to work with his fellow crewmates, his keen eyes picking out a vulnerable target and calling it out. Rigging, piloting, manning ballista - he learned all of a sailor's trade, while honing his own skills in battle whenever they raided - though he never got to board, merely defend. Daria didn't want her favorite pet to get himself killed.
After a decade there, there was finally a bit of trouble that they couldn't get out of - a Cheliaxian pirate hunter ship caught and sank the vessel, only Daria, her first mate, and the elf picked up floating in the wreckage. Surprisingly, the captain told the officer of the hunter ship he was only a slave indentured to her - he was allowed to live, though his captain and her first mate were imprisoned for the crimes of piracy - he later heard a rumor that she escaped before facing the gallows. Thus began two decades of the poor sod working on the pirate hunter as a slave, smiling and waiting, biding his time - he had a great deal of time to do so, to make his escape. He found his chance during an assault on another pirate ship, slipping away on a dinghy when a fog cloud spell concealed the view, managing to make it past the horizon before it ended. With all the goods he managed to smuggle with him, he headed south, towards the Shackles to make a new life for himself.
Unforunately for him, his tiny boat sprung a leak on him, and he was forced ashore on a deserted island. Without tools to repair the dinghy, he was stranded for an near undeterminable amount of time - there was just enough fresh water and edible vegetation on the mile wide piece of land for him to survive, spending it in abject isolation, until a passing ship spotted his colored streamers for aid and picked him up, bringing him to Port Peril. Now he's more than happy to spend a little time celebrating before seeking out a ship to crew on - or he would have, if not for being knocked out cold and dragged off while watching the moonlit waves...
