Brent Forrester was born in Melrath and grew up in a large family of seven, with five brothers and one sister. The Forresters owned a family logging business on the banks of Vynmur river, a couple hours outside of Raelia. Brent's father, Derek, had close ties with the House Imair family and did the majority of his business in the city of Raelia.
Shortly following Brent's 12th birthday, there was an accident while felling a tree. It was commonplace for the boys to be helping out Derek. The elder sons were learning to do some of the sawing by now, and young Brent's role was to help the strip the fallen tree of branches. However, through poor timing or miscommunication, when the tree came down Brent was struck hard by one of the branches and the force of the tree crushed his right leg. The family managed to get some help from the local healer, but for the longest while they weren't sure if Brent would ever be able to walk again.
Brent spent several weeks in bed wishing with every fabric of his being that he could just get up and play with the other boys. One day he noticed a piece of charcoal within reach and a scrap bit of wood which he started drawing lines upon. He soon grew fascinated with drawing, mostly out of sheer boredom, and his mother was kind enough to provide some basic supplies to keep him occupied. One of the neighbors came to visit to cheer Brent up and when she was about to leave she told him, "May you have Grandfather's patience." Brent became so frustrated and enraged that he threw a piece of charcoal at her.
But after two full seasons of being bedbound, Ashan came, and with it some feeling and movement in Brent's right leg. It was slow and painful at first, but Brent worked on it every day. There was keen determination in his eyes and he so badly didn't want to let his family down. At the beginning he could only hobble short distances before needing to take a break. Slowly he began to improve his endurance. Having been bedbound for so long at a critical time in his growth meant that he was physically more feeble than his older brothers. Soon it became clear that the distinct limp he had developed was not about to go away anytime soon. Some of his older brothers would tease him and call him "Bent Brent" as he limped along the trails.
Brent found solace in his ability to draw and frequently isolated himself from his brothers to capture the beauty of the woods. He found he felt closer to the spirits when he was alone, but in reality he was just relieved to be away from the teasing and mocking. Rarely was he expected to do the same type of work as his brothers, because even carrying something heavy would quickly tire him out due to the ever constant limp. His brothers resented this 'lack of work' and he felt equally unable to give back.
As time went on, Brent began to find new uses for his drawing ability. Instead of just drawing sketches of the forest or animals, he would start to map out common game trails and identify trees with particular properties or quality. Some areas that were marshy or had mostly saplings were no good for hard wood planks, so he would instead map out where the better trees were and plan out the easiest route to haul them. Even though he wasn't doing any heavy lifting, he was contributing far more than he had before and occasionally he even got a comment or two thanking him for choosing a downhill or flat route to haul the logs.
By the time he was 14, one of the pretty farm girls was passing by on her way to Raelia and Brent eagerly hobbled over to show her the map he had made from the Forrester's to Raelia. She was delighted by detail and little symbols representing the places she knew so well. Even as she was leaving Brent was glowing and he was no longer so afraid of his upcoming Embla for his 15th birthday.
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Brent moved out of his father's house when he 25. Even though he had found ways to support the logging business, he still never felt appreciated in the same way that his older brothers were. Plus it was long overdue to make a name for himself. To his pleasant surprise, his brother Ted, two years older than himself, decided to join Brent in a small house in Alivilda. Ted wanted to set up an offshoot of the family business by constructing various wooden sheds, barns, and simple buildings in the small farming community.
Brent continued to find commissions for maps of the area so that he could continue his work. Clients could be as simple as farmers wishing for an accurate depiction of their land so they could decide how to clear, plant, and irrigate it. Other commissions were more dangerous to plot out mountain trails. Now and then Brent also helped out his brother Ted when a particularly critical piece of framework was going up.
As much as he enjoyed his life in Alivilda, Brent longed to make a name for himself and he couldn't help but look at the soaring arches of Raelia and wonder if his future might lie elsewhere.
