Ander is a 24 year old paladin of Torm from the far away city of Tantras. There, as a young teen, he and his family were all devotees of Torm during the zealous time of his faithful. Alas, the Time of Troubles came with the evils of Bane to that city along with their own God who saw the faith of his followers so corrupted. Over the course of those cataclysmic events of the Time of Troubles, Torm did fight Bane but required a great sacrifice of his faithful in order to defeat him. Those faithful who were wrong in their faith, too, wished to repent by aiding to this sacrifice to which Torm accepted. Ander, however, the tender age of 13 was unable to join his older brother, mother, and his father as Torm decreed none under the age of 14 could take upon them such a sacrifice. The talk, too, Ander was not privy to speak nor even to look upon the knight who martialed the Guard against Zhentil Keep's invasion that others were whispering was Torm. The events happened quickly, and it was not long until Ander was simply in a temple throughout the siege in prayer.
As the coming battle between these two figures Ander had only been hearing about began, his family joined him there with a knowing smile as them and others were praying for Torm's victory. Ander began to see the bodies of his fellow Tormish vanishing into silhouettes of light, unable to maintain prayer he turned to his older brother who knelt by his mother and father as they 3 vanished before him as well. Ander, now alone in the room with the other children curled onto the stone floor and weeped - his tears only joined by the sounds of the other children in the room along with him.
The battle of the banites of Zhentil Keep and The Guard of Tantras slowly came to a close. A man middle aged, bald of head with great beard and single eye, a member of the Guard, came to the temple wearing battered half plate. He would round the children up to join him through the ruined city streets. Tens of thousands were dead throughout the city or vanished like Ander's family. Where others of what became known as the Martyr's Progeny were some resentful, others were equally as fervent in their desire to pay back to their God, Torm, what they could not give at a young age. Ander settled into a large stone structure where many of these martyr's progeny would come to stay. In the year to follow, at the temple of Torm's coming, a knightly order would squire many of these young faithful of Torm - The Order of the Golden Lion. Ander joined without hesitation.
His youth was fraught with an eagerness to fulfill Torm's new Penance of Duty that had been rumored to Ander to have come from Torm himself. Much of Ander's zeal needed to be met with the stern hands of his masters to whom over the years he would become more humble in his devotion of as he grew in age, understanding the precepts of Torm's Code better. The time in The Vast, however, was not meant to be forever for he or many of his brothers-in-arms. The nature of Torm's penance bid them far and wide, and Ander set his sight on the lands of intrigue - believing that the machinations of the followers of Bane & Cyric might reside there to whom he holds the greatest disdain for their role played in the death of his family and thousands of his fellow Tantrans.
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