How Alfraed of Rohan came north

[Alfraed]

To say that Alfraed is of Rohan is, technically-speaking, correct. But whether he is trully of Rohan is debateable.

Firstly, Alfraed was, and is, an albino, with not a shred of melanin to his name: an ill omen indeed, as the Shaman sagely observed. This marked him from birth as a child that the tribe would need to be wary of. Being so sensitive to the sun, Alfraed was unable to ride out much in the bright of the day with the other boys and girls. He entertained himself instead in his musings and dreams, and raised subjects and questions on the nature of beasts, man, gods and spirits that made the tribe, and even the Shaman, ill-at-ease with him.

But the tribe could just about accept this quirk. "Perhaps he'll grow up to be a fine shaman himself one day", they hoped. Everyone knows that the mightiest shamans are often the strangest. But what happened to Alfraed then was beyond anything that a tribe of Rohan could accept. At the still-tender age of ten, Alfraed fell off his mount and, cnce his bones had mended, no amount of coaxing and cajoling would get him back into the saddle. Finally, he was hauled, kicking and screaming, to the guilty mare and forceably tied into it: 'Immersion therapy' said the Shaman, as he struck the horse's rump with his staff, propelling it into a gallop with the wailing albino child clinging white-knuckled to her mane.

Needless to say, the Shaman's cure' achieved nothing of the sort; in fact the opposite. Alfaed suffered (literally) nightmares after that experience. The merest proximity of a horse would put him into a cold sweat. This was clearly a big problem for a Rohan. So much so, that Alfraed was sent off to a distant relative in the town of Archet far, far to the north. This resolved both the practical problem of accomodating a hippophobe in a horse tribe, and helped get keep the tribe free from the taint of strange pigmentation. It did not cure Alfraed of his fear of horses, though. Although he no longer quakes at the sight of one, to this day he has yet to remount.

OOC: My real name is Keir. I am a forty-year-old Brit, living in Bahrain with my wife and three sons. I am a D&D veteral of old, saddened by the fact that everyone else around me in real life seems to have grown out of it. So I now RP on-line and look forward to my kids eventually growing into the original dice-rolling RPGing.

[Markiel]

I hope Alfraeds relationship with horses is cured, when it is/was time to buy a horse. And farming may not be the best profession for You Because You not love the sun.

Frigga Asynjur, an Outcast too

[Alfraed]

Lets all wish Alfraed all the best in overcoming his demons in good time.

And haven't you seen the size of his hat?

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