Lark Fletcher

"Nothing good ever happens to second sons."

Short, with closely cropped brown hair and lilac eyes. He wears the simple robe of a monk and fiddles nervously with prayer beads around his wrist.

Lark takes his second name from Joseph Fletcher, a rotund and tired old smith who brought his entire family from their homeland to seek a better future for himself and his young wife. Not long after they arrived, Joseph’s beloved wife Anna gave birth to a gaunt and mischievous son who warranted his name, Lark.

By the time Lark was old enough to learn his father’s trade, however, it became obvious that Joseph was not his father. His ears came to fine points, his eyes were a vibrant lilac and his long hair seemed to move of its own volition. Joseph took a cold iron knife to his son’s hair, hacking it off, and then abandoned him at the gates of a cloister where he hoped Lark would spend the rest of his life.

Lark spent five years at the cloister, learning the prayers that welcome the gods and copying out the sacred tomes of the faith. Yet the life of a monk was not to be for Lark either. He took to his lessons and the manual labour in the fields, but one night he was caught perusing a thick tome on demonology that the monks kept to better understand the forces of evil they faced. Lark barely had time to collect his meagre possessions and steal the book before he was hounded out of the monastery and ordered never to return.

Though his father would sooner die than speak to him, Lark knows his mother would welcome him back – or treasure news of his life. He also carries the pendant of a fellow half-elf orphan at the monastery, a girl he wooed earnestly and ashamedly – but he doesn’t want her to suffer on his behalf.

Finally, Father Sinjin, the priest of his humble village – Greyhaven – has not learned of Lark’s expulsion and welcomes him as a brother.

Lark also learned a dreadful truth about the clergy during his time in the cloister – a secret he dare not share.

Habits from the Cloister

Though not one of the faithful, Lark picked up several habits from his time in the cloister.

  • He speaks the death rites for corpses he discovers.
  • He rubs his prayer beads when nervous.
  • He sleeps comfortably on the hardest of ground.
  • He wakes early to prepare a plain breakfast.
  • He unconsciously quotes dogma when faced with moral decisions.
  • He organises his day strictly into hours of work, rest and leisure.