Brennan Orpheus

Brennan Orpheus was an ordinary enough child; he grew up in an ordinary enough family. He studied music and literature, but through both he studied battle. From ancient civilizations to modern tactics, he always had a keen interest in combat and war. He joined up with the army as soon as he was of age, and he excelled. After training, he was launched into a special forces unit as a rifleman. He spent seventeen years running missions with the special forces, helping to put down several rebellions. When an explosion tore up one of his legs, he was placed on forced medical leave until it could properly heal.

It was during this time that he met a woman more beautiful to him than any other. Her name was Cliuna Lethancort, and she was an archeologist he met accidentally when one of her coworkers injured himself at the dig site and was rushed to the hospital. While at the medical facilities, Orpheus not only honed his skills with the ocarina, his favorite musical instrument, he also recoreded journals of his experiences, both in the military and the more trivial details of his life at the hospital. He wrote of Cliuna: "Her dark hair falls from the crown of her slender face to frame her omnipresent smile with an ebony halo. Like an unharmed black alder, the bark of her curls shelters a pure white life in her tender cheeks; but where her heart is opened and revealed, within the brilliant innocence of her eyes, she is darkest in color. Mature in both soul and spirit, that purest of women is also more beautiful in my eyes than the most glorious sights of the most spectacular worlds and machinations of men could be if all were combined into a single item of intense beauty. So vast is my love for her that I have considered abandoning all else for her sake."

But he did not leave the military. She forbade him to do so, believing that he was serving a higher purpose out there than he ever could giving her undue worship. He understood, and departed, but not before they were married. But he received word a week later that she had gone missing within a day after his departure. He feared that she had died in some horrible, lonely manner, and he sought all possible means to receive special leave of absence to find her, but he was refused. It seemed that there was an uprising on a distant world that demanded the presence of him and his unit. That was when, against the protestations of his fellows, he went AWOL.

He avoided the authorities as adeptly as he had enforced them for two years, searching for his beloved. His work eventually led him back to the archeology team she had been working with when he first had met her. The leader, Savio Rune, was apparently dabbling in questionable activities - perhaps involving fabled "dark arts", which allegedly required various sacrifices. Not for a second believing in magic or spirits, Orpheus went to the deep cave where Rune was holed up and he demanded the return of his wife. Rune refused unless Orpheus should provide him some better reason - and promptly had his mercenaries disarm the already weary and broken man. Orpheus, at the end of his rope, played a song he had written for Cliune when they were together, a song he always used to remind himself of her when he felt lonely or weak.

Moved by the love Orpheus showed, Rune promised to release his wife on a single condition: if Orpheus had any physical contact with his wife at all, he would not be allowed to leave with her. Orpheus agreed and began to lead his wife away, without touching her - but when they had nearly escaped the cave, she stumbled on a stone and he reached out to catch her. No sooner had his fingers touched her skin than she disappeared! Orpheus returned to Rune and demanded to know where she was, what had happened to her; Rune refused to answer any questions and had his mercenaries drag Orpheus back to town, kicking and screaming the whole way.

Orpheus was immediately arrested and was quickly tried and convicted on his treasonous actions. His military records were expunged of all merit, he was dishonorably discharged, and he was condemned to spend the rest of his days exiled from his homeworld under pain of death; other worlds in the empire would be accessible to him, but he would never again be allowed on his native soil.

Six years later, Orpheus was approached by a former employee of Rune's, who explained that the man was a scientist who had used Cliune as a model for one of his holographic creations - but by the time Orpheus had found Rune, Cliune had long been dead. It destroyed him to know finally that she was dead. He signed on as a freelance mercenary with any crew that could pay, and he put himself in the line of fire. He began to kill without hesitation and without remorse. His recklessness often left him without work; few crews would be willing to sign on such a foolhardy soldier - but those who did often paid well, because Orpheus, though dangerous to himself and his shipmates, was very, very good at what he did.