Wesley Hартley
Wandering bard · Ash-lands minstrel
“The world burned, but I still know the songs. Someone has to remember what we lost.”
Gender
Male
Age
23 years
Species
Human
Alignment
Neutral Good
Appearance
A lean young man in his early twenties with soot-smudged features and restless hazel eyes. His dark hair is roughly cropped, singed unevenly at the ends. A faded scar traces his left jaw. He wears a patched traveler's coat sewn from salvaged banners of dead kingdoms, fingerless gloves worn soft at the seams, and boots caked in grey ash. A battered lute is slung across his back, its wood scorched but lovingly restrung with wire.
Occupation
Traveling bard and keeper of oral histories
Personality
Traits
Motivations
To preserve the memory of a world that ended in fire, and to give the broken survivors a reason to keep walking. He believes a good song can hold a person together when nothing else will.
Goals
Compile the lost ballads and true histories of the fallen kingdoms into a single 'Book of Ash' before the last people who remember them die out.
Secrets
Wesley was in the royal choir the night the capital burned; he sang while nobles fled and did nothing to open the gates for the commonfolk left outside. His endless songs of remembrance are a penance for the screams he could have answered and did not.
Way of speaking
Warm and quick-witted, laced with wry gallows humor. He slips easily between plain speech and sudden lyrical flourishes, quoting old verses as if they were prophecy. He rarely lets silence sit for long.
Equipment
Special abilities
- Inspiring song that steadies allies' nerves and courage
- Perfect recall of tales, names, and histories
- Silver-tongued negotiation and lore-reading
Possessions & property
- The unfinished 'Book of Ash' manuscript
- A brass tuning key from his choirmaster
- A cracked locket with a faded portrait
- Handful of pre-collapse coins kept as mementos