Social Rank: 9
Concept: a Bit of a Bard
Fealty: Grayson
Family: Hillock
Gender: male
Marital Status: single
Age: 33
Birthday: 04/01
Religion: Pantheon
Vocation: Merchant
Height: average height
Hair Color: dark blond
Eye Color: golden hazel
Skintone: tanned fair

Description: A man who has coasted through life as much on his good looks as his wits, Simon makes up for what he lacks in height and bulk with a much more elusive (but no less impressive) presence. His textured baritone voice can fill a room as effortlessly as it invites the listener to join in with his smooth laughter, and his easy grin and crystal clear eyes lend his obviously broken nose an approachable charm. He'd be almost TOO handsome with perfectly symmetrical features, wouldn't he?

Personality: Simon is a self-made man - which means, unfortunately, he's not yet made all that much of himself. He's the sort of guy that drinks on the silver of 'friends' he only sees in pubs, regaling them with stories of his childhood, his travels, his adventures with his mercenary company, and any number of exaggerated and unbelievable circumstances his mouth has gotten him into (or out of). How true any of these stories are is not only up for debate, but entirely beside the point, if one asks Simon. He's personable and friendly, and compassionate enough to prefer nonviolent solutions whenever possible - whether it's by persuasion, compromise, manipulation or blackmail. Whatever keeps the party from ending in bloodshed and jail hangovers, it's got Simon's vote.

Background: Simon's gift has always been the ability to tell the right story. When he was young, growing up an orphan inside the Tragedy in the Lower Boroughs, he remembers being able to weave a compelling story to the other children about who his parents might have been, great heroes in the Tor-Southport war that were tragically lost, that won the respect and admiration of other children and thus saved himself from surly bullies. As a young adult, he was known as Simon the Beggar Author in the Lower Boroughs, for his ability to tell the most heartwarming and sympathetic tales to the more fortunate, so they might give some coin. What started as a way to survive quickly became something else, as he saw it as an entertaining challenge and his start as a true entertainer. It also became second nature to stretch the truth for what would make for a better tale, and before he knew it he was making a comfortable trade as a merchant in haggling and bartering, enjoying the give and take and well respected lies at the bazaar of Arx, and started to travel as a trader. And his ship was promptly attacked by pirates, and he was kidnapped by Grazagh the Incoherent, the Abandoned Chieftain of the Deeptides clan.

Simon was the sole survivor of the attack, as day after day, he was able to forestall his execution by telling another amusing tale that delighted Grazagh and his cutthroats. After a month of captivity, Simon realized one night that someone was spying their camp, and he distracted all the Abandoned with a rousing tale, which in turn let an entirely different band of pirates attack with an element of surprise, and led to his rescue at the hands of Bonnie Shepherd, a dashing pirate who also quickly became a fan of Simon's work, and became fast friends. She, looking to get out of the pirating business, started a sellsail mercenary and sometimes adventuring company with Simon and some friends and family called the Valiant Effort. It has been, as Simon would say, a long story.

And yet more turns keep coming. After some time as an adventuring company, with Simon taking his hand at being a true author and detailing their work, his good friends' estranged father apparent was posthumously ennobled and left a duchy to them. Not one to miss a good story, Simon followed them to Arx without a second thought.