Jimmie Hendrake

History
Jimmie Hendrake (originally Branson Smith) grew up in a wealthy merchant family in one of the port cities of the Imperial Empire. His father was a well-known cloth merchant who had trading interests all the way up and down the coast. His parents spared no expense in his upbringing, hiring the best tutors available to teach him in classic areas of logic, poetry, history, geography, music and mathematics. Jimmie, however showed no real interest in his classes but one - musicianship.

He instead spent his time dodging and avoiding his other lessons as much as possible, often hiding in taverns where he would listen with fascination to bards plying their trade there. Inspired by the bards Jimmie undertook up himself to become the bard to end all bards and he had the talent to fit it His musical teacher, Sir Dio Jameson, once remarked that Jimmie was the most gifted lyre player he had ever met.

As Jimmie grew older his parents' patience with his constant antics grew shorter. When Jimmie reached the tender old age of 16 years his parents grew tired of his antics and decideed to arrange a marriage for him with minor noble family nearby. Cersei was the name of the girl he was to be married to, a plain-looking blonde and spoilt nobleman's daughter, the only child of a local baron. The marriage was one of convienience, the baron needed the Hendrake money and the Hendrakes wanted the prestige that came with nobility, Jimmie's mother in particular.

The betrothal continued for some time, the marriage being arranged months in advance, however Jimmie found Cersei to be an idle woman, with no real interest in music and without a personality herself. Their courtship was tenuous at best and terrible at worst, the pair frequently arguing over seemingly small matters - halfway through the betrothal Cersei and Jimmie refused to talk to each for a week over the type of bread the other preferred. Eventually this grew to too much for Jimmie and a mere four days before the wedding itself he took it upon himself to run away and become a travelling musician, a bard. He would travel the world learning stories and perfecting his musicianship.

This was harder than Jimmie first imagined. Not knowing any of the tricks of the trade or how to live the life, Jimmie struggled to make a living at first. He spent weeks living on the charity of strangers and innkeepers, spending his nights sleeping under bridges and scrounging for meals. Eventually another bard, Louis 'Strongarm' Smithson (so named for his massive arms that allowed him to play the trombone successfully) took pity on Jimmie and took it upon him to teach Jimmie the tricks of the trade, not least because he recognised Jimmie's talent and recognized his struggle from his own life.

Five months later and Jimmie had learned enough to survive on his own. Louis parted ways with Jimmie, citing his own need to travel to far and distant places without a sidekick helping him along (unbeknowest to Jimmie, Louis had decided to settle down with a old beau, an innkeeper he had met in a town). He continued on his way, playing his way through towns and cities throughout the Empire. Jumping to9a couple of years later and Jimmie is beginnign to tire of his life. There is little reward in moving from tavern to tavern playing to the same drunkards, different only in personage, each night. After pondering for a while, and with all his travelling Jimmie has had a lot of time to ponder, he decides that what he really wants is some adventure, excitement! Something to spice up his life, bring some interesting stories to tell, ones that he himself may be part of. Having heard of a new and upcoming adventurer's guild called the Order of the Observant Owl he decides to sign up with them. And so his adventures began.