Born into wealth in one of the older noble families of Maelstrom, Amaro Melissan spent his childhood in pampered luxury as his family’s Heir until he was fourteen. At that point Amaro started to separate his views of the world from those of his family and found himself growing deeply unsettled by his people’s tradition of slave ownership and more so with the violent ways in which his uncle and father used their abilities to break prisoners to a life of slavery.

By the time he was fifteen, Amaro found it a great deal harder to hide his displeasure at the tradition and while he never actually voiced his feelings aloud, he found himself falling out of favour with his parents who turned their attention to Amaro’s younger brother, Thom, who was rapidly becoming the image of the boys’ father. However it was not until Amaro was sixteen and an ill-fated adventure in the Maelstrom mountains resulted in Thom’s death that the final breakdown of the Melissan family began in earnest. Suspected of having arranged the death of his favoured brother, Amaro soon found what had once merely annoyed his elders now brought a hail of abuse onto his head as his father and uncle took it upon their selves to break Amaro to the yoke of tradition. Amaro in turn resisted at every opportunity until just before his eighteenth birthday when a desperate attempt to escape lead to Philip Melissan striping his son of all money, titles and wealth and throwing Amaro into the streets.

Penniless and next to defenceless, Amaro hid his Storm sign and headed north into the Wind city of Talen’sul. Using a false name, Amaro managed to find work doing odd jobs for people and chores at the local blacksmith for the next six months until his cousin, Evan, discovered him and exposed the truth. Amaro, accused of murder and fearing for his life, took up his belongings and fled, with the vague plan of hiding in Ilyamen. It was only three days into his journey that he met Talon, rescuing the Wind type from becoming the next meal of one of the monsters that roamed the mountains and finding himself, unwillingly, with a travelling companion.

It would be years later that Talon and Amaro wandered into the dangerous, ever changing city of Flux and met Alethia and Acqua Ronoh, rescuing, at Talon’s insistence, the girls from the prison they’d grown up in. Despite a rocky start, Amaro found himself warming to the spirited and fiery younger girl, Acqua, seeing much of himself in the fourteen year old who, in her own turn, grew to love and respect Amaro as an older brother. Alethia and Talon’s marriage cemented Acqua and Amaro’s own relationship, which in turn drew the attention of Amaro’s uncle to the pair and brought with it the revelations that it had been Mathew Melissan that had chased Alethia and Acqua’s mother into Flux and that Acqua’s new friend, Vortai, was in fact Amaro’s half brother.

NorthenLight36: Now Amaro has once again settled in Talen’sul with Acqua, but the mercenary is always aware and ashamed of his uncle’s actions, having vowed to bring honour back to his family name. Secretly, Amaro is already beginning to undermine his uncle, by having passed on the ring marking the Melissan Heir to Acqua.