Part 1:Birth and Childhood
Samuel and Sophia Jarnefeldt, residents of a Desierto village named Nebdoui, were being chased. They had went on a trading mission for their village and were on the return trip when they were ambushed by a group of eight bandits. The Jarnefeldts offered the food they traded for, but the bandits wanted blood. The two fled for their lives, but they were easily chased down by the experienced raiders riding horses bred and trained for endurance. The exhausted Jarnefeldts braced themselves for a violent end, but aid came from an unlikely source.
A pack of desert lions ambushed the bandits, knocking them from their horses and mauling them. After swiftly dispatching the surprised bandits, the lions turned to the Jarnefeldts. A tense staring contest ensued. Suddenly the lions turned and sauntered off without giving the pair a second glance. The puzzled Jarnefeldts did not question it... they reclaimed their goods and finished the return trip to Nebdoui without further incident.
Normally not superstitious people, Samuel and Sophia Jarnefeldt realized that their unexpected rescue was most certainly a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. They vowed to name any children after the beasts who saved them from certain death. Nine months later they made good on the pledge when their son was born. He was named Leonidas. However, he would not be the last of the Jarnefeldt children.
Four years after Leonidas' birth, Sophia was again pregnant. As the child was born, Samuel and Leonidas swore that he could hear a lion roaring in the distance. The Jarnefeldts prepared for another son. They got a daughter instead. The female infant was named Leona.
Samuel remained a trader while Sophia became a village scribe. Leonidas and Leona were educated by their mother and were raised the best she could. The Jarnefeldt children helped care for the village's pack animals and do other chores, but neither of them cared for the work. They wanted to travel far and wide like their father. For years Sophia did everything she could to discourage that longing, but it was in vain.
Seeing the necessity of training them to defend both the village and themselves, Sophia trained them in the village's style of magic called Wind Magic. It was an offensive style that had served the village well through the centuries. The Jarnefeldt children took to it and easily learned the magic.
When Leonidas was 14 and Leona was 10, Nebdoui was beset by bandit raids from a group called the Crimson Sashes. Named for their distinctive attire of black outfits with crimson sashes, the marauders killed indiscriminately and destroyed anything they came across. After a skirmish with Samuel's trading caravan they made Nebdoui a target. The villagers repelled the raids, but over a period of two years the frequent attacks whittled down the village's population from 800 people to 500. Sophia feared for the village and for her family.
In addition to the Crimson Sashes, Nebdoui also had to contend with the difficulties of farming in the desert. Desert farming was difficult even in the best of times. A dry season combined with population loss made for hardship since many of Nebdoui's experienced farmers were killed in the raids or had fled the village in search of a safer living place. When Leona was 12, a particularly devastating famine hit, lasting for six months and carrying off 115 more villagers. To Sophia Jarnefeldt, it seemed like the hand of death was lingering over the village.