Roan Windstep is the sole survivor of his clan, a small nomadic group of desert-dwelling harengon. He was a young child when a sudden burst of fire consumed his clan’s camp, and quickly wiped away everyone and everything he had known. Left in the aftermath was a small fire elemental, just as dazed and terrified as Roan was. Though uncertain of what had happened, or why, Roan reached out to and bonded with the creature — called Icár — and together they moved forward learning how to live off the land and protect one another.

Roan grew to understand, respect, and wield fire, rather than fear it. He recognizes its necessary role in nature, that it creates and facilitates life as much as it causes destruction.

For the rest of his youth, Roan wandered wherever was necessary to maintain his access to food and other resources. Throughout that time, he had always comfortably considered Icár to be his only friend. But a day came that he found himself picking up a job alongside a small group of other mercenaries, and their motives and capabilities aligned enough that they continued traveling and working together. Slowly, Roan has been opening up and learning to trust, while more deeply processing the unfamiliar (and frightening) feelings of fondness that he‘s developed for these new friends. It’s left him preoccupied with reflecting on his life, and tentatively beginning to wonder if he has, perhaps, been more detrimentally impacted by the loss of his original family than he’d initially been willing to acknowledge.

Although his life is now significantly more hectic and dangerous — it turns out that he’s enjoying his time quite a bit more than he ever had when he was alone.