As a child, I had little to want for and in truth desired little. I knew of the state of things. My brother, Wilhiem, would recieve the orchard and all the land. Oh I could have had a share if I had asked, but I was young. I did not think of such things. Instead, I focused on my teachings at the monastary and those summer trips to visit the noble and help my father and brother deliever the promised shipments. We were always invited to stay for a week or so, and I would hide in the library or speak with the private tutors. It was also the only chance I had to read the fantasies that so seldom made it to smaller libraries or beyond the bard's tales.

But oh how I loved those tales of bravery and knighthood. And the stories from the Holy Lands mystified and enthralled me. When I was 14, I took my name and my horse and traveled to the nearest priory of the Temple. It was a surprise to my parents and my friends. After all, the Germans typically joined the Teutonic Knights. But I wanted that white mantle. It was the epitomy of knighthood and Christianity in my eyes. The ideal still is.

And so I joined the Templar. My claim to title and the fact that I brought a horse with me allowed be to begin training as a knight. I was soon shipped to the Holy Lands by my request where I joined my brothers on the front lines. I always seemed to be rather fortunate during the battles I was in, but my first major battle was not until the battle for Acre. It was the last great battle in the Holy Lands. The final stand against the Mameluke Turks who had swept through the Middle East.

I was captured during that battle. Luckily it was by the Damascuns. The Templars and Damascus often found each other on the same side of arguements to do with the kingdoms outside of Jerusalem, and they held much respect for the Templar, more so than the Turks who were relatively new to the lands and held little regard for anyone besides their fellow Turks.

I spent several years in a Muslim prison. Templar Rule forbid me from being ransomed and the only hope would be either escape or a prisoner exchange. But news from the west offered little hope. After the fall of Acre, the Holy Lands seemed completely lost to the Christians and there was no new call to crusade. Instead, the news reached us even in the prisons that the Pope had called the Grand Master to appear before him, and condemed the Order. Our guards took great pleasure in telling us how we were no longer the champions of Christiandom and that even our own faith now looked down on us.

It was another year before I was able to escape the prison camp. I have not spoken of or thought about the experience since than, the only reminder I have being a back scarred by the lash. I left the Holy Lands, traveling carefully north. I knew that I could not return home. Though the news I recieved along the road told me that outside of France, there was little support for the trials, I was still shamed and shamed my family. Better for them to think that I died fighting the enemy than to see me return in shame.

And so my steps carried me around many lands. I kept my white mantle, though was unable to wear it until I arrived in the Kingdom of the Golden Eagle and one of the first places of peace I have known since I left my home. But this kingdom was not to last and I was soon on a lonely path again until I found Solurius.

It has taken a long time, and I fear that I may have come across as stiff and formal, but it is all that I had known for so long. It has taken me a long time to bury the Rule that had governed my life for many years. It is still difficult, and I am merely a simple man who embraces a way of living. Perhaps I shall throw myself into the life the rogue. Religion has failed me too much for one to continue with it, and yet I find myself constantly trapt by it. It is inescapable at this moment, keeping me from moving forward, or perhaps holding me back from a cliff. I cannot tell at this time.

The noble was true to his word. A large amount of men arrived in the village and before long, the land was cleared, the vines delivered and planted, and the harvest begun. The noble even helped to provide a few men experianced in the production of wine to assist and encouraged the establishment of a monestary in the area. After all, at that time, the monks were the only ones to hold the receipes for the best wines and ales as they were the only ones who could restrain themselves from partaking too much in the drinking of the product. And my family, true to our word, always sent the best to the noble's house.

As the time passed, the noble's family and my own continued to speak with each other. The friendship deepened. Often, the lord at the time would come to visit the vineyard, or send their children there for a summer to experiance "a commoner's work" and better appreciate those with whom served them. We were also invited to spend time with them up at their manor where access to their library was opened.

Then Friedrich Barbosa, the great red haired emperor, answered the call to the new Crusade. He pledged the force of Germany and was true to his word. 100,000 men, an almost impossible number to imagine, answered his call. Again, my family answered, as did our lord. Wilhiem left the vineyard to follow. The army never made it to the Holy Lands. Friedrich died of diesease shortly after leaving Constantinople, and lord and servent returned home as the army broke up. After all, they had left to follow their emperor.

Wilhiem spent the remainder of the year with the noble. Winter had come early that year and trapt him at the family's manor. It was there that Wilhiem met Gertrude. She was the lord's sister and a pretty little thing. Wilhiem and Gertrude spent much time together over the next few months and fell deeply in love.

While pretty, Gerturde was not what would be called beautiful, and she was not exceptionally bright, being rather simple of mind. She was kind, but was of little value to the family for political marriages. In fact, until she met Wilhiem, she was actually on her way to the convent. The noble consented to Wilhiem's request to marry her and the two were wed as soon as Wilhiem arrived home.

This granted our family a minor nobility. Though it was extremely minor, holding no real political bearing or power, it was enough to grant me the admission to the Temple as a knight. It is interesting how the mysteries of God work at times.

I grew up in a small village just on the German side of the border with France, but it was my family's. My forefather and namesake, Hans, had answered Pope Urban's call. The local lord, like so many in the region, had ties to the French courts, and one of his sons had spent some time at the University in Paris. It was this son who, most likely in an attempt to impress his French friends or perhaps it was genuine Christian devotion, prepared to leave as a knight for the Crusading army. Hans decided to follow the lord's son. Of course, while the lord controled a relatively large area, it was small in population and a majority of those in the German courts did not have the urge to follow their French bretheren, and so general support was limited among the population. This placed my forefather in a unique position as one of the few to follow the local lord. He was one of five actually to take up the cross from our area. And of those five who pledged, he was the only one to leave with the son.

Being the only one to go meant that he became the young noble's sergeant by default. But also being the only one from near home, he and the noble soon became friends. It was that noble who taught Hans to read, ride, fight, and various other skills. As with most cases, God's plan proved to have an interesting twist at that point, for during the battle for Jerusalem, Hans actually save the noble's life after two Saraceans dehorsed him.

After the fall of Jerusalem, the young lord felt he had completed his part of the quest. Most of the lands were already spoken for by the more powerful lords and the area was still full of Frankish knights and warriors. The lord had made his pilgramige, rescued the Holy Land from the infidels, and was ready to go home. Ever the loyal friend and servent, Hans returned with him.

When they reached the young noble's manor, the young man stopped Hans from slipping into the stables to take care of the horses and gear so that he could begin his way back home. Instead, the young man insisted that Hans join him and his family for the feast that was to be preparred the next evening in honor of the son's safe return. Though anxious to once again be back in the simple life of his village, Hans would not refuse the request of his superior.

I can only imagine the level of discomfort my forefather must have felt at that dinner, for though he was there as the guest of the honoree, he was still a commoner, in no possesstion of his own lands, and only at the level of the servants who were serving. At best, he must have seen himself more as one of the guards for that was all his job was to do during those few years of travel, guard the young noble. He was recieved well, however, by the crowd and even more so after the young man recounted some of the stories of the battles they took part in. How Hans was a stout and brave man who killed many of the infidels and even saved the young noble when death should have surely been upon him.

The noble's mother was especially grateful to Hans, for though the young man was not her oldest son, he was in fact her youngest. The woman held the same affinity for her baby boy that all mothers have. She insisted that he remain with them, that he would be given a special office befitting one who was so brave and devoted. The lord of the land, however, was a shrewd and calculating business man. While some of the other guests listened with mild interest to Hans talk about his village, the furtile black soil that surrounded it, and the farms that dotted the clearings, his mind was working.

After the dinner, the lord called Hans and his son into his study for final drink for the night and to discuss Hans' options. Of course, he agreed with his wife in that Hans deserved to be rewarded, and his son would not think of this man who was the only one from their lands to follow him, followed him faithfully, walking away empty handed. The lord asked what it was Hans desired to be his reward, though he had a pretty good idea from the sound of longing in Hans' voice as he spoke of home earlier in the evening. That was all that Hans asked for, to return home. The lord's mind was hoping for this and glad his guess was right. The village Hans came from did not produce any real exports. It generated almost no tax income. It was for all intents and purposes useless to the lord for anything beyond conscripts.

The lord agreed to allow Hans to return to his village, though when Hans returned, it would be his village. The lord was going to give the land to Hans and Hans' children. In addition, the lord was going to provide Hans with men to clear some of the woods back, opening up more land for agriculture, more specifically the growing of grapes and production of wine. The land had plenty of room to support it, the soil and climate was suitable, and it would add an export item for the noble. Hans did not know of or even consider that there was a hidden monetary objective behind the lord's offer. He merely saw a generous gift which he gladly accepted, pleadging that once production began, the noble and his family would be provided with five of the finest batches of that season.

That is how my family came to own the land that they still live on and tend to.