Scorne

Scorne began his life in a family-run newspaper office. (Yes, dragons can print newspapers. Why ever not?) Though he was usually too lazy to read, he loved the feel and sound of fresh ink on paper.

Unfortunately, when his father skipped out of the scene, his frustrated mother gave up on the printing and put the business in the hands of the adolescent Scorne. As he had a terrible head for business, he drained his coffers dry within a month and tried to attract more attention by adding free toads to the newspapers.

This, it turned out, was not too big a hit. Customers were largely unimpressed by the concept of finding a slimy, croaking toad wrapped up inside their daily papers. Soon Scorne started to receive angry knocks on the door, mostly from customers but also several from a very distraught courier beleaguered with sixty pounds of toads in the mail. Since he really didn’t want to take care of five dozen toads, he turned them loose on the Sundial Terrace.

That was an even worse decision. One morning, fed up with toads invading his meditations, a priest sneaked up behind Scorne (as he was busy releasing another dozen toads) and dealt him such a smack on the back of the head that he was sent clean through the window of the blacksmith down the street. When he came to, he was covered in soot with no idea how he got there or who he was.

To all outside sources, he just vanished into thin air. In reality, the blacksmith, who was a friendly dragon, taught him how to make and wield weapons of his own. This trade agreed much better with Scorne, who soon moved on to become a warrior for the blacksmith’s clan.