Thane is an exemplary swordsman. His knowledge of the blade is unmatched. When he was a younger man, and still had both of his arms, he would stride about the sparring grounds with an imperious look, head held high and a constantly bemused expression. He possessed a preternatural ability to detect and identify weaknesses the moment he looked at a man holding a weapon. He was the best. The only problem was, he knew it. Thane succumbed to the age-old enemy of the greats. Hubris. He began placing himself in more and more danger when out fighting. He began to believe that there didn’t exist an opponent who could best him.

It was a Mauler, a high-ranking one, that did it. Thane found the thing’s weaknesses but it moved too fast for him to exploit them. Its hammer caught him on his off arm, pulverizing the bone beneath the crumpled armor, and nearly tearing it from his body with intense downward force. He went down, and had it not been for the timely intervention of Sir Baden Rayne, the head of the house, he would have certainly been killed. Rayne fought bravely but he too proved no match for the vortex of violence that was the mauler. He was killed almost instantly with a crushing blow to his breastplate. Caught up in battle, the Mauler never bothered finishing off the wounded Thane, and after the battle he was carried back to the encampment. The arm was removed, there being too much damage for any of those present to hope to help.

He knew that had it not been for Lord Rayne, he would have never survived. He made a vow to himself then. He would continue to serve their house, to the best of his ability, until his debt was repaid. He became castellan for castle Rayne, training up men-at-arms, constantly reviewing and instructing the combat readiness of the soldiers that served under their banner, commissioning castle defenses… He had adapted surprisingly fast to life with only one arm.

When the remaining Rayne men died off in one tragic battle, he began to see a determined look on the youngest child, an energetic young girl who somehow resembled her father in manner and expression, and had his eyes. When she approached Thane about training for knighthood, he smiled. House Rayne may yet have a chance, and if the path of House Rayne someday leads Thane back to the beast that took his arm, all the better.

“Duty isn’t an arm or a leg. You can’t lose it in battle.”