The Introduction of Joseph Halloran

This is Joseph Halloran's backstory. This will give readers the background information they need to know to have background on his motives and quest.

Joseph Halloran is a half-sea elf. He was born on the Isle of Hahnjoch (pronounced hahn-yoH) to Isobel and Moses Rohben. Isobel was a sea elf and a native of the isle, and Moses was a human sailor. On the brink of death from a shipwreck, Moses washed ashore and was found by Isobel, who nursed him back to health. Once healthy, he fell in love and asked for her hand in marriage, and she accepted. He integrated as best he could to the sea-elf lifestyle, and they were very happy. 

The Isle of Hahnjoch is an isle of fishers �" the men sail ships and scout the deep seas to dive for prized and difficult beasts, and the women stay near the coast to harvest smaller, more reliable fare. This lifestyle suited Isobel and Moses swimmingly, and very shortly after their marriage, Isobel found herself with child (this would later become Joseph). When Joseph was still in his mother's womb, his father Moses left on a voyage to slay a kraken of mythical proportions. His young wife begged him not to go, but he insisted �" his share of earnings from such a haul would be enough for the budding family to purchase a proper home. She eventually relented, but little did anyone know that his voyage was doomed from the start. The ship left the island's shores with all of Hahnjoch's able-bodied men aboard it, and the kraken took it to the bottom of the sea. The Hanjoch native men used their ability to breathe underwater and superior swimming speed to return to the isle �" it was a laborious trek, but they did eventually return. There was only one casualty among the whole group �" Moses. He was taken to the bottom of the sea by the kraken, and, being human, he drowned. 

When the men and the news of their voyage reached Hahnjoch, Isobel retreated into isolation �" without Moses, she was devastated. Only the thought of their unborn child kept her going. Eventually, he was born �" a happy, healthy baby boy. He closely resembled his father, and she named him Joseph. But once Joseph was born, Isobel couldn't help but feel resentment toward the child. If it weren't for him, her husband would never have left on that accursed ship, and their family might still be intact. She tried for a while to hide her resentment of her child �" a jolly, singing thing that had charmed everyone else in the village. She would bring him with her to the diving shores �" he and the other small children would stay on the shore with the more elderly folks of the island keeping watch over them while the able-bodied women would dive for fish both to sell and to eat. The young Joseph had found his voice at an early age, and he was constantly singing or babbling some tune or nonsense. Being the child of a human and a sea elf, he was blessed with incredible lung capacity which resulted in a sonorous voice that could reach an incredible volume with ease �" the first siren the isle had seen in centuries. Isobel paid him no mind, but the grannies loved to hear the little boy sing. 

One day, Joseph was singing a bard's song he'd picked up from a market day, one about a great and mythical shipwreck. His mother had been shushing him all morning and all the way to the shore. "Hush, Joseph," she told him, "you don't know what you are saying." He heeded her as well as he could until she was underwater and out of earshot. The tune came back to him, and he hummed it to himself. One of the grannies heard him and asked, "Come, Joseph, won't you sing for us?" He did as he was asked, singing with great enthusiasm the ballad that told of his father's demise (though he did not know this). He mesmerized his audience of grannies, but his song rang out to all who could hear �" land dwellers and aquatic creatures alike. His song had drawn the attention of a lurking octopus, which soon caught sight of the female divers. Sensing a threat to its territory that it hadn't initially seen, the octopus's fear response engaged, and it grabbed onto the diver that was closest within reach �" Isobel's sister. The creature wrapped a tentacle around the girl's face, cutting off her breath. She thrashed until she could thrash no more, and when she didn't surface, the divers knew something was wrong. Isobel and some others dove to search for her sister, and when they found her they made quick work of the octopus that had her. They brought her back to shore, and as they dragged her up the sand, Isobel heard her son's voice and she knew �" creatures like that had never bothered the divers territory before. While the others worked frantically to revive the girl, Isobel stormed over and snatched her son by the arm, practically wrenching it out of its socket as she dragged him home, berating him the whole way for what a foolish boy he was �" hadn't she told him to keep quiet? 

After a fortnight of purgatorial stupor, Isobel's sister passed away. Isobel couldn't bear to look at her son �" first he'd gotten his father killed, and now he'd gotten his aunt killed. After the girl had been lain to rest, Isobel sold her son to a merchant ship headed to the mainland for twenty gold pieces. She could bear his presence no longer. 

Once on the mainland, the sailors unloaded Joseph with the cargo they'd transported and left him to fend for himself. They didn't keep him with them, but they didn't harm him. He found himself in the city of Vindobona, and immediately the thing that struck him was the fact that nearly everyone was human. Vindobona was not officially a humans-only city, but the king, King Praeses, had made his preference for racial purity known early in his rule. The non-humans in Vindobona were heavily vetted, few, and far between. They were forbidden to breed under threat of capital punishment. 

Joseph soon found a group of other street urchin children and ingratiated himself with them, doing what they could to earn a penny to get some stale bread. They tried several different schemes, but once it was discovered that Joseph could sing, they found their weekly intake increased substantially �" he could actually draw a crowd, and those who stopped generally paid well. He was untrained, but his voice was mellifluous �" his siren’s song was attractive to anyone who heard it, even if he was just a child who could only repeat the trouvere's tunes and drinking songs he heard around him. One day, he stood on the ledge of the fountain in the town square, yet another crowd of rapt passersby listening to him sing an old sailor’s tune, when a strange man in a funny-looking outfit came up to him. The man waited for the song to finish before asking Joseph, "Where are your parents, boy?" When Joseph replied that he had none, the man got an odd look about him �" almost hungry. He spied the pail filled with coins at Joseph's feet and said "Come with me, child, there is someone important whom I'd like you to meet." He took Joseph by the arm, much like his mother had done so long ago, and took him to the chapel on the castle grounds. "Kapellmeister!" He kept shouting. "I've found your virtuoso!" Soon enough, Joseph was shown to a man called Kapellmeister Hyden �" the conductor of the King's Chorus. 

The King's Chorus is part of the King's Conservatory and is a very prestigious group of singers. They are all male, and they are all human. Their official reason for existence is to entertain as the King commands, whether that be a private audience or a public performance of a choral piece, a camerata cantata, or an opera if he so desires. Their relevance waxes and wanes with the tastes and preferences of different kings, but they are always there �" waiting in the wings if not actively performing. 

Such a prestigious organization must then be run by none other than the best �" and that is Kapellmeister Hyden. He graduated at the top of his class from the Bard's College and has an ear so sensitive it is said he can hear beyond the stone walls of the castle keeps. He can breathe new life into an old song, and he can write pieces almost on command when the king or his family requests it. He has earned his position and is proud to hold it.

The strange man brought Joseph before the Kapellmeister, saying, "Sir, I have found your virtuoso �" this boy sings like no other." Hyden remained skeptical and commanded the boy to sing �" the city's prejudices toward non-humans had not completely escaped the Kapellmeister. Joseph unleashed his siren's song, recounting again the tale of The Kraken's Wrath that brought down his father. As he sang, the Kapellmeister's eyes widened with awe and he put down his quill, focusing solely on Joseph. By all that is Holy, it seemed he had been handed the virtuoso he had been seeking on a silver platter. He was untrained, but that would be solved with time. Hyden interrogated the man �" a mediocre member of the chorus �" about how he found Joseph. Once it was established that he'd quite literally been dragged in off the street, Hyden grew excited. He promised Joseph a new life in exchange for his vocal talents. 

Joseph was adopted into the chorus as a student, and he soon flourished. The rigorous lessons Hyden put his students through were second nature to Joseph, and he excelled, becoming both a star performer and Hyden's protégé. He had an excellent ear as well as an excellent voice �" his performances could bring the house down whether he sang a solo, in a band of camerata, or simply as a part of the chorus. His sea-elf heritage turned him into the Siren of the Stage �" once people heard him sing, they were drawn to him. 

As he grew up, another exception to the chorus's human-only, men-only rule sometimes came about. Princess Delilah, only a few years younger than he, soon was allowed to sit in on some of Kapellmeister Hyden's lessons. Though she did not perform with the group, she was trained to sing, as was the royal requirement for princesses seeking husbands. Though not as good as he, Delilah was a capable musician. Her education culminated when she came of age and Joseph was twenty. To celebrate the conclusion of her education and debut her into the marriage market, King Praeses saw fit to commission an opera for her to star in. He brought the concept to Kapellmeister Hyden, his only condition being that Princess Delilah play the leading lady. Beyond that, he gave Hyden complete creative freedom. With that in mind, the Seafarer's Opera moved forward, starring Princess Delilah and Joseph Halloran. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 

The Seafarer's Opera 

The Seafarer's Opera was commissioned by King Praeses to celebrate his daughter, Princess Delilah's coming of age and debut into formal society. The music and lyrics were written by Kapellmeister Hyden, the libretto was written by a notable court poet, and the royal dancing master was in charge of the choreography. It was a grand piece, featuring sweeping orchestral parts, an angelic chorus of 40 members, incidental roles and dancers that numbered about fifteen, and a main cast of only three �" a pair of lovers and the companion of the hero. The story is that of a sailor who meets a lovely young woman on the eve of a long and perilous journey. It is love at first sight, and the two share a lovely duet before being torn apart with only a promise to reunite as the hero departs on his journey. The opera centers around the hero and his agony as he counts down his days at sea to the day he may return to his love, if the crew survives the journey at all. He frequently waxes dramatic to his companion, who assures him that they will persevere (the companion dies on the journey, but the hero doesn't). Eventually, the hero makes it back to his home, where he finds his love once again. He promises to never take to the seas again if she will only marry him, and she does so enthusiastically. The piece ends with a show-stopping vocal duet, a bridal waltz, and a kiss, in that order. Naturally, Princess Delilah is cast as the heroine �" the only woman to ever grace the king's stage �" and Joseph is cast as the hero. The roles were written especially for the pair of them. ___________________________________________________________________________________

As the show was rehearsed, Joseph and Delilah were frequently in close proximity to one another, and his siren's song slowly worked its charm on her. While he viewed her as a capable costar, she carried a flame for him that grew in its intensity with each passing day. The tipping point came when the show’s finale was being rehearsed. A duet in close proximity, a bridal waltz, and a true-to-life kiss were rehearsed time after time, day after day, and for the sheltered Princess, it was quite the heady cocktail. One evening, after rehearsal had finished, she sent a missive to Joseph requesting his presence at his earliest convenience. Joseph, in his naivety, went at once, fearing something amiss. When he reached her chambers, she pulled him inside quickly so as not to be seen, drew him to her divan, held his hands and confessed her love for him. Distressed at not having seen this coming, Joseph gave the only reasonable response he could think of �" that she was a dear friend to him, but he could not return her feelings because of their different stations. Devastated, Delilah cried bitterly, and when Joseph reached out to comfort her, she clung to his lapels and tried to kiss him by force. It took some doing, but he managed to wrest himself from her grasp without hurting her and fled, leaving his jacket behind since he could not take it from Delilah's grasp. 

The next night, Joseph was summoned before the king. Before an audience of courtiers and Kapellmeister Hyden, Delilah accused Joseph of attempting to rape her, forcing his way into her chambers to have his way with her, citing the jacket he truly had left behind as evidence of a hasty departure. Incredulous, Hyden came to his defense, and when asked directly by the king, Joseph denied the accusations. They were dismissed without ceremony, but only a few short hours later, Joseph was awoken by the Kapellmeister banging on his door. "They're coming for you, boy," he warned. "I heard them, they plan to take you from here and behead you so you won't be bothering the princess again. Come, you must flee." With no time to lose, Hyden guided Joseph through the servant's hallways on the way out of the castle conservatory, but they hadn't made it very far when Joseph heard a cry of "There they are!" followed swiftly by a hard thump to his back that flattened him. He struck his head on the paving stones and lost consciousness. He awoke some time later, how much later he didn't know, though it was still a dark and moonless night. He sat up, pushing the weight from atop his body, when the weight groaned. 

It was Kapellmeister Hyden. 

Panicked, Joseph held Hyden by his shoulders, assessing the damage. The spell that had been meant for Joseph had hit Hyden squarely in the chest, and blood ran from his mouth, forming a grotesque crimson beard. Joseph didn't have to remove any of Hyden's clothing to know that he was a lost cause. He beheld the only father figure he had ever known as he began to weep. With his final strength, Hyden laid his hand on Joseph's cheek and told him, "Get as far from this place as you can. Praeses will stop at nothing to see you killed. Save yourself while you can �" you're like the son I never had." With that, his hand dropped from Joseph's cheek, his head lolled back, and Joseph cradled his body and wept. 

Joseph managed to sneak back into the conservatory unseen to gather his essential belongings, then retraced his hidden path all the way out of the city. He traveled until he ran out of money, then took up work wherever he could find it, never staying in one place for long. He retained his first name but adopted the b*****d's surname from Hahnjoch, Halloran, so he would be harder to trace. His mission is to return to Vindobona and execute Praeses in front of Delilah so she will feel the same pain he has, and to enact revenge on Praeses for killing Kapellmeister Hyden.