Reblogged from Jim Webster aka Tallis Steelyard:

I have known Stanlan Needleborne for virtually all of my life. He was the tough kid on the street, the rough boy we were all a bit nervous of. Looking back I cannot imagine why, I don’t remember him ever being anything but a friend to the rest of us street children. As we grew up he went for a soldier.

Obviously with his background he didn’t follow the easy route. At fifteen he tagged along to one of the impromptu and largely expendable infantry companies. Against the odds he survived. Next year he went back into Partann again. By the time he was twenty he was an accepted captain of crossbowmen, and was hired as such by the great condottieri captains to command some portion of their infantry.

Continue reading at Tallis Steelyard