In the shadowed alleys of Amisara's most impoverished districts, one man's unraveling has become the stuff of lurid folklore. Amric Red, the wild-haired beggar who whispers of fallen fortunes and aristocratic scandals, his only true confidant a mouse nestled in his tattered green robes.
It wasn't always such a wretched existence for Amric. Born to a prosperous merchant family, he once held the esteemed position of head bookkeeper to the renowned Long Gerder – one of Amisara's most successful merchants. Amric's mind for figures and accounting earned both respect and a prosperous lifestyle. He married his sweetheart and soon welcomed two children into his life's abundance.
But the terrifying outbreak of the Bleeding Plague in '88 altered Amric's world irrevocably. With shocking swiftness, his beloved wife and infant son fell mortally ill. Young Eldra lingered on just long enough for Amric to sink into despondent drinking before finally succumbing as well. The devastated man drowned himself in rotgut spirits to numb the loss, soon alienating his business partners and squandering every coin of his once-sizable fortune.
Suddenly sundered soul of the streets, Amric slid into despairing vagrancy over the coming years. The bright shock of his natural red hair and perpetually manic eyes earned him the mocking moniker "Red" among fellow beggars. His bookkeeping talents became as useless as the fine clothes he wore tattered and bereft of purpose. Only stumbling forays into the dive-bars and flopshoused remained, chasing every waking moment into an alcoholic oblivion.
It was during one such drunken bender that a scruffy ginger cat nearly ended Amric's downward spiral – the half-starved feline seizing a plump rat from where the unconscious beggar sprawled. Amric snatched the woebegone rodent away just before it could become the cat's meal. In that moment of an unbreakable kinship was forged between man and tiny vermin.
Nursed back from starvation's brink on scraps procured by Amric, the mouse soon demonstrated unusual intelligence, obediently scurrying ahead to scout for danger or choice food leavings. In return, the now aimless Red found new purpose simply in looking after this unexpected comrade – the only living companion he left with. He named the rat "Alef" – an old epithet meaning "partner" in the ancient Sardaani tongue.
Alef's mute companionship managed to restore a flicker of Amric's former wits and business acumen. He became reenergized by listening in on the whispered dealings of city merchants and conspiracies of illicit rogues who always overlooked his apparent irrelevance.