Dale Ronas


image350

  • Full Name—Dale Ronas
  • Tree—Oak
  • Age—34 at the start of Line of Duty

  • A big man, tall and broad of beam, but not overweight (naturally big) and surprisingly nimble. He has red hair (not a bright red, more brownish red) and wears a beard. His eyes are hazel/ tending to green. He has a scar on his leg from a previous war injury.


    Dale was born in the heart of the forest, firstborn son of a woodsman family. His mother died when he was very small, giving birth to second son Jareth (who was deformed). His father loved his boys but was rigid in his discipline and rules. He followed the tenets of Brem very strictly, so Dale and Jareth were educated and followed the faith through their childhood. When Dale was about eleven his father remarried and neither Dale nor Jareth much cared for their new mother (it wasn’t all out war but it wasn’t friendly either).

    When young, Dale found that he was discontented with the isolation of the forest where he lived. He longed for more company and, when in Chelland one day, met with the recruiting officers for the army. He was taken by the idea of this and convinced his father to allow him to go and become a soldier. Shortly after he joined up he found a post for Jareth working for the Lord or Rurig. This left his father and second wife to work the forest alone, which actually suited them all.
    At 17, Dale met a young woman (Delan, then just 16) who was a house servant at the palace, where he is posted as a guard. He pursued and fell in love with her but they were careless and a baby is the result. Dale’s son Joss was born when Dale was 18. He took his responsibilities seriously and remained faithful to Delan, supporting her. She refused to marry a soldier, however.

    Dale’s stepmother died and, only a few months later his father also passed away. There was a little money left and Dale used his share to buy his way out of the army and marry Delan. They move out to the forest and there Dale works as a woodcutter for several years. They have two other children, both girls. This is a contented time for Dale. He misses the company and activities of the army but he loves his family and the responsibilities of raising them and supporting them keeps him happy.

    Then, when Joss is about 10, a bout of Spring Fever (similar to malaria) hits and only Dale survives. As soon as he can after this, he closes up the cottage in the forest and returns to his life in the army. He serves well and progresses, until he reaches the rank of Captain in the Palace Guard. In this role he is a direct report of the Lord Protector and develops a friendship with Verdin, Earl of Langate, who is now learning to raise a child of his own, after the death of the boy’s mother. Verdin trusts Dale, and knows him to be loyal and a good swordsman, so it is that Dale is asked to take on protectorship of three of royal children when the royal family flees Castle Bremmand and the party is forced to split on the road north.