Thank you all for your replies thus far (and keep them coming!). The responses help me break down a bit in thought over what is doable, along with correcting my errors in my original thoughts.
Based on what you have all brought up and going back to my original idea...
Maybe we can go with the idea of being a conscripted worker for the Garlean Empire forced to work the mines, which was brutal because he was always trying to fight back. Sort of like a wild mustang refusing to be broken.
He then tried to make a run for it when he was a bit older, but he was caught and then they decided, since he wanted to fight so badly, they knocked him out and then threw him out in the front lines of some war; Probably hoping he get himself killed.
He managed to survive and play dead for a bit, till he believed it was safe and then started to scramble his way for the borders. Problem was, when he did make it over the border, he was mistaken for a soldier of Garlemald still and given the whole war between Eorzea and Garlemald, they captured him, didn't believe him, but someone thought it be amusing to use him for entertainment and tossed him into the arena.
With no weapons, or armor. Once again, he should have probably died and a few times he nearly did, but kept finding the means to survive. Either from brute force or just sheer grit. Maybe someone took pity on him and decided to believe his story, so they paid for him to be released and took him under their wing.
While maybe now a "free man", he stays with this person out of honor and perhaps, life-debt.
Other option....
All the stuff above, but he never got "bought", he is still "not free", but he gets hired out for mercenary work at times, thus when he is allowed to see the sky, because some saw his performance and decided to pay for his work out in the field at times. Which means the only time he gets to see the sky, the smell of the sand, is when someone hires him to do their dirty work. Which beats being stuck inside a cell with no view of the sky.
A bit darker, but I was re-reading the lore stuff and saw "mercenary work" and went "Hey! That would be cool!" Which also would help explain his sometimes random absence from the world.
How does the new and improve version work there for folks?
Based on what you have all brought up and going back to my original idea...
Maybe we can go with the idea of being a conscripted worker for the Garlean Empire forced to work the mines, which was brutal because he was always trying to fight back. Sort of like a wild mustang refusing to be broken.
He then tried to make a run for it when he was a bit older, but he was caught and then they decided, since he wanted to fight so badly, they knocked him out and then threw him out in the front lines of some war; Probably hoping he get himself killed.
He managed to survive and play dead for a bit, till he believed it was safe and then started to scramble his way for the borders. Problem was, when he did make it over the border, he was mistaken for a soldier of Garlemald still and given the whole war between Eorzea and Garlemald, they captured him, didn't believe him, but someone thought it be amusing to use him for entertainment and tossed him into the arena.
With no weapons, or armor. Once again, he should have probably died and a few times he nearly did, but kept finding the means to survive. Either from brute force or just sheer grit. Maybe someone took pity on him and decided to believe his story, so they paid for him to be released and took him under their wing.
While maybe now a "free man", he stays with this person out of honor and perhaps, life-debt.
Other option....
All the stuff above, but he never got "bought", he is still "not free", but he gets hired out for mercenary work at times, thus when he is allowed to see the sky, because some saw his performance and decided to pay for his work out in the field at times. Which means the only time he gets to see the sky, the smell of the sand, is when someone hires him to do their dirty work. Which beats being stuck inside a cell with no view of the sky.
A bit darker, but I was re-reading the lore stuff and saw "mercenary work" and went "Hey! That would be cool!" Which also would help explain his sometimes random absence from the world.
How does the new and improve version work there for folks?
