Zera Tassern is a wandering knight who broke his vow of fealty to his liege lord. After years of dedicated service to his lord, Zera asked for his blessing to wed a noblewoman from the court. Zera and the lady had been secretly seeing each other but being of lower birth, Zera could not wed her without securing his lords favor.

However, tragedy struck as this request brought the lady to the lords attention. She was a beautiful rose that had bloomed over the years. Instead of honoring his knights loyal service for years, the lord instead forced her to wed one of his many sons. Zera felt utterly betrayed. He might have understood if the lady were to wed the heir, but the lord had many sons and simply snatched his love to pair one of his unworthy sons.

The newly-wed son soon began to brag to Zera about his new wife and paraded her in ever skimpier clothes around court to assert his dominance. Zera could take no more, but he would not mar his years of service by taking vengeance upon his lords family no matter the depth of the betrayal. He left his lords service and began wandering the land, hoping for a better future.