Hey. My name's… well, I was born Edwin James Goddard. But around here, I'm known as the soldier Endymion. Endy to my friends. And you're now wondering, who could be the friends of an asshole adventurer like me? Well, I'm a member of Clan Dreadclaw. In fact, I'm pretty darn proud of being labelled as one of the main powerhouses of my clan, and we're one of the biggest and best clans Ivalice has ever seen. Scared yet, buddy? Good. 'Cause you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Hm. Intrigued, I see. That's good. You say you want to hear my story, such as it is? Well, alright then. Pull up a chair, get comfy. Because I used to live a live so different from this you'd never believe it. I used to be normal.
It was a day … like any other.
I woke up at the crack of dawn, that was 5:30 AM, and made breakfast for me, my little sister and my mom. No big deal, it was absolutely normal for me. And after I woke them up and we ate, I went off to high school. Annoying classes from 8:10 to 2:30, interrupted by Hell, otherwise known as a snowball fight during gym, from 9:00 to 9:45; Purgatory, aka lunch, from 12:00 to 1:00; and Heaven, my computer class, from 1:45 'til the end of school. I was a nerd, and I'm still proud of it. It's how I survived in this crazy place. They say I seem to know what's about to happen before it does. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. But I think I know what this world is. And I'll explain it later. But after school, I went to my job at the library, getting crap pay for teaching people how to use the internet and manning the reference desk. But it was money, and…as that Roman emperor said, 'Money doesn't stink'. I came home around 9:30 every night, by which time mom had come home from her job and made dinner. We ate and I grabbed the computer for the night. I don't remember which Final Fantasy I was playing, but it wasn't 7 or up. It was one of the 'party control' strategy games, rather than an RPG. That and Sword of Mana are really great games. But that's another story for another time and in another world.
Well, I went to bed around 2 in the morning, when my mom got up and said I really should go. I kissed her on the cheek and went. I never said no to her, no matter how much I wanted to kill her. She had had a hard time, raising 2 kids alone. My dad was a good man…he was just dead of a heart attack. So there was nothing she could have done more. I went up, stripped, jumped in bed with my sister (yes, we both slept naked in the same bed. And NO, we never even…well, I never looked at her, that's for damn sure.), and conked out. Next thing I know, I'm wearing leather armor, holding a short sword, and I'm smack in the path of some pissed off Bangaa! Well, he and I got into a fight. I was pissed off at that punk. I barely noticed the judge. It was when he pulled out the X-potion and disappeared to "Prison" that I became scared. Luckily, next thing I know, this Viera Archer comes up and starts tossin' arrows at the Bangaa's buddy, y'know? So when it's all said and done, she asked me to join up with her clan. Said I looked like a Soldier and that's what they needed another of, desperately. I said, basically, where do I sign up? She laughed and took me to the pub. We all started talking, I told them what happened. They didn't think it was a big deal. But our main group was a Nu Mou White Mage by the name of Marain, a Moogle Black Mage by the name of Yuto, a Bangaa White Monk named Rimney, me, a girl soldier named Rinz, and of course, the archer, Kiera. After I met everybody, we were talking and we started talking about missions. I kept my mouth shut and just let everyone else do the talking and the thinking. I did my own figuring during the conversation. I realized that my best way to success was to join a clan and fight for them, since I'd later be able to take credit for things I never could have done.
It wasn't until much later we started to expand. But by that time, Kiera and I were a real item. I was 17 then, so I was already looking at girls. I looked at Rinz for a while, but I realized it would be so much cooler for me to have an exotic girl, and since Kiera was going out of her way for me, I said yes to going out with her. Oh, the stories I could tell about that! When my 18th birthday rolled around, Kiera took me to her bed, even though it was just a sleeping bag in the middle of a field. We made love that night, and I will never, ever forget that as long as live.
We started doing little crappy jobs, and I finally got tired of it and said to the pub owner here, "okay, what can we do that's a real challenge?". He told me all about the Clan Wars, and Borzoi and their supposed 'capo' that kicked everyone's asses. I shrugged it off. We were Clan Claw at the time, and we thought we were the best. We knocked down the Antlions, Clan Dip, and Clan Marble in our first shot out.