Background Story

Your father was once a Paladin who worked closely with the Once existing Free Republic of Corant. The Republic was founded over 1000 years ago and was governed by a council of elected members of the major races dwelling within its borders including; elves, dwarfs, halflings, humans, gnomes, and even a few communities of half-orcs though the half-orcs rarely reached high enough population to gain a seat on the council.
Every ten years the council elected one member to act as head of the government though in all the years of the Republics existence the office had only been held by one elf: Archmage Illephor Nethium. Illephor is the oldest elf in known existence and is believed to be around 10,000 years old. He help to found the republic and brought peace and prosperity to half the world.
100 years ago all that changed. A great storm fell upon the northern mountains. At its height huge bolts of lightning arced across the sky from many directions towards the highest mountain in the range setting a colossal forest fire that burned down all the trees on the whole mountainside. Then the fire simply stopped leaving a barren wasteland covering the whole mountain while trees nearby the mountain were not burned.
It was then that Illephor began acting strangely. He began meeting with an obscure order of elven monks. He gave them police like powers and began to send them on missions to investigate locals all over the world. He drafted many citizens into a workforce to create a huge structure in the center of the republic, a spire stretching clear to the sky. The huge drain on resources that this project caused brought back something that citizens of the republic had not known since the creation of mechanically assisted spell casting: poverty. This lead to unrest but when questioned Illephor only said, "Trust in me. Its for your own good."
As the unrest grew to proportions that threatened the construction of the spire he finally reacted by sending the elven monks in to disband the council and declare martial law. The senators, who were some of the most powerful people on the planet didn't react to kindly to being disbanded and open fighting erupted between them and the elven monks. The monks won and the Empire was born.
Illephor wasted no time using as much force as possible to bring his subjects back in line. Those who did not comply received a visit from an elven monk that "ended" the protest. He began rounding up people and taking them away to work on special projects from which they never returned.
During this time your father was sent on a mission along with one of the monks named Asendi to the base of the northern mountains. They investigated a cavern that lead deep into the earth were they came upon a battle being fought between a small squad of drow and unknown attackers. During the fight your father found a strange crystal and tucked it away for safe keeping. This journey into the mountains took hims several years and he and Asendi had became friends. Your father admired the elf's devotion to order though sometimes found his methods to be cruel.
Upon returning to the homelands your father found his beloved republic was no more. He discovered that Illephor and the elven monks were using magic to capture citizens souls to use as a power source for the tower. He decided the only thing he could do was to get his wife and child and leave. When he arrived at his house he found Asendi waiting for him standing over his dead wife. He wounded Asendi and escaped with his child, the PC, heading back towards the mountains to hide.
The northern part of the empire rebelled and Illephor has been unable to reconquer it. Your father has taken up residence in the southern part of the rebel lands were his skills are sometimes required to help defend the a nearby rebel fort from incursions by the empire.
He has built a small farm and trades with passing caravans along with the people of the nearby town.
The story will begin with you being sent to town to deliver supplies to a merchant.