Epiousios ('Lives of Kos' Bonus Content)

Following is a biography for the baker Epiousios, one of the characters of the Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting! It was developed by author Heath Farnden and is bonus content for "Lives of Kos," which contains 115 detailed biographies of characters affiliated with the campaign setting. Like Epiousios, all can be used either within the Swords of Kos milieu or used as background for characters in almost any other fantasy campaign. 

Following is a biography for the baker Epiousios, one of the characters of the Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting! It is bonus content for "Lives of Kos," which contains 115 detailed biographies of characters affiliated with the campaign setting. Like Epiousios, all can be used either within the Swords of Kos milieu or used as background for characters in almost any other fantasy campaign. 

Epiousios (Temple Quarter of Kos City)

At one point a young but seasoned baker from the Magocracy of Mesopotamia, Epiousios was captured by pirates and sold into slavery while traveling aboard a boat on the Euphrates River. For 12 years he was sold many times, owned by many sorts of masters, and did everything from running messages in Tyre, to carrying rocks in Gintu, to fighting in the gladiatorial pits of Anatolia, where he was won in a bet by a slaver from the city of Bodrum.

Originally serving as a litter bearer, he eventually distinguished himself by preventing a robbery at a bakery his new master was visiting by knocking out a brigand with a hard loaf of black bread. He then went above and beyond by saving a bunch of baked goods from burning and helping the bakers who had been menaced by the robber to make up lost time and bake more bread. This led to him being loaned to the bakery and gladly returning to his original vocation.

Epiousios toiled happily for the next three years, baking both items from his homeland and mastering those of his new land and became well known for his skill. His master even bestowed upon him the whimsical name Epiousios, "Daily Bread," which he accepted with pride as a replacement for the one that had become forgotten and meaningless to him. Soon thereafter, his dying master granted Epiousios freedom from his deathbed. Not wanting to prolong his stay in the oppressive Tetrarchy of Anatolia, Epiousios took ship to nearby Kos and, using a modest sum his master had left him, established a small bakery near the city's Temple Quarter. There he makes a modest living supplying the local area with bread and cakes, to include Attikis Harvest of the Rocks on occasion, while trying to hone and expand his skills. He does not trade on his fame as baker in Bodrum out of shame from having been a slave there.