Gealen Rander is an English woodsman whose parents had both died by time he was age 5, his mother apparently in childbirth and his father died a few years later. His father was a woodsman and taught him skills of hunting, survival and trapping. Alone and destitute after his father's death, he probably would have died had he not befriended a strange dog that seemed to speak to him and help out. soon he found that he could speak to other animals in the forest as well, and had a knack for knowing exactly where he was and where any game might be. His faithful companion could follow any scent, no matter how old.
Because Gealen grew up isolated and poor he never did learn anything much about the world, but learned to read and write when he took service with the Lord of Bangerford, who regognized his talents as a woodsman and had him employed on the condition he stayed out of his court, which suited said court just fine. Gealen has a knack for saying and doing the most improper things when in mixed company.
As Lord Bangerford's lands grew more settled, the woodlands shrank and Gealen grew less at home. Lord Aethelred has become unhappy with more frequented appearances at the court.
When a represtentive of the Covenant of Crom Gleann came to his Court to make a bargain for foodstuffs, Aethelred was only too happy to give the task of transporting goods and protecting the way to Gealen, especially when he asked to live on the other side of the route in the lands of Crom Gleann.