Redguards, History And Heroes, V 1 Lorebook

Frandar Hunding was born in 2356 in the old way of reckoning in our beloved deserts of the old land. The traditional rule of emperors had been overthrown in 2012, and although each successive emperor remained the figurehead of the empire, his powers were very much reduced. Since that time, our people saw three hundred years of almost continuous civil war between the provincial lords, warrior monks, and brigands, all fighting each other for land and power. Our people were once artisans, poets, and scholars, but the ever-evolving strife made the way of the sword inevitable. The song of the blade through the air, through flesh and bone, its ring against armor—it was an answer to our prayers.

In the time of Lord Frandar the first Warrior Prince, lords called Yokeda built huge stone castles to protect themselves and their lands, and castle towns outside the walls begin to grow up. In 2245, however, Mansel Sesnit came to the fore. He became the Elden Yokeda, or military dictator, and for eight years succeeded in gaining control of almost the whole empire. When Sesnit was assassinated in 2253,a commoner took over the government. Randic Torn continued the work of unifying the empire that Sesnit had begun, ruthlessly putting down any traces of insurrection. He revived the old gulf between the warriors—the sword singers—and the commoners by introducing restrictions on the wearing of swords. "Torn’s Sword-Hunt," as it was known, meant that only the singers were allowed to wear swords, which distinguished them from the rest of the population.

Although Torn did much to settle the empire into its pre-strife ways, by the time of his death in 2373 internal disturbances still had not been completely eliminated. Upon his death, civil war broke out in earnest; war that made the prior three hundred year turmoil pale in comparison. It was in this period that Frandar Hunding grew up.

Hunding belonged to the sword-singers. This element of empire society grew from the desert artisans and was initially recruited from the young sons and daughters of the high families. They built the first temple to the unknown gods of war and built a training hall, "The Hall of the Virtues of War." Within a few generations the way of the sword—the "song of the blade"—had become their life. The people of the blade kept their poetry and artistry in building beautiful swords woven with magic and powers from the unknown gods. The greatest among them became known as Ansei, or "Saints of the Sword." Each of these began their own training schools teaching their individual way of the sword. Ansei of the highest virtue wandered the countryside engaging in battle, righting wrongs, and seeking to end the strife.

To sum it up: Hunding was a sword-singer, a master, a Master Ansei at a time when the peak of the strife was reborn out of the chaos of Torn’s death. Many singers put up their swords and became artists, for the pull of the artisan heritage was strong. Others, like Hunding, pursued the ideal of the warrior searching for enlightenment through the perilous paths of the Sword. Duels of revenge and tests of skill were commonplace, and fencing schools multiplied.