The Story

He was born in Dale, somewhere in the valley. He doesn't speak of his family, or if pressed, denies that he has any. He does not mention his past, and rebuffs any who ask him about it. All he says of Dale is that he has nothing left there, that he left it all behind when he came of age.

When he left, he came south, traveling, gathering, and learning. He says he sold some of the more common plants he gathered, as well as the skills he learned as a healer. In this way he crossed the Misty Mountains, and came to Bree.

Here, he intends to stay a while, living on the outskirts of the towns, nearly in the Chetwood, despite the risk of brigands. 

Lately he has adopted the company of an odd, small young woman

The Truth

He was born Tychoric, son of Ottegar, in the fertile valleys of the kingdom of Dale. His great-grandfather, Thoger, had fought alongside Bard I in the Battle of the Five Armies, and had gained much wealth from his service. Being pragmatic, he had bought a great deal of land in the most fertile areas of the land, and divided it into tenures for others to farm for him. His land was passed down through the sons of the family to Tychoric’s uncle, Thyge.

Thyge was the eldest of four brothers, Ottegar the second-eldest. When Tychoric was born, Thyge had tried for years to have a child himself, to no avail. Dispairing of having a son, he made an agreement with Ottegar. The eldest son of Ottegar would be given to him to raise and care for as his son, and if Ottegar’s wife bore no other sons, Ottegar’s son would inherit from both Ottegar and Thyge. If Ottegar bore a second son, he would inherit Ottegar’s wealth and Ottegar’s firstborn would inherit Thyge’s estates. Ottegar and his wife bore a healthy son, but when Thyge came to collect the child after the agreed two years, Ottegar refused to give him up. Furious, Thyge kidnapped the infant child and returned home to raise him as his own child, though he kept the name Ottegar gave him, Tychoric.

Tychoric Thygesen, or Tycho as he was more commonly known, was raised by nurses and later tutors and given little attention by his foster-parents, except to be quizzed regularly on his education. He grew up to be cynical, and loved books and stars more than other people. There was one noted exception. Nogfrid of Riverrun, a commoner and troublemaker about his own age, who became his close friend. 

Tycho learned his true heritage in secret and slowly came to detest his uncle, for his neglect of his kidnapped nephew and for his disgrace to Tycho's true father. Small things fueled the hate over the years, and by the time he came of age, he was thoroughly unhappy with the prospect of having to stay there and dutifully inherit the responsibilities of being a Dalish landlord. He did not want to govern, and he especially did not want to govern his uncle's lands. So, on his twenty-first birthday, he left, and when Thyge attempted to stop him, Tycho proclaimed his true heritage and his hate of his uncle and disowned himself from the family.

He went south, dropping his father-name, surname, and even part of his own name to take his childhood nickname as his only name, Tycho.

Tycho traveled across the Waste and south along the Anduin, staying for a time in the northernmost edges of the Riddermark, and picked up some basic Rohirric sayings there, though he was never good with learning foreign languages and struggled even with Westron. He traded in healing herbs and poisons to those who needed them, often cheating those who traded with him by adding worthless flash and flare to make the wares seem more effective and impressive, and thus worth more coin. Eventually, he traveled west, crossing the Misty Mountains and wandering for a time, avoiding most human settlements before he finally came to Bree.

He stumbled upon an abandoned and mostly intact cottage buried in the edges of Far Chetwood, and spent some months working to fix it up with the funds he had left from trading herbs and cures. Here, he has resumed a pet project of his, researching the poison of giant spiders and their effect on the body, in hopes of discovering a way to cure or prevent the hideous deaths that occur even here. He has also taken Anola into his house after finding the girl, injured and caught in one of the traps he set in the woods. He continues to gather and grow rare herbs and sells them to healers in Bree for enough coin to continue researching.