Lorcan Moncreiffe is the second child and eldest son of Sir Errol Moncreiffe, a vassal of the Kilgour royals, and his wife Lady Deirdre MacLachlan. In Lorcan’s seventh year, Lady Deirdre dies giving birth to her sixth child. Lorcan’s infant sister Muire perishes at her nurse’s breast on her eighth day. On the morning following Lady Deirdre’s cremation, Sir Errol sends Lorcan west to foster at Greenshire. Lorcan spends the remainder of his boyhood serving as a page to the late Count; Lorcan attends the late Count at table, delivers his missives, and tends to his arms. Under the tutelage of house Haravean’s master-at-arms the boy learned the fundamentals of jousting and swordplay, an elderly ranger teaches the boy how to draw a bow, and when Lorcan proves a quick study the aged scout relates a few of the finer points.
In Lorcan’s tenth year, the Count Haravean lingers at Sir Errol’s keep for two days on route to a tourney in Darfield. Lorcan has occasion to travel to the beaches of the Great River with his brothers and sisters for an afternoon of swimming, and narrowly saved the life of his younger brother, Malachi when the boy was snapped in a vicious undertow. On the last night in his father’s hall, Lorcan looks in upon his brother, and Malachi shows Lorcan his favorite place. Malachi leads Lorcan beneath an aged crypt wherein rest the ashes of their progenitors. The brothers descend beyond the crypt into to an ancient armory replete with dilapidated arms and war trophies.
At The Queen’s tourney Lorcan donned ill-fitting mail and plate salvaged from the ancient armory, and competes as a mystery knight. In his first tilt, he falls in the second pass; in his second tilt, Lorcan falls in the first, and lands so heavily that many within the commons believe the small knight in rusted steel has suffered a grievous injury. Unmasked, the commons laugh and shout catcalls at the boy of ten in motley armor. Undeterred, Lorcan endeavored to compete in the melee; the Master of Games flatly refuses, but acquiesces when the boy tries to compete in the archery tourney. Although his first joust is a failure, Lorcan’s bravado and skill with a bow draw the attention of a handful of knights and ladies of import.
In Lorcan’s twelfth year, the late Count’s master-at-arms takes the boy’s martial training in hand. The pace of instruction quickens; as the aspirant page tests his mettle against Aldren and Braedon, the sons of the late Duke—Braedon proves to be a natural swordsman. Aldren a cunning axe man despite the focus the Count placed on Aldren's education in politics and strategy. Braedon and Aldren deal Lorcan a great many welts and bruises during his time at Greenshire—something Lorcan cannot say of the vast majority of his sparring partners. In time, Lorcan matures into a puissant jouster and a redoubtable swordsman. He batters his peers in several squire’s games. Though he is not content to spar with pages and squires. On seven occasions, Lorcan hazards the wrath of his father and his the Count of Greenshire, to don ramshackle, or borrowed armor, and test his mettle against knights of the realm. At thirteen he unhorses another squire in the lists, at fourteen he unseats two hedge knights of small renown, at fifteen, Lorcan unhorses his opponents as oft as they unhorse him.
At the age of sixteen, Lorcan becomes enthralled by one of Count Haravean’s daughters, few know which daughter; it is still a matter of some speculation. In his 17th year, Lorcan competes at a grand tourney held in Weston at the behest of Duke Sir Jon Marshall Ruxton. At the end of the first days’ joust, Lorcan is one of four jousters remaining from a field of one hundred. On the second day of jousting, Lorcan falls in the first tilt after shattering five lances against the shield of a knight half-again his age, and wins praise from the Duke of Ruxton, and his knight, the Count of Haravean for his bold performance. At the feast following the final day of jousting, Lorcan entreats Count Haravean for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The Count’s voice is loud enough for passersby to hear: “You will make a knight, one day, boy, but a lord does not to wed his daughter a servant.” The following morning Lorcan astonishes the commons by striking down seven men in the melee, and losing the final bout after a brutal, protracted battle. His armor cracked and scored, the squire seeks out a healer to set his broken nose, and then returns to the Haravean camp to gather his arms and harness. He departs Greenshire cold and sullen.
The youth sets to wandering Daeren after the manner of the first warrior who bore the Moncreiffe surname. When Lanniveer invades Mobrin, Lorcan fights alongside Prince Logen Kilgour, Count Aldren Haravean, and Sir Roane Leask at the battle of Westgate, cutting down three Laniveer knights, and a bakers dozen of foot begotten from the stews of Ashketh in a vicious melee. When the battle is won, one of the King’s Rioga knights Lorcan on a field carnage overlooking Westgate amidst the bodies of the flower of Lanniveer’s chivalry. After the peace of Weston, Lorcan takes to the road and the hedges; he takes his brother Malachi into his retinue, as a squire, and when the boy turns twenty, Lorcan knights Malachi by his own hand. He ceases his vagabonding long enough to return to his father’s dilapidated keep and see to the gods’ demands for ritual when Sir Errol breathes his last. It is only after Sir Errol’s death that the late knight’s valet reveals the depth of the Moncreiffe’s arrears. After two nights of heated argument, Lorcan departs his father’s keep with squire and valet in tow, bound for Darfield.