Bartram Dalson

Unlike his brother Harold who inherited their family stead of Dalson's Tear, Bartram had no interest in agriculture and was known to be a thoroughly shiftless and incorrigible malingerer. His life supposedly changed when one day while he was dozing under a tree, a limb from the tree and hit him squarely on the top of his head. In the stupor that he found himself in after being startled awake, he believed that he witnessed the Light manifest in a magnificent arraying of colors and inform him that his duty was to heal the afflicted of the world. Rather than become a member of the clergy as many would, Bartram instead traveled the world as a "faith healer" and offered many services any concoctions that could make the blind see, the deaf hear, and the mute sing. Of course, all of these miracles came with a hefty price.

The multitude of swindles and cons that Bartram managed to pull off effectively eventually culminated into his seducing the daughter of one of the foremen of the Stone Mason Society in Stratholme. This young woman, Lydia, was easily taken in by Bartram's worldly mannerisms, and before long was pregnant with Remington. This coupling was anything other than ideal for all parties involved, but before Bartram could vanish once more from the life of a person he'd managed to bamboozle, Lydia's father, Ignatius, had the two formally married on threat that if they did not join in matrimony, he would bury Bartram somewhere that not even the Light could find. The warning was successful, and Bartram hung up his ecclesiastic raiment and took up masonry as Ignatius wished. To no one's surprise, he was hardly cut out for the work and soon moved his family back to the Dalson farmstead.