So in The War, you have this scene where Fenris comes in dead-beat after kinda being AWOL (or MIA, as everyone assumed at first) and Sergeant Garin hears him out and is a softie about it because who can't be soft for Fenris. And incidentally, it crops up that Garin has a little kiddo at home. A son, in fact.

***

"Ai, let it be." The sergeant felt a nagging guilt, knowing that with anyone else he would have given at the very least a stern rebuke for such a breach of discipline, and, to be impartial, he ought to give the same to Fenris. But he could not bring himself to deliver it; not while the lad stood so quietly there, his eyes still shadowed underneath with exhaustion and anguish. And besides, his excuse was a reasonable one. "Let it be. You've returned now."

He would have liked to reach out and touch the tired, valiant boy, to be a father to him for a moment and not an officer. Something in him was quite certain that Fenris had never had a proper father. He thought of his own young son, scarcely three years old, and the longing grew stronger. But the habit of stern impartiality held fast.

"Go on," he said, jerking his head into the barracks. "Get some more rest. You'll be no good on the training ground yet. Rest well."

***

All right, Garin has a kid. No biggie. But then in Sorrow and Song: Winds Rise, you get this lovely little line:

***

The second {guard} was still quiet. "I like it not. Do you remember the men from Enedhwin? They bore strange words. Now this. I think that some doom hangs upon us."

"Enough talk, Eiredor. Enough portents."

Eiredor son of Garin shook his head. "I tell you it bodes ill. And I fear the cloud will be long in lifting."

***

Well, hello... who is it but our dear Garin on the page again?

"Now, Verity, there are probably any number of people in Orden named Garin."

Ah, but it just so happens that this Eiredor is twenty-six years old at the time of Sorrow and Song... which if you do the math, means he would have been precisely three years old in The War. Not only that, this Eiredor is a door-warden of Mitheren, and in Path of the Tempest you find out his precise office is that of an army captain. Not a status to sneeze at. The supposition that his family had a history in the military is not unlikely.

All these pieces are in the books, except Eiredor's precise age (it's only stated in PotT that he's a young man). I had fun fitting them in.

And even more fun arguing like a fan theorist for a fact in my own book that I know perfectly well to be true. XD