Hoping to get in on this!
Name: Kaird McGrath
Appearance: Kaird is short and wiry, with pale skin and sunken, bloodshot eyes that betray his near-constant state of sleep deprivation and avoidance of daylight. A greasy, unkempt mop of red hair slides down around his jaw, which is coated in a few days' worth of beard that he can't be bothered to scrape off. He wears a simple set of lightweight leather armor that almost doesn't look like armor, and definitely doesn't look well cared-for. A shortbow is usually slung over his shoulder along with a quiver of arrows and a long, pouch-like sheath for his hammer.
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Side: Dark
Weapons(s): A lucerne hammer with a shortened, reinforced handle, a karambit made from the claw of a bear, and a shortbow, which is used almost exclusively to fire bodkin arrows. Several small urns rest in pouches on his belt; these are filled with a mixture of oil and soap, and are jokingly inscribed with "holy fire." He sets these aflame and dashes them in the faceplates of unsuspecting Paladins.
Abilities/Powers: Nothing discernible at first glance.
Talent(s): Kaird is an excellent shot, especially from close range. As a former assistant to his village's healer, he has little knowledge on how to fix people, but has a great knowledge of peoples' soft spots. Not many in the land know of the possibility of bleeding to death internally from a broken leg, or the exact length down someone's back to strike if you wish to fully immobilize them.
Personality: For a rural hunter, Kaird is oddly distant and callous. He tends to be very straightforward and humorless in his interactions with others. Rationality is not his strongest point, and he tends to hold grudges long after they've ceased to be practical or even understandable.
Biography: Kaird hails from a small town bordering the White Woods. Much of his childhood was entirely unremarkable, especially for his surroundings. Nobody in his village ever did much with their lives beyond the borders of the settlement, which, while undesirable to most, never struck Kaird as particularly loathsome. His parents trained him to be a hunter like them, which he took to for all the wrong reasons. There was something thrilling about tracking down another being and ending its life, even if that being was just a deer. Even with the thrill, he found this troubling. To mitigate what he interpreted as things he shouldn't be feeling, he began studying the arts of medicine with the village's healer. Something bad for something good, in his mind.
When Kaird was 12, a war broke out between two neighboring families of nobles - the Stein family in the south, and the Korsh family in the north. The soldiers sent by Korsh were perhaps a bit overzealous in their duties, and occupied Kaird's village to "protect" against incursions from their enemies. Kaird didn't like them. One Paladin in particular, Atticus Korsh, seemed to go out of his way to make trouble for Kaird and the healer.
After little more than a month, Korsh's forces declared themselves victorious. Kaird and the healer worked days on end to keep the wounded alive, with varying levels of success. Despite failing to keep some of Korsh's men alive, they had the Paladin's grudging respect for their efforts. At least, until one of Stein's soldiers staggered into town and was taken in. Before Kaird had a chance to attempt to fix his injuries, Paladin Atticus demanded the man be brought to justice for his crimes, and dragged him away.
To Kaird, that was wrong. Atticus had crossed a line that would be the death of him.
These thoughts stewed for four years. Upon his sixteenth birthday, Kaird resolved to finally act on his plans that had been brewing since the Paladin left. Unfortunately, this would prove to be the hardest part. His skills he'd used to track game were useless against a fellow human, especially one who'd left years ago. By the time he managed to track Atticus to the town of Crosswatch, more than a year had elapsed. Kaird had waited this long; a few more days would hardly kill him. He stalked the Paladin's movements day in and day out, reigniting his hatred for the man - and his entire order - in the process. Their sense of "justice" struck Kaird as sick and twisted. Those deemed friends were never questioned, those deemed enemies were never heard. It seemed like such an inherently flawed system, and it was one that was defended so absolutely.
On his way out of town, Atticus was confronted by a man he vaguely recognized, but couldn't tell where from. His hails were met with an arrow to the chest, loosed faster than his eye could track. His last sight was of this strange man's smirk as he lit fire to a small urn and dashed it in the Paladin's face.
Since then, Kaird has been on the run, though he feels this life suits him. He was never good enough with people to spend too much time around them, and was never a good enough healer to make anything of that. When he was eventually approached by a strange recruiter who promised him more chances to strike at the Paladins and their twisted sense of right and wrong, he accepted without a second thought. Not only were Paladins the target of this army, but the royalty of the land was slated to fall under their collective ax as well. Kaird intends to put his refined techniques to use under this army's banner, which flies the colors of the defeated Stein family. There are whispers among the ranks that their leader is none other than a Stein returned from the dead, but such seems the realm of ghost stories and drunken nonsense. No man could rise from death to smite those who wronged him. Right?
