REPOST


...but he has a beard and hair now, long and black, tied behind his head.
Name: Olfin Bearhide
Race: Orc
Personality: Olfin is sometimes hard to understand when he speaks, and he finds it hard to utter certain sentences. An arrow pierced his neck in one of his battles and damaged his speech organs, and now he sounds harsh and even more beastlike than a regular orc. This may result in him using his hands to explain what he means. He hates magic and anything with arcane properties. He was even distrustful of his shamans back home, and he never prays to any god. He's fearless, somewhat in a dumb way. Finds it hard to understand anything remotely more civilised than a mercenary gang, and he carries its principles with him, as well as the natural law of the orcs.
Background: Olfin is an adult orc who comes from northernost taigas of Ruritania in the east, which is home to many orcish tribes. He was raised in harsh environments where he had to survive as best as he could from the moment he could walk. He was a hunter at first, with his tribesmen, and that is how he earned his nickname Bearhide, by killing a massive she-bear whose pelt he now wears as a cloak. Eventually he became a warrior when tribes started making alliances amongst each other to wage war for scarce farmable land. He proved to be a good fighter, but his side started losing the battle, and he was forced to flee and become a mercenary in countless gangs. He’s been travelling for years now, looking for ways to earn money, and this expedition seemed like a good investment.
Abilities: He can speak orcish and almost all human languages he picked up on his mercenary quests. He’s huge, 6'6'' tall, can use most melee weapons very well. He knows how to recognise bad intent in people he meets, and he's the guy you call when someone has been bad and needs their head crushed, although he never kills the innocent (and who is innocent is up to him to decide).
Equipment: A two-handed ax on his back, two one-handed axes on his belt, a couple of daggers, his bearcloak, armour consisting of various different, non matching pieces, mostly chain, plate and leather, and some horrible food he brings in a bag.

Name: Kiarda the Risen
Race: Human (Undead)
Personality: Kiarda's disposition is tinted with the melancholy of a life lost to the cold chill of unlife, but the personality of an eccentric sorceress breaks through the darkness and shows that she is actually quite an energetic woman in spite of her unlife. She is proper and careful with her words, and least in how eloquently she speaks. She also has a complete lack of respect for personal boundaries, is rather nosy, and enjoys being very facetious. Whether it's because she likes to unnerve people or is actually just a silly and curious person is anyone's guess.

Background: Hundreds of years ago, the name 'Kiarda' would elicit different responses depending on who you spoke to. From the people living in the western forests of Ruritania, she was a folk legend that watched over the forests and warded off evil with her presence. Her approach was said to be preluded with a gentle chill in the air. In truth, she was a eccentric sorceress estranged from society for her practice of certain arcane arts. Namely, blood sorcery.

The last thing known of her life was that she fought in the final confrontation against the Lich King with many other heroes, was grievously wounded, and made it to the border of the Old Country before she succumbed to her wounds. She, along with many other heroes who perished in battle and afterward, were buried in the borderlands of the Old Country on a hill with a lone tree at the top. The place was a hallowed site before, but became even more of a place of reverence after it became a memorial for the final battle against the Lich King. Kiarda was vindicated in death; her magic was seen less as a demonic practice.

No good deed goes unpunished, of course. When the Lich King's demesne rose once again, Kiarda's burial site was disturbed by a battering of tainted magic and stretching fissures. The tree upon the hill suffered the brunt of the assault. It was torn asunder under the stress of geological and magical force, pulling up large chunks of the hill and exhuming Kiarda's body. The tree released its magic against the Lich King's influence in an act of defiance, covering the hill in a blanket of its influence and energy, though dark magics still seeped in and reacted strangely when they reached Kiarda. Kiarda's soul latched on and dove back into her own perfectly preserved body, likely kept as such by the tree's magic. Awakening with a gasp, she was conscious again after hundreds of years. Not truly alive, not truly dead, but conscious. Cold ichor flowed through her veins, her once lively flesh took on a greyish pallor, and her eyes were a smokey grey as if she had long since turned blind.

Rumors ran wild of Ruritania's local legend returning to the forests, but with a dark shadow being cast on the rest of the world from the Old Country rising again, it was unclear whether it boded well or not.

With faded brown green scales, and clad in flexible leather armour and cloth, Kij strikes a formidable figure even standing only at 5'3.
Name: Kij'hara

Race: Slith (Lizardperson)

Personality: Kij'hara is, suffice to say, more comfortable in the company of shadows and thieves than the more socially acceptable kinds, finding they often tend to talk less than others. She prefers the quiet people, the people who don't need to say much to convey what they want or need, and she will often lapse into a 'comfortable' silence that can be misconstrued – by the louder types – as uncomfortable, or even expectant. She is unusually lacking in her ability to judge what would be appropriate to say and what would not, resulting in her often saying the wrong thing to the wrong person and getting herself in trouble. However, over time she has learnt to know when to not say anything at all, so as to limit the amount of fights she finds herself in due to her lack of judgement. Staying silent also causes anger, she has found, but it is often less physical. She is distrusting and fearful of Orcs in particular, and views each and every one as lowly mercenary scum.

Background: Kij'hara was born on the far outskirts of a small village in the west of Ruritania. She grew up with five other siblings, but would spend more time exploring the forest than playing with her sisters and brothers, preferring to be alone. Her parents were hunters who supplied meat for the village, and – knowing the local forests – let their children roam freely once they were able to look after themselves. Kij learnt how to climb trees, forage, and handle a knife, all well before the age of ten. On her thirteenth birthday, when most of her other siblings had left home to become apprentices (or were too young to do so yet), she asked to be taught how to hunt, and, in time, continue the family business. Her parents were glad to take her on as an apprentice and over the course of two years she learnt the job; how to shoot a bow, and how to move quickly and quietly, unseen by deer or a boar. At the age of seventeen, secure in her apprenticeship and almost fully trained, she decided to make her first overnight trip on her own, hunting larger prey. She set out at dawn, and returned with the carcass of her fallen prey at dusk of the following day. Welcoming faces did not greet her when she returned home, as expected, but instead she watched from afar as the corpses of her parents were cremated in the fire that ate through their house. Bandits, primarily Orcish, had raided her house, murdered her parents, and burned what they could not steal. She did not wait for them to find her, and turned back into the forest.
For the next few years she lived off the land and, although she departed the forests where she had been born after only a few months, did not go back to civilization unless the winter was particularly harsh and she was driven to buy food or clothing. However she began to grow tired of the constant restlessness of her life and sought to settle down, finally venturing into the city to find somewhere to live. She stayed for three months with her younger sister, but after many subtle hints (and being directly told to her face that she was no longer welcome to stay), she began to look for a job to earn money with. By a chance of fate, she heard the rumours regarding the Old Country, and – deciding that it was a sign that she was doing the wrong thing – set about finding more information...

Abilities: She is deft at using a knife and bow, and when she is unable to catch anything to eat herself can set traps that do the job for her. Although unused to climbing stone or buildings, she is nimble and can use her claws to find small pits and dents to hold on to, making her capable of climbing most structures, natural or unnatural. Her training and skill in hunting also result in her being light on her feet, able to blend in with the shadows and go undetected.

Equipment:
A flatbow and a knife. Though used primarily for hunting, they are also suitable for combat.
A water pouch and a basic medicine kit (which also contains rations of dried meat, etc).
Leather armour, worn and patched but still usable.