Name: Alexander Markos

Race/Faction: Kingdom (kinda)

Age: 24

Description: Alexander has tanned skin from his days spent in the sun at sea. He has black hair cut short and slight stubble on his jaw. Alexander's eyes are Hazel, with a glint of mischief. He stands at a respectable 5'10", and weighs about 170 lbs. During the average day he wears soft boots, and leather pants. While at sea he typically copies the other sailors and wears no shirt, that does not mean he can't dress respectably. For political functions he typically wears decorative leather armor with silver accents.

Alexander after being at sea for a while. (closest to what I was thinking.)
"Class": Baron of a southern province

Motivation: Alexander believes that the people of the kingdom are the true heart of the nation. While he doesn't want a bloody rebellion to rip apart the nation he so dearly loves, he believes changes must be made. He wants to pass peaceful reforms to control the monarchs and even believes that a council of lords should be organized to deal with the day to day business of the kingdom. While not truly believing in democracy he thinks that the people need more of a voice since they are the ones that know the struggles they are going through.

History: Alexanders father had been a successful military leader and believed that all men in an army had equal importance, including the commander. He had drilled this in to Alexander at a very young age and the boy believed it fanatically. His father would find him helping the maid clean dishes and the gardener rake the leaves. His father's city loved him, and he was like the cities son. He was never afraid to talk to a new person no matter what they looked like. He wrestled with the city boys, getting just as filthy as the rest of them.

When he was about 15 his father was called on to lead troops to deal with a small peasant uprising. That was the first time Alexander saw battle. No it wasn't a battle, it was a massacre. The peasants were not prepared for the highly professional army his father maintained, or the ruthlessness they showed. The peasants had charged the army with in a frenzy. It was obvious who would win but they refused to disarm and surrender. It was over within 10 minutes, with very few deaths on his fathers side. The peasants were an entirely different story, the villages they came from were put to the torch and families split up. They were sent to all different corners of the kingdom never to see their loved ones again.

After the campaign Alexander began to take up the hobby of sailing. He would be gone for weeks at a time only stopping home to gather crew and supplies. He couldn't be near his father or that dammed city. Those people who were okay with what was happening in the kingdom, to their nation. Three years ago Alexander returned to the news that his father was dead, and he was the new lord of the fief. He immediately became racked with guilt for abandoning his father, for not being there when he died. He became determined to fix the kingdom, but not through death. He decided he would lead by example and began implementing policies to improve the life of his citizens. He has created a council of citizens to run his city, while he focuses on running the country side. Even though he hates the death of innocent peasants he has no qualms about killing those who hurt people.

Strengths:
Tactician: While he hates to admit it he is a brilliant military commander much like his father.
Sailor: Still spending much time at sea he is a great sailor and competent navigator.
Inspires Loyalty: His soldiers are fanatically loyal, because he stands and fights on the front lines with them and wont make them do anything he wouldn't do himself.
Soldier: To call him a duelist would hurt the feelings of any real sword master. What Alexander does is best for the dirty confusing mess that is a battlefield. He uses a collection of dirty tricks and brute force attacks.

Weakness:
Terrible Liar: Alexander is a terrible liar and politician. He would rather punch a manipulative lord than talk with him.
Merciful: While he is an intelligent commander he has fears of repeating what his father did, so he takes unnecessary risks to let the enemy surrender.

What is the most important thing to know about your character?
Alexander believes that an open rebellion is a stupid idea and will fight against it if civilians are caught in the crossfire. He is fiercely loyal to his country, and wants to improve it, not destroy it.

What is your character's greatest flaw?
He does everything he can to avoid the massacre at his father's hands. He will avoid death even at risk to himself, unless the enemy has harmed innocent civilians and done wrong according to him.

Why should your character be in a position to influence an entire country?
He is powerful man in control of one of the largest ports in the Kingdom and maintains one of the few professional armies.

"HEAVE, HEAVE, HEAVE" For the last three hours that had been the only noise that any of the sailors could hear. That and the sound of their oars hitting the water of course. Alexander was rowing along with the rest of his crew, straining with every pull of the oar. It had been his mistake that had caused them to stray off course in the first place. They had been planning to rendezvous with some of the other ships from the harbor for a race. Alexander was sure he had aligned his map correctly, but his first mate had picked up on his mistake....after they had been sailing for 4 hours. The mistake was small, but even one such as this put them leagues away from their meeting point. Even worse is that the wind was now blowing into the bow of the ship causing the sail to be useless. Alexander had felt terrible, because now his crew would have hours of hard rowing ahead of them. He had walked over to one of the oarsman and told him he would row for him for an hour. Ever since then he had been switching with a different rower on the turn of the hour. It was his mistake, so he had to pay for it just like his crew had to even though they didn't make the mistake. He heard his skipper call rest and glanced behind him and saw the masts of the ships they were to meet.

Alexander jumped over the railing of the ship the captains had decided to gather on. They were all in a circle getting drunk from a cask of ale in the center of them. From the looks of things this wasn't the first cask either, and probably wont be the last. Alexander nudged one of the men aside and sat down between two of the captains. He grabbed a mug and filled it with the rum and took a long drink from it, almost emptying it.
"About time you got here, we almost thought you had gone and gotten yourself sunk or something." The man speaking to Alexander was Old Gibbs, he was a smuggler and perhaps the most loved person on the coastline. He was a kind man and kept his prices low, and even payed his taxes. Alexander had met the man when he first began sailing, and though of him as an Uncle more than anything.

"Just got a little off course, nothing we couldn't handle. I am just hurt you boys began drinking without me."

"Aye, and we almost started the race without you. We were just worried you would put us in the stockades for slighting you my Lord."

As Gibbs said those last words he grinned and performed a clumsy bow, almost falling over because how drunk he was. Everyone on the boat knew Alexander would do such thing, they all just enjoyed messing with the Baron because he knew how to take a joke.

"I would have done it too you dirty crimi-."

Alexander tried to sound menacing, but broke up into a laughing fit before he could finish the sentence. He was old friends with all the men on the ship, no with all the men in their little fleet. Alexander rose from his position and stretched out.

"We better begin getting ready for the race, my steward probably is buying poison to kill me this instant."
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The race had been fairly successful, but not as much as he would have liked. His ship had come in third, and it was all because of his mistake. The last stretch of the race had been against the wind and his already tired crew couldn't keep up with the fresh me on the other ships. They had all said their farewells to each other cheerily. Alexander's ship began their slow journey back to port just after nightfall. Everyone on the ship was exhausted, so Alexander was taking the long way back to the port so he had the wind at his sails for a longer amount of time.

As she glided over the water she looked nothing like the warship she truly was. The ram was barely visible below the waterline only producing a slight ripple in the water a few feet ahead of the ship. Alexander had modified her over the years to fit his own needs. That meant taking much of the armor off and making her waterline higher, so she was faster. This probably what made the pirates confident enough to attack a ship flying the barons flag. Normally the Hawk and Spear were enough to frighten off any raiders planning to attack a ship flying it. Alexander was notorious for his crusade against pirates. This included building 20 ships from an older design from the south he had learned of while on one of his trips. They seemed to be knives cutting through they water, utilizing 40 oars to achieve incredible speed. They had been crushing the pirates and ruining their business. Most pirates had left Alexander's waters, but some still remained.

The pirates had crept up on their "prey" seemingly unnoticed hoping to catch it unawares. As they drew up next to the ship they threw up grappling hooks then waited quietly for a second if an alarm would be sent up. They began climbing and became more confident, believing they were about to capture an easy prize. As they pulled themselves up onto the deck they were met with a site they had not been expecting. A young man was standing right in front of them with a naked sword in his hand, ready and prepared. What was more terrifying was that about twenty heavily armed men were right behind them wearing the armor of naval marines. The young man looked towards the man who had led the climb up the ladder and gave him a determined look.

"Surrender now and you will be tried fairly in court."

The pirates looked at each other confused at what to do till one of them shouted,"I am not rotting in a jail cell!!" The man charged the young man sword swinging wildly. As he came close Alexander tossed the sword towards the enemies face. His opponent dodged the throw easily glancing at it as it passed by him. That was his biggest mistake, Alexander closed the distance between him and the man lightning fast and gripped the pirates sword arm, while headbutting the man in the nose. The pirate fell backwards tears crawling into his vision as Alexander rushed forward keeping near the falling man. The pirate stumbled to regain his footing, but Alexander swiped at one of the man's legs knocking it out from under him. He twisted the pirates arm until he dropped his sword. Alexander quickly grabbed it and held it to the man's throat.

"I'll ask you one more time. Surrender."

The pirate's hands shot up and he nodded. The engagement had lasted all of 7 seconds, and the pirates knew they were out matched. The pirates dropped their swords and raised their hands in surrender. Not a single man resisted the entire trip back to port.

Name: Dhaeva

Race/Faction: Shrikanti

Age: looks around 35, but is probably much older

Description:



Dhaeva looks like a typical Shrikanti woman – very dark skin, rather short and skinny. She always wears magical talismans and trinkets, some of them made of wood and stones, some of them of animal bones or teeth. She has looked the same age for years, some even say decades, maintaining her body through her magic. Her eyes are said to hide the flames of Sol, as they are bright orange, a color very unusual amongst the Shrikanti.

"Class": Witch

Motivation:
Dhaeva prefers to stay out of conflict and tries to focus on helping her people through healing and protection magic. She will fight fiercely when her people are attacked, but is quite reluctant to attack herself.

History:
Dhaeva was born as a sixth child into a poor family. Her father was a goatherd and their family wealth were a small herd of goats. Dhaeva’s mother died a few days after giving birth to her, the childbirth was long and complicated, and she never stopped bleeding after it. Because her father could hardly feed the children he already had, let alone a few days old infant, she sent her to a witch coven to raise her. Witches were reluctant to take the baby in, but when the oldest one saw the color of child’s eyes, she prophesied great future for it.

So Dhaeva grew up learning magic even before she could walk and talk. She studied all kinds of magic, but it was the healing that she preferred, partially because of the way her mother died. Dhaeva wanted to prevent that happening to other women.

Very little of this history is known to common people, as Dhaeva spends her long life travelling between Shrikanti cities and smaller settlements, sometimes spending few months in place, sometimes a few years. She has a place in every witch coven, but she rarely uses this privilege, as she prefers to lead simple life free from politics.

She has been staying in the city of Cealla for the past three years, helping other Shrikanti and surviving on the gifts she received for her help.

Strengths:
She excels in healing and protective spells, also knows some useful curses and confusion spells. She wants to help everyone and hates to see people dying from causes that could be prevented, like minor diseases or hunger.

Weakness:
She is very reluctant to use offensive magic. She helps people sometimes to the detriment of herself, giving them last food or water or using her powers to the point of exhaustion. Also, she is quite weak in hand-to-hand combat.

What is the most important thing to know about your character?
Dhaeva is a healer, not just by profession, but by heart.

What is your character's greatest flaw?
Sometimes she cares too much and that can be used against her. She will go out her way to try and save people, even into dangerous situations.

Why should your character be in a position to influence an entire country?
While she doesn’t like using offensive magic, she certainly knows her way around it. If nothing else, she can help protect her people from foreign attacks.