Amir Ali Rafati

Amir

2/8

22

Male

Heterosexual

Single

Baldori

Thelan

Elliot Knight

Standing at 6’1 with a lean, muscled, and athletic build, Amir has spent many years training and conditioning his body for a war that may or may not come. He is man built for agility and speed as much as he is for strength. Amir’s brown skin is often darkened further during the long summer from his time spent in the sun and his hands are rough from years for work. His black hair hangs below his jawline, and his jawline is lined with a strip of facial hair that also frames his mouth. His expressive eyes are a dark brown, generally filled with wonder as he looks out at the world, and shine with a glow when accompanied by his bright smile. He has a couple of scars here and there on his torso from his combat lessons but nothing attached to an interesting story. He favors light clothing that’s fairly loose but not enough to get in the way, dressing similarly the way he did when he lived in the Baldori deserts, although adding more layers when the climate drops below sweltering.

Combat training, Amir puts most of his free time into his training, focusing on swordsmanship, spears, close combat with daggers, throwing knives as well as evasion and defensive maneuvering. Speed, flexibility, and strength training are all incorporated into his daily training.

Travel, born with a strong sense of adventure and wanderlust for the world Amir takes every opportunity to see knew lands, learn about the cultures and people that surround him, and most importantly experience their cuisines.

Learn something new, having always had a curious mind Amir takes every opportunity to learn something new, as a child it was the faith, then Baldori combat training, then the history and cultures of the surrounding lands, and currently he finds himself enthralled with philosophy.

Anything new and exciting
Food
Animals, but camel’s especially
Travel
People
Activities that challenge him
Rain

The cold
Cruelty and indifference
Witchcraft
Stagnation and boredom
Failure and disappointing others
Seeing his people taken advantage of
The faults in his character, his own darker side, giving in to temptations and straying from his faith

His greatest fear is the darkness that lies within himself, his faults as a man. Having spent his whole life training for war in a time of peace, for a war that might not come, he finds himself hoping for war even though he knows peace is the right choice, the pious choice. He craves a fight, he wants to be battle tested to earn glory though bloodshed like the heroes of ancient tales. The fact that a part of him hungers for violence scares him, it goes against everything he was taught to believe.

He sees witches as the manifestation of the power of darkness, the truest form of evil on this earth and thus has a healthy dose of fear when it comes to sorcery.

Since leaving the Baldori Dominion he has started to greatly question the beliefs of his people. He has seen how the faith has been used to keep them down, that his people have become selfless to the extent that it causes them great harm. They were given the harshest, barren desert in the kingdom and for that they have been expected to give or sell their women to lecherous men and brothels, for fathers to leave their families and do the hard work for the Thelanians while their own families suffer in their absence. He has seen how spending all of their money on temples for the light while the people suffer with less than they need. There have even been days where he has almost completely lost faith, but the core message of his belief system still holds a place in his heart while many practices no longer do.

Amir is driven by his heart; compassion, empathy, and kindness have always been strong virtues to the Baldori and were imparted into him at a young age. He has a love for anything new, people, places, and ideas; he is openminded and quick to embrace anything that makes the world a little more interesting. He looks at most things with awe and wonder and there’s very little that he’s afraid of; a major exception is witchcraft which to him is a pure manifestation of evil and darkness. He naturally puts others before himself, sometimes to his detriment, but some traditions are hard to break. He’s also very honest and authentic, deceit is something that is seen as being beneath the Baldori, and occasionally his candor can be a bit much. He likes anything that challenges him, things that come too easily bore him, and he’s always been diligent and hard working.

Amir trusts easily, he can be overly idealistic and naïve, allowing others to take advantage of his gentle nature. He’s sensitive, feels things deeply, and seeing others suffer, especially his own people causes him great pain. He’s a restless free spirit, he’s never known how to be tranquil or satisfied with being still, Amir has always craved adventure and felt the need to see the world and experience as much as he can. He’s charming, charismatic, and can occasionally come off as cocky but that’s mostly a part he plays, acting more confident than he is with the idea that if he acts confident he will become confident. Other times he can come off as cold and flippant, he likes to keep himself just at arm’s reach from others, making sure he never gets close enough to anyone that it hurts when he loses them.

For the vast majority of his life Amir has trained as a soldier, a warrior, something he takes extremely seriously. To stand with other men fighting for what is right feels like his calling, like this is absolutely what he was meant to do. Witches and Alovia, who aligns itself with witches, symbolize darkness to him, the enemy of the light and to stop them from spreading that darkness is a noble cause in his eyes. A part of him is hoping for war, to be able to use his training to make a difference, to be a real warrior and after all, he has spent nearly his entire life training for combat, is it real so wrong to want to see that to fruition? Amir feels a great deal of confliction on this, but this is what he was destined to be and he wants to use his skills to further the light and he can see no other way doing so, even if doing so goes against his nature and his faith.

Trained in traditional Baldori combat Amir has a fighting style that relies on his speed and agility. Hit fast and keep moving. He’s also young and strong so physicality is another strength of his.

Amir is smart, not in the same way as some soft handed noble but thinks well on his feet, he learns quickly, and keeps a cool head under pressure.

He’s good with animals, especially camels which he grew up around, Amir has a natural gift with most creatures.

Silver tongued, Amir is a charismatic, outgoing people person. He gets along well with most people, he’s charming, authentic, and generous to both strangers and friends.

Although athletic he’s no match to say a Viking in brute strength, he’s strong but many, especially those whose lives revolve around combat training are stronger. He’s also reluctant to cause harm or take a life, he’ll do it if needed, especially against enemies who serve darkness like he believes witches do.

Although smart enough that he could learn from his mistakes, Amir is also incredibly stubborn and able to convince himself that he has no limits. Example would be drinking, Amir is absolutely a lightweight when it comes to alcohol, drinking isn’t really a Baldori approved activity, but he refuses to except this fact. He tends to push his personal limits further than he should rather than give up, which has gotten him a few injuries during combat training.

Unwaveringly idealistic and naïve, Amir’s trusting nature and stubbornness against becoming cynical have made him easy to be taken advantage of by people less principled than he.

Amir has experienced a great deal of loss in his life and he finds it incredibly difficult to deal with, he feels things very deeply, so to protect himself he doesn’t get too close to anyone, and doesn’t stay in the same place long enough to form attachments that are too deep.

Amir was born into a family that was, even by Baldori standards, rather poor. His father was a camel herder although they did not own the camels, the animals were owned by a high-ranking priest of the faith. His very early childhood, as much of it as he can remember, was good; he enjoyed helping his father with the camels, playing with his older brother and sister, and exploring the desert. Their home was a small dilapidated shack surrounded by similar structures in one of the denser part of the city. For Amir, that meant there were plenty of people to get to know and other children to play with. He particularly enjoyed listening to stories from elders which was about the extent of his education other than the teachings at the temples. As a child, Amir looked at the temples with wonder, they were the most beautiful things built in the desert and he was proud to among the world’s chosen people. However, when it came to actual practice of the faith; prayer and meditation, obedience, and purity young Amir constantly fell short. He frequently found himself in trouble, small childish things mostly but enough to be noticed especially when compared to his older brother, Yosef, who was always more devote and pious.

At eight his father was among a group of men selected to assist with agricultural needs all the way in the city of Thelan. He was gone for about a year, frequently sending money home to the family, before he died in accident involving one of the horses. Amir found grief difficult to deal with, he was angry and confused and he only ended up getting into more trouble and picking fights with other boys. His family now stayed with his maternal Uncle who found all the extra mouths to feed too heavy a burden. Yosef, his older brother was sent to stay with the priest, eventually becoming one himself, while his sister, Samira was sold to brothel in Thelan, and Amir was sent to train with the militants. He was heartbroken to separate from his family, anger to hear his sister had been sent to a brothel, and still struggling to deal with the grief over his father’s death. At first, he rebelled against training and taking orders but eventually found catharsis through channeling his grief and anger into his training. Amir worked hard, he trained hard determined to excel at his chosen purpose. Every day he worked himself until he was too physically exhausted to care about how he felt or to think too hard about anything.

When he was told that he would be sent to Thelan to train with their soldiers he was elated, at fourteen he had never left the Baldori deserts and he was so excited to see someplace new. During his time training he saw very little of his family but he had grown closer to one of his childhood friends, Layla, who became his first love. He said his goodbye’s, promising that he would return a man and a solider capable of taking care of her, dreaming that one day they would wed. He spent the next two four training with Thelan soldiers, returning home when he could for visits, and striving to become a great warrior. He did work around Thelan when he could as well, saving up his money, trying his best stick to his beliefs while taking in the culture shock of his new home. Thelan was certainly very different from the Baldori Dominion and it was often difficult to fit in with his fellow soldiers while sticking to his religious beliefs although Amir always made an effort to do so. There were some things that he tried in the name of comradery and out of curiosity like drinking alcohol while other things such as visiting the brothels were avoided. The one time he did go to the brothel was too upsetting for him, every face he saw made him think of his poor sister, out there somewhere, suffering as well. He was only able to stomach that house of depravity for few minutes. During his time in the Thelan he had tried to track down his sister but he never did learn what became of her.

When he returned to the Baldori Dominion a man he learned that his beloved had been married off to some nobleman. It was devastating news but he learned through a few letters that at least the man was kind and they agreed to cease contact so that she could focus on the future. After his time in the city the desert was no longer enough for him. Amir couldn’t stay in one place, although he found he could be at home just about anywhere, nowhere felt like a home. He explored all of the kingdom he could, traveling, never staying in one place for too long, making friends but never getting close enough to anyone that made his goodbye’s painful.

Like many Baldori, Amir is a fairly strict vegetarian, unless necessity dictates, he avoids meat.