Name: Vier Alma, the Sword Sage

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Appearance:





Vier stands at 6’ 2”, having a well-built physique and nearly perfect posture. His right hand and left arm are marked with several slash scars and burn marks. He tends to hide his hair under a hat when going out and about.

Personality: Vier is a bit of an oddity. He doesn’t believe that he can be a true hero, so he accepts that he can be a knight with dirty hands. For him, nearly anything goes in a fight, so his code of honor is more a series of guidelines. Outside of fighting, Vier comes off as almost sleepy, although he tends to perk up when he hears an interesting conversation. His loyalty to the Iron Roses is a careful consideration on his part. While he trusts them, he chooses to keep a bit of distance between them and himself, as a way to not make attachments. His code of chivalry is helping people, even if it can be seen as dishonorable. In his eyes, if a solution works, how it was created shouldn’t be a concern. For Vier, a knight saves people regardless of their position or origin. In the same vein, he has a general disgust for the idea that being born in a palace made one better than a peasant. Due to his peasant upbringing, while not all that privy to social situations, Vier’s steadfast nature makes it hard to confuse him or cause him to stumble over his own words. However, it also means that he won’t give up on an issue until it’s solved. He’s got a reputation for rarely playing fair. Whether it comes to games or sparring, he won’t cheat, but his tactics are rarely, if ever straightforward.

Brief Backstory: Any fancy sword can be used by a random man, but a passionate man can be a legend with a stick.

This is one of the first lessons Vier was taught by his father. He grew up in a small town a few weeks north of Aimlenn, having visited the capital on occasion. His town was relatively quiet, with the occasional traveler and nobleman stopping by for a break on the trip to Aimlenn. Vier didn’t know his mother well, her rarely visiting due to her studies in the Mage’s College. His father was no great knight, but a guardsman. He was only a normal man, but Vier saw him as a hero in his own right. He had no riches, influence, or even an heirloom sword, but he wanted to help people. Still, Vier’s father did what he could, teaching him about the world, and passing his knowledge of combat to him. His mother gave him a different lesson. At night, she would teach Vier magic, knowing this was taboo. Even so, she wanted him to have the ability to solve problems without violence

As he grew up and learned more, Vier became stricken with wanderlust. He wanted to see more than his small world, and take a shot at being one of the heroes he read about. One he reached 20, after telling his parents that he’d come back when he was ready, Vier went off to Aimlenn to prove his worth. But the journey would prove more perilous than he had anticipated. Vier nearly died a few days in after being attacked by a group of bandits, only surviving by playing dead. An ironsmith grabbed him and patched Vier up. After hearing Vier’s story, the smith offered to fix his swords and armor in return for helping deal with the bandits the next time they came back. After completing the task, he returned to his journey.

After a few more weeks of travel, he finally finished the trip and began taking the path of true knighthood. At first, Vier took to street fighting as a way to get some coin in his pocket. He even gained a bit of fame as the Sword Sage, using magic to amplify his swordsmanship. But the call of knighthood was always in the back of his head, Ben with his small bit of fame. So when the opportunity came to join the Iron Roses, he leapt at the chance, buying a set of armor and a new pair of swords for the occasion. His honor may be wishy-washy, but his drive to save lives is what makes him a knight.

Equipment: Vier wears a well-made but functional set of plate armor that he wears over leather breeches, the set having come with a sword and shield to match. He has an additional pair of shortswords that he prefers for sparring and dueling, one with a black blade and golden hilt, the other a steel-blue blade and gray hilt.

Skills: The lessons Vier learned from his parents were meant to be used in tandem . While his skill in witchcraft was only slightly above average and his swordsmanship was passable at best, combining them made a style of swordplay that was more than the sum of its parts: Witch Swordcraft. Aside from his combat skills, he is adept at cleaning, whittling and cooking thanks to his parents. While his food isn’t the stuff of stories, it’s palatable, and usually well seasoned. He has a rudimentary grasp on reading and writing, though it doesn’t measure up to any nobleman.

Name: Steffen Gravinir

Age: 31

Gender: Male

Race: Ingvarr

Appearance:
Very tall, towering at 7ft, along with a well-built body and broad shoulders, Steffen would be a giant if other giant races did not exist. But he often concealed that physique through more conservative and sharp styled clothes, giving off a more intellectual aura. He sported a neck-length black hair that had a slights jut out to the side due to his wide and pointy ears. A clear trademark that he would or could not hide from anyone would be his red twisty horns on top of his head. While an intimidating sight to be seen in combat, it did make him resemble a bit like a goat, something people sometimes made fun of him for. His eyes dimmed a mesmerizing amethyst color.

Personality:
Steffen is a gentle and quiet man. He is quite reserved and stoic, but willing to share his learned knowledge with those around him, combined with the contrasting reputation of the Ingvarr people made him quite an eccentric figure for those around him. It would be quite rare to see him raise his voice to someone who is not his enemies, and even less so his allies. He is also a pushover, and while he would refuse anything outright immoral, he found it difficult to say no to any requests for help, nor would he be disagreeable in conversations. In fact, his fellow knights would find him quite pleasant to talk to, having that air of knowledge around him. However, he does tend to keep his past to himself, making some people to wonder or be skeptical to why he is here.

Steffen is quite diligent in his day-to-day life, both on-duty and off-duty. His best effort were derived from satisfaction from accomplishing the smallest of things: a sharp blade, a clean house, or a task well-done. He often took on menial tasks for the other knights, or rather being pushed into doing, as they trusted that he would complete them with satisfactory results. Steffen has nothing really to prove to anyone unless it's required to. All he wanted is to live a low profile, working for the sake of others and enjoying the simple things. He avoids confrontations or challenges, never being the instigator, as he find those to be often times pointless. That is no excuse to push him over the edge, however, as those who were caught at the sharp end of his spear tend to not enjoy that experience.

He is inadvertently good with children, despite not necessarily fond of talking to them. His distinct Ingvarr horns and pointy ears tend to attract the younglings and the curious. Being someone who wouldn't want to refuse others, he would let them play with it.

Brief Backstory:
Ingvarrs are fierce warriors. People in this land knew that, the Ingvarrs knew that, the Gravinir family knew that, and Steffen knew that too. But he consciously chose the life of peace and knowledge, despite his family insisting otherwise. He would not budge. No matter how many combat sessions he had with his father, a renowned warrior in his tribe, how many insistence of family traditions, how many Ingvarr legends that were passed, and how he could become one of them, Steffen was not interested. He liked reading literature, growing flowers and writing instead. Initially he would be looked upon with scorn, but overtime, his parents accepted his path. After all, it was his choice, and he was sticking by it quite admirably, so who were they to force him otherwise. It was still a shame, however, as Steffen is a good warrior in his own right, and could've been a perfect inheritor of the warrior reputation of his ancestors. But solemnly, the head of family title would be passed down to his little brother, Ogand, and he was expected to carry his family's traditions instead.

Ogand, however, did not possess the warrior capability nor the honor that his older brother had. Though he aspired to make a name for himself and his family, he was a middling fighter, could barely persevere with his father's strict training regiments, which became even more strict to shape him. That aspiration slowly grew to resentment. Resentment of his parents for inflicting so much pain on him, resentment on his older brother for handing him that responsibility despite being more than capable of fulfilling it himself. Steffen did occasionally look out for his younger brother, though did not stray away from his chosen path, which only made Ogand's resentment grew even more. It all came to a breaking point when Ogand threw away everything, his honor and aspiration to betray his parents and brother, murdered the former and burned their house down. Steffen luckily was not around when the betrayal happened, but Ogand was going for him next. News of the treachery spread quickly, however, and a kind soul managed to warn Steffen before he suffered the same fate as his parents. The eldest son of the Gravinir family took up the spear that he put down long ago, and the next time the two brothers met, only one would come out alive.

Heartbroken for his beloved parents, and even more so his brother, whose betrayals hurt him personally, Steffen left his tribe, hoping to find peace in solitude. On his travels, he met a nice group of Ingvarr hunters who liked to camp near his area. They befriended one another, and eventually they invited him to live with their tribe. Steffen reluctantly accepted, but soon found comfort in his new tribes. He figured he could settle here and enjoy a stable, mundane life. He even swore a blood oath of brotherhood with one of his close friends there. He was happy for a few years, until it was taken from him again.

Unbeknownst to Steffen, his leader had a dispute with another tribe, something that escalated to a conflict. Their tribe struck first with a raid on his village, one that caught them by surprise. In spite of that, the warriors of his village, including Steffen, managed to resist the invaders, and thus repelling them after hours of gruelling combat. However, many of his friends including his oath-sworn brother were among the fallen. The weight of another tragedy plus superstitions of Steffen by the locals who were aware of what happened to his family, believing the man to be bringing bad luck to the tribes, convinced him to leave his tribe one more time to find another place to live. This time he would go south to Thaln.

He would initially find work here and there in the northern area of Thaln with the locals who were friendly with the Ingvarrs, but a more permanent settlement for him would be further south. People were initially wary of the Ingvarr due to never having seen one before, but suspicions mellowed out a bit overtime as his good deeds accumulated. While he mainly helped the village out with bookkeeping and some botanical works, his Ingvarr super-strength made him flexible to most village commissions.

One day, several knights stumbled into the village, beaten and bloodied, desperate for refuge. The village chief took them in and helped them recover from their wounds. It would be later be revealed that they were the Iron Rose knights, fleeing a lost battle of what would be known as the War of the Red Flag, but not after their recovery, but before by their predators. A band of soldiers from Lord Cainz would stumble into the village to finish off the remnants of the Iron Roses, but was met with a firm refusal from the old village chief, who told off the soldiers that they should be ashamed for trying to hunt down the wounded and the sick. For his kindness though, the village chief would be ran through with a spear. They tried to ransack the village afterwards, but Steffen was there and he, despite not having a proper weapon on-hand, would slaughter the rebels with utter brutality. There would be no more meaningless massacre in the land he loved.

The Iron Rose Knights would recover after a few days, explained to the villagers of the war that broke out, helped the leaderless village to set up defence watch against the rebels while they try to reach their Order. Naturally, they worked alongside Steffen mostly, and this outlander proved life-saving in times of desperation, fending off multiple follow-up rebel raids with the knights. Both impressed by his skills, admirable conducts, and lacking in manpower, the knights impromptu roped him into more knightly battles to defend the land, and there he did so with distinction. As the tide of the war gradually turned against the rebels, and more knights were available to reinforce the front, Steffen was phased out and spent the rest of the war defending his village. But for the knights who stumbled into the village on that fateful day, the fearsome warrior was exemplary knightly behavior, more so than some of their own, and readily recommended him to join their Order. He was initially reluctant to be taking up the warrior life again now that the war was over, but after seeing tragedies happen, snatching away his peaceful life one time after another, he was convinced that there would be no peace in this chaotic world if the threats were not to be dealt with. He accepted his invitation this time to the Iron Rose Knights, being one of a few outlander knights of the Order.

Equipment:
Gravinir Spear:
The only relic left of his long dead family, one that he used in the fight with his brother. A box-standard spear of his tribe, nothing too special, but given the inhuman strength of the Ingvarr, they were made almost entirely out of metal in order to withstand the test of might. It stood just as tall as Steffen, topped by a triangular spearhead that could slice or pierce. The back of the spear also is sharpened with a spearhead, though leaf-shaped.

Armor: Plate armor custom-made when he joined the Iron Rose Knights, to replace the haphazard one he had during the war. He does not have a helmet with him, as the smither refused that, citing too much work to do. How the hell do you make a helmet for such a head?

Skills:
His most obvious skill is his inhuman physical strength, capable of bending metal and breaking boulders with relative ease. He can use most conventional weaponry with some degree of familiarity, but his weapon of mastery is the spear. His spearmanship style is defensive, often overcoming opponents with counterattacks, parries that disorient their intended move. He prefers not to make much movement of his own and while more pacifistic, he would not hesitate to be brutal the more serious the threat became. Steffen is also a good martial artist, very well being able to hold his own unarmed, while always presenting the threat of the earth-shattering punch that embodied his physical strength.

Outside the battlefield, Steffen is quite fond of gardening and botany, enjoyed reading and writing literature. His knowledge and advanced literacy allowed him on more important bookkeeping roles for the knights.