Name:
Grindan

Appearance:


Grindan is a sturdy, towering figure of a man; The result of a lifetime of working the forge of a blacksmith and employing the various tools of his trade as an executioner demanded and rewarded a high degree of raw physical might. A number of scars mark his arms and hands, alongside some long faded but still deep markings that linger upon his back that are distressing to the eye. Never a handsome man to begin with, Grindan's nose has clearly been broken a number of times and a number of his teeth knocked out or poorly removed which has resulted a rather ugly example of the hylian race.

While he shaves his head bald, Grindan's natural hair color is a light brown/chestnut. His eyes are a dull jade.

Gender:
Male

Race:
Hylian

Background:
Grindan was originally born in one of many small villages that dotted the landscape of Hyrule. He was born the son of the village blacksmith Axton and his supportive wife Amber, but despite the efforts of the local healer Amber passed away several days after giving birth due to complications. The slow and painful death of his wife changed Axton for the worst; He had never been the kindest of men and he was well known for being something of a strict taskmaster, but Amber had been able to coax a degree of softness and restraint from her husband that kept him from being too overbearing in regards to his fellow villagers. With the light of his life gone, Axton became harsh and cold to his fellow hyrulians... the most often focus of his attention being his son.

Throughout Grindan's childhood, his father was a distant figure who expected a high standard from him and was difficult to please because of it. When the standard for normal was set to 'great' by default, good was never good enough while poor work was badly punished. While nothing out of the ordinary when he was small, as he grew older Grindan's punishments tended to get more physical in nature once Axton believed his son was old enough to know better and could take those kinds of things. His nose was broken a number of times and the scars on his back remain decades later.

Axton wanted his son to grow up into a strong man that people could depend on when times were tough. To this end, Grindan was trained to follow his father's footsteps as a blacksmith... and how to use some of the weapons that they made in order to defend their home from the odd monster or bandit. The first time that Grindan took a life as part of the village militia, his father took him aside to let him know just how proud he was of him. It was one of the few times in his life that Grindan actually received his father's approval and it would remain one of his most treasured of memories.

Then the war came and ravaged Hyrule. Grindan's village was not spared the horrors of the conflict as it was attacked, pillaged and left a smoking ruin fairly early on, with most of the population slaughtered in the process. Grindan was able to fight his way out, creating a brief opening which allowed a few other lucky villagers to escape from the carnage but to his knowledge they were all that had managed to escape. His home destroyed, his father and few friends dead, Grindan did the only thing he believed he could do under the circumstances; He sort out the other side of the war in order to offer his services. This would put him in the service of the King of Hyrule.

While the King's army could always use another solder, the truth was that Grindan's skill as a blacksmith actually made him more valuable as a smith then as a solder. His combat ability were refined during his free time due to the fact that this was a war and sometimes things happened, but for the most part he was kept away from combat and served in a supportive role. Grindan might have remained solely in the role of a blacksmith... but fate offered him an opportunity to sate his desire for vengeance and blood when a call went out looking for executioners.

While enemy solders were prime candidates for the chopping block, noose or whatever method of death was deemed suitable to be employed, the upswing of banditry and other crimes because of the war resulted in harsher punishments for those crimes and a need for people willing to carry out such harsh punishments in the King's name... and Grindan quickly became one of them. He quickly gained infamy as an executioner due to a few factors. The first was the fact that while most people would attempt to make the execution as quick and painless as possibly out of a sense of humanity, Grindan had no qualms about using more torturous methods of execution and would often ask the powers that be if they wanted the condemned to go out relatively quick and easy or slow and painfully.

The second was his habit of taking the bones of his victims to grind into powder and use as a component in his blacksmithing. His father had taught him how using bone powder mixed with iron tended to make the end result stronger and lighter, through back in those days they had used animal bones. The decision to use the bones of his victims was as much a pragmatic choice to make use of all the resources on hand as it was a decision to make being sent to the executioner a more daunting prospect. These habits did not make him popular, but his new dreadful reputation did lead him to being introduced to another agent of dread that the King employed.

Ganondorf and Grindan got along swimmingly from the moment they met. While the realities of war and their respective duties meant that they didn't spend to much time together, they quickly developed a friendship built on a mutual respect of the power that burned like a dark, twisted flame they could see within each other. It wasn't strange for Ganondorf to request Grindan's presence in his forces, often finding a use for his friend's special breed of controlled, brutal sadism.

After the war, Grindan remained as a servant of the Crown in both his roles as blacksmith and executioner. He was even granted the title of Royal Executioner by the King for his services in the war... but the reward was somewhat lacking. The position was not a noble title and it was made very clear to him that as far as the nobility was concerned, he was little more then a monstrous peasant that performed the thankless task of cleaning up the prisons.

Serving for a number of years and entering his late twenties to mid thirties (he honestly wasn't exactly sure how old he was anymore himself due to the chaos of time), the King sent Grindan to Snowpeak City with a contingent of solders in order to quell a revolt that some in the city hoped to turn into full on rebellion. Grindan saw that such notions died in their infancy and Snowpeak was brought back into line.

While the war gave him some fresh scars to bare and display, Grindan was ruthless and unflinching as he set an example that the city of Snowpeak would never forget. After all, the roots of rebellion grew thick and deep the darkness. If left alone, they would one day sprout their treasonous fruit... and even if one cut off the branches and hacked down the trunk the tree would regrow with enough time. The roots needed to be torn from their dark, secure hiding places and destroyed utterly.

Upon Grindan's return to Hyrule it was clear that things had changed. Not the least of which was that his old friend Ganondorf had overthrown and killed the old King and installed himself as the new ruler of Hyrule. Grindan was more then happy to pledge his service and loyalty to his friend and new liege and Ganondorf was more then happy to accept it; Despite the fact that Grindan almost certainly would have sided with Ganondorf during the coup, the fact that he was outside of the kingdom at the time meant that he never got the chance to truly prove his loyalty.

In time, this will change. For King Ganondorf needs to be sure of the loyalty of those who might join his inner circle.

Likes:
Killing
Blacksmithing
Cream filled pastry and baked goods in general

Dislikes:
Weakness (Both physical and emotional)
Spicy food
Self Righteous People/Hypocrites

Skill:
As to be expected from the Royal Executioner, he is really good at killing people in a wide variety of ways.
He is also a damn good blacksmith.

Gender
Female

Race
Gerudo

AppearanceNot unlike her fellow Gerudo clanswomen, Arume is an impressively tall woman standing at 6'6" with muscles that would make the average Hylian guard feel inadequate. She ties her thick firey hair back in a high ponytail, although there are unfortunately pieces of her hair that will never behave, and will instead constantly get in her face, much to her chagrin.

Since moving to Kakariko Village, Aru has taken it upon herself to dress more "modestly" in order to better suit her new surroundings, as well as to assure the Hylian women that she's not trying to turn their husbands' gaze. Instead of wearing her traditional desert attire, Aru instead wears a spacious and flowy tunic, pinched at the waist with a patterned sash and tucked into simple brown trousers. However, she is still a proud Gerudo, and so still dons her chunky golden jewelry in full display.

Skill
After a lifetime of training under fierce Gerudo women, it'd be an understatement to say that Aru was proficient in close range combat, favouring her trusty spear. However, don't ask her to shoot a bow unless you enjoy watching arrows get wasted by the bundle - It's not her fault that she's short-sighted.
Background
Arume, or "Aru" as she'd prefer to be called, was born only a few years before the to-be king of her proud race. Being only a few years older than Ganondorf, she was able to watch his transformation from snot-nosed child king to the evil "man" he was now.

At first, she pitied "the Dragmire boy" not allowed to play with the other children, but over time, she began to notice that something was... off about him. Those feelings amplified tenfold after the death of their previous king, Ganondorf's father: It seemed that suddenly being thrust onto the throne only intensified his tyrannical behaviour - he cared for nothing except his own position, and only wanted to take and take until there was nothing left.

As they all grew older and Ganondorf grew into his desert throne, many of the women flocked to kneel at his feet and obey his every command and whim. But, Aru did not: She couldn't agree with his plans to forcefully expand his kingdom. Sure, the recent Civil War had already hurt the Gerudo's territory harshly by forcing it under the Hylian king's rule, but purposely reigniting a war for the sake of one man's pride felt more like spitting in the face of all the innocents of Hyrule before stabbing them in the back.

So, she left.

Now brandished as a "traitor to her race," Aru moved to Kakariko Village. At first, it was obvious that she was unwelcome, which she completely understood due to the uneasy truce between Greater Hyrule and the Gerudos. Luckily for her, the people of Kakariko warmed up to her over time, and she eventually became an integral part of the community. Due to her naturally maternal nature, and to the gratitude she felt toward the people of Kakariko, she often stationed herself as a town guard and protector: Kakariko took her in when she had nowhere else to go, so Aru would lay her life down to protect them.

That fact was almost proven on the day of Ganondorf's uprising:

She was alerted to the danger by a retreating band of the army flooding into Kakariko. Gerudo had usurped the Hylian throne, and was coming to try and force her new home under his thumb. She knew that the day would come eventually, but the impending fight still turned her stomach into the tightest of knots. But she couldn't back down, she refused to back down. She immediately found the army's captain and demanded to join the fight against her former king's advance.

Aru was forced to fight the very women she grew up with, and it broke her heart as well as hesitated her hand - Unfortunately, this resulted in Aru catching a blade in her side, leaving her severely injured. But she had to push through the pain, she had to protect her home. It was only after the Gerudo army retreated she allowed herself to buckle under the pain of her injuries.

For weeks, Aru was forced to be bedridden as her injuries healed, and to say that she was impatient was the understatement of the ages. Every day she tried to return to her post at the village gates, and every day she was forced back home - often kicking and screaming bloody murder.

But at long last, Aru's injuries finally healed and she could return to her duties, and Aru vows to protect her home from the poison that is Ganondorf's new reign.


Likes

• Cuccoos
• Terrible jokes
• The desert

Dislikes

• Ganondorf and those loyal to him
• Deep water (rather, she's afraid of it)
• Cold weather