I hope I'm not too late in submission.
Name: Grat Verloren
House Name: None.
Age: 26
Appearance: Since birth, Grat had been an oddity, though bore no deformities, and was indeed quite handsome. He differed from his contemporaries in that his features were the polar opposite of those typical to natives of the Expanse: A complexion resembling that of a corpse and refusing to darken from exposure to the sun, a head of bronze, and blue eyes. He knew well that the nomads who raised him were not his progenitors and, over time, inserted himself well into their society. Even so, he perceived the distinction between himself and they and, over time, imposed on himself the state of a pariah. Clothed in typical wear of a workman and having discarded the notion of extravagance, meditation became his solace and method of self actualization in the face of overwhelming self doubt and confusion. From the ages of fifteen to twenty-six, he adopted an isolative, purely agrarian lifestyle which honed his physicality to peak condition.
Homeland: Kain
Race: Mage
Spells:
-Geomancy: In his decade of isolation, Grat came upon Geomancy before any other school. His plowing equipment having grown decrepit and useless, a fit of rage ensued, within which Grat induced an upset of the earth beneath him. Though he continued to use physical means of tilling the earth, Geomancy became a viable substitute and a quality pastime as he discovered the art of sculpture, the only required tool for which was his mind.
-Airmancy: In his departure from his adoptive tribe, Grat, in his haste, failed to take into account that a life as an agrarian is severely hampered by recurring typhoons. This would have likely killed him if not for a visitation by what appeared to be a shaman of sorts.
You wish the land to be your livelihood? You will first need to master the air, child.
With this utterance, what may have been a shade, a ghost, or an angel proceeded to instruct the young Grat until he could, for an impressive radius, halt the raging winds and thusly maintain the integrity of his small, circular plot of land. This teaching induced Grat to maintain concentration even through the gale and came to true fruition after a whole arduous year of survival.
-Constructs: Grat's use of Golems was derived not from a supernatural revelation nor from serendipity, but from conscious desire to breathe life into the various statues he had mentally hewn from whatever stone made itself known to him, through gouges in the earth or simply laying shallowly within the dirt. These pieces he crafted to resemble his tribe, assumptions of what his biological parents may have looked like, and, in some instances, the bizarre shaman that had been his only "human" interaction for the first year of his isolation. The Golems acted first as puppets, then as farmhands as Grat's control over the living stone became stronger.
Bio: The Verloren family was an unassuming one. No heroes or villains had arisen from its line, no scandals had emerged, and nothing was particularly notable about its history except for a distinct propensity towards poverty. The worst example of this happened to be Grat's parents, who could not afford to feed a child as well as themselves. Not having the gall to smother, drown, or otherwise dispose of a living baby, they trekked deep into the Expanse and deposited their progeny within the plant matter with an attached message to the literate:
Our son is one who will either perish imminently or live in the arms of one more fit to raise him than we. It would be crueler to raise him in poverty than give him the possibility of a fruitful existence. If he is found, know only that his surname is Verloren and that he is never to know of his progenitors' failure.
Grat was subsequently stumbled upon by a tribe of nomads, one of which had taken a slave that had been a literate citizen of Ferros prior to his capture. With the note interpreted, the baby was claimed as a member of the aforementioned tribe. The slave was executed days later for attempting to flee.
For the first fifteen years of his life, Grat coexisted peacefully. The nomads taught him the intricacies of survival, how to speak the common tongue as well as the particular dialect of his surrogates, the art of agriculture, and of the wildlife with whom they shared the Expanse, but literacy beyond traditional pictograms and glyphs was nowhere in his instruction. Currency beyond the bartering system was also absent, creating difficulties in dealing with occasional traveling merchants, most of whom preferred payments in silver and gold rather than grain and goats.
Towards the end of this period, however, Grat came to question himself. His compatriots were all significantly ruddier of skin, their features differing entirely from his. In his entire existence, he had seen one, perhaps two other individuals that even vaguely resembled him. An identity crisis ensued, resulting in Grat's theft of a wagon, various farm accoutrements, and a pair of cattle, all of which he took by night nearer towards the more fertile, partially forested regions of Kain where he eked out his isolative existence on a kilometer wide circle of land, cleared by scythe and plow.
