Name: Arikes of Krynos
Age: 27
Sex: Male
Kingdom/Place of Origin: Krynos
Appearance: Blond-haired, his is worn long with a beard as is the fashion of fighting men to help cushion the helmets they wear. He sports a lamellar breastplate and greaves over a padded gambeson, along with bracers on the arms, but eschews mail as too heavy. Otherwise, he wears furs and other clothing items as necesary to stay warm. His helm is of the Krynean (Corinthian-style) but with hinged cheekpieces and other inovations to keep it from being too uncomfortable to wear all the time.
Skills/Abilities:- Melee Combat; Arikes of Krynos is particularly noted for knowing how to use his axe, a weapon favored in Dara by mercenaries from various lands. It is not something a proper Krynean would use, but there's none of those left.
- Some archery, basic.
- Stealth and concealment in the field.
- Haggling and bartering.
- Shoeing horses and mules.
- Encampments.
- Firestarting, land navigation and basic survival on land.
- Horsemanship.
Equipment:- Axe and shield. The shield has a cutout for a man on horseback. The axe has reinforcement along the haft, and has a curved head that allows him to use it to hook enemies in combat, to throw them off balance. There is a chisel opposite. It is large enough, just so, to be used one or two handed.
- Lamellar breastplate, gambeson, greaves and bracers. It's a set from salvage and cobbling together, but it's a good enough ensemble of weaponry.
- A short stabbing sword of the Krynean type that was in vogue before the Vukash invaded. It is not the most effective weapon against Trokals and much more powerful weapons are needed to generally kill one of those, something with more chopping power.
- A dagger, the sort you can cunningly conceal.
- Rope, candles, flint, steel, fishing line and other survival needs.
- Jewelry and other wealth, on his person and wearable. A ring through the ear, rings on his finger and bracelets on his wrist. Buckles, cloak pins and other decor. These days, anything you leave behind might as well be given away.
History:Arikes of Krynos was born the grandson of King Pyrodes, and to wealth and want for little. Already, the Vukash were on the horizon, invading and plundering, and the tales were wild and terrifying, but dismissed ass the rantings of superstitious barbarians eager to salve their defeat with excuses. All the same, as war came on the horizon, Krynos mobilized, unwilling to give up the gains it had made since Pyrodes united the tribes into a nation and created a formidable force of warriors able to hold their own and even modestly expand their kingdom.
In a series of short battles, the Krynean royal family was destroyed in the field; Pyrodes, his son Cycander and a number of other relatives. Arikes' elder brother Gero was the heir apparent and he fled with the Royal Household and treasury toward Dara. Not yet of age, he was a regency in exile, with his small council controlling the considerable wealth salvaged from Krynos.
Arikes was given training as befitted a member of the Royal House, though he and his brother were given very little actual oversight of the day to day workings of the exiled regency. Even though Gero came of age, there was hesitancy toward ceding all the powers of a king over to him and he was inclined to let the council carry on as before, albeit in Dara. Here, Arikes learned the All-City's ways and ran with merchants sons and other kids in the streets, though he was also put through training at arms and taught by a host of weapons masters that gave him the skill he'd need to fight the Vukash.
During this time, the preparations were made, including the City of Dara's forces and various mercenaries, to create a host and retake Trona, the capital of Krynos in a full scale, conventional battle with a host that was unprecedented. A man, Bozander, convinced many that he was able to tap the power of magic; there were witnesses who claimed miracles were done. Morale was high and the army marched with Bozander at the head. Arikes commanded under Gero, though he was trained but green, and a child of the streets of Dara.
Bozander was another charlatan that people put their hope into, and he disappeared as the day of battle came. The armies, demoralized, engaged the Vukash in the field, who actually had battle-mages to call forth their devastation and Trokals, eager to feed upon the flesh of their foemen. Gero fell at the head of his host and it fell to Arikes to rally what he could and fight a retreat and maintain discipline on a march back, relying on the advice of the hardened captains that he had at his disposal to give him sound counsel.
Upon falling back, he learned the true cost of Trona; the flower of several kingdoms lay dead and charred on the battlefield, picked over by the Trokals and other warriors of the Vukash. With them was the treasure of those kingdoms, including what remained of the Krynean treasury. It was an optimistically all-or-nothing gambit that left the Kryneans penniless and Arikes without means beyond the men he'd fought and lost alongside. Bozander had a price on his head; one set in vengenace against the man that cost so many their all. Jal Shieldbreaker headed up the party that hunted Bozander and collected the immense prize for bringing the man in alive, screaming, to Dara, and from thence to whatever painful torture awaited. In that time, more kingdoms fell that much more easily against the Vukash because Bozander's con.
With the Bozander bounty, led by Jal Shieldbreaker, they founded the Banner of Flame, a mercenary company that began to undertake caravan guard and raiding operations in order to turn coin in the war without losing their lives in the process. Arikes spent years fighting in their ranks where he was respected but not revered as royalty; that was gone, ashes on the field. In the wake of Trona, there were many suicides among the Krynean nobility that survived the debacle.
A strategy, by consensus, was devised to strike the Vukash where they were vulnerable and stretch them over their new holdings, and this worked sometimes and other times did not. Smaller forces, in the hundreds of men, would strike and then run, sail or ride away, hoping not to draw pursuit. Different variations on the method existed, depending on terrain and abilities of the people undertaking the raids, but the effect was similar -- the Vukash spread their forces and were constantly chasing forces around.
In time, the Vukash developed countermeasures, but a successful company was able to overwhelm Trokals in small groups, plunder as necessary and sell loot back to those groups interested in the corpses of Trokals and other Vukash artifacts. There was money to be had for the wary and prudent, but not for the fiery hard-chargers that chased the glory. In this hard-scrabble, hard-bitten sort of war of sustenance, Arikes served. There were a few open field engagements, but these often were money-up-front affairs with a lot of money offered for such a risk to armies. People risked much on the very idea that they would survive to collect pay. The last one the Banner of Flame participated in saw the death of Jal Shieldbreaker and the dissolution of the Company. But there was little interest in more profit than enough to see them through comfortably to the inevitable end. They drifted apart, found new companies or jobs to work at.
He was approached, with others, after this for a special expedition, scholars that had to reach a ruin in Krynos. Arikes knew the lands, despite so many years in Dara, and its geography. He'd been in Krynos before, and he knew others that could guide them even more expertly and he guided the hiring agents to them for his fee. The fee they offered was worth the risk.
(Insert Expedition history here, but yes, they got hit by Vukash pack hunters, wolf-derived Trokals and others.)
Personality and Psychological profile:Arikes has been hardened by war, and his way of dealing with it is to spend money on his pleasure and wring pleasure out of life. He is loud, profane and friendly enough, but he is also willing to initiate violence. First and foremost, he is a survivor that intends to carry on. He is no stranger to assasination and is, as befits a raider, pillager and guerrilla fighter, soft on his feet. He is no footpad, but the state of the world has given him the skills in being such. He is also a drinker, a carouser and a gambler, all too willing to indulge in pleasures that might not exist the next day. He is brave, but it's a devil-may-care brave that acknowledges that the Boatman gets paid his due in the end. He survives, but does not expect to die in his bed.
Prior Run-Ins:Spin off a story about an interaction between the character above and your own. Please be sure to make it an incident worth referring to during the RP. Feuds of some sort are particularly appreciated here.
