Face Claim/Appearance:
A relatively attractive man whose only indication of age are the rare white hair and some crows feet around his eyes. Otherwise the brown-haired, hazel-eyed individual measuring around 5'10 doesn't have many more outstanding traits beyond a somewhat curly hair... at least when it comes to facial features. His body tells another story, with a variety of jagged, clean, big and small scars littering most of the surface of his skin from his neck downwards. Apart from that, his physique (which is usually somewhat hidden by his choice of thicker clothing) is exceptional and toned, fit for proper combat. Also has a slightly tan skin color, but its not much noticeable usually as he spends a long time indoor or under shade when training to be more efficient.
Age: 43 years old (approximately, actual certain age is unknown)
Gender: Male
Canon: Oc verse
Main Thread or Sandbox: Main Thread
Personality: A man of many facets and a complicated life, he could be considered an extremely composed and relaxed individual, one that at first glance looks difficult to rattle. Always with a polite smile that somewhat reaches his eyes and skillful movements when it comes to how he greets others or has a meeting over tea. All, upon further analysis feeling like very practice yet not really completely fake aspects of himself.
At his core, beyond the way he likes to present himself, as kind and always gentle, lies an extremely driven and passionate individual who has a dream and the determination and commitment to pursue it, even at great costs. But also, an extremely lonely and troubled individual with a great volume of different burdens nailed to his heart, from actions he has had to take to lives that are gone, to the people that greatly depend on him for their livelihood. He has learned to bear with such matters to a surprising degree after ascending to nobility over more than 20 years ago, yet it is through not completely healthy rationalizations... which is only helped by having perspective from others, be it family or friends.
Apart from the image he presents of himself (which are in actuality, the way he desires to truly be in those aspects), he is a person who will honor a right, and punish a horrible wrong with proportionate force. Someone who can remember a grudge and work around it, but if an affront is bad and personal enough, do not hesitate to exact a strong revenge on them. Otherwise, if it's not personal, the cleric can operate in a very pragmatic fashion based if the matters could aid his objectives and situation, willing to make concessions around his more idealistic values as long as it's the only way available. Pragmatism doesn't mean devoid of morality, and he will try to honor the 'best' path possible that remains close to the moral compass that was taught to him from an early age, in which life is valuable and destruction is to be avoided.
In his personal life, he holds a strong deal of loyalty for those he considers friends, and an even stronger passion towards those he considers family... and partner. But to get there, and to be beyond just a superficial friend, the man has to become attached to the individual for one reason or another, which can come down to being agreeable enough, bearing potential for personal growth, being interesting and amicable enough to him, and many other reasons. He'll know when he can consider someone a true friend, and trust them, for his sharpness extends to his judgement of people when not dulled by tumultuous emotions.
A man of exceptional character by all accounts, but one that holds an edge of selfishness when it comes to exerting the costs of his ambitions onto others with limited remorse... a trait that he both fears yet somewhat accepts. Because beyond grand ambitions... he is a man who desires to leave a better world behind, and to not leave said world alone if possible.
Motivation: As mentioned previously, in the more abstract sense, he desires to leave a better world behind back in his original place, and to do so with others by his side. But in the specifics, it's to keep reforming his duchy and improving its technology and practices to make it as prosperous and long lasting as it could possibly be, one day hoping to extend said prosperity beyond its borders.
Equipment: The main piece of his equipment across any gear set he desires to wear is one piece: a waist bag of unknown origin beyond being an old artifact, made out of fine and sturdy cloth that has been magically enhanced, bearing a myriad of engraved and embroidered characters from an old magical script, which let it harness environmental power, make a reserve of it, and apply it for the functionality it bears: the ability to store most anything that fits within its flexible bag opening as if time wasn't passing on it in seemingly another dimension. To accomplish this fact as well as possible, the natural engravings that the item bears also let the user mentally map everything that the bag is storing, in their corresponding categories which visually slightly fluctuate in their corresponding characters when putting in or taking out an item of said type. The types include food, ingredients, equipment, currency, documents and a couple more. It is speculated that it was an artifact made for a king of the days of old, maybe even by a divine being... From such mythology and speculation, it bears the name of "Divine dimensional door" by some, but most commonly referred as "bag of holding" or "dimensional pocket"
And inside said artifact there's a myriad of small day-to-day item the cleric uses and stores for the sake of convenience: hunting tools, some craftsmanship tools when it comes to sculpting and carving, many pieces of paper and parchment, alongside a vast supply of pencils and ink and his noble wax stamp with a supply of said wax accompanying it. He also carries a fine ink version for documentation certification. The man also carries a variety of animal and plant based ingredients to make a few weeks to a month worth of food should he ever need an emergency supply.
He also, for one reason or another, carries a big enough supply of steel weapons and armor to outfit a small combat unit, but rarely does he ever use them for a reason that will be mentioned later. He also carries 'curiosity' weapons and armor, which are peculiar items from different ages and worlds that have caught his attention.
Apart from 'generic' and 'collectable' weaponry, the man carries a specific set of gear dedicated specifically to augment his fighting prowess. The main one would be a two-handed greatsword made of an alloy of special metals that keep it wieldable while integrating the black 'blizzard's heart' metal into its composition, allowing the weapon to withstand a surprising amount of abuse and retain shape due to the natural property of said metal to absorb energy up due to its atoms being at a natural resting point of absolute 0. By alloying it with other metals and engraving a magic formation onto it, the weapon is able to be wielded as a normal sword while retaining its advantageous properties. He also carries a halberd tipped with this same material, and a longsword.
The other outstanding weapon in his grasp is a magical bow of winds called 'Hurricane' of unknown origin, another rescue from an adventuring expedition. It's tough and well made, with complex engraving on every metallic inch of the weapon, adorned with a few motifs relating to wind and phenomena like tornadoes, hurricanes and storms. Its main way of functioning is by consuming the magic of the user, in exchange generating crystalline arrows of wind which apply concentrated bursts of the element upon projectile impact. The intensity and difficulty of use is highly dependent on how much magic one wants to use, and the skill of the user both on magic and archery.
For defensive items, he carries a full set of 'blizzard's heart' plate armor with a heater shield, all heavier than normal armor and engraved with a variety of cold-mitigating formations that require magic. Though lacking ornamentation, each individual piece is slotted with some form of magic stone as the core pieces of the engraved arrays, visible yet still protected by more metal passing over it in slit shapes, leaving space for the environmental magic to seep in through gaps. Theoretically, a single piece of this material can absorb the kinetic energy capable of obliterating a small-sized mountain before they overheat from absorbed energy. If overused, the stored supply will run out and start depending on the user's magic supply for temperature control.
Finally, a gambeson and padded pants composed of the fibers of a plant called 'ironleaf', possessing the durability of refined alloyed steel while retaining the natural impact mitigation of vegetable fibers arranged in such a manner. The downside of the material is its high flammability due to its density and vegetable nature, losing moisture after being processed in this manner.
And the last noteworthy batch of items would be a variety of magical stones containing already casted spells that have been sealed inside of them. A catalyst in the form of a metal, sturdy necklace with a beautiful cyan gem embedded at its core, fashioned after an eight-pointed star with a circle running through the tips.
Attributes: There's a variety of things that make the man such a powerful force of nature when it comes to combat. The first and foremost is the man's super-human strength, with the ability to deadlift and throw objects as heavy as 4 metric tons if exerting his everything into it. This physique goes beyond just musculature, as his body grew stronger, it also started to become more resistant to poison quantities, alcohol and medicines unfortunately also included on the matter. This started a couple years ago and only intensified in the last 3. At least fortunately, the man took time to train his fine strength control, as such he doesn't usually break anything from exerting too much, unless his composure is broken badly right at a bad timing. This muscle strength also obviously empowers both his maximum speed and his striking force to something devastating if able to go all out... Though his stamina is not infinite, and exerting his body to its limits constantly will quickly leave the man tired. This is why he usually doesn't use his peak all the time, but in bursts and strategically.
An astounding situational awareness and reflexes to compliment said ability to observe the environment, with a wealth of experience fighting both humanoid and non-humanoid creatures aiding in his ability to react and predict movements and threats. Though he is not infallible, and doesn't mean he'll manage to react in time every time to everything, sometimes having to resort to putting his body in harm's way as to prevent a worst case scenario.
A growing form of empath reception which is able to receive the strongest emotion from an individual when they are experiencing it. Unfortunately, it's not an attribute he can control, and as such has had issues for a lot of his life with having the thoughts of anguish and pain of many people swimming around in his head, leading to problems relating to his sense of self-worth when it comes to his life (aided by his magical ability to heal) and bouts of insomnia. It's not something that will ever truly go away, and it will be there with the man for his whole life, only growing stronger as his own body does.
Lastly, he possess a wealth variety of magical abilities, that though used to very much be in the format of a cleric of the forgotten realms for a few reasons, it has been allowed finally to loosen up in his restrictions, losing access to the pure form of the most powerful spells previously available to him, but in exchange obtaining the ability to 'customize' most if not all the spells that were previously available to him, the reserve of magic usually available to a "Knowledge domain cleric". This includes the ability to heal simple wounds to the possibility of reviving someone as long as their body is accessible, or regenerate damage and limbs should the situation call for it. The ability to modify depends on the man's ability to apply the engraving script he is familiar with into the catalyst he depends on to use magic.
Beyond combat prowess, Hershel Avad possesses a high capacity for intellectual learning, but somewhat limited when it comes to crafts and skills that require applying physical effort, which ultimately has been a mixed bag for the man, some skills requiring a disproportionate amount of time and effort.
Biography: A man supposedly born to unknown parents in a random and somewhat remote corner of the Garastan empire, regardless of heritage, it wouldn't matter in the end: He was orphaned and given to a monastery of a small and foreign deity to be taken care of, being raised there from basically since he could remember. At the start, as he got raised like a normal child, his life was alright enough... he experienced some playing, meeting other kids, fighting, having fun, a somewhat normal life for the first 2 years of his life. But such thing would not last, as his third 'birthday' (Frankly, the day he was left at the door) came around, he was found a surprisingly promising candidate to wield the magical arts exclusive to this place of worship dedicate to a foreign goddess of magic and knowledge, and as such was separated and integrated into the education program meant for potential clerics.
This didn't go very well on a personal level for a variety of reasons, but the principal one was that most of the candidates for this program were not of low birth, but instead individuals from already well established backgrounds capable of supplying their children with education, like clergy, nobles and merchants. As one of the few if not the only individual without background, he was quickly isolated from the rest, not necessarily harassed, but shunned and ignored like a pebble on the road of the path of these people.
Yet, he was also able to hear the echoes of conceit and depreciation coming from their minds, something that he had noticed back when in a more free environment. Given enough time under these circumstances, the child couldn't take it, and started to run away from the monastery in short escapades, hanging around the local forest and river in silence, sometimes observing animals, sometimes listening to the sounds of nature to relax his stressed mind. Yet, one day, he would be found out, but not by someone from the monastery, but instead by a supposedly random passerby, an so-called adventurer of sharp senses by the name of 'Heindrich'. This man, instead of reporting him or reprimanded him, chose to ask if he was ok...
Which was the start of the cleric having a surrogate dad, as the man gently approached his issues, and helped rationalize them and encourage him to do better, and to try to excel as to stand up for himself in the face of arrogance. This was only the start of the lessons, as from there onwards the older man would make sure to meet the kid in the same areas, help him come up with excuses and teach him a variety of things, from fishing to hunting, to some deeper manners relating to philosophies on life and ideology on race and equality as he grew from a toddler into an early teen.
Yet, as many things in his life so far, this wouldn't last, and both knew it. The man himself was a self-proclaimed explorer and wanderer, and coming back for years while exploring the Garastan empire had been already pushing it for his lifestyle... so one day, after a formal apology and a proper goodbye, Heindrich left the monastery, and wouldn't show up again for the foreseeable future.
Yet, by this point, the lessons and optimism engraved into Hershel by the fateful encounter had already started to show a difference. He was more willful, more determined, starting to be more inquisitive about the whys of things, yet also capable of showing tact in when to push and when to research in private. A way of life had been lit inside the man, one relating to seeing the world with optimistic pragmatism, and trying to see the good in it and in others.
His zeal and passion was so great, he ultimately managed to obtain his certification as a cleric 3 years earlier than usual for lifelong trainees at 15, all with excellence at that. Before he was even a proper adult, he obtained the right to explore and spread the faith of their goddess around the world, to travel, to experience, to register and to learn.
Yet this in its own right is what would change the man as well, for as he travelled around the empire, one that was lauded as respecting the rights of its dwellers regardless of race, and had a variety of religions and nobles and even city-states within its borders... he found ugliness that his lessons hadn't prepared him for.
Ignorance, violence, paranoia, selfishness, manipulation, the myriad of evils people, not only humans, are capable of which frustrated the young man greatly the more he explored, the more he tried to help people with his feet on the ground. From doing charitable actions like helping heal and do surgery on those that needed to eliminating threats to settlements and exploring old ruins in search of information and relics...
He knew he was making a difference, yet also... felt frustrated, frustrated at how often he felt the upper echelon, the individuals guiding the common folk, felt lacking, selfish, inept, corrupt...
He knew of many that were decent, some mediocre, a few great... but far too many that were bad rulers, and an unacceptable amount of awful ones. It specially offended him on a personal level when religion was used to justify acts of discrimination, greediness or violence, not by the commonfolk, for he considered them naturally misguided for lacking education, but instead the rulers, the leaders, the people that were supposed to know better,
To be better.
This frustration would come to a head in his 18th birthday, as he ultimately, trying to trust and help the intentions of an archbishopric ruler who was said to be a kind and caring man for his people, turned out to be a corrupt man presenting shallow kindness to retain his position and his grip over a faithful population, eliminating anyone that could be seeking a change or reform from the shadows while maintaining a persona of kindness. One good enough that had managed to initially fool the cleric... His hands were now stained not with malicious or even morally grey blood... but that of the well intention, the undeserving of violence.
This was the last straw, what broke his composure and his patience towards the elite that were in his eyes, incapable of ruling. Yet, acting out in range would not lead to anything good... so, the man bit his tongue, clenched his fists, and started to form up a plan that would reign the next few decades of his life. His pockets were already lined enough by this point from his work and adventuring, but this was far, far from enough...
Setting his resolve alight, the man spent the next two years dedicating all his time and energy into accruing wealth, prestige and notoriety around the Garastan empire, ultimately causing the emperor's eye to fall onto him... Next, the plan that he spent the next 2 decades of his life enacting to perfection: To be granted a small manor from meritorious service in the middle of the pro-autonomy and non-intervention faction, and to expand his influence rapidly from there, trying to claim the title of one of the few dukes of the nation.
Along the way, he had managed to find companions, friends even, his heart yearning for companionship. Yet the death of a friend that he could not overturn set his heart to reluctance, to hesitate to reach out to others... but being so set in his objectives, he didn't feel like it was time to be this weak, and hardened his heart towards companionship for some time.
His heart, having set his sights on this objective conversed with the serving emperor, was set on this. For the next big period of his life, the cleric would become a noble by merit, one looked down upon, but primed to leave his mark in the world, for what he considered for its betterment.
From working the wild terrain, taming it, to bringing people with treasury, buying skill with negotiation and coin, training commonfolk side by side with mercenaries he convinced to serve as a standing force, his small neighbors were integrated and kicked out one by one, putting instead bureaucrats that followed his direct orders and were loyal to him instead of any usual elite, as most people would do. This and many other unconventional means that he had studied from many places in the world were steadily and methodically implemented as he worked with everything he had to maintain the supply of administrators needed for his ever expanding domain, while most of his treasure that remained unspent was funneled into that initial manor of his, placed in the crossroads of two huge rivers that dominated Garasta's geography, yet was too full of creatures and wildlife to be tamed reasonably...
It became his ducal jewel, his beautiful capital. Residents with certain guaranteed rights, full of traders and craftsmen and clean streets owed to the rough but effective sewers and sanitation measures he had placed from many observations and conclusions done by studying the world's known most majestic and biggest cities...
the city would come to harbor thousands and thousands of souls within 20 years, severely wiping away his initial money reserves along the way, but soon enough becoming profitable in its own right, concentrating the wealth of his domain through trade and manufactory not unlike in skill to any other place in the empire.
But as his efforts were so single-mindedly funneled into this vision, his mind and stability suffered, even with the sporadic communication towards the goddess of the monastery he had grown up in, at one point in his teen years starting to communicate with him.
As such, an intervention was done by her, pushed away from his overworking and insomniac habits owed to bearing everything himself, alone...
Pushed away from his mighty keep, from his own world, into another one... This kind of event had happened only a couple of times in his life before, for it was a known phenomena of the world that sometimes, one would connect with another domain... but this time was different.
For, it would lead to a fateful meeting with a kid, a poor child named Sage that had suffered a rough, restrained life that reminded him of his own strife... someone he sympathized with, yet also felt like he could help on a far more personal level if he just, reached out... reached out just how he had attempted to do so with others before the death of a friend many years ago...
Having had time to heal, to think, to suffer in loneliness, and despite his loss of common sense. He did. And said to become
his child... it was not the first he had tried to approach, but the first to be adopted into his family. Along the way, he met many people, learned many things from other worlds that fascinated him and dazzled the man... and also, ended up eventually finding a person he could set his heart to love, that would not be at risk of death easily, that was strong and helped be more in touch with some numbed out parts of himself.
His heart, which had grown numb and somewhat cold, warmed again, as he experienced more out of the world adventures, met more people, and grew to love those he had close, even rekindling friendships with people he already knew.
Now, he stands in happiness, if still troubled by matters of the past, hopeful for the future... who knows, maybe he will finally adopt the ex-mercenary he was taking care of back home... But now that he was dating the individual he had confessed his life to last year, he felt stronger than ever, capable of tackling any challenge.
