[OOC] Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past (Page 2)

User Name: EliteCommander

Character Name: Ssarak Dyreackthanose

Age: 27

Mageblood type: Lues Mageblood

Favored Magic class: Psychomancy (with a single Noxomancy spell: a caustic breath attack)

Previous Magic Training: Mostly self-taught, with some training from elders in his clan.

Race: Esyire

Appearance: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Your-Soul-is-Mine-147402964 (with this: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Comish-So-Close-397900213 armor, but black in color, and this: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Black-Axe-of-the-Baruman-85605036 battleaxe)

Short Bio: Ssarak, being an almost eight foot tall Esyire, looks even at a glance to be a seasoned warrior. It was a role he was born into, a role that shaped his entire life. He was born into Dyre clan, a collection of a few nomadic villages in the Eastern Scorched Lands. His father Taraesar, like himself, was born with Lues Mageblood and was a proud warrior of their clan. Lues blood was rare among the Dyre clan, and due to the stigma they held against Noxomancy, most of that blood pursued Psychomancy.

Ssarak would have been trained in the use of his mageblood by his father, but unfortunately, he perished in battle early in Ssarak’s life. Since Taraesar had been the only practicing Psychomancer in his village, he was left to learn to use his gifts by his own devices, receiving only basic training in the use of mageblood from the clan elders. In the Dyre clan, all warriors must have and be able to use magic, so no matter how skilled he became in mundane combat, he would have been ultimately rejected if he could not learn to control his blood. Nevertheless, his fervor for his training allowed him to learn enough to become a warrior his father could be proud of by the time he came of age. He delved into Noxomancy long enough to learn to cast a corrosive breath attack that he could vary in form from a near-liquid to a gaseous cloud, but his peers encouraged him to pursue Psychomancy before he could learn any more.

Despite his intense training, Ssarak is more skilled in martial combat than with magic. He inherited in arms and armor from his father, who crafted them by his own hand. Ssarak has a good deal of physical strength to back up his axe, and though he was at a disadvantage with magic compared to his fellow warriors, he was generally intelligent with its use. Since he lacked a proper tutor, Ssarak’s casting was inefficient, but he was able to teach himself to create a number of different types of illusions that could be used for misdirection in combat. He has been less successful with the more direct applications of psychomancy, as the only minds he can have a forceful, direct influence on are those of simple creatures.

Part of Ssarak’s duty as a warrior was to escort trading groups between the Dyre’s villages and to the cities of the Scorched Lands’ settled Esyire. The relationship between the Dyre and the Esyire who settled in the cities was sparse, but peaceful. They traded from time to time for resources the Dyre could not gather on their own, so Ssarak received more exposure to outside cultures than most of his clan. He became somewhat familiar with the territories of other races beyond the Scorched Lands through these trips to the cities, but he was still very much focused on the needs of his own people.

Most of Ssarak’s early career was wrapped up with fighting the Dyre’s rival clan, the Xhoth. The two clans had been at odds for generations, and since they were of roughly the same side, neither were able to keep the advantage for long. Ssarak survived several battles with them, but he never felt proud of those achievements. In his eyes, he was simply a participant, unable to really influence the tide of the war. He longed to be the warrior his father was, to be the hero that could end the conflict in its entirety.

While in his early twenties, Ssarak found a wife and had children of his own, but secretly, he was still dissatisfied with his life. He loved his family, but still desperately wanted to bring an end to the conflict that consumed his people. After years of conflict, he finally thought he found the answer. For as long as the war had been raging, it had been a battle strictly between their warriors. Ssarak viewed the Xhoth as a plague upon the land, one that deserved to be wiped out completely. Over the course of a few months, he drummed up enough support from his fellow warriors, mostly younger ones, to plan an attack to completely wipe out a Xhoth village. Both clans had several villages, but Ssarak hoped that, by eliminating one entirely, it would push the war enough in their favor to finish it once and for all.

Under the cover of darkness, Ssarak and the warriors who supported him made their way to the outskirts of the village. Ssarak took a small team with him and used his skills with misdirection to stealthily eliminate a few of the lookouts. His team then proceeded to slit the throats of as many warriors as they could find before they were discovered. Ssarak then sounded the horn to signal the attack. The battle was quick but bloody. About half of Ssarak’s force was killed, but they won the battle. Instead of taking prisoners and accepting the village’s surrender, they slaughtered everyone they found, save for a few that managed to escape.

Once they returned and reported their actions, there was an intense debate among the village’s leadership. They had violated the honor that had driven their warfare for generations, but enough of their warriors had supported Ssarak’s plan that they could not be punished outright. The debate had been raging for about a week when they received word of an impending Xhoth attack on a neighboring village. Ssarak was among the men who was sent to aid them, but to their surprise, they found no Xhoth forces anywhere in the area, and the village they had been sent to protect had no knowledge of this attack. They returned home as quickly as possible only to find it in ruins. Evidently, messenger who informed them of the supposed Xhoth attack had betrayed them to get the majority of their warriors away from the village. The few survivors explained that the few soldiers remaining had not been enough to defend from by the massive attack by the Xhoth. Just as in Ssarak’s attack, they killed everyone indiscriminately…including all of Ssarak’s family.

Ssarak was overwhelmed with grief and anger. He wanted to personally execute the traitor responsible, but was powerless to do anything to attain his vengeance. He considered suicidally attacking the Xhoth alone in the hopes of killing as many as possible before being killed himself, but he eventually decided to leave his people entirely. Many of his clan resented him and the other soldiers who took part in the initial attack, but he simply wanted to be away from it all. Ssarak left the Scorched Lands and wandered for a while, acting as a mercenary for about two years to support himself. During that time, the anger he felt toward the Xhoth had been replaced by immense regret. It had been his actions that had instigated the Xhoth’s attack, his fault that his family was dead. He continues to wander from place to place, unsure of what to do. Part of him wants redemption, but mostly, he believes himself a lost cause. After hearing of a College that could teach him to use his mage blood more effectively, he decided it would be as good of a place as any to begin a new chapter of his life.

Good Attributes: As an Esyire, he is capable of flight. He has a great deal of strength and is a rather intelligent individual, capable of planning tactically to make the best use of the skills he has.

Bad Attributes: Ever since the traumatic event that caused him to exile himself from his home, he has been prone to fits of rage that can severely impact his judgment and make him more violent than normal. Reminders of his family can also lead to episodes of depression that harm his ability to motivate himself.

Secret Word: Rebirth