Asadan Redd
Name:
Asadan Redd, or often simply "The Red", an informal title assumed (or more given to) in from "Nature, red in tooth and claw.".
Race:
Human; although the blood of men, Redd might as well be born of the world's doing.
Age:
29; while still largely youthful for a human, his share of life and mystic experience is sufficient enough. While not "beyond his years" as some form of savant, his source of talent and longevity are unusual.
Gender:
Male
Appearance:
"The Red", despite his title is very much a mere mortal man of his young age; at a sturdy height of just over six feet and nearing two-hundred pounds, or so it would seem. Influenced by the power he draws upon, an amalgamation of raw spiritual energy and divine, animal magic, his build is uncannily healthy and bristles with longevity to come. Lean, but defined in muscularity, he is a balanced appropriation of physical qualities, of which he keeps clean. With shaven facial hair and short mane of blonde that darkens to brown at its tips, the only truly visible unusualities stem from his eyes of which are fiercely green.
Clothing:
Asadan Redd wears only of which is his own; while not worked by his hands, it is gathered by his own doing. Clad in furred hide armor, with tawny hood of leonine origin, he is the bearer of a charge to preserve the set as a tribute to the creatures it too once belonged before they passed on after their age. Functional, Redd wears fingerless padded gloves, reinforced leather bracers, dense leggings and shin height worn traveling boots. While the hide breastplate and hood are unworked and still as they were, fur and all, the remaining pieces of his set are worn tan and dull brown. The hood, which is the head and shoulders of a great lioness, is kept as a memento to her glory while she lived. Adorned with a necklace of a large worn claw, as a big as a man's palm, his other, finer trim is the buckles and belts of which he carries his weapons.
Weapons:
In all senses of the word "The Red" is a living weapon; with claw and fang or fist, he carries conventional weapons - a scimitar and three daggers - only out of principal. Like a true berserker of some barbarian cultures, Asadan Redd fights with but his mere hands, striking with palms and knuckles alike with the force of blunt instruments, and with opportunity, can rend and tear exposed flesh with claw-like swipes. When presented with a force which mere hands cannot solve but a blade can, the scimitar - an elegantly engraved weapon with dull bronze markings of feline motifs - is the weapon of choice. But in all these things, "The Red" prefers claw and fang as well as magic.
Alignment:
Lawful Neutral
The code Asadan Redd adheres to is a fierce thing indeed. It takes no interest or care for the laws of mortal men and monsters alike, but the world. It compels him, as well as the savage and spiritual power within, to protect the balance of the natural order and to drive out its greatest foes; aberrations, demons, devils and undead, more than any other. A roamer, Asadan Redd walks the earth, lending aid wherever the world he is called to asks. Morally indifferent, he prefers to live outside society, but works among their structure whenever it benefits his oath.
Skills:
Apex Predator
The wilderness is a place of survival, of which is often a gamble at best for mundane or humble mortal folk. It is here he is the most comfortable; able to sustain himself off fresh kills, found springs, as well as track and preform traditional medicine, or even elude foes tracking him. Without it, or in environments which are not natural such as cities, his insight is poor if not completely lacking.
Bestial Empathy
Asadan Redd has an intuitive sense of people, in small part, but a far greater sense of an animal's demeanor. Able to communicate both through gestures and spoken words, should he intend to, he may effectively speak across the species barrier with animals as well as comprehend their reply. Albeit not a truly spoken language, this intuition is neither magic nor the skill of most mortals. It can be taught and or learned, however.
Savage Combatant
There exists no school of "martial arts" among nature, merely instinct. For "The Red", the extension of his mystical abilities carry over to his physical ones, even without animal shapes. Far more fierce with but his own body than any weapon he carries, he is a powerful unarmed combatant that relies upon fighting poorly armored foes and disabling those that are well protected, such as those armored; debilitating strikes and forced movement being his favored tools of weakening a sturdy enemy.
Magic:
Wild Shape
A spiritual gift from within, Asadan Redd can slip cleanly into a bestial form, with but a ferocious yell or slightest of thoughts in moments. A power of supernatural origin, he takes on the qualities of the mighty animal he assumes; its strength, agility, senses and physical capabilities are all at his command, as too are those of pure instinct and predatory cunning. Unlike others akin to him, rare as they may be, he is limited to his totem - the archetype he is called to, of which is all felines, be them the clever lynx, subtle jaguar, or ferocious tiger. His worn and carried goods fade from existence until he again reverts to his human self. While in his alternate forms, he is far more deadly - his title, "The Red" made well known through his use of claw and fang. By expending added essence while in Wild Shape, he may alter the nature of his natural attacks to enchant them or continue to cast spells.
Soul-Magic
Weaving both natural spirit energy and magic is no small feat; drawing upon both the world and himself, his magical "spells" as most arcanists would refer to them, are classical elements of his archetype. Unlike those of traditional shamanic or druidic magic, Asadan Redd has no formal or hierarchical training and his use of the Weave is through Incarnum - pure spirit essence. Because of this, his power is physically and mentally exhausting, but difficult to predict; the same gestures and words, with different thought and intent can produce wildly varying results - even able to be preformed even while in Wild Shape. In return for his service to the natural world, his very existence and soul is laid claim to by the realm afterlife itself - the Beastlands.
Incarnum, being made of distilled soul stuff, appears as ghostly and misty effects which rapidly disperse. Although only faintly tinted blue in hue, the darkness of the blue coloration corresponds with the amount of power behind it; the more vivid, the more powerful, but also the more obvious. Working Soul-Magic provides a faint blue shine to the inner most area around one's pupils, regardless of eye color.
- Summon Feline
The effect summons a physical, tangible large or common cat made of pure, immortal spirit stuff. Albeit not truly a living thing, it is otherwise no different than the animal itself in all regards - the very embodiment of it, in fact - it persists briefly for a few minutes before fading into nothingness as a mist. It willingly obeys the summoner and anyone who he deems an authority over it. A summoned beast is vulnerable to early dismissal through a magic dispelling effect as it is a temporary being of pure magic. - Healing Touch
Through a mere touch, a transfer of essence can restore physical or mental wounds - with time - to the contacted person or creature, as can it instead instantly neutralize poison or cure disease. Wounds that would take weeks heal in mere days instead with this magic. Made of positive soul energy, the effect has no impact upon devils, demons and undead. It has a greater and far more immediate restorative effect upon beasts than people, taking little time to mend their wounds. - Influence Animal
Be it settling their rage, entrancing, beguiling, confusing, charming, or outright enchanting them, the power of influence varies greatly. Applicable only to unintelligent beasts, even the most hostile can be swayed to become calm, or those indifferent can be persuaded to provide assistance, all through the works of soul based magic. They are never compelled to obey obviously suicidal orders or to remain friendly afterward.
Background:
The sole son of Adhera the Lioness, the life before Asadan Redd would first be walked in the shadow of his mother's legacy. A deeply spiritual woman, "The Lioness" worked into reality her innate gifts through sheer willpower and force of personality - wielding magic by raw charisma, instinct and spirit alone; having never once spent a day of formal mentoring to acquire her art. So named for her preferred leonine form, "The Lioness" relished conflict wherein she could free claw and fang - a "lady-savage" - but had tremendous command over the elements themselves, able to call upon the fury of a storm, the rage of flames, the might of earth or the crash of waves at mere whim. Living as she did in secrecy, sworn to the wild world, she bore only a single heir from a father unknown.
Raised as more a beast than a child, Asadan Redd matured in a harsh environment full of even more harsh lessons. Although tender toward his mother, just as he was the felines he associated with throughout childhood who provided their assistance in nurturing him, he was well aware that she would not raise him forever; understanding from even a young age it would be his charge to one day assume her tasks with his own powers when she faded away. While such events did indeed transpire and "The Lioness" drew her last breath many years later, her son was still wandering the world - unaware that she had passed and unaware of the calling to come. Drifting from village to village, seeking to strike out a range of his own akin to the animals he so revered in spite of his young age, he found little pleasure in any attempt to integrate even slightly into the lives of humble folk; these mere commoners suspicious of him, and rightfully so, knew only of the animal tendencies he displayed and strange magic he wielded, even as but a young man. While he did not loathe these people, he took no interest in attempting to garner their adoration.
Swearing off such notions of truly living among the mortal flock, Asadan Redd spent much time after honing his mystical talent of soul-magic, fueled by a poorly understood fusion of body and soul known only as Incarnum. Like his mother who bore him, his spiritual gift of altering and manipulating the Weave grew in power and complexity until it expanded beyond "mere" shapechanging, to soon enabling other forces of supernature. A beguiler, healer and summoner of beasts, there was no doubt within his mind that he would do "The Lioness" proud in what potential he had...
Until the war of men and magic upset his elusive lifestyle.
Still only a young man at the time, Asadan Redd began to fiercely hone his primal talent and tendency. He struck where opportunity presented itself, sparing neither man nor monster should it defile or upset his home as they did. As quickly as his attacks began, Redd disappeared once more into the wilderness time and time again without a trace, striking only those vulnerable. Claws and fangs growing ever more red with the blood of the wicked and corrupt as he felled his foes both personally and through magic in this manner, he ultimately attained a mantle of his own - just as his mother had done; a title in the form of "The Red". But it was not until the closing hours of the war - the dark mages in full retreat and surrender - did any force successfully dissuade the savage and his ferine rage end.
Silent once more as the feline form he assumed, "The Red" faded into the wilderness of the island; seemingly no more than another tiger among a lush jungle. A whisper in the storm that was war, his existence as "The Red" is but myth - said to be a creature of feline shape and form with uncanny cunning in its eyes and magic in its very being, it is rightfully feared as it is rumored to feel no pain and lash out with blows as magical as a mageblade. All of these things are not far from the truth.
No one fathomed "The Red" would be called to the dense population of Waeldeshore - a story of the wilds exclusively - but indeed he has, not as a beast, but a man.
