Auric Sturmsbled
The damned watermark bothers me more than the anime picture. Not a real critique, just a complaint >:[Male
Age:25
Race:Human
Profession: Auric is a blacksmith by way of trade,a mercenary by way of necessity, and a wanderer by preference.
Detailed Appearance: Auric is a sturdy young man just under six feet tall, he gets plenty of comments to the effect of being built like a buildings door. What he has taken people to mean is that he is broad of shoulder and square of frame, meaning he has little in the way of what on a woman might be called an hour glass figure. With arms and legs proportional to his torso he is well built for physical combat, and his prowess has marked his body with both lithe and rigid muscle.
Despite his shape and size, Auric carries himself with a degree of natural grace not often seen in untrained fighters, he is therefore often mistaken for a professional soldier. The fact that he is often found with fresh from the road grime, and stubble upon his face does not deter people from that impression of him. Scars mar his face, his arms and his torso, though most are not from teaching himself blade work, rather they are memories of his life as a blacksmith of his apprenticeship.
Deep blue eyes tinted with gradients of emerald green hide beneath his oft furrowed brow,the scars crossing his face and his perpetual fight with his emotion etching deep scowl lines into his otherwise young face. Medium length often scraggly hair sometimes hides the war within his eyes, when it is not tucked behind his ears or tied back. That hair long ago was bled of color a consequence of the seeds of magic, which haven't tainted his life for all these long years, when not stained black by road grime, he actively dies his hair a dark blue green a mix of dyes he has long since mastered the recipe for.
The most telling mark on Auric’s body, what you might call an identifying mark, is a criminals brand on his right shoulder twice struck through by scars and ink. The mark is both a telling sign of a magical crime, and a reminder to the young man of the life he lost to the curse of his emotions. The mark for all its stigma is worn openly, the right arm of his leather armored coat since removed, his forearm wrapped in thick strips of leather with small metal plates to defend his blade arm below the elbow. His hand covered in finger-less leather gloves, reveal the scars of trade and war.The armored leather coat has been bleached and re-bleached until it is snow white, the strips of leather and his pants a matching jet black, and his boots white leather calf boots padded for protection and comfort.
Detailed Backstory: Auric was born in a small town, the town was impoverished by comparison to a city, but it was capable of providing all its residents with what they might need should they only work for it.
What is this town’s name? Was there a reason why it was so impoverished? Was the town one in Baldock, or some other nation? His father was a carpenter, and his mother tended the family plot of vegetables and herbs and traded her knowledge of herbs and remedies for small luxuries. As soon as he was old enough he was taken among the tradesmen, and when one finally sparked the boys interests and apprenticeship was arranged, the fees paid through a combination of his fathers trade and his mothers talent.
What are his parent’s names? Such things are greatly appreciated. And who is the man that apprenticed him, names are everything. For many years the boy, had an uneventful apprenticeship he found joy in the forges, working the billows and even during the early days when he first was allowed to begin working with metals. Things slowly begin to shift when he starts puberty, frustration and anger at being teased and in competition with the other apprentices at their slights and petty cruelty, began to manifest, fires he works burning to bright, ingots he is hammering shattering unexpectedly, and injuries he cant explain to pair with each strange occurrence.
Is there a reason these other apprentices were cruel towards Auric As is often the way with such things, the other apprentices noticed, and took it up as ammunition to use against him. This slowly simmered building for years, and as he worked through his apprenticeship he accumulated scars and injuries never fully able to explain them or the occurrences leading to them. In the year of his eighteenth birthday he completed his apprenticeship, ten years of working the forge and continuing despite the set backs and still he completed his graduation project, he created for his father and part of his final test a set of exquisite wood workers tools, a sign of what he had learned despite his inconsistency.
For all the joy that day started with, it ended in tragedy, when another journeyman disdainful of his progress and that he had succeeded despite the taunting and the sabotage of the other apprentices tasked with returning the tools from the master to Auric, decided that he would return them destroyed. This action stoked a fury within Auric unlike anything he had ever felt before, a rage like the burning heat of the bellows, and from that anger the seed of his magic once again bloomed into life. Fire and heat whipped around the freshly graduated blacksmith,burning at his arms even as shards of metal caught in the spell storm cut at him searing closed as quickly as they sliced the flesh. Unfocused rage burnt around the boy as his anger and an innate talent for magic unrealized tried to consume him, and then the other young man, the one who had set this in motion acted, a sound of disgust and distress and turning to flee.
In that moment Auric’s anger crystallized in focus and all the rage snapped, and with that shift of focus and fury, the pain the young man had put Auric through, emotional and physical was manifested upon him by magic all at once, even as Auric relived every moment of it revisited upon him by the magic as it burnt itself out. Both young men would survive, one by a miracle, the other Auric in this case, by what he felt had been a curse. The truth was much simpler, Auric simply had run out of fuel for his magic, it had consumed his rage and died down, leaving both boys forever scarred by the incident, and Auric’s life forever changed.
With that incident came the brand, and exile from his village, though he was allowed a single mercy, three days in the forge to shape himself a chance at new life. He had not killed with magic, and so he would not be put to death. Especially since it came out what had been being done to him for his whole apprenticeship. For those three days he worked the forges alone, responsible for keeping the fires stoked as he worked upon the tools which would hopefully be his salvation.
He crafted for himself two implements each rough wrought, but each of a single ingot of steel, one a medium length sword with a single bladed edge and a thick heavy spine, no guard to speak of but a hilt of double the length and a pommel left empty but with room for a stone.
After being an apprentice for eight years, I would have expected him to have made a proper sword, even if he only had three days. Was this an aesthetic choice for him? Why did he make it the way he did? Was it for more time to perfect the spear? With this blade he would defend himself, and with the other implement he would feed himself and eek out a living. His second tool then would be a spear unlike many such tools which blended the boons of wood and metal he chose to make his of solid steel, a heavy tool which would force him to become stronger and faster to survive and make use of it. It was near identical in design to any similar wooden tool, except he made of its blade a wedge like triangular blade brutally sharp along both edges, and at the other end a ball like protrusion of concentrated weight.
His mercy ended, Auric’s exile began, and with it his new life. At first he subsisted hunting and eating what he hunted, making new clothing where he could from the skins without the time to turn it into real leather or fur, and using the bones as tools to supplement, but in time he found himself with two things, a desire for more and a desire to wander.
While I could just wave it off, I do find that hunting is a rather hard thing to do, especially since Auric was in an apprenticeship for 8 years. How did he learn how to hunt? Did he have to go through trial and error? The same thing can be said with clothing, but given his background as a craftsmen and I will wave that off. These eventually resulted in him trading with villages, he hid his brand during these days, and traded furs, skins and kills for things he wanted, eventually obtaining the armored coat he still wears dyed white as snow, the sheathe to his sword custom made as such things should be. Quality boots to make such things as travel easier. Day by day month by month his life got better, but his fear of his emotions prevented him from settling so he moved ever onward till one day he came across a battlefield, years of hunting by blade and spear had honed his instincts and his body, and when he was inevitably confused for a combatant he found he had a natural talent for physical combat, he struck down his attacker with the cold efficiency of a hunter, and offered him the same mercy he would offer a beast.
Where did he learn to fight? Sure he is a hunter, but hunters tend to lead from surprise rather than a true fight. From that day onward though, he offered his services not only as a hunter of beasts, but as a slayer of men, and from that one incident his road had erred not one step but lead him true unto a truth, that with the same training he had employed upon his body, he might also tame his emotions and in doing so kill his fear of himself. Since then his path has lead him forward, but also into ever more dangerous situations and this new venture to help quell the curse was no exception.
I have said the same towards others, how does he know the Lochborne family, did he meet them in his mercenary days? And even then what did he do in his mercenary days, I know I could imagine, but surely there must be some interesting stories that could be found in that time. I will not lie, I do like the backstory, but it is a good base. I will explain more outside of this hider. Weapons: A single edged broad sword wrought of a single piece of steel forged by his own hand,its hilt of unusual length and wrapped in the strips of leather and fur gathered from his hunting conquests, the pommel stone eventually filled with a blue lapis.
A spear wrought blade and shaft of one piece of worked steel rolled and twisted despite its added weight,the weapon resembles a common hunting spear but for its singular construction and material. The wedge like blade is slightly broader and longer and its blades are kept wickedly sharp.The weight at the far end is polished to a high shine and it is often employed as a skull cracker as readily as a counter weight. The haft has several punched holes to facilitate the wrapping of two sections in soft leather and hide to ensure his grip should not slip.
Armor:A snow white coat of armored leather, the right sleeve is missing, the metal plates which reinforce the other wise flimsy protection of the leather designed for easy replacement should they be sundered, and for maintained flexibility at the cost of some possible protection. Additionally padded leather pants gloves and armored leather boots make up the ensemble.He lacks the protection of heavy infantry such as plate, or light infantry such as chain, and opts for a scouts or vanguards armor choices fitting his style of movement and combat.
General Provisions: In terms of food the hunter is well off, having pouches of freshly roasted meats, the morning of, or the night before, as well as some of smoked trail rations. He carries little coinage, spending what he gets and bartering for what he needs when he doesn't have it.He carries a sack with a hammock and fire starting tools, as well as a hammer a blacksmiths tool well worn by the years a memento of his past but also a tool as he often barters for time with the forges to repair his gear.
Magical Items: (leave this blank at the start)
Magical Affinity: Auric has a strong affinity for or gift of magic, though he has no control and no particular desire to learn. He considers the gift an actual curse upon his emotions. His talent produces effects derived from his emotion and proportional to what he feels, with the normal repercussions. Additionally outbursts of magic result in emotional exhaustion as the gift consumes the emotion which triggered it in addition to whatever damage it does to Auric and the person his emotions were directed at.
Spells: Minor Outburst - This corresponds to an outburst of Auric’s emotions, such as a bout of frustration, or an angry response to a snide comment, as the emotional response if not particularly severe the effect of the magic is fairly minor, such as if he is angry something on his person or the other person catching fire,or if he is frustrated something breaking normally something of his since frustration is normally internalized, but it has been known to be aimed at other people.For whatever effect his magic causes, it is revisited upon him proportionally if something catches fire he is burnt regardless of who it belonged to, if something breaks he suffers minor fractures or dislocations.
Major Outburst - These are rare and correspond to the types of emotions you experience during life altering situations, the pain of traumatic injury, the fear of death, the anger at witnessing true horror, frustration born of true impotence, and grief born of the loss of a loved one or companion. Auric has only ever experienced a small number of these events, the first of which saw him cast out of his village on the eve of his ascent into adulthood and into success as a blacksmith, and result was a storm of fire and steel wrought of years of repressed anger and frustration, and for the one moment his emotion crystallized around another it nearly killed them both. These effects are unpredictable and severe, correspond to the emotion he is feeling and each has a good chance of killing him depending on how his emotions are spent and whether the spell wrought of those emotions comes to fruition.
MarshalSolgriev,
Cao the Exiled,
Grijs,
Enzayne,
Lord Zee,
Frettzo,
DracoLunaris,
Vec