Name: Macbeth of Dayspire (people from his home refer to themselves by their birthplace rather then with a surname)
Age: 17
Species: African Grey Parrot with an all-red mutation, like these guys.
Skills:
-Archery; carries a special lightweight, low tension crossbow adjusted for a smaller creature, along with a quiver that usually holds a maximum of 16 arrows. The crossbow is named Bleedingheart and is a family heirloom.
-He's never been formally trained in any physical fighting style, but some skills have developed organically from constantly being hunted down by people who'd like to finish him off.
-Very hands-off when it comes to combat, relying on dodging and sucker punches to wear out enemies.
Special abilities:
-Unable to fly, but very agile and at home in high places.
-The flightless but arboreal nature of his people gives them some natural skills that seem closer to small apes then to birds, using their lightweight bodies and small wings to move easily from tree to tree and balance on thin branches.
-Being a parrot, he's also skilled at learning and mimicking the voices of other creatures.
Personality:
Generally a good guy where the moral compass is concerned, but even after living by the skin of his teeth (so to speak) for so many years he still has his moments of acting like a spoiled royal brat and that can make him unlikeable depending on what your first impression is. He can also be shockingly cold and unfeeling, preferring to use his mind over his emotions to make judgements. He interacts with others well enough to survive, but 'team player' isn't the first thing that comes to mind either, since he has a hard time admitting when he's wrong or adjusting for the personalities of his fellows.
For his better parts, he's highly intelligent, both in book knowledge and when it comes to thinking on his feet during combat situations. He's capable of staying extremely calm under duress, making him a valuable ally to have if you can put up with his selfishness and sense of entitlement. He's not particularly chatty and doesn't usually have much to say to people he doesn't know or trust, but his mind is always turning with thoughts of his next move, and one would be hard pressed to catch him off guard.
Backstory:
Macbeth was born the heir to a minor noble house in a region known as Dayspire, the son of an Earl Callymor and countess Anique. When Callymor saw that his son had been born with a rare mutation turning all of his normally gray feathers red, he guffawed at the suggestion of naming his son after the main character in the eponymous play, a favorite of his. However, parrots have nothing if not a sense of humor, and he eventually agreed to it on account of this; unfortunately for him, this would indeed turn out to be prophetic, although not perhaps in the most obvious of ways.
For the first eleven years of his life, Macbeth lived the life of any spoiled son of a nobleman, for though his family had very little political power they where fabulously wealthy. He was trained how to use the small, modified crossbows that where the staple weapon of his people, and with some practice he excelled. Around the time he turned twelve however, tension in the house culminated in his parent's slaying, and accusations rang out from the Earl's younger brother, among others, that Macbeth was responsible, citing his name and coloration as a curse on the family.
Fearing for his safety, some members of his father's court who where still loyal arranged for Macbeth to escape from Dayspire. From then on he was forced to live the life of a commoner, making himself especially scarce in large cities where his obvious plumage would be a dead giveaway to his identity. The house has since collapsed under the poor leadership of the Earl's brother, and though no one was truly ever punished for the death of his parents, Macbeth continues to survive on the streets, proclaiming his innocence whenever confronted about their murders.
Appearance:
A young anthropomorphic African Grey Parrot with totally red plumage except for a patch of pale around each of his dark gray eyes. He has a black beak and black talons. The average size for males of his kind is only about three and a half feet tall, and he easily falls within this expected bracket. The clothes he wears where once beautiful, but has been tarnished into peasant garments by years of wear and tear. His formally grey, redorange hemmed robe is now brown and caked with dirt, and has been crudely cut to knee length to make it more easy and comfortable for traveling long distances. He wears a simple tunic made from scratch materials as an undershirt.
