"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others, at whatever cost." ~ Arthur Ashe ________________________________________________________ Race: Human Gender: Male Age: 23 STR: 17 CHA: 14 Height: 6'3" Weight: 173 6'4" A tall, broad shouldered man with gold-blonde skinhair worn to his shoulders, a well trimmed beard and moustache, and sun tanned skin. His hands are calloused with the honest toil of over a decade. He wears common peasants clothes, clean but well mended and patched, and a home made tabard carrying his personal symbol, a white stag on a field of green. About his neck hangs the symbol of the world tree. _________________________________________________________ The son of a common farmer, who's father also farmed, Aethelric hails from the tiny village of Bandermere, on the edges of the Great Forest, in House Winford's southeastern holdings. He had a peaceful, if somewhat boring life as a peasant on the borders of the great forest. While the lands were Ecclesian, around half the village's inhabitants were adherents of the druidic faith. Many were pilgrims from abroad who had come to meditate and find serenity under the boughs of the ancient forest. They ended up liking it so much they stayed. Aethelric's mother, Sarai, was one such woman. Part of a party of adventurers, she was a healer and druid of modest gift. She and her party initially came to the town during a plague of undeath, seeking to both aid the ailing villagers, and discover what had caused the sickness, and the rising of the dead in the first place. It was under her care that his father, Gyles, recovered from his illness. While a devout Ecclesian, he came to appreciate the woman's gentle, compassionate, nature. She came to respect his quiet fortitude in the midst of suffering. Once her party found and drove away the cause of the plague, a necromancer named Ivaxion hiding in a forgotten tower, Sarai decided to leave the party and settle down with Gyles. They wed twice. Once in the village's chapel. A second time, in a much simpler ceremony in the forest performed by a priest of the old religion. In time they were gifted with a son, Aethelric. As a teenager, Aethelric worked worked hard, assisting his father on their horse farm. The family bred horses for the Winford family. He became expert at training large animals, and at riding them. He also spent time in the woods, clearing old, dead growth and cutting down sickly trees to make room for the new, learning the basics of survival and woodcraft from his mother, in time learning a small amount of nature magic as well. During this time a bandits living in the woods began poaching the deer in the Old Forest, targeting all without regard for the balance of the wilds, nor the lordship of the Winfords, on whose lands they hunted. They did not care who they robbed, or what animals they killed. They took pregnant doe and young mother with faun alike, the while robbing honest merchants and woodsmen of their coin. The druid circle and the Winfords put bounties on the poachers, for differing reasons. Wishing to keep his neighborhood safe, and protect the wilds from despoilment, Aethelric and the town's militia, armed only with cloth and leather armor, staves, daggers, and longbows, set out to defeat the bandits, and managed to do so. Using his share of the bounty, the youth purchased a used breastplate and shield, and a brand new sword. On the way back from the fight, in the waning ours of twilight, Aethelric lagged behind to clean his wounds in a stream. He saw, framed beneath the branches of the old oaks, backlit by the purples, yellows, oranges, and pinks of the sunset, a King's Stag. A massive deer with antlers like saplings, bigger than he had ever seen. And yet it shone with an otherworldly light, and seemed translucent, or transparent. He took it as a sign that he and the other villagers had pleased the deer spirit. In time Aethelric fell in love with a girl of the village, Elisa. Honest, hardworking, and pretty, in an every day, girl next door sort of way, the two became close, and in time were betrothed. But it was not to be. Disaster struck. The invading horde attacked, ambushing the village at night. Despite wooden palisade walls, and a lake on three sides, the village fell. Aethelric and his fellow militia fighters managed to get two thirds of the villagers safely onto boats, including his parents, and flee across the lake. But Elisa was not one of them. He saw her run down and cut to pieces before his eyes by a monstrous orc with one eye and a mohawk, riding a worg. The villagers moved slowly in their journey to the village, the old, the sick, and the wounded among them. Skirmishers from the Horde harassed and sniped at them on their way to the city, killing and wounding more of the refugees. It a brutal, fighting retreat that allowed the beleaguered common folk no rest and little peace. At last they arrived in Duirt. Once Aethelric had what remained of his friends and neighbors settled in, he turned his mind to achieving vengeance for the fallen. . .and to safeguard those that still lived, as well as his beloved forest, from further depredations. ________________________________________________________ Aethelric's Playlist Thank God I'm a Country Boy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdW7Sw9uQT4 The Colors of the Wind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ChYRH_wcXA Excalibur https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N4zqnE1Vh8 Two Worlds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnpG4hrlgZA