BAH! Nekaban could woop this guy. Plus my guy has a little secret about the heart. OO I forgot to do the appearance of Nekaban!!
Appearance: Long black hair, long flowing cape (black), long staff with Jewel in it for spells 'n stuff™. A amulet around his neck with a glowing red...thing inside it. CANT SAY WHAT SO NYAH NYAH!! Bony armor...a.k.a armor made of bones (pretty slick with the ladies)
: BTW, I posted at the GURPS errata page, so hop on over
: and back me up! I forgot to mention the mistake in the
: river name, though, so be sure to include that.
: So let's talk about Ieuan Redeemer. One of the chief
: tragedies of peasant life is that their children are
: conscripted to join the Legion at age 14 in times of
: war; Ieuan volunteered at 10. He's doing well, too. He
: completed the training course only a few months ago,
: but it's already clear that his dexterity and
: fleet-footedness will make him an excellent warrior,
: and that his razor-sharp intellect will make him a
: first-rate tactician.
: Oh, and he's a Ghol. Read on if you dare...
: Thirteen years ago, the Journeyman Nine Skull Crocodile
: was living a secluded life in Forest Heart, acting as
: doctor to the human settlers on its western edge and
: occasionally mediating in human-Forest Giant disputes
: on the subject of logging. Awaking one morning to the
: sound of snarls and whines, he hastened out of his
: cabin to see a tiny infant Ghol in the front clearing,
: but a few weeks old by the look of it, at bay before a
: cautious but obviously hungry wolf. Newborn Ghols
: mature much more swiftly than human babies;
: nonetheless, the proficiency with which this infant
: was defending itself, snatching up rocks and pine
: cones and hurling them at its attacker, was undeniably
: impressive. Mingled pity and curiosity impelled Nine
: Skull to move forward. With shouts and threatening
: gestures he drove the beast back to the trees, from
: which it watched with steady and incurious eyes.
: Nine Skull knelt, and noted the baby's unusual
: coloration--jet black fur, with a curious greyish
: birthmark on the lower part of its left arm. He saw
: also that some provisions had been left with it--a few
: shreds of flesh which, from the look of them, had once
: been part of a human or humanoid body. It was fairly
: clear what had happened here--a band of ghols had
: passed by in the night, and had stopped here, perhaps
: to determine whether his cabin could be raided. They
: had moved on, but a mother had left behind her baby,
: most likely believing it accursed because of its mark.
: With un-Gholish compassion, however, she had left it a
: bit of food to slightly increase its miniscule chance
: of survival. Nine Skull Crocodile considered. The most
: convenient thing for him to do, and probably the most
: merciful thing for the baby, would be to quickly snap
: its neck and let the wolf have its meal. And yet...
: Heron Guards were not known for their bloodlust. Any
: applicant to the order who took positive pleasure in
: killing would be turned away immediately. But through
: these decades of peace, serving always as a doctor and
: never as a warrior, Nine Skull had discovered within
: himself a true distaste for violence he never knew
: existed. Practical or no, he didn't *want* to kill the
: baby. And if he didn't kill it, there was only one
: thing to be done. Nine Skull scooped up the baby in
: one massive hand and turned back to his cabin. As he
: approached the door, the lean wolf darted forward and
: snapped up the food which had been left with the baby.
: Nine Skull took a strip of dried meat from his table,
: tossed it outside, and shut the door.
: The Journeyman was never to regret his act of mercy. The
: Ghol baby grew quickly, in mind as well as body, and
: under his foster father's tutelage developed
: inquisitiveness, courage and compassion to degrees
: that most humans would be proud to achieve. The lack
: of self-restraint which marred the character of most
: Ghols manifested itself in this case as nothing more
: than impatience with all forms of ceremony and
: etiquette, a quality sometimes aggravating but
: sometimes admirable. Nine Skull named him Ieuan, which
: had been Nine Skull's own name before he joined the
: Heron Guard. Nine Skull was reluctant to teach Ieuan
: martial skills--though certainly with his remarkable
: dexterity and coordination he would have excelled in
: combat--but he told him everything he knew of
: geography, history, and the nature of the Mythworld.
: Ieuan could not learn magical healing spells used by
: Journeymen, dependent as those are upon faith in the
: Cath Bruig and love of its emperor, but Nine Skull
: taught him much about conventional medicine. Ieuan
: spent most of his time in Nine Skull's cabin, as his
: father feared lest he be harassed or outright attacked
: by humans or Ghols alike; still, he made a few friends
: among the more tolerant of the neighboring loggers,
: and won the respect (not to mention considerable
: amusement) of the Forest Giants when his father took
: him to meet with them. Life was not incredibly
: exciting, but it was pleasant. When he reached
: adolescence, Nine Skull suggested that he choose a
: name for himself after the fashion of more traditional
: Ghols; Ieuan chose the name Redeemer, as he hoped by
: his actions to show that Ghols might be forgiven their
: past iniquities, and admitted to the fold of the
: Light.
: When Soulblighter reappeared, Nine Skull was called by
: his fellow Journeyman to rejoin the Legion and readily
: agreed, in spite of his newfound distaste for war.
: Ieuan would gladly have joined him, but this was
: clearly impossible; in a wartime climate, he would
: have been attacked by the first weapon-bearing human
: who spied him. So Ieuan was asked to remain in Forest
: Heart, and offer what medical help he could to its
: inhabitants. He did so uncomplainingly; nevertheless
: he ended up playing a part in the war after all. When
: the armies of the Dark entered Forest Heart in search
: of the Tain, it was he who first spied them; it was he
: who warned the Forest Giants so that they might
: retreat to their hidden arbors, rather than suffer
: Soulblighter's wrath for the harm they did to him
: sixty years past; it was he who led the human settlers
: to secret places of refuge, overgrown ravines and
: small caves, so that most--with the exception of a few
: unfortunate stragglers--survived Soulblighter's
: invasion.
: In the course of the war Nine Skull and the other
: Journeymen reinstated the Heron Guard, and it was
: clear after Soulblighter's destruction that he would
: no longer be able to live in Forest Heart. A few
: months after the end of the war, he returned to his
: cabin to discuss Ieuan's future with the young Ghol.
: Obviously, if Ieuan wanted to enter Light society it
: would be best for him to join some sort of martial
: organization, which could protect him until he had
: shown himself worthy of respect. But what to join?
: Ieuan would have jumped at the chance to apply for the
: Heron Guard, but that was obviously out of the
: question--even had Nine Skull been able to convince
: his fellow Guards to consider a Ghol, the controversy
: generated by his admission into the most highly
: respected order in the land would have torn the Empire
: apart. In the end, they decided on the Legion. Nine
: Skull met with Alric, armed with a sheaf of
: recommendations from the settlers Ieuan saved, and
: even a few notes of praise from the Forest Giants
: themselves. Alric agreed surprisingly readily; Nine
: Skull suspects he was secretly hoping that something
: like this would happen. Ieuan's behavior in the Legion
: could be a litmus test for the Ghols as a race,
: indicating whether they were incorrigibly barbaric or
: capable of civilization, and thus whether Alric should
: seek to exterminate them or to assimilate them.
: Accordingly, Ieuan enrolled in the Legion training
: course at Madrigal, under Alric's watchful eye. As I
: said, he's graduated recently and is currently engaged
: on the routine missions given a team of novice
: warriors, basically policing of the countryside.
: End of Backstory.
: Ieuan's appearance: A black-furred ghol, with a silvery
: birthmark in the fur on the lower part of his left
: arm. The birthmark's appearance is not entirely clear,
: but it appears to include a pair of concentric
: circles. If he ever opts to shave the area, the mark
: on the skin may be seen to have more details. Ieuan
: wears a somewhat-reshaped (mainly shortened) warrior's
: uniform, with mail and helm; he carries the standard
: broadsword in a scabbard across his back, and uses a
: smaller, oval (long axis horizontal, short axis
: vertical) shield. He hangs a sack from his belt to
: carry useful stuff.
: Ieuan's talents & skills: Basically, Ieuan's centered
: around talent rather than skill. He's got an
: exceptional mind, and a body which is exceptionally
: obedient to the commands of that mind; but youth and
: his sheltered life have kept him from learning much,
: other than basic warrior skills, and some history and
: medicine taught to him by Nine Skull. Nonetheless, his
: high IQ and dexterity make him reasonably proficient
: at most tasks even without actually having any skill
: points in that area. In combat, he finds an enemy's
: weak point and exploits it. A Warlock would deal with
: an attacking dragon by blowing its head off with
: fireballs. Ieuan would toss a single dwarf cocktail in
: a perfect arc so that it landed in the dragon's inner
: ear, destroying its sense of balance and causing it to
: fall out of the sky onto the sharpened wooden stake
: Ieuan raised twenty minutes earlier when he planned
: the whole thing. I'm not sure how well I can roleplay
: someone ten times as smart as me, but I'd like to try.
: Ieuan's advantages and disadvantages: Being friends with
: a well-respected Heron Guard, the Forest Giants, a few
: Legionnaires and some settlers of Forest Heart is a
: big advantage; being disliked by pretty much everyone
: else in the country is a bigger disadvantage. Humans
: dislike him because he's a Ghol; Dwarves hate him
: because he's a Ghol; Ghols loathe him because they
: consider him a traitor. In almost any company, Ieuan's
: shape and nature work against him.
: Ieuan's personality: His primary qualities, as already
: mentioned, are curiosity and compassion. He serves the
: Light because he feels that, on average, Mythworld
: sentients are happier and more knowledge is discovered
: and disseminated when the Light's in charge. His scorn
: for ceremony is his biggest personality quirk. Why
: should you shake hands when introduced, he feels, when
: it's obvious you're already aware of this person's
: existence? Why should you bury the corpse of a loved
: one when you could recover fifty pounds of usable
: protein? Nine Skull and his few Legion friends have
: gotten him to make concessions to the biggest issues
: of etiquette--like not eating the corpses of
: sentients--but this is still the quality most likely
: to get him in trouble with humans and dwarves, who are
: just waiting for him to do something Gholish so they
: can say "We told you so!" and put his head
: on a stake.
: And yes, Ieuan has an amazing, earth-shattering secret
: just like everyone else's character. I'm not telling
: you what it is, though. :)
