Name: Gwennan Tambarlin
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Race: Human
Job/Class: Completely reputable trader/swordsman/gadabout
Power: Gwennan is fireproof save for his hair and clothing and highly resistant to heat. He's also fairly accomplished at pickpocketing and a few simple sleight-of-hand tricks. He is very agile and skilled with a sword, although the actual strength of his blows is somewhat lacking and he relies more on finesse.
His sword can be used to draw off magical energies from the air and store them in the blade. These dissipate naturally over time or may be discharged all at once - although they tend to be conducted based on direct contact into the wielder himself. This technique can nullify one good-sized magical attack every two days. Absorbing energy beyond its capacity causes the sword to discharge all excess immediately.
He has a "pet" raven named Kilvas who is highly intelligent and occasionally comes to his master's defense.
Appearance: A tall, rake-thin youth with darkish skin and curly ink-black hair but peculiarly light brown eyes. His clothes probably would have gone hideously together before they faded and were patched beyond recognition. His features are rather angular and his face a bit on the long side, lending him a somewhat cunning appearance, but his accustomed expression is one of serenity and contentment bordering on outright laziness.
Weaknesses: He sleeps too much (i.e. anywhere, anytime), he's completely illiterate, and he continually overestimates his ability to talk his way out of a bad situation. He's really horrible with money and so generous that if he's broke and you need some, he'll give you someone else's - he generally has enough sense not to indulge his light fingers just for fun, but can get overzealous about... ah, "giving to the poor."
Biography: Gwennan's father, Tormag, was a small-time merchant who saw enormous potential in the weapons trade and resolved immediately to get into it somehow. He met up with a young woman named Lydis who was attempting to create contained, weaponized fire spells useable by anyone. He promptly decided to make his fortune making her miracle weapon available to the masses. Unfortunately, his dream was never realized; Lydis was unable to come up with a viable storage method for these spells. This didn't stop them from sleeping together, or her from conceiving a child. She was terribly weakened by Gwennan's birth but refused to abandon either her son or her experiments. So she warded the infant against fire and kept him with her while she worked. Her condition, however, continued to deteriorate, and she died a few months later.
Tormag, convinced that it was her weapons research that had killed her, swore off any further forays in that direction and retreated with his son in tow as deep into Ighten and as far from any fighting as he could. He sold most of what he owned, then most of what he stole, then finally stopped selling things and just stole food directly. Gwennan was an apt pupil and his father's secret weapon against middle-aged women.
When Gwennan was ten, Tormag was caught stealing a diamond brooch. It just so happened that they were in a small, horribly xenophobic hamlet in the Ashgrown Forest and this brooch, in addition to being an heirloom of the richest family in town, was the only diamond article for miles. An angry mob drove them off after beating Tormag viciously with sticks and fists. Appalled that he hadn't even tried to resist, Gwennan insisted that they both acquire swords. Tormag refused to touch a weapon again in memory of Lydis, but could not stop Gwennan from getting a blade for himself. Determined to do this right, he put all the money he'd gotten from fencing off trinkets into the purchase of a sword with magical properties the dealer only vaguely hinted at. He learned his way around it fairly quickly but soon discovered that actually fighting people was much less fun than just swinging it around.
Tormag got old enough that the life of wandering and secrecy became hard on him, and Gwennan set him up in a more moderate random hamlet in the Ashgrown Forest with a fair amount of money and the instruction to try to stay on the right side of the law. For himself, Gwennan decided to do the same, taking up the mantle of a wandering peddler of various goods. Most of his travels are between Hepian and his father's town, most of his activities are legal, and most of his profits go to supporting dear old dad. In theory. He doesn't actually make very much.
Personality: With his odd mixture of serenity and bravado, Gwennan somehow makes everything he does look easy. While he's not smug or a braggart, he doesn't believe in false modesty, either, so it's always obvious when he's particularly pleased with himself. He wears his heart on his sleeve, although he'll probably get upset if anyone ever tells him as much, and is a very affable, approachable presence. Though he is good company and a bit of a flirt, he will sever all ties and vanish entirely without warning if it looks too much like anyone's forming attachments to him. He doesn't want to hurt anyone by it, so he's pretty upfront about his nature.
Because he's so calm and relaxed, people often think he's lazy or stupid. He's much more alert than he appears, has a memory for detail that at times defies explanation, and is certainly not about to sit back and let anyone take advantage of his good nature. He has a slow fuse, but doesn't forgive easily.
Extras: He has a gift for whittling and, when bored or nervous, will often carve small animal figurines. He usually keeps some on hand to give to pretty girls on short notice.
Kilvas: Kilvas is a male raven, apparently about a year old. He is a lazy, greedy bird motivated only by food, shiny objects, and immediate self-preservation. He can speak a fair number of phrases (most of them obscenity-laden; Gwennan argues that this definitely shows that he knows what they mean), occasionally deigns to carry messages for Gwennan, and can locate almost anyone he's met once, though he'll take his sweet time about it. He also becomes very agitated in the presence of people with conflicting emotions and has many people convinced that he's more than he appears.
Gwennan Tambarlin
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Soran Nightblade
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