Braedon
Age: Early-Mid Twenties
Gender: Male
Class: Scavenger
Personality: Braedon has a very negative view of people. He believes everyone is motivated by nothing but self-interest. Everyone in the world wants money, power, or some other kind of selfish gain. His distrust of all people and life experiences have left him resentful towards everyone from the army and the government to criminals. He sees them all the same. He does not like his life of crime, but believing that everyone else is a criminal in some sense helps him get over his general dislike. He is generally quite solitary, and enjoys doing things for the challenge, especially mental challenges. In spite of his choosing to be solitary, he understands people very well and can be quite charismatic when he chooses to be. He longs for true love and true friendship, but is convinced that such things aren't possible.
History: Braedon grew up with a large family. His parents struggled to keep him and his siblings fed and clothed. Sometimes, when they did manage to save a little, the family would be robbed, and everything they built up would be lost. As the oldest, Braedon took it upon himself to help take care of his family, but when he found how difficult it was to earn money, he turned to begging out of desperation. When people refused to help him feed his starving family, he finally turned to crime. Not wanting to build up a reputation as a criminal, he created his alternate persona, The Stranger, and learned stealth and disguises so that he would never get caught. Eventually, one of his brothers, Jass, discovered his second life and joined The Stranger's gang. Braedon didn't like this, but he hoped that with the authority of The Stranger, he could control his brother and keep him from doing anything stupid.
As Stranger's reputation grew, the city guards got more and more bent on catching him. In one stroke of luck for them, a miscalculation on Stranger's part, they succeeded. They captured and jailed him for quite some time, boasting that they had finally put an end to the infamous Stranger. A year into his imprisonment, the Demon Wars began. The army, desperate for any advantage they could gain over their enemies, began pressing criminals into fighting in the war. They told Braedon that he would go free after the war, if he used his stealth and disguises to infiltrate the enemy. He agreed, even though he thought he would die by the time the war was over.
He returned to his hometown shortly after the war was over. He was reunited with his brother, and though the rest of the gang had departed, Braedon and Jass began planning their next big heist. Even though the family wouldn't take his ill-gotten money now that they knew where it came from, it was the only life he knew, and the army had left him with nothing of his own. The night of this heist, Braedon meets Delena when he robs her. The kindness she shows him in spite of what he did causes him to start questioning his view of mankind and his victims.
Delena
Age: Early-Mid Twenties
Gender: Female
Class: Elemental Sorceress
Personality: Delena can be trusting, kind, and giving to those she knows, but has a streak of cynicism that darkens her view of mankind. She surrounds herself with people she likes, but is jaded when it comes to people in general. She feels more in touch with the natural world around her than she does with people, but the friends she makes are often true and loyal, and she is unwaveringly dedicated to them. She has seen enough in the Demon Wars to harden her against coming hardships. She is not easily angered, but hurting or even threatening somebody she cares about is the worst mistake anyone could make. She is constantly frustrated by the difficulty she has in mastering her powers.
History: Delena was born into a family like any other. She spent the early years of her childhood living happily with her parents. As a young girl, her powers first began to develop. When her ability to conjure elemental magic grew to be too much for her parents to take, they sent her to live with The Order of Vaggerus, a sect of mages and apprentices. The Order recognized something spectacular in her, and set about trying to bring it out. Delena, terrified of being overwhelmed by her power, resisted these teachings and first and held back as much as she could.
When the Demon Wars began, The Order of Vaggerus joined the army, advising them whenever possible and taking up leadership roles and doing as much of the fighting as they could. In the heat of combat, Delena's powers grew, but she never reached the potential that the Order had attributed to her. Although she performed numerous heroic acts, she was never happy with herself. She knew that if she could unleash her true power, she could very well turn the tide of the war and save countless lives. When the war ended, she had not yet reached her potential and unleashed her inner power.
At first, she intended to return to her training with The Order of Vaggerus, but she began having prophetic visions of the demons returning. The Order did not heed her warnings, so she set out on her own to prepare and to find allies for when the demons did arise. When the game begins, she is on a desperate quest to find Darinus and beg him to join her cause.
Jass
Age: Late Teens-Early Twenties
Gender: Male
Class: Thug
Personality: Jass is the embodiment of everything his brother hates about people. He is a greedy and selfish person who doesn't care about others at all. While his outlook on life is similar to that of Braedon's, he lacks the sense of remorse and mournful tone that his brother takes on. He finds nothing regrettable about the way mankind is, or about how he lives his life. He is extremely narcissistic, and doesn't care much at all about what is happening to others, even those who are supposedly close to him. He lives almost exclusively for cheap thrills, gold and his own power.
Background: Jass is the second-oldest child in the family. As a young child, he held great admiration for his older brother. As he grew to be larger and stronger than all of his brothers and sisters, the admiration faded. He became something of a bully. With so little to go around for the family, he took whatever he wanted from the others. His parents, too busy working and cooking to pay much attention, simply told Braedon to step in. Braedon would do his best, but Jass rarely listened and Braedon was no match for him, physically.
His family had so little, and Jass wanted so much more, that he turned to petty crime as a way of getting the things he wanted. If he wanted money, he would mug people on the street. If he wanted something from the shops, he would walk in, take it, and leave. He got in plenty of fights, and learned to pummel his opponents. When he discovered that his brother was the infamous Stranger, they immediately began putting together a gang and pulling off bigger heists. Braedon always gave plenty of his money to the family, while Jass kept whatever he could.
When Braedon got arrested, Jass didn't care. He had made a stupid mistake, and now he would pay for it. Although not having The Stranger in charge meant less loot, it also put Jass in charge of the gang. They did as they pleased, took what they wanted, and were tough enough to not have to live with the consequences. Gradually, though, the others got tired of Jass only caring about himself and ordering everybody else around, so most of them deserted. When Braedon finally got back from the war, the gang was gone and the two began their power struggle.
Drayer
Age: Forties
Gender: Male
Class: Void Guardian
Personality: Drayer is slightly touched in the head. He often makes very morbid comments. Nonetheless he is a very strong leader who is used to being in charge in a crisis. The most important thing to him is the safety of his unit. The second-most important thing to him is the obedience of his unit. He does not take no for an answer from those operating under his command, and openly reprimands anyone who disobeys orders. He is as good a fighter as he is a leader, and in the heat of combat he fights like a barbarian, but never loses his head and always remains in control of himself and his soldiers.
Background: Drayer has been a military man all his life. His father was a high ranking military officer, his mother was a field nurse. As he grew up, there was no question that Drayer would one day join the army and have a bright future as a soldier. Through most of his career, the wars were fought between lands, not worlds. Drayer's land, along with the others, are gone but not quite forgotten, and Drayer's was the most powerful in its day.
During his campaigns, Drayer proved himself to be a soldier and leader whose mind was as sharp as his blade. Because of his strength, intellect, and loyalty, the army included him in a special project. He was to be one of the first soldiers imbued with “Void” power, making him especially effective against enemy magic. He would be able to disable enemy mages of all kinds, and would be less susceptible to magical attacks. Many Void Soldiers died in their early missions, as destroying enemy mages was always risky, but Drayer was one of the lucky ones. He survived the petty feuds.
When the demons began their rise to power and began overwhelming the small lands which stood up to them, it became clear that a union of the lands was necessary in order to overpower the threat. Drayer, now an officer, welcomed the idea, whereas many were opposed to it. Delena and Drayer met when the Order of Vaggerus joined in the fight, and Delena joined Drayer's unit. Drayer quickly came to see Delena as something of a daughter, and he felt more protective of her than anyone else under his command.
Despite the union of lands and people, the elves in the world withdrew their support for the fight as the war went on. They grew tired of fighting and felt that they could survive on their own, if they simply stayed out of the way. Elves were significant parts of the garrison in a few outposts, and with them gone, these outposts were overrun with demons. Drayer and his soldiers were stationed in one of these places, and barely made it out with their lives. After the war, Drayer learned that his father and mother were also killed in a similar attack. Although the demons nearly did wipe them out and their numbers are now estimated at less than one hundred, Drayer has never forgiven the elves for their treachery.
Darinus
Age: Early Thirties
Gender: Male
Class: Swordsman
Personality: Darinus truly believes he is humanity's salvation, and he embodies this in everything he does. He is kind and gentle to friends and allies, but wickedly cruel to enemies, those who would bring darkness. He tries not to live in fear of his prophetic visions, and avoids this by taking action and responsibility for stopping what is to come. In spite of his heroics, he is not a born leader, and being in a position of power or privilege makes him uncomfortable. He does what he can as a leader, as his prophecies are a potent weapon against the demons, but always feels as if he can be of better service as a fighter.
Background: Ever since childhood, Darinus has been haunted by frightening visions of great catastrophe and unending darkness. These visions soon became prophecies, which he recorded, and they gave a detailed account of the war and various major events, including his own role in it. He spent his childhood and young adulthood preparing what was to come, mastering swordplay and battle tactics.
It was his prophecies which gave him the ability to direct the human forces in the Demon War. These prophecies are where his apparent power comes from, he fought only battles that it was preordained he would win, and only made moves which were foretold would be successful. The military leaders did not believe in his prophecy, and simply saw him as a brilliant but eccentric strategist.
Since the end of the war, Darinus has been brooding. His prophecies tell of a time of great peace, followed by the true cataclysm. The most puzzling part of this prophecy is that he must be destroyed in order for the cataclysm to begin, but only his death can end it. Puzzled and worried by this, he has spent his time researching the Lost Wells, places of great power, said to bestow immortality. Many of searched them out, but nobody has found them. Darinus, guided by prophecy, believes he now has a lead on where to find one. He is nearly ready to pursue this lead when the party finds him.
Discord
Light Style