Win Sabre

[Win Sabre]

Name: Winston "Win" Sabre

Age: 25

Race: Human / Shifter (hawk)

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 150 lbs

Power:
Due to his unfortunate curse, he transforms into a nocturnal bird of prey every night at midnight. At this time, he hunts for mice in the forests between Marn and Shim, and flies through the night skies above Thar Shaddin. Every morning, he returns to his home before the sun rises, where he transforms back into a human at 6:00 AM. Lucklily, despite his illegal existence as a shifter, he is able to evade the government due to the nocturnal nature of his curse. No one knows his secret other than the wizard who cursed him.

As a hawk, he is able to communicate with other birds by a wide range of calls. As a human, he has a close connection with birds but no formal way to communicate with them.

He used to be a pickpocket and a highwayman before he was cursed, and he still retains some of the skills he picked up. He was once stealthy and good at identifying potential targets, setting up an ambush on a passing traveler, disappearing into a crowd, and using a saber. He has since given up this lifestyle and turned over a new leaf, vowing not to do it again. As a result, he remembers some of the basics, but is very rusty and thus would have a hard time using any of these skills. However, he can still recognize the routes that a criminal would take, defend himself if attacked by a thief, and spot the signs of a pickpocket or even an ambush.

Description:
As a human, Win has dark brown eyes, shoulder-length brown hair, and a tanned skin color. He usually wears a cowboy hat, but it always comes off when he is indoors. He often tries to achieve an appearance of simplistic sophistication despite his struggling financial situation; he often ties back his hair in a neat ponytail, shaves every day, and wears clean clothing. However, when transformed after returning from an evening hunt in hawk form, he is usually weary, weak, and unpresentable. When under a burdening weight of prolonged stress, he tends to shift away from his usual self, even to the point where he is reduced to a scruffy, disheveled, and slightly eccentric loner.

As a hawk, Win retains his characteristic deep brown eyes. He has a combination of reddish-brown and white feathers, weighs about a kilogram (2.20 lbs), and has a wingspan of about one meter (3.28 ft). Despite hours upon hours of research, Win can't figure out what species of hawk this is.

Win likes technology and is fascinated with the hidden mechanisms that he imagines must lie within the power plant. He often dreams of outlandish inventions or improvements that would further develop the use of electricity in Marn, but his lack of money and education prevent him from putting those ideas into action. He ocassionally tinkers with Gnomish clocks and radios, but can never put them back together again.

This is balanced with his love for nature; he enjoys hiking, swimming, and fishing. Ironically, he hates hunting. He finds it much more rewarding at night as a hawk.

He is also known to eat very little during the daytime, which may be the cause of his slender body. His few friends joke that he eats "like a bird."

Posessions:
A meager inheritance: a tiny, run-down, two-room house in Marn. One of the rooms is cluttered with lots of junk, including some of his failed inventions and experiments as well as all of his late father's possessions, such as awards he won when he served in the Guard.

Win doesn't have a job or any specific trade skills. He eats very little during the day and hunts at night, so money for food is not a problem. If he needs money for something, he does favors for friends or neighbors or odd jobs around the city.

Weaknesses:
The curse is limiting: Win firmly believes that he will never find love unless he finds a woman that sleeps heavily from 11:30 to 6:30 every single night. He is overly romantic, and is often depressed because he is lonely.

He lives in constant fear of the government. If anyone found out that he was an illegal shifter, he'd be a goner.

He is unsure whether or not he thinks magic is okay. This may make him vulnerable to both the government and its resistance.

He has two younger sisters, and cares for them deeply. He'd do anything to protect them.

He is most vulnerable in the mornings because he is exhausted and is recovering from the night before. He usually sleeps during this time.

He hates being called "Winston."

History:
Win's mother died shortly after giving birth to his twin sisters, May and Sarah. Win's father, Michael, was left to raise the three children. He was forced to give up his position as a Sergeant in the City Guard. He always spoke highly of the city, and the Saber family's heritage in the city's history, and the horrible dangers of magic.

"If you ever see a wizard coming your way... and you can tell by the bizarre way of their dress, or their nasty misshapen faces... then run. Run and tell your father. Or another guard," Michael always preached.

Win was never truly afraid of magic, having never witnessed it in action. His only knowledge of it was what his father mentioned when he described the high-ranking battlemages that he had witnessed on the battlefield. The boy did not find these old war stories to be very interesting.

The government soon forgot about old Michael, and he stopped receiving compensation money. Before long, the family was impoverished, and he was a nobody once again. When he died, May and Sarah moved out to live with an aunt elsewhere in the city, while Win stayed behind in the house until he sold it. Then he would move in with his relatives. That was five years ago, and he is still living there. Maybe he just couldn't part with it.

Win could not make enough money to support himself, and resorted to thievery. At first, he snuck around the city and pickpocketed, but it wasn't profitable enough. After a while, he started hiding alongside the road on the outskirts of the city, robbing travelers from distant realms. Before long, he was a highwayman, robbing defenseless merchants on the dusty trail.

Late one night, he made the mistake of attempting to extort money from a wizard on a pilgrimage that was passing through Marn. When the wizard stood his ground, Win ignored his father's advice and attacked the old man. In an instant, he had been transfigured into a bird. The pilgrim turned around and walked on, never to be seen again.

Win soon realized the error of his ways, and vowed never to resort to stealing. He looked back on that period of time and wondered what madness had possessed him. Ever since, he has lived in poverty, cursed with the transformation that torments him even during the day, yet blessed with the abundance of the forest at night.