Baelor Fireborne

[Baelor Fireborne]

Full Name: Baelor Fireborne

Race: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 180 lbs
Eyes: Steel Blue
Hair: Chestnut Brown


Description:

Baelor is a tall, slender man, and is built as though he were cut from stone; his flesh is hard and calloused, and his muscles are corded and lean. Fat is almost nonexistent, almost to a fault. High cheekbones define his face, and his drawn-in cheeks project the image of a solemn and sullen man. His brow is cut like a cliff, but is not so pronounced that it stands out on his face, and his nose is straight and slender with a slight bump at the bridge. Above his brow, loose strands of hair sweep across his slightly tanned forehead. His chestnut locks fall just shy of his shoulders, and are straight and border on unkempt. Short stubble wraps around his mouth and his jaw.


Items:

Weapon: Summerset – A massive, two-handed greatsword that has always been in Baelor’s possession, waiting for him to grow large enough to wield. The pommel is a beautifully cut, black stone, most likely onyx, which is faint and nearly transparent. The grip is equally dark, but unlike the pommel is opaque. Summerset’s grip is hard, yet is comfortingly chilled to the touch. Smooth and soft red leathers have been hemmed into the black-boned handle at certain points in order to increase comfort. The blade itself is long and broad, and folded from smoked steel. When light catches the steel the blade reflects the brilliant colors of summer’s end, including bright reds and oranges and yellows – thus the name Summerset. This sword is Baelor’s only connection to his unknown family, and he hopes that it will help him uncover his past as he returns home. Summerset is too long to be worn on his hip, and so it resides in a scabbard that is attached diagonally across Baelor’s back, atop his armor and beneath his short cloak.

Steel Dagger – A standard, lengthy dagger is kept sheathed on his hip.

Armor: Light Plate Armor – Baelor possesses a set of standard, silvered, steel plate armor. He discarded the helm long ago, however. This armor is of no special design or property, although he hopes to reclaim his family’s treasured armor once he’s returned.

Other Vestments – Baelor only adorns his war armor when absolutely necessary. His normal clothing consists of poorly made and old cloth tunics and leather pants, which can be covered with a vest of boiled leather and ringed mail if the need for light combat arises.

Horse: Flamestrider – affectionately called “Strider”, Flamestrider is a massive, charcoal-black war horse that was given to Baelor as a parting gift from his merchant master in Keltaris. The beast is not nimble or agile, and is slow to accelerate, but it is a powerful, masterful creature that can reach great speeds over long distances, due in part to its gathered momentum. Its mane is black with streaks of silver that hang loosely down on the right side of the horse’s neck, and also sweep in front of its forehead. Flamestrider is suited with nothing more than a basic saddle and some rudimentary armor that extends from its shoulders to the base of its eyes, but Baelor is looking to fashion a superior armor for his steed.


Powers/strengths:

Combat Proficiency – Baelor is trained in the arts of swordplay and melee combat, and is adept at wielding his massive greatsword. He is also skilled in combat horsemanship.

Strength – Although he is not the largest of men, Baelor is incredibly strong and can pack a devastating punch. He has apprenticed as a blacksmith to hone his strength for practical means, as well.

Intimidation – Fireborne knows how to set the tone of a conversation, whether it is a negotiation, or a meeting with a hostile party. Adorned in his armor, with the Summerset at his side, and riding atop Flamestrider, Baelor tends to make audiences uneasy, and thus less willing to disagree or provoke him.

Wanderer – Baelor Fireborne is a wanderer, first and foremost. He has never had a true home, and he is very capable on the road. While not the greatest tracker, basic navigation is one of his few talents.


Weakness/Flaws:

Agility – Like his steed, Baelor relies on power and strength, and often ignores the finer, dexterous movements of combat. His heavy armor and sword do not help the matter, and he is often slow to react to lateral movements and flanking attacks.

Personality – It takes a special breed to understand and become accustomed to men like Baelor Fireborne, and those breeds are few and far between. Furthering the problem, Baelor has no interest in wooing people who do not naturally understand him. Coupled with his intimidating manner of presenting himself, he is often not liked, and fails in basic social situations. He is also incredibly stubborn.

Wanderer – Having no home, Baelor is comfortable on the road, but he becomes uncomfortable in urban areas and around large crowds. He is unfamiliar with the layout of most cities, and is prone to become lost.


History:

Twenty five years ago, a newly-wed couple moved from lands unknown to the remote farmlands outside the village of Shim. The man erected a farmhouse and tilled the land, while the woman dedicated herself to maintaining orderliness and performing household chores. After only a few years the pair’s hard work had yielded a robust harvest, and they began to live more comfortably. Soon thereafter, the woman began to notice a small bump emerging on the small of her stomach; she was with child. The couple could not have been happier, everything was coming together.

Unfortunately, their tale of determination and grit did not produce a happy ending. On the night that the young woman progressed into labor, a group of wildling bandits from the forests beyond the village raided down into the farmlands in search of food, water, women and coin. The couple’s small plot of land, have been on the village outskirts, was one of the first to be attacked. The man and his wife locked themselves in their bedchambers as the savages lay waste to their home, but their hiding was for naught – the woman’s birthing screams alerted the raiders.

As the child came forth from her womb the bandits began to break down the door. The new father looked upon his son with tears in his eyes, but only for a moment. He removed himself from his family and made for the massive greatsword that hung on the wall above his bed, and he pulled it down. From his dressing quarters he pulled another, smaller longsword. To the mother he gave the greatsword, and instructed her leave through the guarded rear exit and make for Shim as fast as her feet would carry her. He kissed her on the forehead, and then kissed his son, and then made for the hallway beyond their bedchamber, his longsword unsheathed. The woman, still bloodied and nearly-unconscious from the pain rushed from the farmhouse with the massive greatsword hung over her shoulder and her newborn child in her arms and made for Shim. The farmhouse burned down around her as she made her retreat. The boy was born from fire.

The next day a wandering merchant that was stopping in Shim and Marn on his way to Keltaris came upon the fallen body of the mother, a few hundred yards from one of the many burnt farmhouses. A child was in her arms, and he presumed it to be dead. As he moved past, however, the young boy cried. He was a man of morals, a good man, and so he and his company took the child from the mother’s cold, dead arms, along with the massive greatsword, and made for the town.

The merchant hired female servants in Marn to care for the boy on the long journey back to Keltaris. Upon arriving, the merchant cared for the child like a father, for his wife had been unable to birth children of their own. They named him Baelor, born of the fire and the flame, and so he became Baelor Fireborne.

When he came of age, the merchant squired him in the arts of negotiation, and of the sale, a venture that was a terrible failure. As the boy grew, he noticed that the weak and frail child that he had once known was gone, and in his place stood a strong, able man, and so he paid the fees necessary to have him apprenticed by the local blacksmith. That too was a failure, although the boy developed his corded, stone-cut muscles. The blacksmith suggested that perhaps the child was more apt to wield a blade than to forge one, and so the merchant had the boy trained by a lesser knight of a lower-noble house in Keltaris. This venture, unlike the ones before it, proved to be an immense success.

When the boy turned twenty, the merchant told him the tale of how he’d come upon him, and where he was from. He released into the world as his own man, and as he left, he gifted him with a prized war horse that he bought from a respected horse breeder outside the city. After promising to one day return to Keltaris, Baelor left the merchant, the only father he had ever known, and began the long journey back to the farmlands outside Shim.

[Niabi]

I like what you have going so far, however I think this could use one more weakness/flaw to help balance the character out a bit more. I tend to think it helps to think of it not as a making the character weaker but as creating some sort of plot device that I can later use to put the character into a situation where he has to try harder and really prove himself, or fail miserably and learn from his mistakes.

[Saruna]

I'd also consider adding in a few bits so we can get a feel for his personality. Is he angry about his past and parents? Is he humble? Prideful? Spiteful? Outwardly he is rather gruff, as you put in your weaknesses, but how about inward? How does he see the world?

Also welcome to Thar and thanks for the app.

[Baelor Fireborne]

I was planning on adding more to the personality in the character sheet as I develop him more. I left some wiggle room in that respect because I'm not one hundred percent sure how his personality, both internally and externally, will shape as I begin writing. I don't want to commit to something, and then have to rescind that commitment later.

Also, I'm not quite sure what you mean about the weaknesses not being balanced. Each strength is proportionally countered by a weakness. Combat Proficiency and Strength, which are essentially the same, are countered by Baelor's lack of agility. Intimidation is a minor strength in comparison to the Personality weakness, which essentially makes social situations extremely tasking for the character. And being adept at navigating outside of a city seems less useful in this RPG than being adept at navigating within a city, and so I think that the last weakness is actually much more prominent than the last strength.

The only thing that isn't balanced is the additional uses of strength, those practical, everyday uses. I could balance that if need be, but I didn't really see a point since I don't see my character taking a job lifting crates or stones.

Additionally, I was planning on introducing another weakness or plot device as I move along, but I haven't settled on one yet and, in a similar manner as stated above, I did not want to prematurely commit.

[Niabi]

What we are looking for is something that gives us a bit more insight into the character, how he thinks, how he feels. We understand wanting him to grow and change as all characters do through ic interactions, but we would like a little more of a starting point for him to jump off of. What are his thoughts and feelings about learning that he was found as a baby in the arms of his dead mother? What is he hoping to gain by returning to the area he was born? Does he plan on some form of revenge? Does he fear that when he gets there there might not be anybody to blame for the tragedy that took his family from him?

Part of what makes weaknesses great is that they give you something to not only work with but against in a struggle to overcome them. If say you give your character some sort of weakness somehow related to his returning home or learning the details of what happened to his parents, it is possible that through play he could overcome these weakness and grow from them.

[Baelor Fireborne]

I understand the benefit of weaknesses in a character, but do they need to be explicit stated at this moment in time? Or can I start writing, shape what I want, and then add it back to the character sheet in a short while?

[Saruna]

Alrighty, so Baelor is going to do a solo thread, and then based on how the character is adapted through that we will reopen the app to flesh out the personality some more. As the app is essentially well balanced at the moment, and we're only talking about the personality, myself and Niabi both felt that this is fine.

Approved.