[hider=Durin][b]Name:[/b] Durin

[b]Race:[/b]  Dwarf

[b]Age:[/b] 62 

[b]Gender:[/b] Male

[b]Appearance:[/b] Durin is a giant, well giant for a Dwarf. Compared to humans he is still a bit short, but he stands at 5' 7" well over a head over most dwarves. Not only is Durin tall, he retains the stoutness of his kind, boasting muscular broad shoulders and hips so he ends up looking like something comparable to a brickhouse. A brickhouse covered in leather, that is. Durin's skin is thick, and carries both the texture and color of stretched hide. Faded scars can be found all over his body, most notably two thick bands of discolored skin right below his wrists and above his ankles. The dwarf, still being relatively young has thick, coarse red-brown hair, but he shaves his head, only sporting bushy eyebrows, a mustache kept in the Chevron styling (think Nick Offerman) and of course, body hair. Durin has lots of body hair, it's everywhere, on his back, on his arms and legs, but most notably on his chest and stomach. Being a dwarf, his arms and legs are short, but what they lack in length, they make up for in girth, being covered in thick muscle. Durin's somewhat unkempt hands and feet are also proportionally larger than a human's. The dwarf's face, while being rough, is not entriely unpleasant to look at with a hint of what could be called rugged handsomeness. Underneath his eyebrows and above his big, blocky nose are a pair of hard eyes the color iron ore.

[b]Clothing/Armor:[/b] Durin prefers wearing simple garb, usually a tunic, some burlap pants and a good sturdy set of boots. When he wears armor, he prefers the heavy stuff. Durin, due to his body size and type is not the most agile fighter, so he doesn't mind the little bit of mobility he loses. However, this body type also makes it difficult for him to acquire armor he can actually use. Currently he is equipped with a steel helmet, a shirt of chain mail under a steel breastplate matched with a pair of iron gauntlets and greaves.

[b]Weapons:[/b] Durin usually carries around a hatchet, usually to cut wood because that's part of his job and he has a knife in his pocket because it's just a useful thing to have around. When he's expecting combat, Durin breaks out his large(for dwarves) circular wooden (Several layers of hardwood bound together and reinforced with hide. Further reinforced with a steel bass (the center metal circle bump on the front) and rawhide wrapped around the edge) centergrip shield, a spear and keeps his hatchet at his hip for good measure.

[b]Alignment:[/b] Lawful Neutral

[b]Skills/Abilities: [/b]While most people find one or two weapons and stick with them, Durin is a generalist. He's learned how to fight with swords, knives, clubs, spears, axes, shields, bows, even flails and chains. His skills vary from weapon to weapon, but at the very least he's competant with most things he can get his hands on. Even without weapons Durin can be a very formidable opponent to both those armed and unarmed skilled in grappling, throws and locks. Even if he isn't as good with one weapon as his foe, he can easily switch to another weapon that exploits the weakness of his enemy's tactics.
Durin is unexpectedly good at escaping bindings. Rope can hold him for maybe half an hour at most, and chain shackles are something he can free himself from given a few hours left to his own devices.
Durin also is skilled at surviving in the wilderness. It's not a position he would want to return to, but he can do it.

[b]Magic:[/b] N/A

[b]Backstory:[/b] Durin never knew his father. He barely remembers what his mother looks like, and he has a feeling that his fuzzy memory might just be something he made up. A figure that isn't fuzzy is Durgar. Durgar is the most vivid person in Durin's mind from his early childhood because he was his slaver. Durgar was a human, a gangly thing really about 30 years old with one of his front teeth missing. And although he was a slaver, he was not a very good one, for Durin was his only slave, and he was never able to sell the dwarf off. Turns out nobody wanted a child dwarf from a shady, blading man. Not that Durin made it easy for Durgar to keep him, a watchful eye was always required for Durgar would constantly attempt escapes that only really failed because he was a child and couldn't think things out as well as his slave master could. Eventually, Durgar became fed up with his property and turned him over to an unground gladatorial pit.

Durin was in his (dwarf equivalent)preteens at the time, so he had to learn quickly. At this point, his giant size was starting to become evident, so through unexpected use of his raw physical prowess, he was able to win his first couple of matches that were originally framed as a slaughter. The powers in charge of the ring were amused at this kid managing to defeat warriors that should have had a simply time skewering him, and steadily began giving Durin tougher and tougher fights. During this period, Durin learned that the greatest strength one could have was adaptability. He tried to fight Durgar, but the pits had restraints he couldn't break, and enough men and security to make an escape run unfeasible. He went against all sorts of enemies with all sorts of equipment sets, so he had to learn to fight with anything against anyone. It wasn't pretty, but he learned well enough to make it through the fights by exploiting his available strengths and his opponents' weaknesses. When he was unarmed and had to fight a gladiator in full armor and weapons, he knew that his enemy would be overconfident in his weapons and armor, however, a sword can't cut when you're right next to its wielder, and armor can't protect your neck from being strangled.

Over the years, Durin learned the pit's layouts, its guards' schedules, and the guards themselves. He also learned how to break free of the shackles they had been using to keep him secure over nights. Durin had also just happened to have mastered a chokehold that can take out a man from behind and how to use it on taller opponents. One night on a New Moon he left, leaving behind him a trail of silent carnage.

The gladitorial pit had been located far out in the wilderness, so the next skill Durin had to learn with his finely hone adaptiveness was how to live out in the wild. A couple years later he had managed to locate a nearby city. The air was tense and people were bustling about more than he had remembered people being in his childhood. His language skills were rusty, but he managed to gather that a war was brewing. Keen to leave the wild behind him, Durin decided to put his skills to use and joined the army. As a soldier Durin was something of a loner. He didn't make many friends, and barely socialized, partly because he didn't know how and he didn't really like people. They had for the most part been monsters consumed by their own greed. Turns out war was not so much different from the pits. Long periods of waiting followed by brief moments of bloody combat, only this time, he was better equipped. It suited him.

Since the end of the war, Durin has made his living as a manual laborer. The work is difficult, but far less stressful than combat. And it pays pretty well. With his wages from the military and the money he saves from his frugal lifestyle, Durin has managed to buy a small house and enough armor and weapons to deal with emergency situations.[/hider]

[hider=Kayleth][b]Name:[/b] Kayleth Liadon

[b]Race:[/b]  Elf (Drow/Snow mix)

[b]Age:[/b] 173 

[b]Gender:[/b] Female

[b]Appearance:[/b] Kayleth is about average height for an elf and a slender body type. Well slender might be putting it a bit generously. She's really skinny when you get down to it; however, she manages to pull it off. Her limbs are lithe and elegant, and her posture carries that same feeling of grace and regality with it. Kayleth inherited the skin color of her father, and both her parents had white hair, so the drow in her heritage is unidentifiable when phenotype is taken into acoount. Well, it would be, but her eyes are blood red. However, instead of giving away her mixed heritage, it mostly serves to make Kayleth look like an albino elf, which is fine by her. Kayleth's other facial features serve to match the rest of her body, long and elegant. 

[b]Clothing/Armor:[/b] Kayleth wears no armor, for she is no warrior. When working as a doctor, she wears a full body robe that is as white as freshly fallen snow. When off the job, she tends to wear simple, but elegant dresses that accentuate her femininity.  

[b]Weapons:[/b] Kayleth has a silver dagger that she keeps hidden on her for self defense.

[b]Alignment:[/b] Lawful Good

[b]Skills/Abilities:[/b] Kayleth is a very good people person. She is a very likable person, which is a skill in itself. She's an even more skilled liar, those who know her well cannot tell when she makes a fib. This has won her many a game of poker. Furthermore, she is highly knowledgeable about the biology of the various races, aiding her magic abilities and making her a very skilled medic on top of that.

[b]Magic:[/b] Kayleth has access to blood magic, a little practiced art that could be considered one of the Dark Arts by those with a closed mind. Instead of drawing threads from the weave, the user fundamentally alters the properties of the Weave itself using blood as a medium. It works a lot slower than most conventional magics and is not suited to battle, being a ritualistic style of spellcasting with short ceremonies requiring hours of effort, but once the ritual has been completed, its effects are nigh unstoppable. Depending on the effect, different amounts and quality of blood is required. A minor luck or weather altering spell that takes effect in the near future would only require a few drops of any blood that can be acquired. A spell that would curse somebody's entire bloodline to doom and misfortune for the next 15 generations would require enough blood to fill a dragon. Old blood that has not been preserved through a special crystallization process is not fit to be used for blood magic, and the crystallized blood Is not as potent as fresh blood, making fresh blood preferred, but having pre-packaged stuff is always useful.

[b]Backstory:[/b] Kayleth didn't have what you would call a normal childhood. Both her parents were part of a cult of demon worshippers that lived off in their own pocket of the wilderness, and she spent the majority of her early life learning the ancient art of blood magic. However, when she was 88 the cult ended up self destructing. They summoned a high caliber demon, and as payment for the service, he killed everyone present before leaving to further his own agenda. Kayleth barely avoided this fate by having been sent out to get supplies during the ceremony.

Since this incident, Kayleth has shed the indoctrination of her childhood and used her skills for good to become a highly skilled surgeon. She was always careful never to reveal her magic to anybody, she knew that if she did, she would be viewed with suspicion and mistrust. She also runs another healer's in Waeldeshore as a sort of competitor to Maria's. She is specialized in dealing more with injury than sickness, so it is not quite a direct competition.[/hider]