“Luck is one of nature’s rules, I suggest you stop trying to fight against it.
Oh, and royal flush.”
Name: Peredur
Alias/Nickname: The Gambler/The Liar/The Lucky Swordsman/The Unlucky Brawler/The Failed Casanova/Simply a Jerk etc.
Appearance: Age: Who Knows? He’s probably on the younger end, somewhere in the equivalent to the twenties for humans, but his tendency to lie makes any answer on this front unreliable.
Race: Hellspawned/Marid (Primarily, he suspects that there’s a fair amount of human in his bloodline, probably some elf, maybe a little elementalist. Not enough to make any difference, but what can he say, he comes from a long line of casanovas.)
Personality: Where to begin? To most comes off as rather cocky, as though he has some deeply ingrained belief that he just can’t die. Although if one were to ask him, he’d probably say something about not fearing death. Of course, his tendency to lie makes him less than a reliable source. Whether he has some death wish, truly believes he’s immortal or doesn’t believe he can die is up to personal interpretation, the end result is that he is constantly making stupid bets and jumping into situations far over his head. He’s reckless, yet always adorned with a cocky grin and a firm belief that he’s going to be perfectly fine.
Another thing that should be mentioned is his vast tendency to lie. Nothing he says should ever be taken at face value, not his name, his background, his motivations, none of it should be assumed as truthful. Yet the frustrating thing is the sheer skill with which he pulls it off, easily stringing others along with his grand tales of having tricked a sultan into giving his daughter’s hand in marriage in exchange for a purple donkey. Something far too absurd to possibly be true, yet the way he says it makes one question their own beliefs. Indeed, there aren’t even any real visual cues for when he lies as his entire appearance is one big illusion. Or maybe the illusion is the truth and his real appearance is the illusion? Or maybe that’s just another one of his lies.
In addition to the traits above, he likes to make frequent jokes at the expense of others. Especially in combat, where he can quickly transition into straight up mocking his opponents. Obviously this isn’t something that his fellow knights always agree with. In quite a few ways, he can come off as a bit of a jerk, but he probably always has good intentions deep down. Probably.
It should also be mentioned that a careful observer might catch on to the fact that he rarely reveals his personal thoughts on any matter. As naturally as his ability to lie, he deftly swerves topics in another direction, dodging personal questions left and right. Not that it makes much difference as even if he does answer it’s most likely just another lie.
Biography/history: What’s that about not revealing secrets?
In that case the history is complete.
All jokes aside, his tendency to lie makes any of the following information dubious at best and an outright lie at worst. Still, it seems to be the most likely explanation for his past and is the one he’s revealed the most.
He claims to come from a long line of casanovas, which is why his bloodline is so diluted. According to him, his father’s side is known for its free spirited players, constantly philandering and filling the bloodline with multitudes of half breeds. It’s only by the very virtue of probability, that some of these children would be fertile human half breeds. Each generation these human half breeds would produce more children, some of whom would be lucky enough to be the half breed of another human. Suffice to say, Peredur isn’t one of the lucky ones.
Well, that’s what he claims his past is at any rate. Whether or not any of that can be believed is up for debate.
Much of his own lifetime Peredur has spent traveling and gambling at the many taverns dotting the land. It is most likely due to his tendency to piss off local patrons that Peredur developed such a brutal style of hand to hand combat as he ended up in quite a few fights. He also claims that many of his more unique personal possessions come about from foolish bets.
For instance, the coin that hides his appearance came from winning a game of poker with a cleric of Xandrius. His sword came from a bet with an angry Nephilim, while his nano enhancements came from losing a bet with an Orc and thus serving as his guinea pig. A so called “quality assurance” in order to determine that the procedure was safe and effective. Even his hat and scarf are said to come from a game of dice with a haughty elf.
Once more any one of his claims should fall under scrutiny.
It’s not until he joined the knights a few years back that his past has a bit more reliable source of references. Well, to be quite honest, he didn’t technically join the knights until a few months back, in the years before he operated with them mostly as a mercenary for hire, taking on odd jobs when the knights were too busy. At a certain point the transition just became natural, although he still claims that he only joined after losing a bet.
Reason for recruitment: He says he lost a bet, whether that’s the truth or not is up to interpretation.
Strength of Will: Unnatural
Magic: Peredur possesses little in the way of magic, with most of skill in combat coming from his own training. Still, there are a few things deserving of note.
Channeled: The only channeled magic Peredur possesses is a small gold coin. One side appears to draw power from Xandrius while the other is claimed by Unvarius. Xandrius allows Peredur to conceal his demonic appearance, for practical reasons mainly, an added bonus of this appearance is the complete absence of visual cues when it comes to lying. The functionality of the Unvarius side is currently unknown.
Wild: Peredur himself has a slight affinity for wild magic, in particular he feels slightly stronger and powerful when surrounded by large amounts of wild magic. As of current this boost to his physical traits is negligible. In addition, and unknown to Peredur, is a minor affinity for illusion magic.
God relations: Simply put, he has a bit of a love-hate relationship with both Unvarius and Xandrius. When his luck is going great he firmly falls in the camp of Xandrius, constantly asking for more luck from the god. When things are going poorly, he is instead seen praying to Unvarius, wishing for a relief to his suffering.
Tech: Peredur doesn’t possess much when it comes to technology. A life spent gambling will do that to a person. What he does possess however is fairly impressive. First and foremost on the list is his High Frequency Blade, a curved sword reinforced by a powerful alternating current that resonates at a high frequency. Suffice to say the vibrations greatly improve the cutting power of the blade, allowing it to cut through almost anything. Indeed, the one thing truly holding it back is Peredur’s own lack of extreme strength.
The next thing on the list is are the minor nano enhancements that are upgrading his physical traits. These boost him to about 1.5x the speed of human beings, which in turn allow him to keep up with pretty much any species that has not been enhanced. There is also a slight upgrade to his strength, albeit only to the degree of a fit human being.
Finally he possesses a Solar Surfboard as his primary means of transport.
Possessions/items/property: The only other possessions of note are his scarf and hat, the two things he is most protective of.
Skills: Obviously he is quite skilled at lying which in turn transfers over well into his gambling abilities. Of note is that he is always either extremely lucky or extremely unlucky. Which makes one wonder if he is simply very good at cheating and his loses are due to him lying, or if truly is cursed with a twofolded luck. Whatever the case, don’t bet anything of importance on a game of poker with him. And trusting anything he says will just lead to you getting conned, then again not trusting his words may very well have the same effect. The flipside of all this is that he is also quite adept at telling when others are lying, whether or not he’ll cue others into this information is another matter.
His magic and technological enhancements also make him quite adept in the art of combat. That said he is most effective in either bare knuckle brawling, or with his powerful sword. His swordsmanship seems to bare the hallmarks of traditional training, yet when asked his response is either that he picked it up watching a drunk samurai or was trained by the avatar of Exandra himself. Either way, his sword moves rapidly and seems to focus on quick precise strokes that deal with the matter at as efficiently as possible.
On the contrary, his bare knuckling brawling appears to be all about toying with his opponent. Dancing around them like a leaf on the wind and taking the time to savour each and every hit. His higher than average base stats no doubt help in making each blow more vicious and brutal. While his swordsmanship possesses a degree of elegance, his fisticuffs is simply a barbaric slaughtering of his opponent.
Lastly, he is quite proficient at running away. If he doesn’t like something or gets bored of it, he will more often than not find a way to escape. Especially if he has his Solar Surfboard available.
Misc: He’s pretty terrible with any technology that he doesn’t own. Asking him how to use a laptop or a phone is like asking a deer to catch a rabbit. Those hooves aren’t all that productive when it comes to catching anything. He’d much rather spend his time pawning off any other technological marvels than trying to figure them out. Also most magical theories just make his head hurt.
