[b]Harper[/b]
[i]Age:[/i] 26
[i]Gender:[/i] Male
[i]Occupation:[/i] Swordsage

[i]Appearance:[/i] Tall and muscular, but lean, with black hair down to the small of his back, tied back into a long tail with golden threads. A close-shaved goatee sits on his chin, and shimmering eyes that are so dark as to be black stare out at the world as if calculating whether it's worth the effort to kill it. Wears long, loose black-and red robes over the silvery-blue armour that serve to hide his movements and outline, and confuse his enemies

[i]Personality:[/i] Somewhat grim, but also viciously playful. Enjoys pointed verbal barbs and sparring matches, and won't hesitate to call out a duel if he feels insulted by someone. If you value your non-crippledness, do [i]not[/i] touch his katana without permission.

[i]Backstory:[/i] Orphaned as a baby, Harper was raised by an old samurai who taught him the art of the sword. When he discovered his particular penchant for combat magic, he resolved to become a swordsage, and with his adoptive father's blessing, left to travel the world and learn all he could. He spent several years travelling, and became one of the most recognized warriors, but at twenty-three he found out that the man who had raised him had been killed by bandits. When he reached home, and finished paying his respects at the man's grave, he went to the bandit camp and slaughtered all of them. He has never fully recovered from the loss of his teacher, his father and the one man he ever looked up to, whose death turned him into the grim, vicious individual he is today. 

[i]Skills & Abilities:[/i]
|Swordsage| Harper wields a black katana that he uses to channel his magic unobtrusively when he has an audience. If he is out of sight, he'll really let rip with pure offensive spells and shimmering shields, but he doesn't want to expose his powers. He usually enhances his physical prowess with internally circulating magic, and will often put a lot of magic into his sword to make it faster, lighter and respond even more perfectly to his directions, not to mention allow it to cut through almost anything. He is best at offensive and defensive magic - damaging spells and shields - but is also fairly competent with the blunter healing spells, though he has little in the way of fine control over such things.
|Battle Trance| When in combat, Harper can fall into what he calls a Battle Trance, where he instinctively feels the flow of both the battle itself and the magic around him. It is similar to the state of [i]mushin[/i] sought after in martial arts and Zen, but more powerful, because the magic can guide his actions and give him flashes of imminent danger, allowing him to predict attacks even before they start.

[i]Equipment:[/i]
|Bloodfang| Harper's prized katana, painstakingly hand-crafted. It is far stronger, sharper and lighter than a normal weapon, and can channel much larger amounts of magic than a more usual sword. It is his only memento of his father, forged with the man just before he left on his travels, making him extremely protective of it.
|The Dragon's Scale| A set of bluish-silver armour, stylized to look as if it is made of scales. It has been enchanted with embedded shielding spells, making it a great deal more protective than simple metal.

[i]Overall:[/i]
Very dangerous close-range combatant +++
Can heal and shield his allies ++
Has no ranged capability --
Is of little use outside combat --
Loses all sense of restraint and goes bezerk if someone tries to touch/take his sword -