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[b]Name:[/b] Balthier Oisin 

[img]https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/shacknews/assets/topic/6423/Hunter_Art_1427135263.jpg[/img]
Balthier in his black coat and usual attire while travelling and performing, unarmed.
[b]Appearance:[/b] 32, Balthier inherited the Baruvadi looks of his mother over the Lorintine looks of his father. Dark brown hair, pale complexion (though now tanned from time spent travelling in the sun), an slim features. He's built more like a runner than a body-builder, and his voice is eloquent and clear. He keeps himself shaved and features no visible scars, though he does carry several on his back chest, and legs.

He likes to dress fashionably in classic Baruvadi style, with hints of Paeric and Revossan styles as well. Though that's part of the deception, he's had the clothing tailor made to hide the chain mail and leather beneath it. 

When travelling, he often carries his lute and rucksack openly, with a sabre and a Paeric-model Rifle stashed within, and nearly a dozen throwing daggers up his sleeves and in the lining of his coat.

[b]Biography:[/b] Born in the vassal state of Baruvad in 799, Balthier was born a bastard of a Baruvadi prostitute and a Lorintine Knight-Priest in the city of Dounby. His father denying Balthier as his son and threatening his mother with death if she ever brought a case before a Lorintine Magistrate, Balthier was mostly raised among Baruvadi and never really experienced or learned much of his Lorintine heritage other than trouble with the Lorintine occupiers from time to time.

In his short time in Dounby he lived as a pick-pocket, a thief, and eventually a street performer when he became old enough and competent to play instrument and learn music in the Baruvadi tradition. He dreamed of becoming a Bard and leaving his city to see the world and earn enough money for him and his mother to get away from the oppressive state of Lorinth. 

Unfortunately, his dreams did not pan out into reality due to circumstances beyond his control. In 809, Dounby suffered an outbreak of the Undead. A necromantic cult in striving to awaken a vamphiir they thought rested within a certain crypt within the city, merely succeeded in awakening a small army of Undead, beasts and humans alike that been buried in the city's largest cemetery. Content just as well with their success at bringing forth such a large host, the Necromancers unleashed the Undead upon Dounby, causing chaos and turmoil within the city as many were murdered in their beds or on the streets before the city bells could even start sounding an alarm. The Lorintine garrison was taken almost completely by surprise, and eventually the city commander evacuated what knights and all Lornith officials he could to the city's inner keep, leaving the Baruvadi and anyone else left outside to defend themselves in the city proper while they tried to hold out in a besieged keep and await aid.

A week of murder, plunder, resistance, and terror ensued as the Baruvadi and everyone else left outside in the city fled, hid, or fought for their lives against an ever-expanding horde of Undead, with the Necromancers raising more by the hour. Balthier had fled from alley to alley, ruined building to building in search of his mother whom he hoped had escaped, but never managed to find in the stricken city. On the 8th day, the renowned Order of Cinders came in force just ahead of Lorintine reinforcments with a whole company of Hunters and several of their Pyromancers to cleanse the city. Facing magicians even more powerful than they, and fearing for their lives, the Necromancers rallied the Undead into a massive assault against the combined attackers, and the two forces clashed near the city gates. The Hunters and prepared Knights cut a swathe through the Undead with the more skilled Pyromancers wielding the very flames from the burning buildings of the city into streams of fire, fusing them with the red and black-specked Ebonfire which was a signature of the Order, that turned whole packs of Undead into ash. With a couple hours, the Necromancers had been killed and the undead stragglers being hunted down and burned on large pyres. 

Disgusted by the Lorintine garrison's apathy for the local Baruvadi population, some Hunters of the Order stuck around to assist in some basic rebuilding and reorganizing efforts. Though in truth they were also on the look out for potential new recruits. Such disasters as these always yielded fresh candidates for The Order in the form of orphans, drifters, or displaced and disgruntled soldiers. Balthier, having found no trace of his mother and presuming her to be dead somewhere, and seeing no future in Dounby for him, took the initiative to make himself noticed by one of the leather coat-clad Hunters, whom promptly recommended the boy to their Hunter-Captain and added Balthier's name to the growing roster of a couple dozen new recruits the ravaged city of Dounby was bringing up.   

He underwent training alongside his fellow recruits in the House of Fire, and was officially granted the rank of Hunter in 814, earning the right to wear the black coat and brass pin. Upon which he took his choice of the armoury and set upon the path, travelling the world in search of Undead to kill as was his mission. Though he had become a Hunter, he still managed to partially fulfill his dream of becoming a Bard in that he still learned to play the Lute and practice his singing voice for reciting ballads. He had graced the recruits at the House of Fire with some performances at times, though most of these he performed on the road, in towns where his business as a Hunter was not necessarily his foremost concern. His fame as a Bardic Hunter grew as a result in many nations. 

That's not to say he hasn't relished his office, or taking his vow. He has loved hunting for the Undead in all of their varieties ever since the nightmare at Dounby, and he wished as much as any other Order member to see the Undead and all practitioners of necromancy wiped clean from the world.

Thus, he's walked the road ever since, and has visited just about every nation in the world at least once, picking up the odd souvenir and memories along the way as he performs his job. Though his favourite places have been Paerium and Revosso, the former of which he was just finishing doing a job in before getting the summons to head to Isamanca. 

Personality: Balthier is a jovial person. His bawdy sense of humour, sharp wit, and silver tongue are enough to woo people over to him, or at least steal the attention of a room. A fan of deception and intrigue, he prefers less overt approaches to accomplish his goals, liking to look at the long game rather than the short one. He's got a soft spot for the downtrodden in many societies, and a prejudice against Lorintine from their historical treatment of him, his people, and his mother.
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