[hider=Mallow]
[B]Username:[/B]
BurningCold

[b]Character Name:[/b]
Mallow Rithis

[b]Race/Species:[/b]
Skayleigh (Giant and Woad Elf, Kaelish Isles)

[b]Gender:[/b]
Male

[b]Age:[/b]
107

[b]Career/Class:[/b]
Warrior Priest

[b]Skills[/b]:
[list]
[*] Expert - Holy Magic
[*] Expert - Herbalism
[*] Journeyman - One Handed Blades
[*] Journeyman - First Aid
[*] Journeyman - Light Armor
[*] Adept - Survival
[*] Adept - Athletics
[*] Adept - Acrobatics
[*] Adept - Stealth
[/list]

[b]Weapons:[/b]
[list]
[*] Blessed Steel Short Sword
[*] Steel Dagger
[/list]

[b]Physical Description:[/b]
Fine, attractive features grace Mallow’s face. High - if not impressively so - cheekbones rest beneath bright, friendly eyes, rounded and inviting to any onlooker. They are a striking emerald green, and a feature that Mallow would admit he believed to be one of his best, if he were the prideful sort. His clean-shaven face tapers down into a gently pointed chin, while his mouth is upturned slightly in a natural resting smile. Mallow’s hair, another point of pride (if he were the prideful sort, of course) for him, is a shining platinum blonde, styled into a carefully braided ponytail extending just below his shoulder blades. 

Standing a few inches over seven feet tall, with barely tanned skin and a slightly toned body, Mallow is built for feats of agility, while his strength remains adept. His long reaching limbs and lithe form allow him to maneuver across the battlefield with relative ease.

A few faint scars criss cross Mallow’s back, marks left by a heavy hand and an unforgiving whip.

Mallow is adorned heavily with jewelry, bearing a silver ring on each finger, all with the symbol of the Holy Order of the Bloodied Cross carved into them; two swords forming the shape of a cross. Hanging around his neck by a heavy iron chain is a large wooden cross, a hand a half wide and a hand a half long, with the end carved into a wicked looking stake. Mallow claims his cross to be blessed by the EverGod himself. Five notches are etched into the left arm of the cross. 

[b]Armor:[/b]
A dark brown gambeson of padded cloth donned over a midnight blue tunic makes up the bulk of Mallow’s protection, with thick leather gloves to keep his hands warm and covered. Padded cotton leggings provide a safe balance between comfort and functionality, and sturdy leather boots over woolen socks offer similar benefits. Covering the whole outfit is a hooded cloak, the same midnight blue of the tunic and clasped together with a round silver brooch, unadorned save for the symbol of his order carved into it. 

[b]Equipment/Other[/b]
[list]
[*] Journal containing various remedial recipes, magical instructions, diagrams of human anatomy, and a list of diseases and their symptoms
[*] Mortar and pestle
[*] Backpack
[*] Bedroll
[*] Bandages
[*] Surgeon’s kit (scalpels, needle and thread, etc.)
[*] Enchanted wooden cross
[*] Pouches of herbs
[*] Fishing rod
[*] Whip 
[*] Bottles of Holy Water
[/list]

[b]Mental Description/Personality:[/b]
Good natured but extremely pious, Mallow looks upon heretics and unbelievers with pity, not disdain or contempt. While many of his old order would slay the godless without batting an eye, be they man or monster, Mallow is inclined to take a diplomatic approach whenever possible with the former. In years past, he too killed mindlessly in the name of Bael and the EverGod whenever he deemed it necessary, memories that haunt him during his waking hours and come alive in terrifying detail when slumbering.

On particularly bad nights, when the grief and the guilt threaten to overwhelm Mallow, he finds solace in the absolution that pain brings, flagellating himself for as long as it takes until his mind clears, and the strength of the Allmaker flows into him once again.

[b]Goals:[/b]
Mallow wishes to aid Eoghan in their quest for a vampiric cure, and believes he will find atonement for his sins through dedicating his life to such a holy cause.

[b]Background/History:[/b]

The smoke curling high into the night’s sky gave away the camp’s position far before the soft glow of the crackling fire, casting long shadows into the surrounding forest did. Most of the skayleigh were asleep, resting in their animal skin tents, while a few were gathered around the dimming fire, sharing hushed whispers so as not to disturb their sleeping compatriots. A nightly watch was foregone in favor of a longer respite; it was deemed logical that in order to outrun the Andred forces, clear heads and rested muscles would be more valuable than security in the mid of night, as exhaustion comes for humans and skayleigh alike, and their flight was not yet so desperate as to cast sleep aside.

But the Holy Order of the Bloodied Cross did not sleep, not when they were looking for heretics; when they were seeking bloodshed. With swords and spears drawn, they descended upon the camp like wolves upon a wounded beast, and they began their foul butcherwork. 

It was here, during the slaughter that would cut short the lives of exactly twenty three individuals whose only crime was being of a different faith, that the priests brought back with them a babe, the only survivor of the massacre, and raised it as their own child, training them in the ways of their order. 

Mallow Rithis, as he was named, became a warrior priest of Bael with the utmost sense of devotion to the Andred pantheon, defending the EverGod’s faithful by slaying heresy wherever it lay. Knowing the truth of the circumstances that led him to the order only bolstered his faith, so thankful was he to have been saved from a life of sin amongst the godless skayleigh. Yet, he did not hate them. Most who strayed from the path of God never walked it in the first place, and the sad reality was that the Kaels refused to convert to the path of justice, having already been brainwashed from their youth by tales of false deities. 

For decades the Holy Order of the Bloodied Cross fought and bled and killed and died in the Kaelic Isles, weeding out heresy wherever they could find it. Eventually, it was decided that the order’s work in the Isles was finished, at least for the time being. One of the elder priests received visions from Bael depicting a plague most unholy, a virus that Bania, down to it’s very core, was infected with. Forges roared to life, barely contained infernos of the fiercest kind. Fine steel was cooled from these flames, cast into deadly spears and swords, soon to be blessed by the gods themselves, with holy water and unswerving faith. The order was preparing for a war against all of vampire kind. 

Mallow and his people found success in Bania, to a degree. The winters were harsh; too many of his brothers and sisters seemed to join each fallen vampire as corpses, their blood seeping deep into the ice and the snow and the cold. With each leach that fell, and the swathes of priests that followed, the order grew more and more extreme in it’s methods. Already primarily composed of militant zealots from the start, it seemed to Mallow that the majority of the priests were willing to cast aside what seemed to be basic morality in favor of capturing and killing vampires. 

Sickened with what the order had become, and the crimes he committed in the name of his gods, Mallow departed from them. Before ever leaving Bania proper, he met Eoghan, a man searching for a cure to vampirism. It seemed to Mallow a sign from the EverGod. Working to cure the afflicted souls that he once cut down without mercy would be his atonement for his blind faith to the order. Shortly after they crossed out of Banian soil, Queen Isabella sent a contingent of her forces to drive out the remnants of the now defunct Holy Order of the Bloodied Cross, those that left peacefully scattering to the four winds. For the past two decades, the pair have been chasing rumors and legends across the continent, the most recent of which having led them to the Northern Marches.
[/hider]