[center][color=D8BFD8][h3][u][b]Hans Iikka Guiomar[/b][/u][/h3][u][b]Witch-Slayer[/b][/u][/color][/center]


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[color=D8BFD8][b]Age:[/b] 31[/color] 
[color=D8BFD8][b]Alias(es):[/b][/color] Witch-Slayer Hans 
[color=D8BFD8][b]Gender:[/b][/color] Male
[color=D8BFD8][b]Race:[/b][/color] Human
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[hider=Appearance]Hans stands approximately 1.82 meters in height, and weighs approximately 60 kilograms. His overall frame is somewhat stocky with thinner, oddly lanky extremities. Hans' musculature and weight are both shades of what they used to be, during the prime of his early career he weighed a full 80 kilograms, most of which was muscle, which has since deteriorated due to a combination of age as well as a maturation of ability. The younger Hans was dumber and less experienced, and spent 90% of his job running nonstop after fleeing would-be sorcerers while fighting their hired help. The older, more pragmatic Hans prefers to ambush his marks, cut off potential escape routes, lay traps, and on occasion even let them run just so he can catch them later - which while more efficient has led to a general atrophy over time. Signs of Hans' prior build are still evident in his shoulders and hips, both of which are broader than would otherwise be expected of his build. 

Hans' face, rarely seen from behind his helmet, is softly rounded about the cheeks with a narrow nose and slim jawline, unusual features made all the more distinctive by his orange-colored eyes. Hans' skin is a light bronze in coloration, and his scraggly hair is a light, yew-brown coloration.[/hider][hider=Personality]Hans is, in a word, pragmatic. Having lost everything multiple times in his life whilst also being gifted with unprecedented good fortune in the face of catastrophe, Hans is at ease dealing with situations both queer and dire in stride, and can be counted on to keep calm during moments of contention and chaos. However, this same calm is detrimental in the sense that Hans does not value material possessions, and during his first few years within the Order was responsible for an exorbitant amount of property damage as a result, only having become somewhat more accustomed to having permanent possessions semi-recently. 

Hans is also extremely judgmental and dismissive of sellswords, mercenaries, and other 'worthless arrow-catchers,' seen in both his general aversion to dealing with them or in engaging in most forms of conventional combat. Hans prefers grossly uneven fights stacked entirely in his favor and has no qualms with cheating, dirty tricks, low-blows, craven tactics, and foul methods. He also views himself in somewhat of a self-deprecating light, freely describing himself as a glorified assassin and cutthroat. He has an odd respect for thieves and beggars, and despite his frequent reminders that he is a mage-slayer he holds very little ill-will towards sorcerers and their ilk, albeit he still prefers killing them to keeping their company - an attribute which Hans himself has described as a 'habitually developed sentiment.' Hans has readily alienated and distanced himself from magic users within the Order, claiming no particular animus beyond a professional desire to keep a skeptical, observant eye on them while not getting too attached. When confronted with the strict technical fact that he himself is also a mage, Hans prefers to maintain that he is a different breed and class of magical entity.

Hans has a peculiar aversion to the company of women, and he is known to brandish the hilt of his bastard sword in the face of every woman he meets just on the offchance they happen to be a wraith attempting to use glamour. He has an odd fondness for gambling combined with a penchant for shamelessly cheating, which has seen him banned from every local gambling hall in the region. In his spare time, Hans likes to hear and tell stories of mythical creatures and night terrors, being a frequent sight at taverns and inns where he can be seen sitting amongst a rapt audience or else sitting at the forefront, telling the grossest bold-faced lies possible dappled with the occasional truth. More recently, he has taken up collecting various forms of minerals and stones, such as those found in his bastard sword, although he has been known to frequently misplace and lose them due to his habitual carelessness with his possessions. He has also once, to his own dismay, had his bastard sword stolen and been forced to buy it back - and no, it [i]is[/i] completely a coincidence the broker was found dead four days later.

Although Hans was willing to join the Order of the Traveler & Journeymen readily enough, he is greatly disaffected with Haedrion and has not great amount of patriotism or love for the ruling King or Nobility. He sees statesmen and war heroes the same way he sees himself -glorified scum, no matter how prettily they might like to dress up and pretend otherwise. He is thus somewhat more loose with his tongue around his betters than is strictly advisable. Thus far, the better part of others' discretion and his dwindling reputation have allowed him to avoid retribution, but his superiors know that he is quickly winding down the thread of that particular yarn. He will follow most orders and instructions readily enough, when convenient, but is very broad in his interpretation of them and usually does his utmost to avoid any kind of tactic resulting in him being in direct, heated conflict with others.

Hans prefers not to talk about the one time he killed a Witch. When in his cups, he is known to declare that it was almost unintentional and that it was really nothing exceptional, and also that if he ever saw another witch ever again he would turn around and run in the opposite direction.[/hider][hider=Biography]Hans was born to unknown parents in a region of the Everwood of Eastern Gaelia. Hans has no memories of his brief infancy in the forest, as before he had turned two his parents abandoned him in the wilderness to die of exposure. It was only thanks to his discovery by a group of traveling missionary Predicants that saved him, who took and began the task of raising him as a member of their religious order, based near the Haedrion border of Gaelia. During his brief education as a young child within the confines of their Monastary, Hans was taught to read and write, and introduced to the most basic theory of rune magic by the time he was eight. His early teachings would then save his life during a border skirmish when he was eight, during which the monastery was sacked and the Predicants murdered. Only Hans was spared, being seen as too young to be a threat and just young enough to be reeducated and trained, while having already been introduced to the basics of rune magic.

Thus, Hans came to be levied by a group of mercenary skirmishes unofficially working for one of the noble houses of Haedrion. Still too young to properly use a blade, Hans was instructed to maintain, repair, and guard the group's crossbows, and trained in their use. The mercenary's longevity proved to be largely transient, and after taking heavy casualties in a raid gone wrong they scattered and dispersed, leaving Hans abandoned once more. Hans attempted to sell the crossbows he had been entrusted with at a nearby settlement, only to be robbed and imprisoned by the local militia for disturbing the peace. Although Hans was reduced to begging in the streets when he was eventually released, word had spread of the circumstances of his imprisonment and he was given an opportunity to demonstrate his knowledge in maintaining the temperate mechanisms of crossbows when he was hired by a passing mercenary to tighter some stringing. This impressed a local smith sufficiently to take Hans in as an apprentice. The township itself, thanks to its close proximity to the border of Gaelia, saw a constant stream of mercenaries and sellswords passing through to skirmish across it, many of whom often sought enchanted armaments. The smith happened to employ a mage as a partner and consultant, who recognized Hans' introductory teachings in the use of rune magic and entered into a bargain with the smith to train Hans' further, so as to enable him to enchant armaments.

But a few years later however, Hans' apprenticeship was once again cut short when the town in question was raided and sacked by a group of skirmishers from Gaelia, once again reducing Hans to homelessness and poverty. Angry and yearning for revenge, despite not even knowing the true identity of the attackers, Hans traveled to the nearest town and joined up with the next band of mercenaries he found heading for the Gaelian border, promising them enchantments for their blades and armor as well as being able to maintain their equipment. Being young, impetuous, and eager to fight despite being a frail and relatively malnourished youth of fourteen, Hans insisted on joining in on the band's raids. Having no formal training with a blade, Hans instead stuck to using a crossbow from afar. After several months of some modest success, the mercenaries began to truly appreciate Hans' enthusiasm for their work and began to teach him in the ways of the sword. Hesitant to risk the life of their young enchanter, they nonetheless encouraged Hans to only engage lone opponents who were neither too heavily armed or armored.

That single piece of advise proved most portentous in its effect - during the band's very next raid, the mercenaries were being suppressed by a competent and powerful arcane sorcerer defending the small village they had chosen to attack, hiding behind a line of levied farmers. The sorcerer's skill in a straight battle, even when working with mere peasants, proved to be great enough to completely suppress the hardened mercenaries who might have been defeated - had it not been for Hans who, in his enthusiasm to fight combined with his adherence to the advice he had been given, had identified the sorcerer himself as the safest target to attack, being located behind most of the fighting, unarmed, and unarmored. Hans spent most of the battle simply skirting around its edges unnoticed until he managed to get behind the levied militia and simply shot the sorcerer in the back of the head, turning the battle and securing victory for the sellswords.

And so it followed. The same band of skirmishes disbanded shortly afterwards, but with the heightened state of hostilities between Haedrion and Gaelia, Hans found no shortage of mercenary bands to sign on with, and no shortage of glowing praise for his usefulness from hardened warriors, and every time he passed between parties there was always word of the time he had crept behind enemy lines in order to take out an otherwise insurmountable mage or sorcerer. As time went by, the word changed - soon word was spoken of the two mages he had slain. Then of three. Then tales flew abound of how Hans enchanted his bolts so as to fly straight through magical wards.

By the time Hans turned eighteen and was actually old enough to be expected to participate in a proper fight, he immediately realized that fighting in the middle of a packed vanguard or frontline was awful and that he much preferred simply sneaking around, shooting unaware people in the back of the head - but he was no longer so young that he could get away with simply sitting out on fights where there were no mages conveniently sitting in the back lines, and fearing he would eventually wind up dead in some nameless border-village he quit the border skirmishes and began to ply his trade as simple hired muscle for debt collectors and criminals in Haedrion cities. He carried with him his then-nascent reputation as a burgeoning slayer of sorcerers and mages, and so was soon able to take on several high-paying jobs with mages as his bounties.

Hans' adolescent years marked the full flourishing of his skills and abilities. Able to apply his wide breadth of talents relatively unhindered, had made a fair fortune as a bounty-hunter, gaining some local repute as the go-to troubleshooter for dealing with troublesome magic users. He invested most of what he earned in pursuit of stolen university tomes and scrolls of magical knowledge, seeking not only information on how to better mark his preferred quarry, but also to further his own modest magical abilities.

This period too, came to an end when his activities finally ran afoul of the local guard and law, who made it very clear he would either depart the city or else the mortal realm if he did not leave. With a small fortune left over from his efforts, and still not having grown past his deep-vested yearning for revenge against the people of Gaelia - whom he incorrectly remembered from vague childhood memories as having been responsible for the sack of the Predicant monastery - Hans invested his wealth in forming his own band of mercenaries with which to enlist with a noble house of Haedrion, and head across the border to wreck havoc upon the people of the land. This proved to be a poor move, as Hans' gifts for assassination and bounty hunting had not bestowed him with any exceptional qualities of leadership, tactics, or even any great ability to excel in a fair fight. Hans' personal mercenary band was shattered and broken apart in less than two weeks due to a combination of his antagonizing his subordinates in addition to simply being a very poor leader in battle, leaving him broke in the middle of the Gaelian wilderness. 

Hans had immediately turned tail to head back for Haedrion when he was, for the first time in his life, attacked by a creature of the night. Having only heard exaggerated stories and legends of such creatures before, Hans, terrified, fled for his life and sought refuge in a nearby Gaelian village where, assisted by the townspeople, managed to drive the creature back. Once again, Hans' predicament turned to his benefit, as when he mentioned the name of the Monastery that had raised him during his childhood years one of the villagers was both old and knowledgeable enough to correct Hans' mistaken impression that it had been located in Haedrion. Overcome with both rage and grief, Hans swore to discover the ruined remnants of the Monastery in order to validate his decisions and to prove the lives lost because of his acts had not been for naught. Unfortunately, none in the village knew precisely where the Monastery had been located prior to its sack, and Hans was relatively isolated within the Gaelian wilderness without any means.

Hans then learned that the village had been facing increasingly frequent attacks by creatures of the night in recent years, and having few warriors amongst their number were willing to pay Hans in order to protect the village as well as to go out and hunt the creatures in the wild, after dispersing his misconceptions of the creatures and teaching him what they knew of their vulnerabilities. Hans found that hunting such creatures, although ultimately tedious and not to his taste, shared enough overlaps with his prior profession that he could pursue it in relative safety. He then wandered from town to town in Gaelia within the Everwoods, seeking information on the location of the ruined Monastery, slaying monstrous beings and night terrors to pay his way in the meantime.

Finally, when Hans was 28, discovered the location of the Monastery and returned there - and found waiting for him in the ruins a Witch.

Hans does not speak of that day much or in any great detail, but what is known is that during that same night, the moon was overtaken by shadow, casting the whole in the land in unnatural darkness - illuminated by a great fire in the Everwoods about the locale of the ruined monastery, set ablaze with flames that burned with an alien turquoise color that could be seen for kilometers. Hans came to the town he had just left, bearing with him the head of the Witch. Word of his success, combined with the ominous sights that had been witnessed from afar, spread akin a wildfire - and soon, the name of 'Witch-Slayer' Hans was on the lips of barroom drunks and noblemen alike in both Gaelia and Haedrion, for a time. His repute was such that, upon his return to Haedrion, Hans was invited to join the Order of the Traveler & Journeymen in recognition for his accomplishment and ability, and has been working with them since then.[/hider]
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[hider=Equipment][b][u]Clothing & Armor[/u][/b]
Hans wears a long beige coat with a dull green cloak over a deceptive leather plate jack, complimented by fluted steel greaves and gauntlets. The ensemble is light overall, affording Hans good agility and maneuverability. Although its protective qualities are limited, Hans has deliberately arranged his attire so as not to leave a single patch of skin exposed, with every surface protected by a bare minimum of thick leather and cloth. His clothes are intended to protect him from various hazards in the wild, from warding off insects and nettles up to deterring snake bites and monster claws. The heaviest and thickest item of armor Hans possesses is a highly distinctive plate helmet, with a mask rendered so as to resemble the grotesque face of a gargoyle, complete with small horns and elongated ears. Unlike the rest of his armor, Hans' helmet is intended to deter manmade weapons and armaments, being capable of withstanding most slashing and piercing strikes with the exception of anything akin to a mace. It could even hypothetically turn an arrow or bolt, although this is not a theory Hans is keen to test.

[b][u]Tools & Armaments[/u][/b]
Hans has not always been well-off, and this is reflected in a skillset enabling him to survive using any weapon or tool that happens to be available. If necessary, Hans could discard and of his personal arms and replace them without a significant loss in combat ability, but as much as he likes to claim otherwise his recent good fortune has burnt something of a hole in his pocket - and it clearly shows in the fine quality of the weapons he bears.

[hider=Slayer's Bastard Sword][img]http://darksouls3.wdfiles.com/local--files/image-set-equipment:drakeblood-greatsword/Drakeblood-Greatsword.png[/img]
Hans' blade is a bastard sword, suitable for either one or two-handed use. Contrary to expectation, the blade and guard are wrought from simple steel, albeit the length of the weapon has been finely engraved with intricate, patterned channels to assist in the use of runic magic. The true utility of the blade lies in its guard and pommel, which contain nuggets of silver, cold iron, meteoric nickel, ammolite, jet, coral, and pitchblende. Combined with select runic spells and the design of the blade itself, the weapon is effective against every monstrous creature and aberrant being known to man, terrestrial or otherwise. Even when not combined with magic, the simple act of flourishing the blade or holding out the guard is sufficient to drive back less intelligent night creatures, and give those with the capacity for higher thought pause. Moreover, the weapon is curiously resilient to runic and arcane magic directed at it that are not channeled explicitly through the handle and pommel, due in part to the particular design of its engravings. The blade can thus disrupt or otherwise deflect magical effects that it comes into contact with.[/hider][hider=Heavy Crossbow][img]http://darksouls3.wdfiles.com/local--files/image-set-equipment:heavy-crossbow/Heavy-Crossbow.png[/img]
Although Hans prefers close-quarter engagement, those who have traveled with him know well that he prefer to begin every engagement by shooting at something with his crossbow. Hans is not a dedicated crossbowman by any means, and typically only fires a single bolt before setting the device aside, preferring not to waste time that could be spent closing distance on reloading and redrawing the temperamental mechanisms. For that reason alone however, Hans has developed a expert talent for striking true with that one shot. Although he is unlikely to win any marksman competitions for precision, there is nothing more natural to Hans than shooting a moving target, particularly humanoid targets running while flailing their arms about in every direction and screaming like waylaid women. The crossbow itself is neither exceptional nor mundane, being of Dwarven make with a higher-than-average draw force along with a few simple metal designs for assistance in channeling runic magic, albeit not to the same extent and efficacy as Hans' bastard sword.[/hider][/hider][hider=Skills][color=D8BFD8][b][u]Mage-Bane:[/u][/b][/color] Although Hans has become steadily more and more familiar with hunting and slaying night creatures and despite his particular fame for slaying a particularly powerful Witch, when Hans began he was little more than a cutthroat or assassin who took out bounties and hunted mages and sorcerers, both for coin and on occasion just because he felt like it. Hans has not forgotten his roots, and there are few more skilled than he at tracking mages, predicting how they will act or what they will do, and most importantly - safely closing the gape and cutting off their heads.

[color=D8BFD8][b][u]Bane of Woes:[/u][/b][/color] Also he is, if tales are believed, quite proficient in dealing with night creatures and horrific terrors beyond the ken of men. If pressed, Hans will usually indicated there simply happens to be a significant overlap between the two distinct arts of mage and monster hunting, and that combating the latter is not wholly to his taste. As a practical matter and possibly much to his own chagrin, Hans is truthfully better at slaying night creatures than mages, as his abilities to protect himself and incapacitate others are typically all the more effective against certain aberrant beings. However, contrariwise, Hans has little to no ability to track unnatural creatures down in the wild, as he is more suited to hunting and understanding the thoughts and motivations of people in urban environments.

[color=D8BFD8][b][u]Skirmisher:[/u][/b][/color] Hans is a [i]Mage[/i]-slayer. Which means he kills mages and, on occasion, horrific creatures of the night. As a matter of course, Hans does not go out of his way to pick fights with armored knights, cutthroats, lawyers, or irate but mundane animals - contending with those kinds of threats is some [i]other[/i] idiot's job. Hans is a specialist, and during most fights will focus and tunnel on enemy magic users or unspeakable horrors, which often means he finds himself ducking and weaving through enemy formations and lines in order to get around to the back rows, or alternatively spends most of the fight running down empty hallways just in order to flank or cut off a mage. Hans is competent in a fair fight, but little more.

[color=D8BFD8][b][u]The Better Part of Valor:[/u][/b][/color] Hans is a filthy, dirty cheat, especially in a fight. He is not an exceptional swordsman, but makes up for it by pulling every foul trick imaginable. Nothing is too low or shameful for him to abuse or exploit - he will go to any means in order to secure victory, and if victory is not possible, he often will not fight at all, and live to fight another day.[/hider][hider=Magic][color=D8BFD8][u]The Law of Light:[/u][/color] Using a Light-based rune that can be conjured and evoked at a moment's notice, even reflexively, Hans can conjure a faint burst of light that completely and wholly deflects any magical projectile that makes contact with it, and completely negates and prevents the occurrence of any magic within its boundary. The duration of the spell is very brief - lasting anywhere from a fraction of a second to a second and a half. It is extremely quick and easy for Hans to use, not being terribly intensive to cast, and can be used on the move. However, it is limited strictly to melee range, and can only be released from a free extremity - in most cases, Hans' left hand.

[color=D8BFD8][u]Trophic Barrier:[/u][/color] Hans can create runes that automatically activate whenever his body is touched or proximal to a foreign magical effect, which causes his body to be enveloped in an aura of light-based magic that causes most magical effects to simply slide and flow across and past Hans' body like water past a rock in a riverbed for as long as the aura remains active, which is typically around five seconds. The main advantage of the rune is that they can be cast far in advance of battle, and the energy needed to cast them is spent at the time the are made rather than when they are activated. This allows for Hans to go into most battles with multiple runes ready at a time. For technical reasons relating to interactions between runes and the body, Hans can only maintain three such runes on his person at a time.

[color=D8BFD8][u]Trophic Current:[/u][/color] Hans can channel a bolt or current of Light-based magic as a stream with a meter in range in any direction, which upon contact with most wards or auras will cause them to immediately evaporate or disperse.

[color=D8BFD8][u]Elemental Enchantment:[/u][/color] Hans can enchant most weapons and armaments with a variety of basic elemental enchantments. He is largely limited to mono-elemental infusions and runes, having never received an extensive formal education in such craft.

[color=D8BFD8][u]Scattering:[/u][/color] Hans creates a rune suspended in the air which flashes with a burst of light so intense it will temporarily blind anybody who can see it even out of the corner of their eyes. The burst of light only lasts a fraction of a second, making the spell relatively easy to use.

[color=D8BFD8][u]Lambent Mirror:[/u][/color] Hans uses a light rune to bend and twist light in the surrounding area in such a way as to completely disturb one's visual perception of space, completely confusing and confusing their vestibulary functions and throwing them off balance in addition to likely making them nauseous.

[color=D8BFD8][u]Divining Rod:[/u][/color] Hans fires a long, thin, rod-shaped projectile of light that pierces through all obstructions, magical, mundane, or otherwise, and then hardens as if made from stone, sealing everything connected to it in place. Although the rod of light itself seems solid, the length of it piercing and embedded within targets is harmless, and as such the spell is used primarily to immobilize rather than harm targets.

[color=D8BFD8][u]Secret:[/u][/color] He does not speak of it, but you have seen it, once or twice. A spell you have never seen before. It is straight out of myth and legend. How did he come to learn of such a power? It is wholly beyond his means to have learnt.[/hider]