[hider=Kennen Kalmar] Name: Kennen Kalmar Age: Country of Origin: Graelia Weapon: Daggers, a crossbow, and a general usage of tools Appearance: [hider=Appearance] Kennen Imore can be most distinguished by his large bushy hair. It’s wood brown color combined with the curly nature of his hair gives his head an almost bark-like look. His face is of no particular importance, as it is neither ugly nor beautiful but merely mediocre. However, contrasting his face, Kennen is lanky and tall, allowing him to look over a crowd of people. When located in the town of Graelia, he usually wears scholarly associated attire. Though, while travelling, he wears ordinary traveller’s attire. He’s usually seen with reading glasses and his large pack, which contains an array of writing charcoal, parchment, and travelling necessities. [/hider] [hider=Personality] Naturally as a travelling scholar, Kennen is highly intelligent and overly inquisitive. In either the books or the field, Kennen is laconic, getting across his points with great punctuality and clarity. His silent demeanor stems from the intense concentration he’s in. In it, he combs through every detail for useful information and deftly inscribes such knowledge onto his papers and his mind. In addition to this, Kennen can appear cruel as he experiments on non-human entities for the sake of learning. At times, the overbearing pressing nature of this personality can lead him to compel others in revealing personal information. Due to the nature of being a travelling scholar, Kennen had developed a keen sense in value and bargaining. In most cases, Kennen is able to sniff out suspicious dealings. However, he can still be duped if the salesperson is particularly experienced. Though he hates to admit it, he has a soft spot for children, allowing young vendors to consistently rip him off. As a result of his developed business sense, Kennen also has a knack for extorting information out of people. In most cases, information will come easily for him, but for the more tricky cases, he uses a variety of techniques that include but are not limited to flattery, bribery, and getting people drunk. However, even after the necessary information is obtained, he tends to stay friendly (though not be friends) with the people he closely followed but only if that person is not hostile towards him afterwards. When conversing normally with people, he tends to be less prying and more friendly. A range of friendly mental games to comforting consultation usually arise during the exchanges, but unfortunately, he’s notorious for going on rare but equally boring tangents about his research that can last for nearly five hours. Any attempts to stop him or leave the area usually fail due to a variety of reasons. When his eyes begin the hypothetical “sparkling,” family members or close friends know to do anything possible to prevent him from going on this tangent. In combat situations, Kennen becomes highly tense and tends to be non-communicative. It is during these moments that Kennen does not think in terms of winning the battle but in terms of the best possible moves for escape. This habit of his can be a sizable issue when fleeing is not an option. However, if flight from a sticky situation is necessary, Kennen can evaluate all possible methods of escape and the aid of escape becoming very useful to others, granted that they can get him to explain his plan of escape. In addition to his cowardly tendencies, his ability to cooperate and to lead others is subpar since he’s only responsible for himself throughout his journey. Any people that he travels with rarely become friends with him, and the death of others hardly stain his conscience, which continually separating him from others. It should be said, however, that if a very close friend of his dies, the death will affect him normally if not worse than others. [/hider] [hider=Abilities] Though Kennen is not the most physically endowed person, his physical abilities are still decent due to his constant travelling over a variety of terrains. Whether it be mountains, forests, or lakes, Kennen’s body is acclimated to all of them. Also, because of the dangerous nature of travelling, he’s capable of using weapons, primarily daggers and crossbows, albeit at a mediocre level. Because of his lack of skill, he usually accompanies travelling groups. As mentioned in his personality above, Kennen has above average conversational skills as well as haggling skills. Kennen can consistently get important information as well as excellent bargains. His analytical skills also allow him to pinpoint an issue within another person, allowing him to consult that person effectively. Because of his experience with books, Kennen is able to read through books and tomes with great speed and accuracy. As a result, Kennen has a near encyclopedic knowledge, knowing all about fauna to geography of the land. In addition to book knowledge, Kennen also possesses an expansive knowledge of the terrain along with weather patterns, animal behaviour, and direction. He also possesses necessary survival skills such as building shelters or basic first aid. Kennen also has experience with religious and philosophical texts from his language texts. Although the specific knowledge of these have undergone much corrosion, the great volume he had read in the academy allows him to converse with priests, philosophers, and the like without too much trouble. However, this knowledge can only go so far, preventing any deep conversation in those topics. [/hider] [hider=Background] Born into a medium-high wealth family of shopkeepers, Kennen led a relatively quiet and steady childhood in Graelia. Although, he did have one livelihood that never ceased to entertain him: books, particularly the ones that described the wildlife beyond the City of Graelia. Whenever he could, he would secretly leave home to run around the city, requesting to read or borrow any books that contained information about the world outside Graelia. At the end of the day, he would be panting due to exhaustion multiplied from the beatings he received from his parents. His parents continued to beat and scold Kennen for not aiding them in their business, but they eventually realized that Kennen had a potential that was not for business but for something else. At eight years of age, Kennen was enrolled into an academy located inside the city. Although this academy was the only school that had a more variety in subjects, his parents enrolled him into classes mainly pertaining to language and the art of speech. However, Kennen had no interest in these subjects. Although he was still quite adept at it, his true passions lay in the world, not in silly rhymes and syllables. There was, however, something that kept him interested in the academy: access to the Great Library. Despite being open to a variety of subjects, Kennen never touched certain sections of the Library, choosing spend much of his free time perusing the books based in the natural world as well as history and culture. However, it was about four years that Kennen realized that the library no longer had the knowledge he sought after. After pondering upon this fact, it dawned upon Kennen that he could have asked a scholar for deeper knowledge. It was then that Kennen began asking around the academy in order to find a suitable scholar. It was then that he heard of Scholar Elwood. From rumors, Kennen learned that Elwood taught no classes and spent most of his time in the mountains. Excited, Kennen rushed off to meet the scholar, only to find that it was difficult to pin the scholar down. When Kennen finally got a hold of Elwood, Kennen was rejected. Kennen asked again another time and was rejected once more and continued this cycle over and over. With each cycle, Kennen would be mysteriously be faced with a dire situation, each forcing Kennen to apply all the knowledge he learned in the library. It was after several petitions and adversities that Kennen found out it was Elwood that had caused those scenarios in order to test Kennen. Because Kennen had survived all of them, the scholar accepted Kennen. Kennen struggled, however. His normal classes were a must to keep his parents from moving him elsewhere, and the scholar's training was much more unforgiving than Kennen had anticipated. The physical activity paired with intellectual training continued to burden Kennen, straining his muscles, mind, and markings. In spite of the hardship, Kennen continued on, growing familiar with the scholar and his unusual teaching style. After two years of rigorous training, Kennen had been proclaimed the apprentice of scholar Elwood. Previously, the scholar took no students, and with the announcement of this fact, the whole academy was abuzz, especially Kennen’s parents. They too knew of the scholar and were not quite happy with Kennen, for they expected Kennen to become a merchant like they were, not a crazy old coot. After a heated argument with his parents, his parents were furious with him and refused to pay for his education or food. It was the next day that Elwood, not knowing what had happened the day before, said to Kennen that they would be travelling the land beyond Graelia for an extended period of time. Not telling Elwood of what had happened, Kennen left with Elwood the following week, never telling his parents of his departure. Eight years passed. His mentor had taught him much to Kennen during the long journey. However, because Kennen was a young independent man and Elwood required to return in order to publish their findings, Elwood gave Kennen a lifelong quest to go out into the world and learn as much as he could. From there, Kennen and Elwood departed from each other. A few years have passed. Kennen now travels the land, collecting rare plants for selling, bargaining rare artifacts, and documenting all his findings. One day, however, a thought arose from all the philosophical junk he learned, “Who are the ‘false gods’ and this ‘creator’ really?” Intrigued that his knowledge in philosophy gave no substantial evidence to this question, Kennen began his quest to discover the truth behind these powers, not knowing where this would take him… [/hider] Other: He doesn’t quite know which side he wants to believe. At this point, Kennan has become "agnostic". Also, he has a “slight” fear of spiders from library experiences. [/hider]