[hider=Vargni Varnsson] [B]Username:[/B] Laduguer [b]Character Name:[/b] Vargni Varnsson [b]Race/Species:[/b] Dwarf [b]Gender:[/b] Male [b]Age:[/b] 37 [b]Career and Skills:[/b] Vargni is a Slayer with nearly a decade under his belt, rendering him still relatively inexperienced compared to the mighty (if tragic) heros that share his legacy, but nevertheless making him proficient at fighting with twin dwarven hand-axes. Living with his rampant and violent depression has also given him an uncommon sort of mental tenacity, which can often be as good a skill as fighting amongst the many horrors of the Old World. [b]Weapons:[/b] Two hand-axes of dwarven make, named endearingly ‘Zank’ and ‘Varaz’ respectively. [b]Attire:[/b] Vargni wears a pair of dark linen trousers, heavy leather boots, and normally goes shirtless where weather allows. However, even dwarves cannot survive freezing (and this would not at all be the glorious death he swore), so Vargni also carries with him a heavy yak fur coat which he can fling on and off. [b]Equipment/Other:[/b] A backpack [containing a bedroll, a bottle of high proof liquor, some bandages, a dried ham hock], lots of cheap jewellery (rings, bracelets, piercings, mostly of iron or brass). [b]Physical Description:[/b] Vargni has a short cropped mohawk dyed dark orange, stiff and matted with dried fat. Although his hands are worn and calloused, his young body is still in good shape and does not bear the signs of battle and wear boasted by most older dwarves, and particularly most older slayers. His beard is unkempt and spreads from his face down across his breast in a broad bush. [b]Mental Description/Personality:[/b] Vargni is – at his core – a deeply depressed and violent alcoholic, who seeks to forget his existential fear either in the extreme sensation of battle or at the bottom of a bottle. Nevertheless, ironically, this lifestyle does lend Vargni a certain sense of purpose. In losing everything and ultimately forfeiting his life, he has entered into a career with a definite destiny and a definite function to serve, where – despite feelings of deep inadequacy and failure – he can feel like something of a role model to others that may not have experienced the pain or hardships that he has, or that may be struggling themselves to overcome some inner turmoil. Therefore, whilst Vargni is a thoroughly unreliable friend and partner, he is nevertheless not altogether antisocial, readily throwing in his thoughts on a particular philosophy or topic of debate, and always eager to listen to the woes of others. His erratic tendency to seek out danger also lends him a sort of altruistic nature, always keen to put himself in harms way before his companions, which perhaps makes his violent alcoholism more forgivable to those forced to co-exist with him. [b]Background/History:[/b] Vargni was born into the Grimgrunstok Clan, as the younger scion of the clan’s ruling elder. At the time of Vargni’s birth, the clan inhabited a region in the mountains to the south of the Imperial province of Wissenland. They had purchased a plot in this region two decades ago, working on a reliable tip from an ancient surveying text that had suggested the presence of gold in the area. The clan followed the elders here, and settled the town of Zaraz Goruz. Unfortunately, after thirty years of toil, the clan had found only coal. Whilst trading this coal produced a respectable income for the clan, in time the mines began to tap out, and as a result so did the coffers of the clan. Several poor financial decisions were made at this point out of desperation; loans taken out to purchase better equipment, promises made to investors of a return on their coin in gold given time. The tale of these sorry happenings does not need to be told. Needless to say, when they had passed, the clan was in dire straits indeed and no longer in possession of Zaraz Goruz. The clan settled a dwarven shanty town in the highlands of Wissenland, scraping a poor living together. Many left to seek fortune elsewhere, but some remained out of hope or a sense of duty. Amongst those who left was Vargni’s elder brother and the heir to the clan, who perhaps had more good sense than he. Vargni remained, tending to his father who had been taken badly ill. On his deathbed, his father expressed his regrets about the clan’s fate, but bade Vargni to respect family law and go follow his brother, leaving behind their wasted time in Zaraz Goruz. As his dying act, he entrusted to Vargni his most precious clan heirloom – a lord’s crown made of solid gold and encrusted with a number of rare gems – and bade him to pass it on to his brother at the earliest opportunity. Vargni did not do this. Unwilling to accept failure and angered by the departure of his elder brother, Vargni instead resolved to retake Zaraz Goruz and deliver the remaining members of the clan in Wissenland to a more worthy destiny. In an act of drunken confidence, he sold the crown entrusted to him by his father to pay off his clan’s remaining debt, and planned to use the rest to buy back Zaraz Goruz. Unfortunately, he found Zaraz Goruz now in the hands of another human merchant, who asked triple what they had originally sold it for, a sum far beyond Vargni’s means. Having squandered his clan’s heirloom, and faced with the prospect of a life starting again from the bottom as a humble miner or labourer in some distant Karak, or as a bootlicking peddler in a human settlement, Vargni fell into a deep depression. He felt overcome with the sense of unfairness that good, hard-working dwarves should be allowed to fall into such a sorry state. What hope was there in a world where such things could happen? A more weak willed dwarf might have simply jumped into a river at this point. A more rational one might have accepted fate and gotten back to work. Vargni, however, elected to take the third option faced by desperate and ashamed young dwarves. Eight years have passed since that day, and Vargni is still seeking a way to fulfil his Slayer oath. [/hider]