[hider=Nicademus][B]Username:[/B]Mortarion

[b]Character Name:[/b]Nicademus Vahlen

[b]Race/Species:[/b]Human

[b]Gender:[/b]Male

[b]Age:[/b]39

[b]Career/Class:[/b]Knight (the Order of the Dusk)

[b]Weapons:[/b]
[list]
[*] Valdium Two-handed longsword
[*] Hunting knife
[/list]

[b]Physical Description:[/b] Vahlen’s face could be easily described using one word: ugly. His escape from the melee between the Dorcha slavers and the Templars of Dusk resulted in him being mauled by the force creatures that roam the Souhland woods, leaving the left half of his face a ruined mess of slash scars and his time serving the Order of the Dusk has done nothing but only pile scars to the rest of his face. About the only thing that could be considered attractive about his face are his eyes, which are of a piercing blue color. For comfort, Vahlen prefers to keep his dark hair near constantly in a buzz cut.

Standing a few inches taller than 6 feet, it becomes readily apparent that Vahlen is well toned. Having spent his early life as a farmhand and the latter portions of it training to be, and as, a knight have left him with a well developed musculature, particularly his arms. This can also be seen on his hands, calloused from working at a farm and from near constant sword practice nowadays. Near two decades constantly travelling through the Southlands, and the many perils that implies, have left Vahlen’s body heavily scarred, a result of confrontations against many of the monstrous denizens that dwell through the Southlands and against quite a few Dorcha slavers and other such individuals. 

When outside of his armor, a fact rare as Vahlen is loath to part from the company of his armor and the protection it presents, Vahlen wears a simple linen shirt that leaves his arms uncovered, usually wearing his tabard over his shirt. To complement his shirt, Vahlen usually wears a pair of plain trousers held by a simple leather belt. 

[b]Armor:[/b]Vahlen wears a set of interwoven metal plates atop chainmail, which is segmented along the torso, arms, and legs so as to provide him with greater dexterity in battle. On top of the torso section of his armor Vahlen wears a dark indigo tabard which is outlined by a forest green fabric, as is customary of the order of the Dusk. Alongside this, to protect his head, Vahlen usually wears a visored barbuta helmet.

[b]Equipment/Other[/b]
[list]
[*]Leather bound journal
[*]Whetstone
[*]Travelling sack
[*]Small leather tent
[*]Bedroll
[*]Travelling supplies
[*]Bottle of alcohol
[/list]

[b]Mental Description/Personality:[/b] Having been born to a pair of farmers, Nicademus prefers people to be simple and honest, tending to show slight disdain and mistrust towards more shady and manipulative individuals, and prefers to behave in a similar manner. Nevertheless, he has a strong moral compass and can be counted on to help those in need, even if he finds their attitude to be distasteful.

This helping attitude easily extends to members of other races, les they be an obvious threat to the humans trying to colonize the Southlands where he’ll refuse to aid them and, even then, it has less to do with their race and more to do with the fact that they are endangering the human colonists in the Southlands, and indeed this attitude even extends to other humans who’d prioritize their own wishes over the safety of their fellow humans in the hostile South.

The only exception to this are the Dorcha, which Vahlen hates with a passion. While his training as a Templar has tempered his hate, it is nevertheless still there and, as such, the best that any Dorcha can expect is to be met with icy hostility if they encounter Vahlen in a peaceful situation and unbridled fury where they to meet him as an enemy.

[b]Goals:[/b] Putting an end to the many menaces plaguing the Southland, with a special emphasis on the Dorcha one, so as to make it safer for colonization by humans coming from the North. 

[b]Background/History:[/b] Vahlen hails from the kingdom of Andred, where he lived alongside his parents as farmhands to one of the many noble lords of the kingdom. While life as a whole wasn't entirely horrible, Vahlen's parents chafed against the prospect of an unchanging life, solely dictated by the role they played in the lands owned by the noble to which they owed serfage. To this end, Vahlen's parents began to quietly gather what little money they made and while this meant that there were periods of time when the whole family went hungry or were unable to procure new clothing and other such necessities the efforts of Nicademus's parents paid off in the end: soon they had the required money to book passage in one of the ships ferrying those migrating to the Southlands.

The trip was hard for the Vahlen family, which was unaccustomed to travel by sea, but eventually they arrived to the Southlands shortly before Nicademus's 15th birthday, settling down in a patch of unoccupied land close to the coastal town of Darkwater along with the rest of those in the ship. Life was harsh in the South, but the motley group of individuals who had made the trip from the North managed to eke out a living and found a new village. Among the newly erected villager, Vahlen's father served as an unofficial leader of sorts of the farmers in the community; helping to guide them and to plan what crops would be farmed through the year to keep the village well fed and, were there to be enough surplus from the crops, to trade with nearby towns and villages. During this time the young Nicademus helped his father as a farmhand, toiling the land alongside him and other youths from the village.

Unfortunately the idyllic life in the village would come soon enough to an end, swallowed like many others by the perils of the Southlands in the middle of the night for a few months after its founding it was put to the torch by a raid of Dorcha slavers. The surprise attack took the village by surprise, with what few watchmen present being slaughtered before they could alert the rest of the villagers or put any sort of resistance, and virtually every inhabitant was soon captured by the elven raiders and bound in chains. Soon they were all marching in the night, it didn't take too long for the murmurs to begin among the captured villagers: some, those who had heard of the wicked Dark Elves beforehand, wondered what cruel fate awaited them while other, mainly parents with young children but couples as well, whispered to their loved ones reassurances to try and assuage their fears. The quiet chat between the captives slowed down the pace and the Drochas, fearing that they could be found out if they took too long before they returned to their underground cities, began whipping the captives, prompting them to resume the quick pace that had been set before the murmuring began.

This rhythm continued for hours, the captured villagers would slow down for a reason and the elves would whip them back into a more rapid pace, until suddenly a voice rang out in the night. Before the raiders had time to organize themselves a group of armored individuals attacked the slavers, sending everything into chaos. In the confusion of the fight Nicademus's parents released him from his chains, but were slain by one of the raiders in retaliation, fearing that they'd try and free the other captured villagers. Panic seizing his heart, Nicademus ran away in the middle of the night as the Dorcha raiders fought off the armored individuals. Heading into the forests, the young Nicademus ran as fast as he could away from the melee between the two groups. 

Unfortunately, as he headed deeper into the forest, Vahlen was attacked by the numerous wild animals and monsters that dotted the woods of the Southlands. It would have been the end for the young man if the same armored individuals hadn’t found him in the forest after his escape, bleeding from many cuts and unconscious due to the blood loss. Fortunately for him the armored individuals treated his wounds, at least to the extent of stopping the blood loss, and took him back to their keep. When Nicademus awoke the next day he almost believed that everything that had happened was nothing more than a nightmare, if not for the fact that he awoke in a common dormitory; fortunately for him other survivors of the village raid had been rescued, who explained to Vahlen the situation they were in: they had been rescued by a group of knights from the Order of the Dusk and brought what villagers had survived the chapter house located in the town of Darkwater. 

Shaken by the explanation, but unable to deny it as memories of what had happened the prior night resurfaced, Nicademus did the only thing that he could: he grieved for all that he had lost the previous night. For weeks he remained in such a state, wandering the chapter house of the knights like a lost spirit while the other survivors moved on and left the knight’s keep. Luckily for Nicademus the knights were generous for while they asked him to do menial chores for them, in return they allowed him to stay in the keep for as long as he needed. During this time his sorrow slowly, but surely, gave away, only to be replaced by something else: fury. The sorrow that had followed him for weeks had turned to fury against the Dark Elves who had destroyed the place were he had lived and who had cost his parents their lives, and from there a need for vengeance against the cruel Dorcha blossomed in Nicademus.

Knowing that he was merely the son of a farmer, and as such devoid of the skills he needed to carry his vengeance, the young Vahlen prostrated himself to the knights who had rescued him and begged them to train him, voicing his need to avenge his parents deaths to the knights he had prostrated himself before. The knights hushed him away after he was done speaking, telling the young Nicademus to leave them alone and to return to the duties he was performing in exchange for his continuous stay in the chapter house. After that, life in the keep continued as it had before with Nicademus continuing to do the chores that had been assigned to him while the knights trained until, one day, he was ordered to present himself to the knight in charge of the chapter house. 

Once he presented himself he was told that his request had been carefully considered by the senior knights present at the time and that, after the deliberations were concluded, they had accepted his request, he was to be trained as one of the templars of the Order of the Dusk. The training that he was out through was arduous, but Nicademus was no stranger to hard work and the Dorcha raid, or more accurately its fallout, had steeled the young man’s resolve; as such, Nicademus quickly grew accustomed to the training regime he was being put through. 

The long years passed by as Nicademus was molded by his training into a knight, until finally the day came that he was fully knighted before he turned 20. With his training complete, Vahlen was equipped and, for the first time in half a decade, left the grounds of the chapter house. His training regime had tempered his desire for vengeance with a genuine concern for the human population of the Southlands, instilling in him a desire to make the area safe for human colonization so that no further tragedies like the one that he had suffered would continue to repeat. For nearly two decades Nicademus has walked through the Southlands, hunting the vile Dorcha and many other threats that lurk in the woods, and now his travels see him taking temporary refugee in a village, following rumors of Fey activity. 
[/hider]