[b][u]Name[/u][/b]
[indent]Gabriel[/indent]
[b][u]Age[/u][/b]
[indent]Thirty - Four[/indent]
[b][u]Gender[/u][/b]
[indent]Male[/indent]
[b][u]Appearance[/u][/b] 
[indent]Quintessential is most accurate when describing the physicality of the mercenary who introduces himself only as Gabriel. His body--a mixed complexion of olive skin and shades thereof--is solid from a full life of laboring and fighting, both with friends and enemies. Heavy lines contour his form, each muscle group clearly defined though not necessarily perfectly symmetrical in their visual. Though he appears lean as a taller man in light armor, his limbs are thicker than they appear--suffice it to say, Gabriel seems to be built in a functional manner versus the absolute hulking mass of some of his old comrades. His bare self is also littered with all manner of scars and old wounds though his face managed to stay completely free of the ugly marks.  

His visage is equally defined and sharp with a strong jawline hidden under a short beard and goatee. Almond-shaped green eyes create a deceptively relaxed expression under slightly thick eyebrows that seem furrowed most of the time--a complete contradiction in emotion and a quirk that makes Gabriel’s countenance all the more difficult to interpret. Long brown locks round out the middle-aged merc and he insists on keeping them bound in a short ponytail considering one can never know when they will need to be ready for action. 

His armor is a combination of leather hide and hardened steel plates that are attached to the leather in order to keep mobility the primary focus with a little light protection. Chest plate, rounded shoulder plates with a leather base, and greaves are the heaviest parts of Gabriel’s custom forged armor with much smaller plates cut to fit various parts of his leather gauntlets--if ever a punch or two is necessary--and a layer of chain mail protecting his abdomen, obliques, and lower back. Since his armor was a gift, each plate was dyed black and painted with thin, golden lines in an ornate style giving his attire an interesting black and brown motif with golden trim. Under his armor, he wears only a simple set of ebony hosen, matching tunic with a higher collar, and leather boots.[/indent] 
[b][u]Personality[/u][/b] 
[indent]An oddly energetic appreciation for life permeates Gabriel’s persona even against the general hardness of his outward appearance. He is social and has a tendency to approach strangers first whether out of genuine interest or a lack of fear of consequences of any kind. He can be callous and sarcastic, but also possesses a trait of brutal honesty that, in some twisted way, can be appreciated because lies are the last thing a man of his caliber would ever let slip from his tongue. It is clear to all that the one-armed mercenary enjoys murder and thievery, but in reality it’s more that he enjoys the thrill of danger and the adrenaline rush one gains when a situation goes south and can only be settled through violent means. His brushes with death and the general turn of his life have given the man a unique perspective on what it means to enjoy it each day and he seems to strive to live in a way that fully suits him, anyone else and everything else be damned. It’s the opposite of a personality some would expect from a hardened mercenary, but Gabriel is anything but stereotypical in his middle age.[/indent]
[b][u]Weapon(s)[/u][/b] 
[indent]Gabriel carries only a few essential weapons to keep his load light. Attached to his belt under his lower back is the upper portion of a broken spear--the spearhead and part of the stem, a piece which holds sentimental value. The belt itself houses a multitude of small knives which are primarily used for throwing while his primary weapon is a simple double-edged sword with a custom-forged circular crossguard. In addition to these, the merc is capable of efficient unarmed combat and that is part of the reason he opts not carry a larger arsenal.[/indent]
[b][u]Magic User[/u][/b] 
[indent]No[/indent]
[b][u]History[/u][/b]
[indent]There is not a child born in Pratus without a family name and even the mercenary who would eventually come to be known simply as “Gabriel”  started out life with a proper surname. He was born to an average family, his father choosing to make his trade as a blacksmith and his mother simply resigning herself to household duties. Life was routine for the small family with the couple’s son helping his mother with household chores while constantly wondering what life was like for a man who had the fortune to make weapons for the city guard. In the son’s eyes, his father was the luckiest person in Pratus and he longed to be invited to his forge if even just to watch his hero at work. When he was old enough to go to school, he would stop by the forge in secret, catching glimpses of that well-worn hammer smashing down on a fresh, molten blade or a client beaming in approval at their newest possession. These simple times would not last, however. 

Jealous of the man’s work and popularity with the guard, rival forges unified and hired the local thieves guild to stage a robbery during a particularly important commission. When the guard arrived to receive their order, everything was gone save for old, broken equipment and weapons and when the guard searched the man’s house suspecting him of the theft, their claims were confirmed in moments. The son’s father was arrested on the spot and without his income to get them by, they lost everything. The son and his mother were banished from the city once they couldn’t pay their dues and they ended up in a small village just a few miles away with other poor souls who couldn’t afford the protection of the walled paradise. Life took a drastically different turn after that. 

Unfortunately, the village of Heston had garnered an infamous reputation as the town that bandits, mercenaries, and general shady types passed through in order to get to The Disk or where those same types met their clients and conducted their precarious business deals. In order to scrape by, the widow of a now hanged blacksmith invited various types of men--and even some women--to her and her son’s small home at different times of the day. These meetings would not last long, but the son had now grown old enough to understand what was going on and he made it his business to stay out of the house as much as possible. He had taken to stealing to survive and attacking those who caught him in order to keep what he stole. Heston was too poor to afford guards of any kind so violence was nothing new for the village. The boy continued his ways until he finally caught the eye of a man who would change his life one more time. 

It had been a simple, but petty brawl at the tavern. A group of boys had finally found the teenage thief who had been accused of stealing anything not nailed down and they sought to teach him a lesson. At the same time, a traveling band of mercenaries had just rolled into town seeking respite from a long journey and their chosen form of relaxation involved beer. The men paid no attention to the squabbling children until the teenage boy attacked the hostile group. Being outnumbered five to one ensured a good beating that day, but one of the mercs found himself drawn to the bruised and battered boy. He offered him a hand and inquired about the boy’s parents, already considering the possibility of taking the young man under his wing. Though quiet for a moment or two, the boy would simply reply that he had none. Then and there, the merc introduced himself as Arthur Gaines and offered the boy what he considered a better life--apprentice of a mercenary, able to travel a bit and see more of the world while even honing his extremely rough combat skills and, most importantly, earning coin which would allow him to take of care of himself. The boy eagerly agreed and though Arthur had never asked him his name, the older mercenary bestowed the moniker “Gabriel” on his new protege’. 

Gabriel began his new life with a new occupation. As a thirteen year old boy, he was thrust into the world of pit fighting. Pit fighting was a quietly popular past-time that usually took place in the back rooms or cellars of taverns every village and city over. Arthur’s teaching methodology always declared that real experience was the best teacher and so he forced Gabriel to fight in many a pit fight as their group traveled from village to village. In between, Arthur would personally teach the boy sword combat and even went so far as to immerse him in a strange, underhand-grip style that the mercenary group claimed was unique in all of Pratus. Gabriel fought and fought and practiced and practiced, the scars of his dedication and experiences etching themselves onto his skin as years passed and his body grew. Upon reaching adulthood, Arthur officially inducted his apprentice into the group and let him in on what they really did for a living. 

It would turn out that Arthur and his ragtag group of mercs were actually the kind of bandits that would kill travelers on the roads, slaughter their escorts, and then take everything in sight. It was merely an evolution in scope to what Gabriel had been doing as a young thief. He took to the life quickly. Wherever the group went, they pillaged and murdered and even still they were hired from time to time to actually perform some mercenary work. That work would involve killing the hellish creatures that now roamed the Wildlands and whenever one would get too close to a city or the group happened to be within the area where incidents had been reported, they were hired. 

More years passed and Gabriel only grew older, but in time he began traveling and advertising his services as a lone mercenary. No one can recount the happenings that ended with Gabriel splitting from his murderous platoon, but he quickly gained his own infamy as the one-armed merc who would kill anything and anybody for the right price. Somewhere along his years, the ruthless warrior suffered nerve damage in his left arm and it left the limb unable to take the heft of a blade or most anything with too much weight. It wasn’t long after these events that the one-armed merc received a letter detailing his invitation to the fabled Black Lily guild. Sensing a great opportunity to make more silver doing what he enjoyed, Gabriel joined the guild and hasn’t thought about looking back since.[/indent]