[hider=Arvu Krakenbane]
[b]Arvu Krakenbane[/b]

Age: 32

Race: Human

[b]Training:[/b] No formal training to speak of. Born into the coastal Askan people, who are traditionally whalehunters, Arvu is well acquainted with the harpoon. His weapon of choice is a spear not unlike the Askani harpoons he's used since childhood. With a spear in his hand, Arvu is dangerous indeed, capable of dehorsing mounted foes and scoring lethal throws at short distance.

[b]Equipment:[/b] Even when out on one of the Duke's errands, Arvu hardly looks like a knight in the service of the Northern Alliance. He dresses simply in a holey woolen tunic only covered with a cuirass of chainmail if he anticipates trouble. The only possession he regularly carries that would distinguish Arvu from a commoner is an unusual spear with a shaft fashioned from whalebone rather than wood. The whalebone spear is light enough to throw like a javelin, yet strong enough to unsaddle a charging horseman. The spearpoint is a relatively long blade of razor-sharp steel, effective for slashing motions, but not so broad as to lodge itself inside a skewered opponent. Arvu can therefore deliver a fast and lethal thrust to one foe, quickly withdraw, and be ready to face another enemy.

[b]Spell skills:[/b] Arvu can scarcely read, let alone conjure magic.

[b]Affiliation:[/b] Arvu is a knight in the service of Duke Vylgar Blacktooth, ruler of the Northern Alliance.

[b]Personality:[/b] Born a commoner in a remote backwater of the northern realms, Arvu at first impression may seem somewhat simple. He lacks the eloquence of Duke Blacktooth's courtiers and retainers, and has difficulty reading words longer than a handful of runes. His uneducated demeanor belies a sharp wit, for stupid men do not survive long in the North. To foreigners visiting the Duke's court, Arvu may seem curt and distant. Such behavior is not evidence of any disdain, but rather an artifact of his upbringing in a harsh environment; friendliness and good manners are rather low in priority in a land where virtually every interaction is done out of pure necessity.

[b]History:[/b] Arvu, Son of Ruk, was born in the frigid land of Askan, one of several client realms of the Northern Alliance. Askan is a snowy, rocky realm and poorly suited for grazing or farming. Sustenance in these northern reaches of Telduria most reliably comes from the sea. While the women collect clams and abelones from the rocky shore, the men take to the waves to fish or hunt. On boats carved from spruce trunks, the Askani ply the cold grey seas with harpoon in hand in search of whales, walrus, seals, and sharks. And so as soon as he could hold an oar, Arvu joined his father on the tempestuous Ice Sea on his a crude little boat.

When Arvu had seen 17 summers, the Duke's men arrived in Arvu's hamlet to conscript levies into the service of the Northern Alliance. The villages of Askan were so destitute that attempting to raise taxes from this land would be futile, and the Duke's men conscripted the men of fighting age into the Alliance's levies in lieu of a tax. Arvu was one of a dozen boys selected for a year of service, and so was taken by the Duke's men from Askan to Riddom, the Duke's seat of power and capital of the Northern Alliance.

In Riddom, Arvu was relegated to various odd jobs and guard duties around the ducal citadel of Summerset Keep. Near the end of his conscription tour, Arvu was assigned to serve as a deckhand aboard a vessel carrying the Duke from Riddom to one of the outlying settlements of the Northern Alliance. While crossing an open stretch of the Ice Sea, the Duke's flotilla was attacked by a sea monster. A dire whale, starving and ravenous, rammed into the Duke's escort cog and broke its hull. As the men aboard plunged into the frigid waters, the beast snapped them up one by one. The captain of the Duke's ship, not wanting to risk losing the ruler of the Northern Alliance, chose to make a break for coastal waters while the beast fed on the crew of the sinking ship behind them. The monster was not satisfied with dozen or so sailors cast into the waves and soon gave chase to the Duke's own ship. As the beast closed in on the Duke's vessel, Arvu broke from his post and tied a length of rigging around his waist. Without so much as a word of explanation, Arvu took a spear from the hands of one of the Duke's guards and rappelled off the side of the hull. As the hungry dire whale's head broke the surface and rose to snap up the dangling sailor, Arvu threw the spear with all of his strength into the monster's eye. Arvu's aim was true, and the spear burst the beast's right eye in a spray of blood. In agonized terror, the dire whale withdrew at once and slunk back into the depths.

Duke Blacktooth was thoroughly impressed by Arvu's bravery and decisive action. Knowing that he and all other hands aboard the ship would have died had it not been for the deckhand's heroic deed, the Duke showered the boy with gratitude and praise. Arvu, humble to a fault, dismissed the Duke's praises and stated that it was not the first time he had to fend off an angry sea beast. The Duke paid little attention to Arvu's humility, christening him with the surname Krakenbane in honor of his heroism. Upon their return to Summerset Keep, Arvu was knighted.

For the past fifteen summers, Arvu Krakenbane has remained in dutiful service of Duke Vylgar Blacktooth. The Duke recognized quickly that, due to his rude upbringing, Arvu is extremely resourceful and needed little assistance or direction in carrying out his quests. Many of Arvu's years of service have therefore been spent plying the vast wildernesses of the Northern Alliance in search of criminals on the lam; hunting them down that they may be apprehended and returned to the Duke's court to be brought to justice. As of late, however, the Duke has been less concerned with murderers and necromancers roaming the countryside and more vexed with the client lords of the alliance. Reaver clans within the Northern Alliance's borders have increasingly taken work as sellswords, traveling far and wide on their longships to foreign battlefields and undercutting the fighters of the Mercenary Guild. Wishing to avoid trouble with the mercenaries, Duke Blacktooth has passed along the Guild's official request to cease-and-desist to Lord Dagan, a recalcitrant vassal of the Duke with authority over the reaver clans. Lord Dagan has plainly refused to do any such thing, and it is now becoming increasingly likely that Arvu Krakenbane will soon be sent by the Duke to talk some sense into this rabblerouser.[/hider]