[hider=Gerick the Grey]
[b]Name:[/b] Gerick
[b]Title:[/b] The Grey
[b]Age:[/b] 25

[b]Appearance:[/b]
Gerick stands at a respectable six feet, with unkempt jet black hair streaked with grey. His eyes themselves are also a dull grey, with dark circles looming underneath. His face is angular and gaunt; his skin an almost sickly pale. There are some who say he never smiles (perhaps to hide his rotted, decaying teeth), but he has been known to smirk on some occasions. His nose is somewhat crooked, having been broken once or twice in the past. Lastly, he is of an average build, perhaps somewhat frailer than most, but makes up for this with a surprising speed and agility.

For attire, he wears faded green homespun shirt and breaches, frayed with age and stained with travel. Furthermore, he also wears a pair of brown leather boots that are actually surprisingly well-fitting and sturdy, stained with a small speck of blood that just refuses to come off. Over all this he wears a thick, warm, grey cloak, stained with mud from his travels.

He also carries a steel longsword - the blade has a couple notches and a few flecks of rust, but is otherwise serviceable enough - which is kept sheathed at his hip on a worn leather belt, alongside a dagger in similar condition. His final accessory is one that serves absolutely no combat value; an old, battered, rotted flute that he may occasionally blow. He possesses absolutely no aptitude for this instrument, but it is dear to him nonetheless.

[b]Personality:[/b]
Where to begin? At first glance, one would view him as grim, cynical, and depressed. He has a tendency to incline his head at an angle while speaking. As a result he may come across as rather creepy and unhinged - a fair assessment. He has a tendency to mutter or whisper to himself (but usually won't do this in front of others, unless he is deep in thought.) He is also generally pessimistic; quick to throw cold water onto other people's ideas, with a tendency to become paranoid, or to assume the worst when something has gone wrong.

Some may also note that he carries a dark sense of humour, with a tendency to take grisly or disturbing sights with nothing more than a grim remark - although he is in truth putting on a front, for both himself and others. He is not without altruism. He still has concern for others, but he does his best to suppress it, both as a coping mechanism and as a a means to avoid showing weakness. And for those who are just as jaded as he, his remarks may be genuinely amusing.

Also, don't mess with his flute.

[b]Background:[/b] 
Gerick was born in a small village called Hagoth. His family was rather... unique, truth be told.

His mother had been a scribe from Illistair. With such a stable, vital, well-paying job, there was no doubt that she didn't leave voluntarily. Once, at a young age, Gerick asked her why she no longer lived there, and her response was to simply shake her head and say, "I learned something I wasn't supposed to know," but reveal nothing more. She tried to teach Gerick how to read, and recounted various myths, histories, and legends to him at night.

His father and his uncle were both hunters who had hailed from Jornorston, yet they too were equally evasive about their past, utterly refusing to speak of it. All Gerick knew is that at some point they left, embarking on a life of travel. They were always eager to share tales of their adventures; the places they saw, the creatures they fought, the deeds they did. In hindsight, many of those stories were probably embellished, but they had been enjoyable and informative nonetheless. At some point they met Gerick's mother and eventually settled down.

Gerick also had an older sister, a few years older, with a talent for singing and playing the flute.

Then, one day, when Gerick was nine years old, the village fell to the Filth.

It had not been the first time they were attacked, but this time the beasts were more numerous than ever before. They came almost in a swarm, and the village militia failed to fight them off. Gerick's father died defending his family, with Gerick's mother ripped apart soon after. Gerick himself would have been next, but his uncle came to the rescue. While the village burned, they ran.

If anyone else survived, Gerick did not know. From that point on, they wandered. At first, they shied away from settlements, instead preferring solitary life in the wilderness. Gerick's uncle taught him many things; how to fight with a sword, how to shoot a bow, how to track, how to forage. However, a life in the wilderness was hardly ideal, so Gerick's uncle began to attach himself to caravans, taking meager pay to act as a guard or perform odd jobs.

One such caravan was led by a merchant from Kendles, who dealt with... unusual substances. He paid well, and he had need of reliable hired muscle, so he eventually convinced Gerick's uncle to work for him full-time. And so, at the age of thirteen, Gerick and his uncle wound up living in Kendles. While Gerick's uncle served as a bodyguard, Gerick himself was employed as a messenger, where he learned to move swiftly and stay hidden.

They stayed there for two years, until the merchant was found brutally stabbed to death in an alleyway. At that point, Gerick's uncle decided it was time to leave. They signed on with another caravan, and at this point Gerick was old enough to fight, which meant that they could receive the payment of two men instead of one. 

They resumed their old wandering lifestyle, with Gerick growing increasingly mature and skilled. He was a quiet yet not necessarily timid man, having come to terms with his lost family but being numb to tragedy as a result. Yet after two more years, one of their caravans was attacked by some particularly bold brigands. Although they successfully fought them off, Gerick's uncle, the only family he had left, died in the struggle.

Gerick was never quite the same after the moment. In fact, one could say that was what broke him. Without companionship, he wandered alone, unwilling to form attachments with anyone else. He continued to guard caravans and perform odd jobs to get by, as he and his uncle had done before, hunting or foraging when no work was to be found. His uncle had once been a good-hearted and good-humoured man, but became grim and stoic after Massacre at Hagoth, and perhaps in memory of him Gerick wound up becoming a bit of both. After all these years he had kept his sister's old flute, and began to practice with it and even try his voice at singing, though he made no real attempt to be good at either.

Gerick never did settle down or seek any permanent employment, believing that it would all eventually be ripped away in the end. He fell into a cynical depression, that only seemed to worsen as time went on. 

Perhaps in an attempt to poison himself, he recently consumed a wild mushroom that his uncle had once told him to always avoid. The mushroom was not truly poisonous, but instead hallucinogenic and mood-altering. The hallucinations ranged from pleasant to nightmarish; he would be surrounded by fearsome monsters, only for those monsters to suddenly become peaceful woodland creatures. He would feel calm and serene one moment, but terrified and anxious the next. His clothes seemed to itch and his collar seemed to choke him, and after he took them off the sun and the grass suddenly felt warm and soothing.

He experienced other things, too, but they have since faded into a blur. There is one he remembers distinctly, though. At some point he saw a hallucination of his deceased family. His sister pleaded for him to not give in to despair, his uncle told him to get ahold of himself, his mother assured him he was destined for higher things, and his father demanded to know what they all died for.

Gerick threw himself into the river to escape them. He stayed under for as long as he could, and before he turned back to the surface, he noticed the glint of silver in the riverbank.

The next thing he knew, he awoke with a headache, clutching a peculiar item to his bare chest. A small silver crown, studded with small blood red rubies, and featuring a slight dent that prevented it from sitting straight across his forehead.

He knew much of the legends surrounding these things, and had to wonder: was this finding mere chance, or was he indeed destined for something greater? Time would tell, but for now, it was an excuse to keep living.

Meanwhile, every now and then he continues to consume the mushrooms. Some might even think it's his favourite food. Sometimes the hallucinations are pleasant, and sometimes they are nightmarish, but what he really searches for are more 'visions.' Whether they are real or not, he cannot say, but he needs to see his family again.

[b]Stats:[/b]
Strength: A Man among Men (2)
Reflexes: Reflexes of a Mantis (4)
Fortitude: Skin of Paper (1)
Intellect: Quick (3)
Wisdom: Insightful (3)
Willpower: Will of Will (2)

[b]Skills and Training:[/b]
-Swordsman. Gerick possesses remarkable skill with bladed weapons.
-Archer. He is an adequate shot with a bow.
-Survivalist. He knows how to track, forage, and navigate.
-Basic literacy, from his mother. Emphasis on basic.
-Knowledgeable. He has an impressive level of knowledge regarding various myths and stories.
-Well-travelled. He knows quite a bit about the various settlements, either from visiting them himself or hearing second-hand accounts from his uncle.

[hr]

His most memorable moment is, of course, his village being butchered.
[/hider]