There we go. I hope this is coherent. Kind of leaned harder into the traumatic backstory and the driving goal. The D&D sheet is a WIP, but slowly working on it.
Despite everything he's been through and the current company he keeps, Danyl is an optimist at heart. He doesn't hold any blind faith in deities, and he knows that realistically some dreams can't become reality, but Danyl believes that with enough dedication and work most things are possible... and, sometimes, that work was of the underhanded kind. Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to achieve a dream - or even just survive. It is with this mind set that Danyl justifies his life as a thief, working among men that have much more storied rap sheets than him. Danyl isn't the type to hoard wealth, and anything he doesn't use to keep him fed from day to day is put back into his Guild - if not slipped into the pockets of those in need.
His charity is not entirely altruistic, Danyl just has some issues surrounding gain and loss, as one might expect. He tends not to keep much of anything, let alone money, for fear of growing attached and then losing it. People are harder not to get attached to (and harder to just give away, as it were). The flip side means that Danyl fights tooth and nail to protect those he is close to. Two extremes, but to him it makes sense - either put the thing you love close enough to keep or cut it out of your life entirely.
In regards to people, it's a wonder that Danyl didn't close his heart off to others. Or maybe it's a flaw. He's grown a lot, learned a lot of hard truths, but he can take a joke and crack one too. He maybe be a bit blunt and rough around the edges, but he can still smile. He takes others at face value, and expects the same in return - even if it's just because he's practically an open book. Hey, he's a thief not a spy. He is also a young man, and like many he can be bullheaded. With a temper and a tendency to be stubborn and stick to his guns, Danyl has butt heads with others in his line of work, but seeing as it's not exactly smart to make enemies it usually doesn't last for too long. Danyl isn't the menacing type, but anything serious is subject to the classic philosophy of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
Mostly, Danyl is just a regular guy. He's young and headstrong with a bit of a temper and one hell of a want for vengeance, but he's also hard working and trust worthy, though some might not think it due to his current 'profession.' He's a man that tries to put distance between himself and others and fails, and he always keeps his promises.
WThe Feytin family was a large and happy one. Town grocers; a thickly built husband, a plump and vibrant wife, and three healthy children with one more on the way. They lived in a large home that was always in need of some kind of repair, with an even larger garden that the whole household tended to. The patriarch held friendships far and wide through his dealings with merchants, and proof of his bonds filled the family home in the form of knick knacks and tapestry that enchanted his wife and children. It was a well loved and well lived in homestead, nestled deep in the hamlet of Ardenfeld.
One day it all went up in a blaze. For a long time after that Danyl, a boy of nine years at the time, wished that he had burned up too. The fire spread quickly through their house, collapsing pieces of the second floor and blocking the doors out - his older brother had fallen with it, the debris pinning him there. His parents had split up, his father trying to find a safe way down and his mother pushing his younger sister and he toward the second story window. One at a time she lowered them out of the opening as far as she could before letting them drop to the grass outside. Sister first, while the fire grew and cracked the wood it was engulfing, sending showers of hot splinters over him. Looking back it was strange, how some pieces of this memory were so clear while others were dull and spotty. Danyl remembered crying and fussing at his eye where something had gotten into it, his mother yelling out of the window at his sister to go somewhere safe, and then the flames suddenly grow brighter - and then he was outside on his back, where the cold earth did little to help his seared skin. Then, he was yanked up by his arm and hurried into a secure hold with other children from the village. His mother must have thrown him from the window when the fire got too dangerous. He had no idea where his sister was, could only hope she was safe somewhere. His consciousness drifted in and out, and behind his eyelids drifted visions of his family, the flames, and the symbol of the bandits who had put their home to torch.
Life at the orphanage could have been worse, but for children grieving the loss of their homes and families suddenly thrust into an unfamiliar city and made to live with unfamiliar people, it was a whole lot of awful. Every mention of the mere word 'orphan' just dredged up bad memories. Like many Danyl's attitude soured in the wake of the tragedy, but he tried to keep a spark of hope. The Ardenfeld survivors were together, and they had made a promise to meet again at that town. At least they would always have each other.
Until they didn't. Some were adopted, some ran away, and some aged out. No matter how they left, it felt like a loss all over again. For Danyl, he knew he wouldn't be chosen for a new home. During the walk to Sarinan and in the subsequent confusion of the establishment taking on so many new kids at once, his eye had gotten worse. Irritation, redness, blurry vision. By the time healers had gotten around to taking a look, it was too late to repair it. Eventually his vision in that eye would go completely, and no one wanted to adopt a child that had something wrong with them. As expected, after five years of making and losing friends, Danyl was released into the streets of Sarinan with no where to go and no possessions besides a raging fire in his heart. He was a teenager let loose, a mess of emotions. Sadness, worry, frustration, and a mounting anger. He'd gotten over his want to join his family in the next world over the years, and now his thought process was that he didn't live now in spite of everything, then his family died for nothing. So he did live, scraping by begging in the streets of Sarinan.
There was one stroke of luck for Danyl, in that one of his father's merchant friends passed through town a few months after he'd been released and living in the street. The man had no plan to look after the boy, but he could at least give Danyl a ride to the capital city, where surely opportunity awaited.
That opportunity, it turned out, was being picked up by a Thieves' Guild. They called themselves Palla Orchids, a slightly facetious name, and they fancied themselves as 'noble thieves' stealing only from those that could afford to lose. Upon recalling the day they'd met the guild's captain, a one Victor Mason, would say that while people watching one day he noticed the face of a new street urchin, with an ugly looking eye that cause common folk to turn away from him. It interested him that in being so determined not to focus on the boy, either out of disgust, pity or courtesy, passerbys tended not to focus on other things - like their coinpurses. This was common with all kinds of beggars, especially the marred, but this beggar was a kid. One they could make use of. So, Victor approached Danyl, put some coins in his cup, and offered him a deal: turn up his sob story, keep everything that kind people gifted him, and anyone that distracted themselves by not looking he'd lift the purse off of and donate some of the profit to Danyl. It wasn't very moral but it worked, and that night Danyl returned with the captain to The Orchids's base.
It wasn't a large guild, and their headquarters was more like a criminal hostel, but it became like home for Danyl after a little while. With some polish Danyl made a decent thief and burglar. The guild's motto of only stealing from wealthy folks was something Danyl repeated to himself a lot early on, helping to get over the initial aversion to stealing. Many of the older men subscribed to another motto that struck a cord with Danyl as well: why should 'they' have everything, wanting for nothing, experience no hardship, while 'we' have to fight to survive? It made sense. Plus they were taking money and trinkets, not lives or homes. Really, it was nothing compared what these people could be losing. So Danyl spent the next couple years living with the guild and developing his skill.
The guild would only ever be like home though, because most days he felt no where could ever really be 'home' again. Yes, after so many years he was still hurting. Victor, a shrewd man, could sense that even though Danyl hardly ever talked about his younger years.
"Hey, Danny," he called, waving the teenager over to him. "It hurts, huh?"
Danyl furrowed his brows, confused at first. "Huh? ...oh, what, the eye?"
"...er, yeah."
"I guess." It did hurt from time to time. In the mornings upon waking up it would throb until the afternoon brought it's distractions. In certain weather it would ache and itch. During a bad memory it would be particularly painful. Thinking about it now, Danyl reached a hand up to feel around it. The skin around the socket was dry and taut, but the organ itself had always been the issue. Milky red sclera, collapsed iris and pupil, it wasn't a pretty sight. Now that his brain was focused on it, pain began blooming again. He tried not to give it away, but all of the Orchid could tell when Danyl was hiding something. He must have had some kind of tell that they all kept to themselves. "...yeah, it hurts."
Victor nodded, a grim smile coming to his face.
"I figured. You carry 'round things like that they're always gonna hurt. Only one way to make 'em stop hurting."
This perked Danyl up, and he looked at Victor with a hopeful, if surprised, expression.
"You can make it stop?"
"Well..."
Victor produced a blade, one of many stashed on his person. He twirled it in his hands for a moment before catching it and offering it handle-first to the boy.
"It might hurt a little more at first, but the easiest thing to do is just get rid of whatever's painful, right?"
After they cut out Danyl's bad eye, true to Victor's word once the wound healed over there was no more pain, not even of the phantom kind. It worked, and it was a turning point in Danyl's psyche. It's what started his habit of giving things away, so he could get rid of anything before it was otherwise lost to him. It also was a revelation. If he could get rid of the source of the pain in his heart, eventually that would stop hurting too. He was sixteen when he thought the best way to do that would be to get revenge on those bandits from so many years ago.
The rest of his years were spent right there in Pallaviel, living and working as a member of the Palla Orchids thieves' guild. He eventually became a lieutenant, because he only concerned himself with a few things during that time: providing for himself, providing for his guild, and keeping his ear to the ground for any leads or rumors about a certain bandit group. It wasn't much, but it was life. Eventually, ten years had passed, and Danyl had prepared a small pack with which to make the journey back to the ruins of Ardenfeld. It had been a long time, and though he hadn't kept in contact with any of the other survivors, he still intended to return. Danyl prided himself on never breaking his promises - even ones from childhood. If he was nervous he would never admit it, even if his whole guild could tell. This was one of the few important things to him left, and no matter how it went he would see it through.
For Danyl, there is no moving forward until he can cut out the part of him that hurts. Obviously cutting his heart out would kill him, so he has to remove the next best thing: the bandits that caused the pain in the first place. He lives his life day to day, supporting himself and his guild, while always keeping and eye and ear out for leads. Once he completes his goal, he... doesn't know what he'll do. In his heart of hearts he's afraid to think about the future. He knows what he wants, but he isn't sure if simple hard work can get him there this time. A warm place to live, people he can trust. He thought he'd had that with the Orchids, but there's been friction lately between the guild's members, a lot of doubt going around. A change of pace for Danyl might be in order soon, but the guild had been his life for the past half a decade. Before them he was a homeless orphan, after them would be be the same? Or, now that he's a capable adult, could it be possible to stop surviving and start living? Even enjoy life again? Only time will tell.
Who I Am
Despite everything he's been through and the current company he keeps, Danyl is an optimist at heart. He doesn't hold any blind faith in deities, and he knows that realistically some dreams can't become reality, but Danyl believes that with enough dedication and work most things are possible... and, sometimes, that work was of the underhanded kind. Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to achieve a dream - or even just survive. It is with this mind set that Danyl justifies his life as a thief, working among men that have much more storied rap sheets than him. Danyl isn't the type to hoard wealth, and anything he doesn't use to keep him fed from day to day is put back into his Guild - if not slipped into the pockets of those in need.
His charity is not entirely altruistic, Danyl just has some issues surrounding gain and loss, as one might expect. He tends not to keep much of anything, let alone money, for fear of growing attached and then losing it. People are harder not to get attached to (and harder to just give away, as it were). The flip side means that Danyl fights tooth and nail to protect those he is close to. Two extremes, but to him it makes sense - either put the thing you love close enough to keep or cut it out of your life entirely.
In regards to people, it's a wonder that Danyl didn't close his heart off to others. Or maybe it's a flaw. He's grown a lot, learned a lot of hard truths, but he can take a joke and crack one too. He maybe be a bit blunt and rough around the edges, but he can still smile. He takes others at face value, and expects the same in return - even if it's just because he's practically an open book. Hey, he's a thief not a spy. He is also a young man, and like many he can be bullheaded. With a temper and a tendency to be stubborn and stick to his guns, Danyl has butt heads with others in his line of work, but seeing as it's not exactly smart to make enemies it usually doesn't last for too long. Danyl isn't the menacing type, but anything serious is subject to the classic philosophy of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
Mostly, Danyl is just a regular guy. He's young and headstrong with a bit of a temper and one hell of a want for vengeance, but he's also hard working and trust worthy, though some might not think it due to his current 'profession.' He's a man that tries to put distance between himself and others and fails, and he always keeps his promises.
My Story
WThe Feytin family was a large and happy one. Town grocers; a thickly built husband, a plump and vibrant wife, and three healthy children with one more on the way. They lived in a large home that was always in need of some kind of repair, with an even larger garden that the whole household tended to. The patriarch held friendships far and wide through his dealings with merchants, and proof of his bonds filled the family home in the form of knick knacks and tapestry that enchanted his wife and children. It was a well loved and well lived in homestead, nestled deep in the hamlet of Ardenfeld.
One day it all went up in a blaze. For a long time after that Danyl, a boy of nine years at the time, wished that he had burned up too. The fire spread quickly through their house, collapsing pieces of the second floor and blocking the doors out - his older brother had fallen with it, the debris pinning him there. His parents had split up, his father trying to find a safe way down and his mother pushing his younger sister and he toward the second story window. One at a time she lowered them out of the opening as far as she could before letting them drop to the grass outside. Sister first, while the fire grew and cracked the wood it was engulfing, sending showers of hot splinters over him. Looking back it was strange, how some pieces of this memory were so clear while others were dull and spotty. Danyl remembered crying and fussing at his eye where something had gotten into it, his mother yelling out of the window at his sister to go somewhere safe, and then the flames suddenly grow brighter - and then he was outside on his back, where the cold earth did little to help his seared skin. Then, he was yanked up by his arm and hurried into a secure hold with other children from the village. His mother must have thrown him from the window when the fire got too dangerous. He had no idea where his sister was, could only hope she was safe somewhere. His consciousness drifted in and out, and behind his eyelids drifted visions of his family, the flames, and the symbol of the bandits who had put their home to torch.
Life at the orphanage could have been worse, but for children grieving the loss of their homes and families suddenly thrust into an unfamiliar city and made to live with unfamiliar people, it was a whole lot of awful. Every mention of the mere word 'orphan' just dredged up bad memories. Like many Danyl's attitude soured in the wake of the tragedy, but he tried to keep a spark of hope. The Ardenfeld survivors were together, and they had made a promise to meet again at that town. At least they would always have each other.
Until they didn't. Some were adopted, some ran away, and some aged out. No matter how they left, it felt like a loss all over again. For Danyl, he knew he wouldn't be chosen for a new home. During the walk to Sarinan and in the subsequent confusion of the establishment taking on so many new kids at once, his eye had gotten worse. Irritation, redness, blurry vision. By the time healers had gotten around to taking a look, it was too late to repair it. Eventually his vision in that eye would go completely, and no one wanted to adopt a child that had something wrong with them. As expected, after five years of making and losing friends, Danyl was released into the streets of Sarinan with no where to go and no possessions besides a raging fire in his heart. He was a teenager let loose, a mess of emotions. Sadness, worry, frustration, and a mounting anger. He'd gotten over his want to join his family in the next world over the years, and now his thought process was that he didn't live now in spite of everything, then his family died for nothing. So he did live, scraping by begging in the streets of Sarinan.
There was one stroke of luck for Danyl, in that one of his father's merchant friends passed through town a few months after he'd been released and living in the street. The man had no plan to look after the boy, but he could at least give Danyl a ride to the capital city, where surely opportunity awaited.
That opportunity, it turned out, was being picked up by a Thieves' Guild. They called themselves Palla Orchids, a slightly facetious name, and they fancied themselves as 'noble thieves' stealing only from those that could afford to lose. Upon recalling the day they'd met the guild's captain, a one Victor Mason, would say that while people watching one day he noticed the face of a new street urchin, with an ugly looking eye that cause common folk to turn away from him. It interested him that in being so determined not to focus on the boy, either out of disgust, pity or courtesy, passerbys tended not to focus on other things - like their coinpurses. This was common with all kinds of beggars, especially the marred, but this beggar was a kid. One they could make use of. So, Victor approached Danyl, put some coins in his cup, and offered him a deal: turn up his sob story, keep everything that kind people gifted him, and anyone that distracted themselves by not looking he'd lift the purse off of and donate some of the profit to Danyl. It wasn't very moral but it worked, and that night Danyl returned with the captain to The Orchids's base.
It wasn't a large guild, and their headquarters was more like a criminal hostel, but it became like home for Danyl after a little while. With some polish Danyl made a decent thief and burglar. The guild's motto of only stealing from wealthy folks was something Danyl repeated to himself a lot early on, helping to get over the initial aversion to stealing. Many of the older men subscribed to another motto that struck a cord with Danyl as well: why should 'they' have everything, wanting for nothing, experience no hardship, while 'we' have to fight to survive? It made sense. Plus they were taking money and trinkets, not lives or homes. Really, it was nothing compared what these people could be losing. So Danyl spent the next couple years living with the guild and developing his skill.
The guild would only ever be like home though, because most days he felt no where could ever really be 'home' again. Yes, after so many years he was still hurting. Victor, a shrewd man, could sense that even though Danyl hardly ever talked about his younger years.
"Hey, Danny," he called, waving the teenager over to him. "It hurts, huh?"
Danyl furrowed his brows, confused at first. "Huh? ...oh, what, the eye?"
"...er, yeah."
"I guess." It did hurt from time to time. In the mornings upon waking up it would throb until the afternoon brought it's distractions. In certain weather it would ache and itch. During a bad memory it would be particularly painful. Thinking about it now, Danyl reached a hand up to feel around it. The skin around the socket was dry and taut, but the organ itself had always been the issue. Milky red sclera, collapsed iris and pupil, it wasn't a pretty sight. Now that his brain was focused on it, pain began blooming again. He tried not to give it away, but all of the Orchid could tell when Danyl was hiding something. He must have had some kind of tell that they all kept to themselves. "...yeah, it hurts."
Victor nodded, a grim smile coming to his face.
"I figured. You carry 'round things like that they're always gonna hurt. Only one way to make 'em stop hurting."
This perked Danyl up, and he looked at Victor with a hopeful, if surprised, expression.
"You can make it stop?"
"Well..."
Victor produced a blade, one of many stashed on his person. He twirled it in his hands for a moment before catching it and offering it handle-first to the boy.
"It might hurt a little more at first, but the easiest thing to do is just get rid of whatever's painful, right?"
After they cut out Danyl's bad eye, true to Victor's word once the wound healed over there was no more pain, not even of the phantom kind. It worked, and it was a turning point in Danyl's psyche. It's what started his habit of giving things away, so he could get rid of anything before it was otherwise lost to him. It also was a revelation. If he could get rid of the source of the pain in his heart, eventually that would stop hurting too. He was sixteen when he thought the best way to do that would be to get revenge on those bandits from so many years ago.
The rest of his years were spent right there in Pallaviel, living and working as a member of the Palla Orchids thieves' guild. He eventually became a lieutenant, because he only concerned himself with a few things during that time: providing for himself, providing for his guild, and keeping his ear to the ground for any leads or rumors about a certain bandit group. It wasn't much, but it was life. Eventually, ten years had passed, and Danyl had prepared a small pack with which to make the journey back to the ruins of Ardenfeld. It had been a long time, and though he hadn't kept in contact with any of the other survivors, he still intended to return. Danyl prided himself on never breaking his promises - even ones from childhood. If he was nervous he would never admit it, even if his whole guild could tell. This was one of the few important things to him left, and no matter how it went he would see it through.
Going Forward
For Danyl, there is no moving forward until he can cut out the part of him that hurts. Obviously cutting his heart out would kill him, so he has to remove the next best thing: the bandits that caused the pain in the first place. He lives his life day to day, supporting himself and his guild, while always keeping and eye and ear out for leads. Once he completes his goal, he... doesn't know what he'll do. In his heart of hearts he's afraid to think about the future. He knows what he wants, but he isn't sure if simple hard work can get him there this time. A warm place to live, people he can trust. He thought he'd had that with the Orchids, but there's been friction lately between the guild's members, a lot of doubt going around. A change of pace for Danyl might be in order soon, but the guild had been his life for the past half a decade. Before them he was a homeless orphan, after them would be be the same? Or, now that he's a capable adult, could it be possible to stop surviving and start living? Even enjoy life again? Only time will tell.
