[list][*][u][color=798081]Name[/color][/u]: Saaral, Son of Chono (aka Saaral Rozhenko)

[*][u][color=798081]Age[/color][/u]: 25

[*][u][color=798081]Race[/color][/u]: Lucani

[*][u][color=798081]Appearance[/color][/u]: [url=https://safebooru.org//images/2592/35ce6468a29e987a411fa8374f83445d6d7f62a8.jpg]Saaral[/url] is tall, even for a Lucani, and strikes an imposing, hulking figure. His originally black hair and fur has gone prematurely grey due to his time spent as a slave-soldier, and his body is covered in scars from his many battles. He wears little in the way of armor and clothing, as he has a great tolerance for the cold and prefers to stay as fast and mobile as possible in battle.

[*][u][color=798081]Personality[/color][/u]: Life has not been easy for Saaral, and his personality makes this obvious to most people that talk to him. His mood oscillates between withdrawn and brooding, to brash and aggressive. He is brutally honest, a habit that makes it even harder for him to make friends than his hostile personality already does. He prefers bold, usually violent action over most other options, and takes great pride in his skill at arms, though some part of him wonders if he will ever be good at anything besides killing. His lack of a traditional Lucani upbringing is a sore spot for him, which he usually tries to overcompensate for, and touching on it is the surest way to set off his temper.

[*][u][color=798081]History[/color][/u]: Saaral was born into a traditional Lucani family, a tribe of nomadic hunters that stalked across the great frozen plains of the north. He loped and play-fought with his siblings and cousins and led a blissfully savage childhood until the autumn after his fifth summer. It was then that his tribe had wandered unknowingly close to the expanding northern border of the Dreil kingdom of Vortigern, whereupon his family came under attack by a cohort of Dragon Knights intent on culling the population of savage Lucani. The adult members of Saaral's clan held off the attack long enough for the children to escape with the elders, but Saaral became separated from them in their confusion, and was left alone in the tundra plains.

He wandered alone for some time, subsisting on carrion and icemelt streams, but winter approached and the tundra would soon be inhospitable to a lone cub. However, he was found and taken in by a separate tribe of human nomads, horse-riders and sheep-herders. An older, childless couple took him in as their own, and after some difficulty, the humans accepted him as one of their own. He was bigger and played rougher than the other children, but his adoptive father sought to temper his aggression by taking him hunting with him and the rest of the tribe's men. At first they tried to get him to hunt from horseback as they did, but Saaral found that he preferred to lope alongside the horses and use his teeth and claws. Life was not always easy, as he missed his original tribe greatly, their fate unknown to him, and there were those among the humans that still treated him as a beast and an outsider. Regardless, he was content for some time.

Saaral's life changed once again in his fourteenth summer. The Kingdom of Vortigern had been continuously expanding their borders for years, and they appeared on the horizon once more to clear the lands they claimed of undesirables. Older and with the bitter seed of revenge in his heart, Saaral stayed to fight against the Dreil and defend his new family. He fought as hard as any of the grown men of his tribe, but it was not enough, and they were eventually overwhelmed. He learned then what likely became of the tribe of his birth, as they were taken as prisoners to the Dreil. The women, children, and elderly were sent back to the Dreil homeland to be used as laborers, and the men were conscripted into slave armies that the Dreil of Vortigern pitted against the Elves and other civilized races.

Saaral grew into manhood on the battlefield, fighting against his will in wars he had no stake in. The slave legions were always put into the worst fighting, given the worst equipment, and were essentially used as cannon fodder, and so Saaral was forced to hone his skills quickly to even stay alive. He tried to stay in contact with the men of his tribe, but they were separated by the years and many battles. He encountered other Lucani that the Dreil had forced into bondage, and learned more of his people and heritage from them. On the first full moon of Saaral's twentieth winter, he as well as many other Lucani and slaves of other races staged a revolt that cost many of them their lives, but ultimately won the survivors their freedom.

Since then, Saaral has traveled Strahn, plying his skills as a warrior in mercenary work, and living off of the land when work was scarce. His upbringing among humans made it easier for him to integrate among them and the other civilized races, but he still holds a deep bitterness in his heart from the many hardships he has suffered. While he has deliberately avoided the burgeoning kingdom of the Dreil, he holds a secret hope in his heart that his tribes, both of them, still survive in some way, and that he might be reunited with his birth or adoptive parents.

[*][u][color=798081]Abilities/Skills[/color][/u]: Saaral is a mighty warrior and a veteran of many battles despite his young age. He is adept in the use of a variety of weapons, including his teeth and claws, as he rarely had his choice of what weapons were available to him during his time as a slave. His fighting style is swift and savage, focused on outmaneuvering his opponent, and overwhelming them with his strength and ferocity. Saaral is a superb outdoorsman and survivalist, capable of stalking and hunting prey, and surviving in the ruthless wilderness as well as any beast. He even retains some knowledge of animal husbandry, tribal medicine, and horsemanship from his time raised by humans.

[*][u][color=798081]Other[/color][/u]: While he understands that most Dreil have nothing to do with what happened to him or his family, and tries to not judge others based on their race, he still has an instinctive dislike of the dragon-people, considers most he meets to be dishonorable and untrustworthy.[/list]