[CENTER][h2][color=a2d39c]U R K H A S H  ' A S H '   S K U L L S P L I T T E R[/color][/h2][/CENTER]
[table][row][/row][row][cell][center][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/b1d13aaa8fe04cd3b81f58055464890a/d541f00e66f45d54-86/s500x750/e24a0fe038753003602b8cb24ce9bf616419622f.jpg[/img]

[sub]Original Art by [url=https://mellifera38.tumblr.com/]mellifera38[/url][/sub]

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[sub][b][color=a2d39c]C H A R A C T E R   I N F O R M A T I O N[/color][/b][/sub]

[indent][sup][b][color=a2d39c]Name[/color][/b] - Urkhash Skullsplitter, goes by Ash.
[b][color=a2d39c]Gender[/color][/b] - Male.
[b][color=a2d39c]Race[/color][/b] - Half-Orc.
[b][color=a2d39c]Age[/color][/b] -  19, born 1476 DR.
[b][color=a2d39c]Height[/color][/b] - Short for a Half-Orc, an inch under six feet.
[b][color=a2d39c]Class[/color][/b] - Valor Bard.
[b][color=a2d39c]Alignment[/color][/b] - Neutral Good.
[b][color=a2d39c]Birth Place[/color][/b] - Triboar, Savage Frontier, Northwest Faerun.
[b][color=a2d39c]Languages[/color][/b] - Common, Orc, Dwarvish. [/sup][/indent]
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[SUB][b][color=a2d39c]S K I L L S   &   A B I L I T I E S[/color][/b][/sub]

[indent][sup][b][color=a2d39c]Martial[/color][/b]
While not quite a frontline fighter, Ash can more than hold his own in melee combat. He is relatively proficient in the use of most types weaponry and armour, although he favours the longsword and medium armour. The increased strength and hardiness his orcish blood grants him makes him a tougher opponent than his young age and skill level might suggest.

[b][color=a2d39c]Magical[/color][/b] 
Ash is a magic user, specialising in healing magic and abilities which enhance and inspire others. However, most of these abilities are innate rather than learned, and hence he has a poor theoretical understanding of the arcane arts. In addition, sometimes his control over his magic isn't the best, and it can lash out in surprisingly destructive forms when he is angry, afraid or upset. 

[b][color=a2d39c]Miscellaneous[/color][/b]
Being a bard, Ash is a skilled musician, his preferred instrument being the lute. Despite having some residual shyness and nerves, he is an adequate performer, and his earnest and slightly naive personality makes him hard to say no to. He knows something of surviving the wilds from his time on the roads and in the mountains, but is by no means an expert.[/sup][/indent]
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[SUB][b][color=a2d39c]S P E L L S[/color][/b][/sub]

[indent][sup][b][color=a2d39c]Cantrips[/color][/b]
[url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:blade-ward]Blade Ward[/url], [url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:true-strike]True Strike[/url], [url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:thunderclap]Thunderclap[/url].

[b][color=a2d39c]First Level[/color][/b]
[url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:cure-wounds]Cure Wounds[/url], [url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:healing-word]Healing Word[/url], [url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:heroism]Heroism[/url], [url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:thunderwave]Thunderwave[/url].

[b][color=a2d39c]Second Level[/color][/b]
[url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:aid]Aid[/url], [url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:calm-emotions]Calm Emotions[/url], [url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:enhance-ability]Shatter[/url].

[b][color=a2d39c]Third Level[/color][/b]
[url=http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:mass-healing-word]Mass Healing Word[/url].[/sup][/indent]
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[SUB][b][color=a2d39c]E Q U I P M E N T[/color][/b][/sub]

[indent][sup][b][color=a2d39c]Weapons[/color][/b]
An ugly looking utilitarian [url=https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/687c3cec-9fe9-4905-8a19-8db7a4a2314b/d8yv8uy-617fdb7f-9e87-42ae-bbac-4bc601887343.jpg/v1/fill/w_1280,h_720,q_75,strp/skyrim_orcish_greatsword_by_doublezerofx_d8yv8uy-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NzIwIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNjg3YzNjZWMtOWZlOS00OTA1LThhMTktOGRiN2E0YTIzMTRiXC9kOHl2OHV5LTYxN2ZkYjdmLTllODctNDJhZS1iYmFjLTRiYzYwMTg4NzM0My5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.ImXXwUZ0zelzW16oCWjyS-jjcVsPcoZza9TWfyLuhjo]longsword[/url] of orcish design with a nicked blade. 
A plain but finely made elvish [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2e/e0/2e/2ee02e861d7bd7559f74c377a656bf09.jpg]dagger[/url].
A leather [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7c/7e/fc/7c7efc6089f135012b4b80afaf138c8e.jpg]sling[/url], and a pocket full of stones

[b][color=a2d39c]Armour[/color][/b]
A strange mixture of a Dwarven [url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/63/c7/ac63c72530f3279e999b5e1208e87276.jpg]chain shirt[/url] of black iron with hide bracers, furred mittens, and [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/17/42/88/17428828bf3814a1930d062981edf46f.jpg]boots[/url] with [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/08/e6/6a/08e66a467a3bd26387d15811c07ae9d3.jpg]fur wrapping[/url]. 

[b][color=a2d39c]Miscellaneous Items[/color][/b]
A hooded fur lined [url=https://i.imgur.com/vSM48So.png/vSM48So.png]travelling cloak[/url]. 
A battered troubadour's [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/52/ee/70/52ee708ad37fc7d449919c76d5ed99a5.jpg]lute[/url].
A grey woollen scarf.
A hide pack containing several days rations.
A waterskin.
A flint and steel.
A bedroll. 
A spare set of clothing.
A coin purse, containing mostly silver and copper pieces.
A [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d8/6d/6a/d86d6a57f361dd0d851ba799e80216a1.jpg]golden locket[/url], worn around the neck, and under his clothes.

[/SUP][/indent]
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[cell][sub][color=a2d39c][b]A P P E A R A N C E[/b][/color][/sub]

[indent]Half-Orcs have a reputation in the more civilised lands of Faerun as being giant intimidating barbarians, bigger, stronger, and meaner than the vast majority of their human counterparts. Capable of killing their enemies with a single blow and lifting what it would take four lesser men to carry. 

This is not the case with Ash. 

Despite his fearsome name of Urktash Skullsplitter, Ash stands at just under six feet tall and is only slightly more bulky than a well developed human. He's still muscular, but, not [i]that[/i] strong. Not the whole, lifting trees, throwing boulders, wrestling giants strong that most people think of when they see an Half-Orc adventurer.

There's an undeniable level of extra humanness about his features as well. Sure, he might have the grey-green skin that people associate with the rest of his kind, but Ash lacks the porcine or upturned nose that his kin often bear. His brow os light and raised, not the low furrowed masses one normally sees on a Half-Orc. He has a few scars, though none are particularly impressive or noteworthy. And most glaring of all perhaps, were his tusks. Ash's tusks were tiny, diminutive, little things, barely even sharp. Certainly no good for goring people, crushing bones, or splitting skulls.

In truth, Ash might be one of the least intimidating Half-Orcs most people will have ever laid eyes upon.

He compensates for it perhaps with how he dresses, the blackened armour that he wears across his chest, the crude and heavy longsword that hangs at his side. The traditional orcish nose ring that he wears through his septum and way he shaves the sides of his head. All of these things seem to enhance the 'orcish-ness' of his appearance. 

And yet...

If you were to catch Ash while he was playing in a tavern, or relaxing in private, you would find that he prefers the soft and brightly coloured wools of the pleasant green lands found further south down on the Sword Coast, cut in the styles popular in Waterdeep and its environs.[/indent]
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[sub][color=a2d39c][b]P E R S O N A L I T Y[/b][/color][/sub]

[indent]People are most often a product of their upbringing and their environment, for better or for worse. Most commonly, people conform to the environment they were raised in, being shaped and moulded by it into the forms that it encourages. Even when someone rebels against how they were raised, or defies their heritage, they are still influenced by these experiences, just in the opposite direction.

What then if someone is the product of two different contradictory heritages, environments, and upbringings? What contradictory feelings for conform and rebelling would take seed in their heart? How would they understand their place in the world? These are the questions that trouble Ash Skullsplitter most of all. 

Ash is a Half-Orc, he has one foot in the civilised world, and one foot in the savage world of the wilds. To some this might seem an advantage, a skill that allows them to move fluidly between different worlds. But it does not feel that way to Ash, instead of belonging to two different worlds, Ash feels like he has no real place in either. Too weak and soft for the harsh trials of Orcish culture, too ugly and savage for the gentle civilised folk of the green lands. 

He never knows quite how to behave around people, whether they expect him to be a brute or a boy. At heart he's inclined to kindness and gentleness, but time in Orcish society, and the unfriendliness he has received at the hands of humans makes him much of reserved and guarded. There's a shyness about him, a reluctance to expose himself. But when he does open up, there's wellspring of sweetness and child like naivety that flows from deep inside of him. 

There's an earnestness about him as well. Beside being a troubadour minstrel, he doesn't have much of the sly guile and glibness associated with the profession. In fact Ash is a terrible liar, having a tell tale stammer and blush when caught trying to conceal something. He's not a complete paragon of virtue however, there is a darker side to Ash, a mix of confused residual emotions about his family, his life, and his place in world. There's anger there too, and a young, confused, angry boy with the power to wield magic can be dangerous thing indeed.

But above all else Ash is looking for the place that he belongs, where he can be loved and accepted, without fear of repercussion.  [/indent]
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[sub][color=a2d39c][b]H I S T O R Y[/b][/color][/sub]

[indent]Ash was born in the town of Triboar, where the Long Road that runs between Waterdeep and Mirabar meets the Evermoor way that leads to Yartar and onto Silverymoon, in the year of 1476 DR. It was a trading town, busy and bustling with caravans and merchants. It wasn't a great city like Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate, but it wasn't some wild far flung outpost on the edge of the world. It was settled, it was civilised. 

His father worked there as a guard for the caravans heading north. That's how Ash's parents had first met, the gentle beauty from Waterdeep being swept off her feet by the ruggedly handsome Half-Orc who had been escorting her carriage. They had eloped years previously, when it had become clear her father would have never consented to such a match, and they had settled in Triboar to raise their son. It was somewhere that his father could easily get work, and was far enough away from Waterdeep for them to live in relative anonymity. 

His father had been a fierce and proud Half-Orc who had been raised in the far north, in the Orcish Kingdom of Many Arrows. He had insisted on a traditional name for his son, hence Urtkash Skullsplitter, his mother however made sure that her husband picked a name that could easily be shortened into something less... well... Orcish, and so that's how Ash got his nickname. [/indent]
[/cell][/row][/table][indent]Life in Triboar was good, and Ash remembers much of his childhood as a happy one. His father was often on the road, so he was closest to his mother. Not that his father was cold or distant in any way, he always returned to with smiles and gifts from far off cities. But Ash spent most of his time with his mother, so it was only natural perhaps that, of the two of them, he took after her a little more.

It was from his mother that Ash picked up his musical abilities. She was an excellent singer, and would sometimes perform duets with a local bard in the taverns and inns of Triboar for a little extra coin. It was on these outings that Ash first handled an instrument, and learned the scales and chord that made up the songs he loved to listen to. He thinks his magic may have also come down through his mother's side, though he's not certain about that. Certainly she was no great mage, but Ash remembers her touch as being... well... healing. 

But wouldn't any child robbed of his mother at an early age think that way? 

The illness struck when Ash was only nine. His father had been on the road at the time, perhaps things might have turned out differently had he been there, perhaps not. She had faded quickly, and by the time her loving husband had returned, she was cold in her grave. A golden locket round young Ash's neck all that was left to remember her by. Something died in his father that day too. 

With no else to look after him, Ash's father took him on the road with him. Lucky that he did, because that year, in 1485, war erupted in the Silver Marches. They waited out the war further south with the caravan they had been travelling with. When they returned to their home, they found a burnt out ruin. Triboar had been sacked by an army of Orcs, and suddenly their remaining friends and neighbours seemed cold and hostile to the notably Orcish widower and child living in their midst.

They tried to carry on as best they could for a few years, but the caravan work his father relied upon began to dry up in the wake of the war. The caravaneers and merchants seemed more reluctant to employ someone of orcish heritage to guard them on their journeys  north. Eventually it became intolerable, so his father did what he thought was best, and took his son to somewhere he thought they would be able to live in greater freedom, without being looked down upon.

The Kingdom of Many Arrows. 

That... was a bad time in Ash's life. He was not prepared for what life was like amongst true orcs. He did not fit in, not in the slightest. He was a gentle, music loving boy, who disliked violence and didn't have a cruel bone in his body. His father tried to help in his own way, lessons to help his son 'toughen up' and gain respect amongst his peers. While it may have taught Ash a few combat skills (and given him a few scars), it mostly just soured their already strained relationship.

They had falling out. Ash left, his father stayed.

Alone for the first time in his life, Ash had to survive making his way out of the Spine of the World, and eventually made his way to the city of Mirabar. It was there he became reacquainted with someone from his past, his mother's friend the minstrel that she had sung with so often in Triboar. She remember the young boy that she had taught scales to many years ago and took Ash under her wing, teaching him about music, magic, and the life of a travelling bard. 

For a while they travelling together, hoping down the coast from Luskan, to Neverwinter, and Waterdeep. It was there that Ash remember that his mother had been from Waterdeep, and first thought that perhaps he could find his grandparents or other relatives in the city. He tried to track them down, but he discovered that his grandparents had already passed. But there was a trail that they had left behind. Apparently his grandfather's family had originally come from the Silver Marches, the small town of Deadsnows to be specific. While Ash might not have family in Waterdeep, it was possible he still had relatives there...

The possibility of familial warmth proved too strong of a lure to the young Half-Orc. He parted ways with his mentor and set out for Deadsnows. On the road north he stopped at Triboar... but it didn't feel like home any more to him.

After Triboar he struck out east to Yartar and Silverymoon. What a city that had been, he felt like he learned more about music from one week in Silverymoon, than three years in Dark Arrow Keep. Sundabar had given him a particularly hostile reception, it wasn't surprising, the city had suffered worst of all in the war. Nonetheless he had not stayed there long. 

And after Sundabar... there was only Deadsnows... and hope.[/indent]