[hider=Aheri][color=7F4C20][h1][u][color=040301]A[/color]rnaud "[color=040301]A[/color]heri" [color=040301]M[/color]aobe[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h1]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/QD0CoRT.jpeg[/img]
[sub][h3][u]44[/u]  |  [u]MALE[/u]  |  [u]PARRENCE[/u]  |  [u]FORCE & ESSENCE[/u]  |  [u]BERSERKER[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h3][/sub]

[sub][h3][u]C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h3][/sub]
[i]❖ [b]Dauntless[/b]
A man that’s seen and fought it all, very little can surprise or intimidate Arnaud, even the most sided of odds. With this comes an air of jovial confidence towards any sort of adversity, seeing such things as potential challenges to reinforce the notion of him being the strongest but also enhance his own arsenal. He is not easily rattled or provoked, like a Rhinoceros in its peaceful habitat.

❖ [b]Unrelenting[/b]
Whether in the battlefield or in the mundane, Arnaud doesn’t just stop. He finishes what he started, even if it takes everything from him. It is this desire to see everything to the end that he’s earned his notoriety as bloodthirsty and unstoppable. Very few have ever stopped Arnaud in his tracks, even in conversations.

❖ [b]Deferential[/b]
Arnaud is polite and greatly values manners. He often humbles himself when exchanging with others, friends and enemies alike, often giving off the impression he’s a gentle and jovial unit. All who have underestimated him have perished, however. He provides respect to all those he meets and even more so to those who defy him with shows of courage.

❖ [b]Gluttonous[/b]
Not only with food, though a big man like him’s gotta eat, but with anything that can be remotely pleasurable. Arnaud tends to do many things in excess with a minimal grasp of temperance. A residue of his life as a near-King, although he is never crude or inelegant about it.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/1RP8g5I.jpg[/img][/center]

A beast of a man coming in at 194 cm tall and slightly over 200 kg of pure might. Once somewhat leaner, the years have added to Aheri’s bulk, which has done nothing but enhance the absolute unit that he is. His dark hair and beard remain long and maintained, although shorter than his days as a warlord. He only wears his nose-ring as jewellery from his past life, a sign that he’s almost entirely integrated in Perrench culture, but couldn’t fully let go of some of his more ironic pieces to go along with his white, body-wide tattoos.

Nowadays he wears armour like many of his fellow knights, albeit with frequent sacrifices to his arms and legs to favour movement. The Lion’s crest is built upon most armour he wears. In a more casual setting, he is usually content with a typical brown robe with a mere rope at the waist to keep it together and a pair of regular trousers. He also doesn’t walk barefoot.[/i]

[sub][h3][u]B A C K G R O U N D[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h3][/sub]
[i][center]Uru Zuyr
The Rhinoceros
The Dusted Beard
The Strongest Man in the World
Aheri[/center]

Born Aroun Maobe, he was the first son of Beirut Maobe, the King of the Zuyr people. A people with deep roots in Belzagg, but had drifted into a more nomadic lifestyle that ultimately detached them from their feuding continent in search for more fertile lands. It is when the lands that would eventually become Virang that Beirut’s ambition flourished, and would be Aroun’s burden to bear after his death.

A powerful people, made strong by ceaseless conflict and raiding, led by a powerful leader had everything it needed to make something great of this land. However, when Aroun was just 15, his father would perish in battle, putting the Maobe family’s might into question. The young Aroun would gain the moniker of Aheri the day his older cousin sought to take the throne. A mage himself, far more versed in the arts than Aroun, and yet it would be the cousin’s skull that’d be obliterated between the teenage beast’s palms. For he was already a formidable fighter, and a behemoth of a man.

Might didn’t make everything, and while the Zuyr still valued a leader as the strongest, it would be only thanks to his brother, Bashir, that their father’s ambition would enter the realm of possibility. Aroun was the might, Bashir the strategist. Their endeavours would go one for almost twenty years, countless battles to slowly assimilate more and more of the birthing Virang, until they reached an impasse with the natives of the lands that would later become Malabash. They needed more. More hands, more resources, more weapons.

The Eskand menace in the South didn’t come to deaf ears, even far in the North, especially with the aggressive expansion made by the Zuyr and the trade routes they would begin to open. An opportunity both Aroun and Bashir saw. With Parrence nearly crippled by the southern raids, the northern border was ripe for the picking by yet a new menace, also versed in raids. Albeit, one way over its head.

The first year, it was easy picking. Especially with Aheri the warlord spearheading the assaults, most champions stood no chance. It seemed dire for the fragilized empire. When Aheri came to sack and claim one of the small vassalized islands, he would be confronted by an all too familiar sight: A legion of armoured men ready to die with their commander having no chance against him.

What he didn’t account for was the lieutenant taking charge when the head of the defensive force was killed. A young, likely foolhardy rider Aroun would eliminate in a single hit. And yet he couldn’t help but respect the man with the Lion emblem. It is said that a mighty battle ensued, both sides clashing and no victor emerging for a good hour. Very few lived to tell the tale, but the Lion had managed to sink his teeth into the unstoppable rhino’s neck and subdued him. An impossibility, to be sure, and yet the raiding party’s numbers had completely dwindled, and Aheri was surrounded, slashed and impaled. The monster of the north had been stopped in his tracks by one many would simply call ‘The Lion Knight’.

Whether by genuine entrapment or stubbornness, Aheri was captured and his men either fled or were finished off. A prisoner of the Lion and a useful political tool to repulse the northern raids. They had their king, or at least former king, as he would end up disgraced like his father had after death. He was no longer their King by sheer might, or at least that is what Aheri believed. The times had changed, Bashir had brought prosperity without the need of archaic, tribalistic shows of might, but Aroun would no longer be their King. He would not accept it, for he was now a burden to his people.

With the threat of the South persisting and the North quelled now that their royal blood was kept as a ward, King Arcel considered it a waste to keep Aheri imprisoned. His might was renown and his experience crucial. And with that came an accord: He was to follow the strongest, as his people always did, which was the very King that the Lion served. A solemn oath of fealty, serving as a royal advisor and executioner to the king. And in exchange, a chance at redemption as a disgraced King. A great ally could be made of the Zuyr should they accomplish their wild but promising goal of founding their own nation. The promise of royal backing of Bashir’s endeavours was made between two men- not representatives of nations or royals, men who stared each other in the eyes without chains or guard. And swore to one another.

The young king reminded Aroun of himself in some way. Young, underestimated and carrying a massive burden, yet fearless to the threat ahead- fearless toward the Aheri himself. To this day, the now newly baptised Arnaud Maobe has only knelt to two: The Lion, and his King. The two living men that have his full respect. He carries out his promise day by day, fully accustomed to the culture of Parrence. Right up to the very Pentad being accepted in his life.[/i]

[sub][h3][u]I N V E N T O R Y[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h3][/sub]
[i]❖ [b]Le Détroit[/b] - A massive battle axe with a pointed tip to double as a spear. The design is very Perrench, though the shape of the spear resembles his own weapon’s unique form in his chieftain days. It is weathered on one side, a testament to how much it’s been used, both in combat and as a tool for executions.

❖ [b]Suhu’Ali[/b] - A sleeping drug. A small dose of this powder can help most go to sleep. A full blow of it to the face can put an elephant to sleep.

❖ [b]Mkobo[/b] - A hallucinogenic drug used recreationally by his people. Arnaud doesn’t consume the stuff, but has used it against his enemies in the past and sometimes offers it to battle-scarred comrades to help them find some peace.

❖ [b]Sidi[/b] - A pain drug. Used to dull pain, although needs to be dosed correctly at the risk of paralysis or even heart failure. 

❖ [b]Majini[/b] - A wicked drug used to ‘manipulate’ others. Some consider it a curse that even a gris-gris can’t help with. When eaten, it puts the victim into a frenzy where they often exhaust themselves to death and sometimes even enter fits of murderous rage. Small doses have been used to greatly enhance the brutality of soldiers in battle.[/i]

[sub][h3][u]T H E   G I F T[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h3][/sub]
[i][center][b]Third Wheel - Force & Essence - Leadvein[/b][/center]

Arnaud never had any true initiation in the Gift beyond traditions that existed in his faction’s culture. Nonetheless, with his propensity for fighting and exceptional physical might long his bloodright as a Leadvein, he naturally developed the Force branch of mana, first using it to essentially enhance his already mighty blows, and now his very stomps have the potential to generate small-scale earthquakes and shockwaves. Loud battlecries that can repulse even fully armoured men too close to him are some of the fearsome things some have told about the Aheri.

Destroyer of the earth, generator of storms (massive air currents generated through Force magic), the moniker of ‘Strongest Man in the World’ can’t really be contested with factoring this facet alone. As a Leadvein, he has a natural talent for assimilating 'Force', being Kinetic energy, and utilizing it in destructive ways with little risk of harming himself.

His secondary Gift branch is Essence, a common one found among the top mages in the Zuyr people. It is almost entirely internal to the caster with rare hallucinogenic purposes applied to the enemy. Aheri uses it mainly in two ways: Self-enhancement, which has led him to develop his own unique ‘buff’ in recent years, and creation of drugs typically found in his culture.

❖ [b]The Lion’s Triumph:[/b] An homage to the one man who bested him. Aheri roars in a similar fashion to a lion, causing a surge of adrenaline and other potent substances to course through his being before ground himself in a grand earthquake. His sweat becomes steam and his body becomes particularly hot. Now every step and strike he only lightly winds up is capable of causing massive seismic blasts for a brief period. He is also quite faster.[/i]

[sub][h3][u]S T R E N G T H S   &   S K I L L S[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h3][/sub]
❖ [i][b]Absurd Physical Might[/b]
Even without the Gift, Arnaud has been known to stop Rhinos in their tracks with only his hands. Coupled with great proficiency with many spear and axe-like weapons, he is a threat to even strong mages without using an ounce of mana. It is said his grip is so great, he can crack rocks with it.[/i]

❖ [i][b]Very Fast for his Size[/b]
When he starts running, very little can stop him, and he continuously gains momentum. But even in the heat of the moment, he catches many off-guard with how quick he can land some strikes, even if he isn’t going to be dodging many attacks himself (Mobility =/= swift attacks).[/i]

❖ [i][b]Battle-hardened[/b]
Moulded by hundreds of battles, a man like this has the willpower few can compare to. Not only has his decision making improved with the passage of time, but he can withstand the worst of odds and come out on top no matter how arduous the path is.[/i]

❖ [i][b]Cultured[/b]
From Belzagg to West Severa to Rettan, Arnaud has made his mark in many places, and not always as a conqueror or raider. He is versed in many cultures that surround Virang and can hold conversational-level exchanges with many languages common in the area.[/i]

[sub][h3][u]W E A K N E S S E S   &   F L A W S[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h3][/sub]
❖ [i][b]Tunnel-Visioned[/b]
Once he’s fixated on something, it’s hard to distract him, especially if he’s worked up. Though even mundane curiosities can get him caught up in spirals of exaggerated interest for an entire day.[/i]

❖ [i][b]Collateral Damage[/b]
A man that’s known for generating earthquakes and laying entire lands to waste through sheer might is bound to be a hazard to allies and foes alike.[/i]

❖ [i][b]Winded[/b]
He’s fat and getting old. His stamina isn’t what it used to be, which some can definitely use to their advantage if they’re bold enough to tire him out.[/i]

❖ [i][b]Illiterate[/b]
Scholarly work was not for him, he was a warrior and operated through doing things. His brother was the wittier of the two. He does understand some texts in Perrench, more so out of crude memorization and actual reading ability, from his conversion. Surprisingly, his lingo is actually not that bad, as he has a pretty good memory.[/i]

[sub][h3][u]C O L O U R   C O D E   &   O T H E R[/u]__ _  _   _    _[/h3][/sub]
❖ [i]Hex code: 7F4C20
❖ He remembers the name and face of every opponent he has fought and killed.[/i][/color][/hider]