[hider=Sir Hagen]
[h3]Character Description[/h3]
[b]Name:[/b] Sir Hagen son of Griffon
[b]Species:[/b] Human
[b]Race/Nationality:[/b] Stromfolc
[b]Gender:[/b] Male
[b]Age:[/b] 36
[b]Languages:[/b]Stromish, Eahamish, Arventian and Ledoseveran - all quite fluently.

[b]Appearance:[/b] Hagen is a tall (6'2''), lean, muscular man.  He has dark brown hair and a dark eyes and usually has a short scruffy beard, having no particular desire to actually grow a beard but, similarly, no inclination to regularly shave.  He has a long, oval shaped face with a straight nose and a strong chin.  His face is patterned with a number of scars from previous battles lending him a rugged look that some (though certainly not all) might find handsome.

Hagen is capable of dressing well and has the coin to afford fashionable clothing, though he is more commonly found wearing hard-wearing, simple tunics and hose.

[hider=appearance][img]https://i.ibb.co/7MdG8kg/Hagen.png[/img][/hider]
[b]Personal Effects[/b]: Hagen carries a large round shield painted red with three golden bees (his personal sigil).  Hagen carries a beautifully made steel spatha he has named "Gurzats' Bane" with a scabbard decorated with Ledoseveran designs. a pair of wicked throwing axes and a seax (just in case).  In battle he wears an old, but well-maintained steel habergeon and a steel spangenhelm with, spectacle and cheek guards guards, bronze ornamentation around the bands and a red, horse-hair crest.  

[hr]
[h3][b]Background:[/b][/h3]
[b]Role[/b]: (Foot)Knight errant
[b]Backstory[/b]: Hagen is a knight of the Strommark, hailing from a small coastal village on the country's Western border.  He was born to this role (the younger son of one of his Lord's leading knights), spent his childhood training for it and is intensely proud of his martial heritage.  Growing up on tales of adventure, Hagen was eager to grow up and join his Lord's retinue, imagining a world full of daring adventures.

His parents did not neglect Hagen's education more broadly and he is literate, able to write with a quill (and fashion his own from a feather), numerate and was taught to understand the tongue of the Eahamingas (whose villages they visited frequently) along with Arventian.

Unfortunately for Hagen though, the Strommark has been a peaceful place fir centuries, gradually growing wealthy off trade along the West coast of Minadra.  Hagen spent some time onboard ships, guarding his Lord's cargo, though, while there were stories of pirates and sea monsters, in his two years aboard, Hagen saw nothing more dangerous than a shark off the stern.  When stories of a wyrm from the Grey Mountains terrorising villagers circulated during a time on shore, Hagen was eager to volunteer to help rid the land of the beast.

After fruitlessly searching for it for the best part of a month, the local sheriff discovered that the story stemmed, in truth, from the attempts of a local farmer to get away with a murder.  Arrests were made, though while Hagen had found no creature, the quest had awakened his sense of adventure and he requested that his Lord release him from his oath of fealty so that he might travel to the Kingdom of Ledosever and join the defense of the free peoples against the darkness.

His Lord agreed and, at the age of 20, Hagen took a ship North to the frozen lands of the Northern kingdom.

Here, Hagen did find adventure, pitting his strength against roving gurzat, entering the cauldron an unbloodied, though well trained youth, and emerging again, many years later as a seasoned, deadly veteran.

By the time he was 35, and thinking about returning home and his own legacy, Hagen had acquired comfortable amount of coin from bounties.  Being a frugal man at heart he had spent little on anything other than his weapons and armour in the intervening time, though those investments (particularly his helm and shield) had made him a recognisable figure in any battle line: a figure that, when sighted, spread hope amongst his friends and fear amongst his foes.

Imagining it might be fun to build a homestead and raise animals back in his homeland, perhaps find a wife, Hagen travelled back to the Strommark intending to help his father with his manor for some time, to get an understanding of what he might need to do.  Rapidly though, he discovered that he found everything about farming incredibly boring and longed to travel in search of adventure once again.

Hearing rumors of lost Sidfir artefacts in the forest West of the Vale of Mists, Hagen decided to investigate, taking a ship bound for the South of Eaham where the Mitradaevakan traders come to ply their wares - as close as any ship from the Strommark comes to those strange woods.

 
[b]Character Intro[/b]: The inn was a cheerful place with a roaring fire at one end that took the chill from the cool night air, "So there we were, three of us against a score or more of gurzat led by one of those big, hulking thaurindor creatures.  I can tell you now, that we gelt at that moment like our doom had come upon us."

"Couldn't you have run?" one of the patrons, an older, balding man asked.

Hagen shook his head, "Retreat would have been my first option when so outnumbered, but those creatures were between us and where we'd tied the horses and over distance those creatures do not tire easily.  With the mountain to our back, the best we could hope for was to scramble up and try to give ourselves the high ground.  We found a spot between two boulders where it would be hard to flank us and made our stand.  gurzat aren't the most cunning things and they came at us straight, like a wave of fell fury."

He paused for dramatic effect.  The dozen or so people clustered around him seemed to be enjoying the story and Hagen enjoyed telling it.  Within the safe comfort of the tavern, with the crackling fire and a warm mug of mulled wine, they seemed a lifespan away from the small skirmish on the Ledosever border.  And here, in this comfortable setting, there was nothing to truly fear, "But we had chosen our place well and they struggled to use their numbers to their advantage.  Still, it was a hard fight.  I felled three of the fiends, though a took a beating in the process," he tilted his head to one side, tracing the shape of a long scar on his cheek, "That's how I got this one.  Blade bounced off the guard by my eyes and slid in between that and the cheek guard.  Though at that moment the pain didn't really register, I just ran the creature through and kept on fighting."

One of the women in the group, he noticed was a sylph... you didn't see them much in Ledosever, though he remembered encountering a few of the winged folk during his childhood.

"I said gurzat aren't the most cunning creatures.  They also aren't brave and while they might well have overwhelmed us in a few more moments, they fell back down the mountain to regroup.  They might have run if it wasn't for the thaurindor, physically shoving the foul creatures back."

"What does a thaurindor look like?" that would came from the woman who was acting as innkeeper.

"Big," Hagen chuckled, realising it wasn't the best description, "They look a bit like us, but with less hair in places they should have it and more in places they shouldn't.  Their faces are twisted, like they are half-beast and their skin is all manner of unhealthy shades.  They look much like the gurzat, but they're bigger, stronger, faster and much more vicious.  Bigger, stronger and faster than any man I've seen."  She nodded thoughtfully and he continued, "If it had attacked us first, the fight might have gone differently.  Well the damned creature stepped out in front to bellow some war cry.  It sounded like a wounded bull.  But at that moment it lowered its shield and a threw one of these."

Hagen patted one of the axes he had on the bench next to him.  The edge of the axe gleamed in the firelight.  Freshly sharpened and oiled you could imagine the damage the weapon could do, "And by luck more than skill on my part, it struck the thaurindor clean in the face, dropping the monster like a felled tree."  He paused again, hearing a gasp and a few chuckles from his audience, "And that was enough for the gurzat, I think there were eight of their dead on the field and the thaurindor and both I and my two companions, were still standing if bloodied.  They fled," he grinned wryly, "So before they could realise their mistake, we ran back to the horses."

There was a murmur of approval.  A couple of people clapped, "Tell us another, Sir Knight!" one man called.

Hagen raised his mug in gracious thanks, "Later, later, good ladies and gentlemen, at least give me the time to enjoy this mug of wine before I spend my voice regaling you with another story!"

People began to shuffle away, to acquire food or drink, though the sylph didn't.  Boldly, she sat down across from Hagen, switching to fluent Arventian but with that melodic lilting accent that placed her as one of the Northern tribe of her people, "I think I caught some of that, but my Eahamish isn't so good... I gathered you're on some personal quest to find some ancient Sidfir artefacts?"

"Aye," Hagen nodded, "Thought I'd put together an expedition while I'm here.  Maybe charter a ship to take us down the coast," he gave her an appraising look.  He knew sylph women could be fighters but she didn't look like one.  She didn't have the build of someone who spent their life with weapons and he caught ink stains on her fingers.  She looked... bookish, "You want to sign on?" he asked, trying to keep the edge of incredulity out of his voice.

"Oh goodness, no!" the sylph laughed, "There are potentially Sidfir ruins out in that forest.  It is a strange, dangerous place that few venture into and you would be walking about blindly, hoping to come across something," she paused, before adding, "But what if I told you there was a known, and unexplored ruin but a few days from here?  Turankindi and infested with troglodytes and Eruherion knows what else!"

Hagen thought about that.  For all of about three seconds.  He smiled, "Full of troglodytes you say?  Well I suppose you could do with a knightly escort.  Sir Hagen," he introduced himself, "Though don't worry about the 'Sir' bit.  Hagen is just fine."

"Aderynel," she introduced herself, extending a hand across the table. 
[/hider]