Appearance:
Race: Half-elven
Age: Late 60s
Height 6' 1"
Weight: 195 lbs.
Eyes: Gray
Hair: Light Brown
Facial Hair Style: None
Personality Profile:
General Health: Good health. Physically strong build, muscular even, more human in body-type than elven.
Deity: Has sought out favor from Rillifane Rallathil.
Initial Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Profession: Tracker and Wilderness Spiritualist Seeker
Base Class & Proposed Development: Monk and Wilderness Stalker
Habits/Hobbies:
- In combat, his habit is to avoid direct contact as much as possible, and is known to tire when his constitution is challenged.
- Keeping his ears covered when in human cities and villages.
- Placing and end of his quarterstaff to the ground, and concentrating on the area around him, in order to locate movement around him.
- meditation taken at the base of trees, when he must rest.
Languages: Common, Elven, Orc, Goblin, Thorass
Weapon of Choice: Quarterstaff
Background:
Dae'Surinen, or Dae (pronounced Da-aye) for short, shares the background of so many cross-blooded beings of human and elven ancestry: orphaned, and cared for by any that see all life valuable, no matter the cause or reason. Given away to a hermit of the Thoughts of the Forest in Archwood of the Dales, Dae's upbringing followed a more nature-oriented way of life: neither kept from the wilderness, nor fully allowed to lose himself in it—a strict life of balance, with equal care to both the positive and negative ways of seeing the world. Dae learned the value of caring for others—but only at the point when needed, and this care was extended most to beasts within the forest. As he grew older, he would slowly travel farther and farther from the hidden glade were he was raised, until one day, he was far enough from home that there was little reason to turn back. The wilderness—both that Dae found in the land and what began to bubble from within—became the path in which he sought to explore.
A number of first experiences on his own brought him into Elven lands, where he learned the difficulty of being half-elven, in contrast to the perspective of purity that epitomizes Elves. In all human villages and cities, he too found the barriers set against his mixed heritage: distrust, assumptions, misunderstandings. Though these learning experiences did at first shock him, his younger life with one dedicated to the Thoughts of the Forest, his mentor that shared with Dae to be trained in controlling their will, he began a down a path to find a balance with one foot in both worlds.
From this realization of being born to both, but existing fully of neither worlds, Dae'Surinen focused on exploring the wilderness found in the landscape, itself...an exploration that also led into the wilderness of self, to find the inner "wild" as he calls it, something he considers more elven in his nature, but something his human blood wishes to control, and set to purpose. His skills grew, in tracking, survival, hunting...all perceived with working naturally with the wilderness, finding a balanced ease. It was a code he would develop and follow, as his life continued.
Dae'Surinen, which translates from Elven as Shadowynd in the common tongue, is what he has adopted as his own name, after overhearing it said with a tone of fear, from a group of Orcs he had been stalking, Orcs that had ravaged through a portion of Archwood, a forest he once called home. It was a time in his life where he learned to harness the wilderness within him, to put forth in a form of combat through use of skills of survival and knowledge of the weapon the quarterstaff. The name lived on as a source of mental strength in the pursuit of improving those skills, as well: to strike as fast as the wind, and to be as untouchable as the shadow that lay deep within the forest.
Goals:
- Having taken to the road, direction westward from the Dales, Dae's feet carried him to the Sword Coast, and no further. The active region was a natural fit with the current mindset he has:
- Seeking to gain membership to the Order of the Balanced Hand. He has met with a few of this Order, and it would be a way for Dae to develop, with structured guidance.from soon-to-be-written Volo's Guide wrote:...a vast, inconvenient stretch of wilderness…the sparsely inhabited, lawless wildernesses between the cities…The Coast provides well for those who are patient stalkers and know where to look….
- Seeking to find balance within the wilderness that surrounds him, but also that exists within him. Dae's mixed blood is a constant tug-of-war between spirits. He feels more at home amongst Man, but the forest is the home to Elves, and where he spends more and more time, himself. It is their ingrained chaotic nature, that contrasts his own personal code to act only when in need, that remains difficult to balance.
Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:
- PPH: to become a mediator between Man and Elf, when the time arises (his half-elven racial traits adding to this effect). By joining with the Order of the Balanced Hand, he might assume that role, when the Order is called upon by others.
- PPH: in order to pass safely between worlds of Man and Elf, Dae learned to bluff his way through many circumstances. He has mostly acquired this skill through acting and misdirection, such that it would let him hide in plain sight, when necessary. He has also come to develop this skill from observing animals in the wild, who manage to camouflage themselves both in ways of attack and defense. As Dae'Surinen progresses in his life, he becomes more aware of the extent his actions begin to mirror the "wilderness" he most often inhabits, and to what extent he is losing his more balanced mind and strict dedication to skill, taught to him by the monks that raised him.
- As his skills grow, by class and by race, Dae will eventually gain an immunity to sleep, immunity to disease, and an immunity to poison. These abilities may lend to a growing sense of invulnerability, and without guidance to keep in balance with the civilized and wild aspects of his genetics, he may become more reckless in his behavior, ultimately causing his death.
- PPH: any relationships between nature-oriented factions, trackers, survivalists, elven groups, etc..