Name: Mathias Thanan Blackharrow
Age/DOB: 29; Primensis 17, 3e 1331 (Nova Imperium Calender)
Race: Norlander (Human)
Sex: Male
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Straight, black, chin-length
Height/Weight: 5’11”, 184 lbs.
Appearance:
Mathias commonly wears a combination of mostly red, white and black in his apparel. He typically favors a red or charcoal tunic, wearing either black knee breeches or loose-fit pants. He wears thick black leather boots that lace up nearly to the knee, fitting best with his breeches and very well with his armor. When in combat situations, Mathais dons his armor, which is a combination of molded leather on his arms, shoulders, and legs, as well as chain mail and brigandine on his body. Over his armor, and occasionally over his standard clothing, Mathias wears a black, red, and purple tabard-- he is rarely seen in battle without it, as it represents his homeland and his family name. He also owns a black cloak for unfavorable weather, and a crimson and dark blue layered robe for winter climates.
His straight black hair accentuates the stubble that lines his face. In the wilderness, it seems, it is simply too time-consuming to shave every day. His distrusting dark brow eyes never stop moving, always searching out some new detail of his surroundings, or scouting for a new threat. Other than the slight facial hair that covers the lower half of his face, his skin is completely and entirely smooth. His body is just as smooth, with well defined muscles that are often adorned with grizzly scars. He is well-trained and well-defined in all things, including physical training, and despite his injury record, still carries a sense of rugged good looks.
Weapons:
--Stormy Night-- Mace, straight steel shaft with leather grip and four silver jagged rings around striking surface, as well as a pointed silver crown; unenchanted; 30” overall (18” striking surface, 12” handle). Named after a quote from his father, "Death comes like a stormy night."
--Steel Shield-- Round shield, with leather arm straps and wooden reinforcement behind a steel plate and border, accented with a steel knob in the center; mountable targ spike available (tri-sided, 8" long); unenchanted; 33” overall in diameter
--Paladin's Dagger-- Dagger, straight blade, high-carbon spring steel, double-edged; steel cross guard, hilt and pommel; unenchanted: 8" blade, 4" handle; 12" overall. Weighted for throwing. Given to him as a reward for outstanding honor and performance in battle by the Keepers of the Faith guild.
--Boot Knife-- Dagger, straight blade, steel, double-edged; brass hilt and pommel with wooden inlay on the handle; unenchanted: 5" blade, 4" handle; 9" overall. Weighted for throwing. Purchased at a market in Mulhallen, his favorite city in Syenxa.
--Clockwork Pistol-- Pistol, flintlock, five rotating steel barrels, brass and wooden stock; unenchanted: 9” overall. Accurate up to 20 meters. Taken from the body of a dead companion and used in his memory. Originally muzzle-loaded, this pistol has been modified by Mathias to load a wooden cylinder containing five led balls from the back of the barrels, via a hinge in front of the trigger mount.
Strengths:
Mathias is an expert warrior with his mace, and has fantastic shield work. He has extensive military and martial arts training, and can be very deadly in close-range combat. His armor, a blend of leather and metal, protects many of his weaker areas. Thanks to weight training, he can be very fast and agile, even when weighted with armor and his mace and shield. He is very observant, and skilled at spotting weaknesses in his enemies. He is also quite skilled at using aggressive alchemy to his advantage, such as throwing a combustible potion at an opponent, or blinding them with a flash potion.
Weaknesses:
For all the things that Mathias is, he is no wizard. He is not, nor could he ever be, a magic user, and has difficulty predicting them on the battlefield. His standard, unenchanted equipment typically provides little protection against anything other than basic elemental spells. Another issue is that Mathias has a difficulty fighting women. Due to his gentlemanly nature, and his sensitive heart, he cannot stand to see a woman-- even a vile one-- in pain, or in suffering. It hurts him to see this, and though he has been forced to kill women before, he loathes doing so under any normal circumstances.
Personality:
Mathias is very introversive. He is quick to distrust, and never goes into a situation unprepared. He longs for someone in whom he can confide, but is not willing to settle for a partner, in love or in combat. Romantically, Mathias is very needy. He constantly needs to be reminded that he is loved and wanted by his partner. In combat, he is dominant. He needs to know that he is in control of the situation and of his opponent, or at least that he has a planned response to it. There are several traits that he hates to see in others, such as dishonesty, treachery, and lack of a moral foundation. Mathias is a rather pious individual, believing firmly in the Ipsxillian religion of his homeland. His faith is a large part of who he is, and is often the reason for continuing in his life.
He was raised in a military family, and so his response to most situations, no matter how gentlemanly he is, often boils down to force. His manners are impeccable for a soldier of his caliber, and he has all the etiquette of a high-society noble. Those manners, however, are often reserved for the fairer sex, as men often receive little more than distrust and subtle hostility. His respect is difficult to gain, but not impossible; he most often respects foes who best him in fair competition, be it combat or something else entirely. Mathias believes that taking responsibility for one’s actions is a basic element of being an adult, and is never one to make excuses for himself. He can often be found writing in his journal, but is not just logging in his daily events: he writes stories in his journal to pass his free time. He also enjoys fine music, and loves researching alchemy. A lover, a fighter, an alchemist, a writer; Mathias is many things to those who care to know him.
Skills/Magic:
Close Combat Prowess
All of his life, Mathias trained in the art of weaponry. Polearms, single-handed blades, two-handed blades, thrown weapons, crossbows, and primitive firearms are included in his repertoire of aggressive skills, though by far his most advanced is in his skilled usage of a single-handed mace. He has learned, after years of experience, that wielding a mace can come to rely on the channeling of momentum: the momentum of the swing into the enemy, the momentum of the bounce into a recoil, and the momentum of the recoil into another swing. By mastering this art, he has reached a level of speed with a mace that most men cannot attain with a sword, and has sacrificed no swinging strength in doing so.
Alchemy
As a man of many talents, and as a woodsman and traveler, Alchemy is one of Mathias’ most valuable skills. His years of travel have taught him much about herbalism, and his ability to analyze a chemical’s certain properties makes him a skilled alchemist. Whenever available, he makes a habit of buying the majority of an alchemy shop’s stock, as he can make something out of anything. He has also developed the rare skill of using aggressive alchemy in battle. He keeps a padded pouch on the backside of his shield, and another on his hip, often filled with small vials that include various explosive, blinding, or otherwise magical potions. Among his rarest are dispel potions, which negate any magical effects on their target, and paralyze potions, which cause the muscles and tendons to lock up.
At the beginning of any given fight, he can be expected to have these:
--Dispel (1)
--Paralyze (1)
--Night eye (1)
--Flash/Smoke (3)
--Mulhallen Healing (3)
--Firebomb (3)
--Acid (3)
Background:
Mathias Blackharrow was raised by a military family. Though he was born a Norlander, the only family he knew were Imperials, in the Wraithsea Islands. His father was a soldier in the Drakkenok Militia, and he and his family lived in the capital city of Ahn. Drakkenok was one of five islands in an archipelago southwest of Thatchia, and was established by the Imperial humans-- sworn enemies to the elves of the Thatchian mainland. However, after the War of White Shields, the so-called ‘Wraithsea Islands’ became Thatchian property. Mathias was raised by an Imperial family, but his loyalty lied entirely with the elven nation of Thatchia. He hated his father's ancestors for their terrible deeds to the other peoples of the world; their lust for land had made them both the strongest military nation in the known world, and the most feared. Mathias wanted nothing to do with them. Instead of joining the militia in his father’s footsteps as was customary, he left Drakkenok and established a life in the Thatchian mainland. Soon, he met a young woman with whome he was quite taken: her name was Areila. She was an elf, born and raised in Thatchia.
Mathias fell in love, and in a years time, the two were married. By the end of the next year, Areila was great with child. However, it came to pass that during the summer of that year, the Imperials again besieged Thatchia, and Mathias was called to war. He was trained and taught as a soldier, and fought valiantly against the invading forces. However, he took a leave of absence from the battlefield to return to his wife, who was soon to give birth. Then came the shock of Mathias’ life. The child was born a son. However, as soon as Mathias saw the infant, he learned of his wife’s infidelity. The child was clearly half Dark Elf, with dark blue skin and light red eyes. Infuriated and betrayed, Mathias questioned his wife to discover that she had been living an adulterous lifestyle with a Dark Elf mercenary who had recently settled in Thatchia. With little left to lose, Mathias removed his wedding ring, wished Areila and her lover, Arethan, a happy life together. With that, he returned to war.
By the end of the campaign, Mathias was in his late twenties, and was a captain in the Thatchian ranks. However, he found the end of the siege to be his calling elsewhere, and departed to find an old friend from the beginning of the war. His search brought him to Synexa, where he soon became ensnared in a local guild war. During the war, he found his friend, a Dark Elf named Volarkwel with whom he had fought in the service of Thathchia.
After some time spent in Synexa with his friend Volarkwel, Mathias received word that his former wife’s son, now seven years old, had died. Mathias departed, and returned to Thatchia. History, it seemed, was doomed to repeat itself, as Thatchia was again besieged by the Imperials. Mathias’ ship sailed directly into an Imperial blockade, and it was riddled with cannon fire before Mathias and his fellow crew were pulled from the sinking vessel and imprisoned in an Imperial ship’s brig. There, he rotted for nearly a week with no food or water before being taken onto land and shoved into a dark cell in an Imperial stronghold. His time spent there was short, however; a raiding party associated with a guild known as the Keepers of the Faith soon destroyed the fort and liberated he and the few surviving crew members. Mathias joined their guild and fought for a short time to break the Imperial blockade on the Thatchian shoreline, and once the blockade was cracked, Mathias boarded a ship to Synexa once more.
Three months had passed, when Mathais then returned to his home away from home. His heart was heavy, however, as upon landing, he heard the news that his friend Volarkwel had departed to war in an unknown region. With little left in his life, Mathias returned to the only other form of life he knew: the life of freelance mercenary-- a soldier for hire. Until war came to Synexa, giving Mathias a reason to fight, all he has is his faith and his mace. But Mathias never went long without finding trouble. At some point, he assumed, he must have wronged a rich man, because he was accosted by a duo of bounty hunters while foraging for alchemical ingredients. Thought he hunters themselves were quick work for Mathias’ mace, the event put him on the run. Unsure as to whether or not he was a murderer in Synexan law, he moved from forest to forest, camping for shelter. The occasional highwayman or bounty hunter was all the hope he needed to keep moving, but he was always cautious, afraid to dig in too deep.
Then, he met Raleigh; she was the woman he had been waiting for. She chanced upon his campsite after a series of bounty hunter attacks, and helped Mathias clean his wounds and gather herbs for his alchemy. The two became friends quickly, but their companionship was solidified when they fell under attack together. Raleigh was no fighter, but Mathias recognized something about her that he had never seen before: she was a lycanthrope. In the following months, Mathias never forgot the first time she changed before his very eyes. They had found an abandon cabin to stay in, and during their second night there, they were assailed by a highly religious bounty hunter. A silver arrow, which had been meant for Mathias, grazed across Raleigh’s thigh, and sent her into violent convulsions. Mathias, distracted by the melee in which he was caught, could do nothing. But just as Mathias struck a wounding blow on the bounty hunter, despite his already-wounded shoulder, Raleigh finished the hunter off in the form of a lycanthrope-- an erect-standing wolf anthromorph. Moments after the thread faded, Raleigh reverted to her human form, and collapsed.
Mathias nursed her to health over the course of the next day, and soon they were ready to move on. But their time together would be tragically cut short. Just before they were able to exit the Hollow Woods, they were suddenly surrounded by highwaymen who claimed to own the forest. The two fought as hard as they could, and even attempted to burn the forest down with alchemy to escape, but were unable. Mathias was knocked unconscious and beaten badly, and Raleigh willingly surrendered in fear of Mathias being killed. The two were taken captive and held in an underground fortress beneath the woods, where Mathias met a man named Anran, who promised to help them escape. The man wanted to kill the leader of the thieves, Falthad, to right some wrong that had been done to him. Mathias never pressed for details. But as the next month passed, he slowly lost grip on reality. He was kept naked in a dank, cold, black stone room, chained to the floor. The guards would toss in scraps of meat and bring small bowls of water, which Mathias would have to eat and drink without the use of his cuffed hands. He was beaten, demoralized, and interrogated daily, and worst of all, was never once allowed to see Raleigh. Finally, he was told she had been killed. Mathias believed it was simply a lie, meant to crush his spirits. But when Anran assisted him by cutting his links and returning his equipment, Mathias found her body, and carried it from the fortress.
Mathias and Anran killed every living thing in the fortress. When they found Falthad, Mathias broke every bone in every limb, before Anran took his head. Anran led them to a stable where they took two horses, and Mathias never once left the body of his lost lover. Once far enough away, Anran took his leave, and Mathias burned Raleigh’s body, and said his prayers for her soul. With nothing else in the world, Mathias gathered up all that he had, and left Synexa, swearing never to return. His ship was a ship of drifters, aimed into the great unknown of the sea. Frankly, Mathias simply did not care where it landed. All that mattered to him was that he find a place where he could kill, or be killed.
RP List
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Battle Arena, Tenport Arena [Anyone] (Finished)
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Battle Arena, Immortal [Open] (Finished)
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Battle Arena, Shanrath's Sandpit [Anyone] (Finished)
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Battle Arena, Hunting the Hunter [Drammor] (Finished)
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Nalludian Gauntlet (Anyone) (In Progress)