Aristaos
Name: Aristaos
Age: 57
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Hair: Shoulder length dark brown hair, slightly wavy, beginning to grey.
Eyes: Emerald green eyes, piercing stare.
Weight: 12st, 5lb.
Height: 6’2”
Weapon(s)/Armour: Pair of bronze-tipped spears. Short, double-edged sword engraved with insignia of Lakedaimon and divine characters, bronze. Large, round hide and bronze shield depicting the city of Lakedaimon. Bronze breastplate with insignia of Lakedaimon engraved. Bronze greaves. Ancient Greek-style helmet with blue plume, bronze. Chariot with bronze fittings, blue decoration and Lakedaimonian insignia, drawn by two black stallions. All of Aristaos’ weapons, armour and equipment were a gift from the God Hephaistos, who forged them in his smithy below mount Etna. Hermes presented them to Aristaos’ father Assarakos, after he showed great loyalty to the God by defending his temple in Lakedaimon during an early raid by the Eastern Horde. He then gave them to his son Aristaos to protect him, shortly before their escape from Lakedaimon (see biography). As such the Armour possesses a divine strength, which makes it extremely hard to penetrate with any regular weapons. His weapons are likewise strengthened and can pierce a large range of materials. The surface of all the equipment is impossible to scratch or blemish. Blood quickly runs off the divine weapons.
Strengths: Being a Lakedaimonian, Aristaos possesses great physical strength due to his upbringing. His senses and mind are incredibly sharp, as he, like all Lakedaimonians, has been conditioned to always be on guard and extremely wary. As an extremely pious people, the Lakedaimonians have great favour from the Gods, and as such are often granted protection or strength by them.
Weaknesses: Since the fall of Lakedaimon, Aristaos has become more bitter and disheartened, due to the loss of his family and home. He will do anything to find and be re-united with his son, and would die for him. Thus he is likely to act irrationally in matters concerning his son. He also harbours endless hatred for the Eastern Horde, the ones that destroyed his home, family and life. He is susceptible to mindless rage when dealing with or fighting the Horde.
Apart from calling upon the Gods, Aristaos has almost zero magic power other than his divine equipment.
Skills/Magic: As mentioned, Aristaos possesses no magical attacks. His armour has a certain resistance to magical attacks due to its divine quality. However, due to his and his father’s favour with the Gods, especially Hephaistos, Aristaos can pray to the Gods for strength, protection, direction in his wanderings etc. Through sacrificial rituals he can become increasingly stronger. His prayers are not guaranteed to be granted, but can afford him great abilities if they are. He is also visited in dreams by dead comrades and family, who can tell him of happenings yet to pass.
Appearance: Although he is old in years, Aristaos retains his youthful vigour and looks. His skin is rough, that of a travelling man, and his features are sharp and defined. His shoulder-length hair is beginning to grey, and show signs of his true age, perhaps a sign of weariness. He wears a black tunic, worn but sturdy, and a simple black belt, fastened with the insignia of Lakedaimon on the buckle. His feet are bound with leather straps, in the fashion of boots, and his forearms are also bound with straps. He often wears a long cloak, in the black of his tunic with a large hood, to disguise his appearance. In battle he wears the armour give him by his father, forged by Hephaistos. His skin shows many battle scars. His piercing green-eyed stare inspires fear in his enemies and can, in times of great rage, hold them in a trance-like state when they first behold his face.
Personality: As was the way of the Lakedaimonians, Aristaos prided himself in being an equal of all in Lakedaimon. He still believes in the equality of people, a shared humanity, but despises the Eastern Horde. He loved his family, and still yearns for them in his heart. He is greatly wearied by his travels, and the only driving force left in him is the thought of finding his son, and returning to Helenos’ new colony to be with the only kinsmen he has left. He does not fear death, and these days he almost subconsciously yearns for the rest he would get in dying, and being reunited with his father among the dead. He is friendly to all people of the west, and tries to help others where he can, not to mention rousing them to fight the Eastern Horde that destroyed his homeland. He, however, still retains his wariness of the world and of people’s intentions. He is a good judge of character, and knows when others share his values and purposes. He prefers to be companionless while on his travels so as to stay focused on his task, although he would admit that it causes great loneliness. He is an extremely pious man, and never forgets to show the Gods and the dead their due respect. He no longer desires battle, unless he is faced by any of the Horde, at which time he is taken by a rage and fury so great he finds himself shaking and crying, covered in his enemies blood, almost not able to remember what has just passed. He then burns and buries the bodies of the dead, and sacrifices in thanks to the Gods.
Biography: Once an inhabitant and citizen of the city-state Lakedaimon, Aristaos was one of its greatest warriors, and sat in the council of Archons from a unprecedentedly youthful age. Lakedaimon was a brutal state, training its warriors from childhood and forcing them to endure great hardships. This meant that the armies of Lakedaimon were not as large as others, but their warriors were more fearless and toughened, as well as being skilled fighters. Despite the tough regimes, Lakedaimonians prided themselves on being equals under the law, and all citizens sat in the assembly as equals.
Lakedaimon and the city-state Attica were the most powerful, and arbitrated over the land of Archaius, but this land was invaded by huge Eastern Hordes and overrun. The battles were fierce, and the Archaians fought well, the Atticans and Lakedaimonians foremost among them. But it was not enough. Overwhelmed, those few left fled west, Aristaos among them. The survivors mostly hid among the forests of the west, or hid in small towns and villages, starting new lives. There was one, however, who began a new Attica far to the west, out of sight of the Eastern Tribes. He was a kinsman of Aristaos, an Attican. When Aristaos heard whispers that Helenos was alive and had started a new colony, a new Attica in which to continue the long-held wisdom of the Atticans, he journeyed there and was minded to settle, but he had been separated from his family, his father and son, mother and wife, as the outcasts fled form the battles of Archaius. He had already made it his life’s purpose to find and be re-united with his son, and the rest of his family, if they still lived.
Therefore he began his travels among the lands of the west in search of his son, and made it his business to battle any Easterners he met and rouse the people of the west against them. Many warriors sought him out in those days, as he was the only known living Lakedaimonian, and the fame of their great strength lingered even as memory of their people faded, and their history was lost.
04-24-2007, 08:58 PM
Anyway, everything looks pretty good. This is nice for a first character.
