[Trigger warning for "mysterious with a dark past". Depression, suicidality, social isolation, etc.]
__________________QUICK STATS
Name Darran Aatos
Nickname Seastrider
Age 25
Gender Male
Species Human
Ethnicity Thanati
Height 5'10"
Occupation Wandering Healer
Residence Currently in Cerenis
__________________IN-DEPTH STUFF
Physical Description
Darran is on the tall side for a Thanati, athletic and slender from years of military training. Dark brown hair lightening into auburn brown crowns the young man's head, and bright icy blue eyes sit within his oval shaped face. Dar is striking if not handsome by most standards, having both high cheekbones and a strong jawline. The wanderer's skin is a pale caramel, his complexion clear and fair. Esoteric tattoos cover the man's arms, shoulder to forearm, and a pair of small earrings adorn the top of his left ear. In a clear sign of rebellion Darran maintains a short, well-kempt beard.
Though it is his natural inclination to slouch and make himself small and inconspicuous, his time in the military drilled such sloppy behavior out of him. Darran now stands tall and walks with apparent confidence, instinctually abiding by a strict creed of duty and etiquette. (Or at least it looks that way outwardly.) Dar eschews Thanati fashion for the most part. He has enjoyed trying on new styles since leaving Thanatos, favoring capes, cloaks, and ponchos made of finer materials. He wears a lot of khaki, grey, off-white, red, blue, and greenish blue in prints and cuts he finds pleasing.
Personality
The "seastrider" from Adaquo is a quiet and intense person. Interacting with others usually drains him, and so he spends most of his time in solitude, nose in a book. The young man's mother raised him to develop an appreciation for writing and the ability to read, and so Darran is drawn to literature and academia. Dar is almost always very well groomed and mannered, especially due to the constant desire to fit in, avoid ridicule, and have control of something in his life.
Darran Aatos is gifted with a keen mind that yearns for new information and experiences. He is a thinker with very strong opinions and convictions, as well as an above average vocabulary. Darran is learning how to think for himself and trust himself, and as such he often pauses before speaking or acting. Unless he is in the thrall of his primal magic-fueled rage, Darran conducts himself thoughtfully and carefully.
Aatos deeply values honesty, equality, decency, pragmatism, and moral accountability. He has a well-defined sense of personal ethics and morality, having constructed such for himself over the years as he disagreed and struggled to identify with Thanati culture and sensibilities.
Magic/Abilities
Darran possesses elemental water magic, primal magic, and a measure of life magic. Trained as a soldier (more like guardsman), the man knows how to wield a sword and a crossbow to some degree, and stands a reasonable chance of holding his own in a physical altercation. Darran is a skilled herbalist and knows a wide variety of recipes for herbal remedies and potions. In addition, the young Thanati went through medic training while in the army. He's no master surgeon, but he's far from helpless in a crisis.
Darran has learned the basics of how to call and command his elemental water affinity. He practices spellwork every day and he has successfully cast several spells from a spellbook he got ahold of after tending to a traveling mage's wounds. Darran also has the ability to enter into a magically empowered rage, though he's more disturbed by this than anything. In addition to learning to master his magical aptitude, Dar must learn to control his rage and keep it from harming others.
Relationships
Darran is estranged from his family and the town he grew up in. As he travels the lands he will surely meet those worthy of trust and friendship, but for now Darran is entirely alone.
History
Darran Aatos was born in a small town called Adaquo in Thanatos. As he was born on the Night of the Dead celebration the boy was supposed to be very lucky. A fact which he would say appeared to be a cruel cosmic joke. Darran was born with auburn red hair, a bad omen. Even further the lad was homosexual, which although not illegal, was considered reprehensible and taboo to the community he would grow up in. Further still, the boy was gifted with elemental magic, a type of arcane power considered perverse and unnatural by Thanati society. Yet another curse of fate.
At the beginning Dar was a happy, energetic child, but it wouldn't take long for him to become withdrawn and plagued by anxiety. Darran always felt as if he had been born with an enormous karmic debt. He was treated like someone shameful. Undesirable. Tainted. Darran reacted by searching for ways to make up for who and what he was. Darran was well groomed, punctual, studious, and overachieving academically. The boy had a real talent with language, reading comprehension, and written expression. Still, nothing was ever enough it seemed. No matter how well-mannered and merit worthy he tried to be he was made to feel like a monster. He genuinely believed he'd be better off dead, and more than once over his teenage years Darran made attempts to that effect.
Young Darran began life in the artisan caste, working for his father in their apothecary. Dar learned about herbs, spices, natural remedies, poultices, teas, and tonics. He spent a lot of time mixing herbs and grinding them into concoctions. By the time he was 14 Darran knew enough that his father began to take a back seat to the operation. Dar would work by day and study his lessons by night. Like his mother, Dar was an avid reader and fared well academically. The boy's father left his son's education in his wife's capable hands of course, wanting as little to do with Darran as possible. He despised his own child so much that he had purposely chosen a harsh, ugly sounding name for the boy when he was born. The father was full of resentment. He resented his caste and his circumstances in life. His business was barely scraping by thanks to his worthless, freak-of-nature son. He should have had a daughter, one who would go far in life and elevate the Aatos family name. He deserved respect and prominence, not toil and monotony. To the father's credit he was an excellent herbalist and able healer, which is why they could still make ends meet despite the family's troubled reputation. And although his methods and expectations were hardly benevolent or reasonable, Darran's father trained him well in the family trade.
At 16 years of age Darran would join the Thanati military and move away from his small home community to a proper city. A well-respected veteran officer took an interest in young Darran after purchasing a tonic from the boy's father on one of their monthly visits to the city. Like Darran, this officer had ominous red hair, only he had risen above this handicap and had made a fine career for himself. Dar and the man spoke on a few occasions, and so he decided to try to help the lad out. On the veteran's recommendation Darran was offered a place in the army, meaning he would now be in the prestigious Temple caste of society. The reality of the situation was far from glamorous however, as Darran's first months were spent cleaning and repairing the barracks, collecting uniforms for washing, and keeping the weapon-racks full, blades sharpened and polished. He passed his physicals however, and he proved himself well suited to the structure and protocol of military life. Darran had no intention of squandering this miraculous opportunity afforded him.
Most youth at this stage would be considering arranged marriage, but as a homosexual Darran had no such prospects. He needed an escape, and this was as close as he knew how to get. Darran was dutiful and motivated to perform, and in time he received fewer menial assignments and finally started the more specialized training. Darran's performance earned him street patrol duty, and for just over six years he helped guard and police his new home.
One fateful day while Darran was on his guard patrol he became aware of a domestic disturbance. It was Luca and his wife Amella. Luca, who had been Darran's only friend through most of his childhood, was drunk and angrily shouting at his wife out in front of their house. Seeing Darran approaching only worsened things however. Luca had reacted violently when as teenagers Dar had confided in him and told him of his homosexual identity. Unable to handle his true deep-seated emotions, and scared of the potential social backlash, Luca beat his friend into a pulp and refused to be around or speak to Dar from that day forward. Now, drunk and already angry, having those old feelings brought back to him sent Luca into a murderous rage. The drunkard took the knife from his belt and lunged at Darran, sinking the blade several inches into his shoulder. The two struggled, and Darran entered into a rage of his own, only he had primal magic on his side. Though Luca outmatched his strength physically, Darran was able to finally push the knife away and gain the upper hand. Darran battered his attacker savagely, causing blood to ooze from Luca's brow, nose, and lip. But eventually the struggle over control of the knife began again, and both men tumbled to the ground. Luca, sadly, fell onto the knife, critically piercing his gut. And despite Darran's efforts to stem the bleeding and save his old friend, Luca died in his arms. Darran was cleared of any wrongdoing, but that dark day would haunt him.
Darran worked hard to live up to expectations and prove himself worthy, but this new stage of his life was no easier or less tragic however. In the city people were more relaxed and less directly hateful about it, but everyone he knew growing up treated him as less than and otherized him at every turn. Some did it out of keeping in step with social norms, some did it out of loyalty to their religious values. And some enjoyed the excuse to vent their anger and their malice on him and those like him. Some of them were repressed, confused, and indoctrinated to judge others harshly for perceived failings since their own childhoods. Dar had been forced to repress his magic and never speak of it. That alone was a painful undertaking. His own people treated him like an enemy. He'd felt like an Untouchable since the age of 9. Like he wasn't welcome or truly safe anywhere. That was the year Darran's magic activated while he was out fishing. He had fallen asleep and capsized his little boat but found himself able to walk on the water's surface instead of swim. Darran was of course amazed but terrified of being seen. And as fate would have it, there was an old woman on the water in the same vicinity that day. Darran tried to get away from the stranger as fast as he could, but he was able to hear the old crone call him a "seastrider". This would cause him to later study Thanati legends and folklore, looking for some clue as to where she had gotten the word from. What he would figure out over the years however was that it involved his druidic heritage on his mother's side. He came from a long line of mystics who practiced the "Old Religion". It also involved elemental magic, and was therefore extremely unlikely to be discussed on public record anywhere in Thanatos. But perhaps there was a forbidden library somewhere... An intriguing thought anyway.
Darran read as many books as he could get his hands on. He was searching for meaning. For answers. And somehow, slowly but surely Darran began to realize that he was not only allowed opinions, he was allowed to seek a life that was filled with happiness and purpose instead of existential dread and self loathing. Darran had always downplayed his own intelligence, never knowing how to trust himself. Because he had always worked so hard to do the right thing and abide by the script of the prevailing narratives his people had come up with as a civilization. He was a pariah, relegated to a renegade existence.
Finally, at the age of 25, Darran Aatos decided he didn't want to be miserable anymore. Thanatos had never truly been a home for him. His home was out there in the world somewhere, waiting for him. Darran left his life in Thanatos behind and took to the road. The young man makes his way as a wandering healer, putting his trade skills to use. The Thanati started experimenting with magic too, desperately intent on understanding it. For the first time Darran began to feel like being himself wasn't a curse. In fact, he had a lot he could be proud of. He had worked hard and he was adept in his fields of study. Darran was done apologizing for merely existing. Slowly he would learn how to start healing from his ordeal, and banish the voices of his oppressors constantly mocking him in his head.
And so Darran Aatos, the "seastrider" seeks out new sights and new knowledge to build a life free from shame and constant scrutiny. A life lived on his own terms.
Three months later:
It had been three months since Darran Aatos had crossed the Hivan ocean on a fishing boat and left his life in Thanatos behind. The boat's destination had been Cerenis, the second largest city in
the kingdom of the fae-blooded Serenians. Though Darran's people were largely viewed with disdain and suspicion outside of Thanatos, he was enjoying himself. Serendipity was like a treasure trove for the young druid. He drank in the sights and sounds with fascination and a degree of naivete. The exquisite fashions of the highborn, the flowing architecture, and magic everywhere he looked. Dar was happier than he'd been in a very long time. Sure, people cast disapproving glances his way and avoided walking too close if they could help it, but Darran was learning to shrug it off and not care so much. He had his freedom, access to libraries, balmy weather, and beautiful white sand beaches to keep him occupied.
Darran had been introduced to other pleasures as well. On his first day in the city, Darran had
intervened in the disingenuous sale of a potion. The buyer, a minor noble, was unaware that he
was being charged far too much for a botched product. The deception irritated Darran, so he
spoke up and risked making a scene. The potion in question was made primarily from yondalis root, a plant Darran knew very well. This particular plant started out soft, mild, and green in the spring, but by fall it would harden, darken, and turn bitter as it matured. This amplified its calming, analgesic properties ten-fold. And also not to be forgotten was the fact that yondalis leaves were in fact poisonous to most species on Le'raana, especially humans and elves. Things any competent herbalist ought to know. And so Darran had brought this to the nobleman's attention, pointing out how diluted and ineffective the potion in question was.
"See it's bright green color? It should be darker, and milky."
The shopkeeper snarled, outraged by the intrusion.
"You dare slander my wares, Thanatosi dog!" he bellowed. A slight hush fell over the area as
people stopped to gawk. Darran stood his ground. He straightened his posture and looked the
merchant in the eye.
"You dare swindle your customers? Your social betters?" Darran challenged.
"Lies! Hold your tongue, little snake! My potions are the finest!"
The nobleman turned to the young immigrant.
"Do you speak truth boy?" he questioned.
"Aye," Darran replied boldly. He retrieved his travel pack and opened it for all to see. It was
filled to the brim with dried herbs, small jars of spices, and of course his mortar, pestle, and other
implements. Dar tried to stop himself from shaking, not from fear, but from indignation. He was
beyond tired of being demeaned and silenced.
"I am an apothecarist and physician from Adaquo!" he cried as he held up the backpack and pulled at its contents randomly to display them to the gathered crowd of onlookers. He set the pack down and opened another compartment, withdrawing bandages, kelp, thread, and ointment made from the very same plant.
"The yondalis root is plentiful where I come from, I know it well." Darran insisted.
The nobleman was nodding. "I believe this traveler," he said. The crowd murmured in surprise. The shopkeeper was twice the Thanatosi's age. Surely he knew his trade better than this unwelcome foreigner!
The Serenian highborn held the potion bottle aloft, letting the light show through its contents. Then he smashed it on the ground, shattering it with prejudice.
"You will pay for your tricks potion-seller," the man announced gravely. Then he turned to Darran again.
"You've done me a service this day young traveler. Come with me to my villa, I would see you rewarded."
Darran hesitated. A reward? He had to stop himself from shaking his head and turning on his heel to leave. Now that the moment was passed he was starting to get very uncomfortable with the amount of attention he was getting. Darran took in a breath and unclenched his fists. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right? he thought.
The Serenian was waiting patiently, studying him. Darran gave the nobleman a nod, and the two followed the street out of the market square.
Thus started Darran's love affair with Auro Phaelin, minor noble of Cerenis.
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