Post by Emma on Oct 25, 2010 18:09:45 GMT -5
Name:
Count Kieran Kolbjorn
Age:
380; appears to be in his late thirties
Race:
Elf- disguised as a human
Occupation:
Count of Carvala, former Lieutenant of the Hive
Allegiance:
Broddring
Physical Description:
Despite not being particularly ancient for an elf, Kieran has lived most of his life among humans, and his magical skills are very weak. In keeping with his disguise as a human, he has magically changed his looks to appear older- strands of grey shot throughout his hair and occasional beard and imperfect complexion are far more reminiscent of a middle-aged human. However, Kieran’s looks still turn many a girl’s head- 6’4” and lean with thin but very defined muscles, his eyes are green, his skin pale golden, and his hair is jet black except for the grey hairs strung like cobwebs throughout it. Kieran’s face, however, is always clean-shaven, as like all elves he cannot grow facial hair.
Being an elf, Kieran’s face is smooth and well-formed, taking him dangerously close to being a total pretty boy. However, living in Broddring requires him to lie low, so he has had his face magically altered to more closely resemble a human’s as well as removing his pointed ears. His face is long and oval-shaped, with a prominent chin and jawbone. His eyes are framed by surprisingly long and thick lashes and he has a high, arched forehead, lending him a more feminine, aristocratic kind of beauty. This is slightly off-set by his thin lips, sharp cheekbones, and crooked nose, a part of the spell.
Kieran’s line of work requires him to be wearing at least a little armour at all times, so he wears a thick leather vest underneath his clothes that goes around his torso. His wardrobe varies in colour, although the garments are usually loose. His tunics are various lengths and cuts, and his trousers either end above or below his ankles. His shoe choice is usually thick, leather-shod boots. When on the occasional dangerous meeting or raid, Kieran opts for thick leather armour that allows him to move around easily. His weapon of choice is knives in battle, although he prefers to kill his enemies by sneaking up on them and slitting their throats, or merely relying on his Drones to do the fighting for him.
Personality:
On the surface, Kieran seems to be selfish and narcissistic, infamous among many of his colleagues and subordinates alike for being a ‘humourless prick’. His self-importance also causes him to display a penchant toward stubbornness in regards to his pride and an exceptionally vile temper, both of which cloud his judgment. His temper in particular can be considerably violent, usually resulting in physical abuse that has zero gender-bias. He is prone to being arrogant and ostentatious and appears to act mostly out of self-interest rather than any sort of philanthropy. Kieran is calm and unshakable, a voice of reason. His life and experiences have left deep scars on him, and this has made him incredibly wise and incredibly bitter all at once. A true pessimist, Kieran accepts life and its unfairness has a matter of course. His haughty attitude is a turn-off to most people, and he can be cruel, condescending and patronizing. He had no tolerance for silly antics, stupid or corrupt people.
Kieran doesn’t like most people he comes into contact with. He cares not for making friends and even less whether or not people like him. He has an extremely blunt way of speaking, and he tends to steam-roll over other people’s ideas and feelings. Kieran is often morose and withdrawn. He is difficult to get to know, and he tends to shun anyone making the attempt. Women are often drawn to Kieran for his looks and political power, but his relationships are invariably short-lived, usually with the woman breaking it off.
However, while these traits do have a place in his real personality, much of Kieran’s outward persona can perhaps be considered an intentional façade perfectly designed to cause those unfamiliar with him to underestimate his intelligence. Kieran is an exceptional tactician, well-versed in various strains of combat theory and particularly talented in the realms of surreptitious information-gathering, covert operations and enemy ensnarement. At the core, he is a remarkably devoted commander whose primary focus and personal duty is to earn a proper retirement fund. Kieran can be extremely callous, but he isn’t completely devoid of a heart. He has a soft spot for children and animals. Though he hides it well behind a veil of cynicism and self-importance, Kieran cares deeply about the people who trust and support him and goes to great lengths to ensure their safety and well-being, even at the risk of his own.
History:
Kieran’s parents were Ióann and Rainesfere Kolbjorn, a deeply faithful couple who both hailed from Ília Fëon. However, Ióann, a Rider, was killed fighting Urgals when Kieran was little more than a seed in his mother’s belly. Rainesfere was so pained by the loss of her beloved mate that she ended up ‘freezing’ the baby in her womb when she learned of its presence, unwilling to give birth while in such deep emotional pain. It was only ‘unfrozen’ when Rainesfere was reunited with her daughter Myaja almost fifty years later. Kieran was born weak, but otherwise healthy, and was mostly raised by his older sister while his mother tended to her duties as a gardener.
At age twenty-five, Kieran was sent to Ilirea to learn magic and physical combat, but proved to be a major disappointment- the boy was too weak to train with weapons like swords and bows, and he had great difficulty with magic, struggling to light a candle even after years of studying. Since it was clear that he could never be a Rider, he was mostly given up on, and the fifty years that Kieran spent there was an embittering, unhappy time. He returned to Ília Fëon as a troubled adolescent. Neither his mother nor his sister could clear the cloud of anger hanging over him, and so Kieran left, heading to the hopefully greener pastures of Ellesméra. And for a while, they were- Kieran was introduced to gambling as a way of relaxing his troubled mind, and it worked- though he wasn’t any good at it. The little money his family gave him was soon replaced by a mountain of debts, one that an elf believed that Kieran desperately needed to replace.
The elf only meant to hurt him and therefore scare him into finding a way to pay up, but it was night time and pitch black, and Kieran thought he was trying to murder him. Kieran promptly killed the elf, but upon realizing it was one of his fellow gamblers became truly afraid and ashamed. He never learned the elf’s proper name, as he fled Du Weldenvarden that night with soldiers at his heels, making for the coast and heading to Old Broddring. A little over a hundred years old then, that was when he craved an ending to his misery- he was banished from his own homeland, and had no way of reaching his family. He spent most of his time at bars after that, warming up to women and alcohol.
A drunkard, a gambler, and a lecher, Kieran doesn’t know and will never know how he got the witty, intelligent, and wicked dark beauty named Alindra to fool around with him for nearly an entire week. Though they soon grew tired of each other and drifted apart, Kieran’s luck ran out on him once again- due to the difficulty of half-elf conception, he hadn’t got a single woman pregnant and doubted he ever would. But Alindra developed an interesting condition a few months later, one that had her humble lumberjack father knocking down Kieran’s door demanding that he marry her. Kieran accepted out of amusement, seeing as Alindra, a human, would grow old and die in the blink of an eye. He married her a month later, and soon, their half-elf daughter Svenja was born.
Kieran expected her to be little more than an annoyance that he would shove into an orphanage as soon as Alindra’s father keeled over, but was surprised to find himself very much in love with the unremarkable bundle of pink flesh. He also developed a fondness for Alindra and her charm, which ripened into true love over a few years. He dropped his alcohol and his gambling just to be with the two of them, and for the first time in his life was truly and completely happy. He followed them back to Alagaësia during the Broddring exodus. However, racial tensions soon began to emerge. The union of a human and an elf was looked upon with distaste. Kieran used what little magic he possessed to change his face, making it more human, and he and Alindra kept Svenja indoors. But it wasn’t enough for them to escape the Blue Divide.
Du Weldenvarden marched on the human cities, throwing them into a panic. Homes were ransacked in the night, including Kieran’s, and he, his wife, and his child were all attacked. Alindra was hit in the back as she tried to flee while carrying an already dead Svenja, and Kieran was stabbed as he slept, but he managed to survive while they didn’t due to his superior elven body. Devastated and enraged, Kieran participated in much of the ransacking out of temporary insanity before finally collapsing from his injuries.
He woke up with his wounds bound and in a warehouse filled with people. These people were a company known as the Maléfica. Kieran’s violent attacks had been seen and admired, and due to the deaths of hundreds of Hive members, they were looking for recruits. Kieran accepted, having nowhere else to go, and was made a lowly Drone. He spent most of the next few years training in knife-throwing and hand-to-hand combat, as well as trying not to die on operations. Kieran became very decent with said weapons, because he found that training took his mind off the pain of his family’s death. He trained constantly, up to the point of nearly burning out entirely on several occasions.
Kieran became a lieutenant thirty years later. He became the head of Maléfica, who were situated in The Tears. Kieran was given money, which he used to open a bar called Maleficent Saloon near the center of the city. It now serves as the main area of operations for Maléfica, and became popular among the citizens. Soon, Kieran took on hired thugs, prostitutes, and allowed outside business deals to run inside it. Kieran has since then been the innkeeper of the Saloon, and still keeps his position as Maléfica’s head.
The only things of remote interest that have happened since are Renata and Helaku. Born out of wedlock, Renata’s grandfather ordered a hit on her and her mother that Kieran would have carried out if an Oracle of the Cathedral hadn’t interrupted after he killed the mother, frightening the Nyx-fearing Kieran with warnings that killing a child would damn his immortal soul. To amend for the mother’s murder, he would need to raise the child himself. Kieran was hesitant- Renata was an exact copy of Svenja. Similar in everything from facial features to colouring to their inhuman natures, he was imbued with a desperate need to take her in. He has since set her up as his foster daughter.
Helaku, meanwhile, is Kieran’s nephew. After the crimes Kieran committed, his sister Myaja, once almost a mother to him, turned her back on him and grew more disappointed him increasingly, finally developing full-blown hatred when he became a Hive Lieutenant. Five years later, Kieran was at the slave market in Teirm when he saw an elf boy that was blatantly similar to her- and also the son of Czardas Vuorinen, the man that had ruined Myaja. Kieran, who never despised his sister, took the boy in for her sake.
