Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Name: Krest

Age:
23

Race:
Mer (Category 3)

Date of Birth:
Ashan 22nd, Arc 694

Marks:
Rusalkis

Factions Joined:
None

Languages Spoken:
Common (Fluent)
Rakahi (Broken)

Partners:
None

Alien and ethereal, Krest roars through the cold depths of his watery home without the subtlety or the grace his kind of Mer is known for. His skin is a striking blue, like bright ice frozen under the water and melded with darker shades of purples and reds. Ridges of bone adorn his skull and frame his scaled arms; adding a jagged intensity to his appearance. His eyes are as dark as coal, well adjusted for abyss that the ocean can become. Should his eyes fail, Krest, like all those of his category, has an innate bioluminescence he can activate for both sight and as a lure.

The mer, much to his category’s credit, has an exotic, otherworldly appeal. His body is rippling with muscle hard earned from a life of constant swimming, and those dark eyes of his have been known to draw in more than a few land-walkers and mer alike.

From tail to tip Krest measures roughly 13 feet long. His tail stretches out around eight feet behind him, a sleek and powerful muscle that weighs in at 520 pounds. While exploring the ocean’s depths, his attire is pragmatic. Krest likes to travel light, only carrying with him his weapons and supplies when away from the undersea cavern he calls home. He keeps a bandolier strapped to his chest to safely store any objects he finds interesting in his travels. Should he decide to eschew his tail for a pair of legs, Krest measures up to be 5’11”, his scaled legs and taloned feet marking him as distinctly inhuman. His preference is to forgo any clothes, but he has been stopped by enough town guards to know land-dwellers strange hangups about public nudity. He's taking to wearing a loincloth on land; something that allows for the freedom of movement he's used to underwater, but ensures he's not accosted by authorities.

Krest crashes through peoples' lives.

He's the type to swagger in on an evening tide, brimming with otherworldly mystery, and leave with a handful broken hearts in his claws. To him its not cruel, its just the life he leads. Passionate to his core, Krest feels emotions in the extremes. He devours life with a ravenous hunger; the good and the bad, the uplifting and the soul-crushing. He is a wild, restless, and raucous soul; skittish of staying in one place or with one person for too long. He's never shy to make his thoughts known, and is always striving to be the loudest voice in any room. Krest takes. He takes attention, he takes time, and he takes love. He's greedy. He knows it, but he just can't resist chasing after life.

It is said all Mer are born with holes in their hearts. That they're born angry. Born killers. Well, Krest was born singing. Not roaring, not killing, but singing.

Among the Tidewhispers, this was sign that a child would become a Songseeker. That their life would be dedicated to the finding of spiritual sound. They would be apprenticed to the current Songseeker, who would train them until they felt the apprentice was ready to explore the seas and discover new songs for the tribe.

And so Krest was apprenticed.From birth, he spent everyday learning the music of his tribe. He voice was sharpened into a weapon, something that could lure the most steadfast sailor from their post down towards the grasping dark depths of the ocean. For a time, the young Mer enjoyed his duties and thought his tribe's way of life unarguable. Until, in adolescence, he found someone whose voice shook every value he knew.

Her name was Wisp, and she was from the Oyoqlar Tribe. Far from her homeland, the two had met when Krest was on patrol. He had her dead to rights, finger on the trigger ready to pull, when the Mers opened her mouth and began to sing to her gods. A hymn rang out, brilliant, bright and defiant in the face of death. Krest never stood a chance.

Spiriting her away to a hidden cove, what started as a chance meeting soon developed into passionate romance. He showed her secret songs, things only entrusted to him and the Songseeker. She showed him a way to change fins into feet, and it wasn't long until they took their love to the land. Together, they laughed and loved among the surface. Krest found that the land-dwellers were not monsters that his elders made them out to be. They were different, softer, but acceptable. Enjoyable even. Wisp and he were happy, and when she was ready to leave, she had asked him to come with her.

Krest would have, had harpoon not sprouted from her heart.

His tribe saw a stranger rushing towards Krest, and were confident that they were saving him from an attack. Krest wanted to scream, to sing, but kept his mouth shut. With Wisp, he had become what the Tidewhispers hated more than land-walkers. Deviant. He couldn't stay with his tribe any longer, but he couldn't give them reason to hunt him to. So at twenty arcs he told the Songseeker that he was ready to began his journey across the seas.

It is said all Mer are born with holes in their heart. Leaving his tribe, seeing Wisp die at their hands; for the first time Krest thought that saying held truth.
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Deep beneath the icy waters and rolling waves of Treid’s Mouth, Krest has claimed an ancient shipwreck as his own. The vessel was once ornate, the private vehicle of some pirate or merchant with money to burn. Now, it is little more than a ruin, rotted wood stitched to elegant decor. Krest keeps a couple of scent traps up to scare away predators, and a few traps of his own design to keep any Mer from sticking their tentacles where they're not wanted.

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• Mer Starter Pack
  • Two underwater scent traps: These simple pouches, fashioned from fishskin and kelp thread, often house unappetizing predator pheromones that diffuse in the water around ones home. Although the material inside must be replaced every few Trials, it effectively wards off ocean predators from the general area where the scent trap is laid.
  • 1 x Combat Spear
  • 200 x Feet of kelp rope
  • 2 x Knives
  • 2 x Sea barrels- Especially well crafted and lightweight, these barrels seal objects and prey inside without leaving a scent trail for a predator to follow. Easily hidden under the sand, the water-proofing seal lasts for years.
  • 2 x Long Hooks
  • 1 x Compass
  • 1 x Mer Hook Net designed to capture prey underwater, the net ends cascade hooks which dig into the prey as they frenzy trying to escape, weakening them and aiding only in tangling them further.
  • 1 x Trapper's Kit
  • 1 x Crab Cage usually left on the ocean floor with carrion, these traps attract crabs and other creatures to be trapped within the cages. These can be left anywhere within a territory and checked on every trial or so.
  • 1 xHarpoon launcher
  • 20 x Harpoons if Harpoon Launcher is chosen
  • 1 x Airskin: Easily inflatable to allow a Mer to secure something hanging from a floating buoy. Some will fill them with air to release in case of attack for a momentary bubble screen or to use the force of the air to quickly propel them away from weapons or waiting jaws.
  • 2 x Strapped packs- worn around the front and back, these packs allow a mer to carry objects on long journeys while keeping their hands free.
• Prized Possession
  • Wisp's Ring - A plain silver ring set on a silver chain, this piece of jewelry is the only object that Krest has to remember Wisp by. The Mer is never caught without it, finding comfort in the metal resting near his heart.

Put links here for your current and past threads!

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