Kallan Artotios

(( WIP - Shamelessly stole the template from Berrod Armstrong - template creation credit is below. ))

Kallan Artotios
Gender	Male
Race	Hyur
Clan	Midlander
Citizenship	Gridania
Age	24

Character

General

Kallan, originally a resident of Ul'dah, wandered to Gridania a short time after the Calamity that claimed his parents. He was unhappy in Ul'dah for the most part, and so considers Gridania his home for now. He continues to travel in service to those who can pay, however, and has begun to wonder if he has a real home of any sort.

Appearance

Kallan is a tanned Midlander, standing approximately 70 ilms, and weighing approximately 14 to 15 stone, depending upon his last meal. He keeps his dark hair short, and as long as it is out of his face when his bow is drawn, it's good enough for him. He has three scars visible on his face; he likes to joke that they were welcoming gifts from the Shroud, hinting that he came out second best in a wrestling match with a thornbush. He is solidly muscular without being overly bulky, though his shoulders, arms, and legs are highly developed.

Behavior

Kallan makes a concious attempt to appear upbeat, whether or not he feels that way within. He finds pleasure in complimenting others, but tends to downplay his own achievements or skills if he isn't actively belittling himself or his work. While adventuring, he tends to have a strict moral code concerning the jobs he will undertake or the petitioners he will work for; that's not to say he will not ignore laws, rules, regulations, traditions, or even customs that don't suit his mission, or his own sense of honor and integrity.

Combat

General

From an early age, Kallan was interested in the bow as both a weapon and a tool. He has since joined the guild of Archers in Gridania to continue his education. He remains mobile in combat, choosing to stay out of close range with his opponent (or prey), until a time of his choosing. He keeps a well-sheathed dagger down the inside of one boot and a short-sword strapped to the opposite leg for close-in work when necessary. He seems to have at least a limited connection to the Aether, having surprised himself with short gouts of flame or frost bursting from his palms or fingertips when he has been particularly hard-pressed. For now, however, he has not chosen to visit the Thamaturge or Arcanist guild to explore his possible talent.

His natural agility lends itself well to lighter armor, but as a smith - a recently acquired occupation - he dons (or swings) his creations to ensure their comfort and utility before delivering finished goods to petitioners. As such, he has made contacts in the Marauder and Gladiator guilds in an attempt to build rapport with those who may one day be asked to train him in heavier, more aggressive forms of combat.

Tendencies

Likes

• The quiet. But only for a certain amount of time before he needs to do something.
• Working with his hands.
• Teaching, passing on techniques or lessons he's learned.

Dislikes

• Blowhards.
• Fools.
• Tyrants.
• Greed.
• Slavery.
• The dishonorable.

Hobbies/Talents

• Craftsman - he is, at the very least, proficient in any craft he sets his hand to. His work may never be seen as a paramount example of a given craft, but the things he creates are functional, sturdy, and reliable.

• Artist - parchment and charcoal is his preferred medium. He can capture landscapes in a way that makes the viewer feel as if they are looking through a window, despite the lack of color. Portraits seem real enough to touch. He rarely, however, shows his work to anyone, because he most often draws pictures of people from memory, without "proper" permission. His landscapes, he would say, are just for him, so he doesn't forget the places he's been.

Other

A relic of being an unplanned, unwanted, and unloved child, he has very low self-esteem and little sense of self-worth. As mentioned before, he tries to hide his own feelings about himself by maintaining an upbeat facade and complimenting others in the hopes of making them feel good about themselves. He is a romantic at heart, but he is convinced that all of womankind has already written him off as undesirable - this usually ends up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy in his dealings with the opposite sex.

Relationships

Family

• None he is aware of. His parents were killed during the Calamity. The bodies were crushed in their home when it collapsed, but he suspects they may have already been dead, given their prediliction for intrigue, greed, and lasciviousness.

Friends/Lovers

• None.

Friends/Acquaintances

• Maria Howlmoon - He met this miqo'te by chance in the Weaver's Guild of Ul'dah. They have spent some time together, and he considers her a good friend.

• Jarle Vagrast - The leader of the Free Company he has recently joined. He has received some training and a small amount of funding from the Company to pursue his crafting.

Enemies

• None that he is aware of.

Rumors

Common Rumors

• "That fellow? Seems to be a good sort. Keeps to himself but never turns down a favor asked."
• "Don't rightly know much about him. Seen him here and there, running about between guildhouses."
• "Seems quiet. Likes to watch people, too...but he never really says anything to them."

Moderate Rumors

• "I hear tell he's got his fingers in a lot of things, maybe just needs to find something he enjoys and stick with it."
• "I'll wager that bow sees a good deal of use. You can catch him making arrows more often than not..if I see him at the gate, his bowstring looks fairly frayed too."

Rare Rumors

• "Came from Ul'dah, way I hear it. Parents died in the Calamity and he had no place to go."
• "I seen him once just sitting and staring out into nothing. He was there for hours."
• "Never seen him touch a drink. Likes to watch the girls in the tavern, though."

History/Timeline

Kallan was born to Danald and Mirane Artotios 18 years before the Calamity.

He was unplanned, to put it politely, and as an extension, was also unwanted. His parents, in fact, only married when it became known that Mirane was with child. Danald paid a substantial sum to Mirane's family to force the marriage in order to protect his own image, despite Mirane's discontent with the arrangement. Their marriage was loveless, as was their relationship with their child. He was very often ignored entirely, and was initially raised by a nurse of sorts, who was removed from service (to save money, no doubt) when he became old enough to fend for himself in the simplest ways possible.

Danald was an ambitious burgher in the city of Ul'dah, and also a known consumer of fine wines, fine drugs, and fine women. Mirane was a high-priced courtesan, and a regular "employee" of Danald. Her position was unusual, in that her parents accepted - if not approved of - her trade because of the money it brought the family. As their business arrangements became more regular, Mirane became more lax in her precautions. When she did become pregnant, she first planned to blackmail the rich merchant. Danald quickly disabused her of that notion by threatening her life; she then pointed out that if she were to die suddenly, he would be the prime suspect - especially when it was discovered she was with child - as it was well known that he frequently purchased her attentions.

With no other real alternative, Danald presented the notion of marriage. Mirane laughed in his face; she enjoyed her work very much, and was loathe to give it up. Unfortunately for her, he approached her parents, who finally saw an avenue to "rescue" their daughter from prostitution and pressured her to marry. And so they did.

Kallan was born after the usual time, and was quickly relegated to the status of "minor annoyance" in the fairly grand household Danald's business acumen had afforded him. A nurse was hired to deal with the child, and Danald went back to his normal business. Mirane, with no other skills, remained homebound and hopelessly bored. She found entertainment in sneaking men into her husband's home to ravish them as she pleased. She took their money as a matter of habit, rather than out of any real need.

Danald was not oblivious to his wife's activities, nor was he at all hurt by them. The night after the wedding, he himself had stayed late at a tavern with a new woman. He felt that Mirane already knew the marriage was in name only, and if she chose to continue her own business, who was he to stop her? The acquisition of gil - in massive amounts - was the goal of life, was it not? Besides, as his wife, he was of course entitled to the money that she made - no matter how she came about it, the large "private" pile of gil she was amassing would be his.

It was around this time that he began to involve himself in the shady underbelly of trade in Ul'dah, as well as the darker side of politics. He was often involved in conspiracies to drive competitors out of business and buy up their assets, or remove "inconvenient" members of the guard or the government of the city.

With such people providing an atmosphere devoid of love or trust or even decency was Kallan raised. It is, perhaps, to his credit that he has grown the way he has. At the age of five, he was often used by his father to deliver messages to various craftsmen or businessmen around the city, Danald believing that a child was the perfect messenger who would remain unmolested and out of danger. Perhaps it was the Gods that made it so, but Kallan was, in fact, left alone to carry his messages, though he never had any idea - at the time - what they said.

When he wasn't running messages around the city, he would escort "mother's guests" to and from her chambers. Mirane, perhaps somewhere far beyond her selfishness and discontent, had enough motherly instinct to at least attempt to shield her child from the seamier side of adult life during his earliest years. He would be sent to play once a guest was delivered. Sometimes he would deliver three or four guests in a single day. Every once in a while, one of these guests would talk with young Kallan, or offer him sweets or a gil here and there for his services. Most of the time, however, the men - and occasionally women - assumed he was simply a young servant.

Kallan took the opportunities he had to watch people, and he would emulate their movements in play. As he grew older, he would speak with different craftsmen about their trade and would sometimes even take part, working with sub-par materials and scrap, or goods that could not be sold due to defects. He tried his hand at nearly every trade he could find, even those whose guilds were not located in the city of Ul'dah. He also began to pay far more attention to what his parents were actually doing. He began to spend a great deal of time on the roof of their home, staring up at the clouds or the stars, depending upon the time of day. He never knew the real details of his father's intrigues, but he began to piece together that sometimes, he would deliver a message and the recipient would grow pale. Sometimes he'd never see that person again. Other times, they'd be wearing much finer clothing or moving into a much, much larger shop.

Listening outside his mother's door afforded him the opportunity to 'learn' what might be happening in there as well. He was blissfully ignorant of the true goings-on at first, but when it was explained to him by another young man what was really going on, he stopped eavesdropping immediately, and was rarely able to make eye contact with his mother for years following that revelation. In time, he began to have his own encounters, and believed that it was a casual thing, like meeting for a conversation. Of course, he also saw what love and romance could actually be, and longed for such a thing for himself, though he knew that he was unlikely to ever be deserving of it.

Life went on for Kallan, and he seemed to drift through it with little more than a curious detachment. Then came the Calamity.

To this day, he still cannot come up with a single coherent memory of that time, and he has no idea how he managed to survive. He left Ul'dah for Gridania shortly after the first caravans began to travel again, and wandered the Shroud and environs of that green and growing city, still in a haze, until he 'woke up' and determined to do real work for himself.

Annotations/Trivia

This Template was created by Deirdre Ta'ea and shamelessly stolen from Berrod Armstrong.

• Artotios is a misspelling. I had originally intended the name to be "Artorios" but fat-fingered the 't' instead. It still looks and sounds all right, so I consider it a happy accident.