Baran Saltblood

## Bizarre Family

(not included in the image: teeth so big and shard they put sharks to shame)

Baran and her sister Thalia are an... interesting couple. First of all: one is a tiefling, the other is an aasimar. If that wasn't weird enough, they aren't just siblings... they are twins.

As crazy and unlike it seems, this is how it is. The bizarre nature of the family comes from the circumstances that occurred. Before Baran and Thalia were born, their mother: Elyna would get attention of a particular fellow. To make long story short, that person was a Gallu demon known as "Izzamid" (Assuming that wasn't a fake name, since you know... honesty is not a virtue demons are famous for). At the time when Izzamid left Elyna, neither of them were aware Elyna is with his child, with Baran being conceived most likely just few days before her father left.

A little after Izzamid left, Elyna would meet another charming fellow, who this time turned out to be an Azata named "Crisostomo" in human disguise. One thing led to another and Elyna got pregnant with his child. What they didn't knew is that they ended up conceiving fraternal twins with 2 different father. Shortly after both Baran and Thalia were born Crisostomo just... left.

Raising child alone is hard. Raising two children alone is nearly impossible. Raising two children in Port Doom is straight up suicidal since the place is already a... harsh place.

Thankfully, Elyna managed to get support from her parents, being able to raise both Baran and Thalia, and also making both of them spend lot of time with their grandparents.

## Upbringing

Ever since she was a kid, Baran could had been best summed up with one word: "hot-headed". Getting into fights with neighborhood kids in a playground, talking back to their parents when the kids called for them and then trying to fight the parents (Which obviously most of the time ended badly for her) was basically a daily routine. Was she a bully? Well... every kid, and parent would say so but in Baran's head she wasn't trying to bully anyone, for her she was just trying to have fun together, its just her idea of fun is more... violent than most kids.

Because of that, she didn't had any friends as a kid, making Thalia her only friend throughout childhood. The older she became the wilder she got, by the time she was 12 she would start making bets with kids her age and older about who can win a fight, she won some, she lost some, but in the end all that mattered her was not winning or money, just the thrill of some real scraps.

At age of 14 Thalia would leave Port Doom to join an Academy to have some proper education. A while after that Baran would get into a fight with an old sailor with whom she argued, expecting the fight to be no challenge at all. The fight indeed wasn't challenging at all, with over 60 years old sailor defeating the red headed little demon without breaking a sweat. For a while Baran wanted a rematch with the old sailor, who for a long time simply ignored the annoying brat, but after some time, Baran stopped asking for rematch and wanted him to just teach her how he can be so strong despite being super old (her exact words).

Thinking that he may be the only guy that can stop Baran from wasting her lives on pointless fighting with strangers, old sailor introduced himself as Thigo, a whaler with over 45 years experience in hunting the largest ocean creatures, fighting off sharks and surviving the most harsh storms... on daily bases. And so he allowed Baran to join his crew of whalers, if only to stop her from annoying him.

## Life on the Ship

For next 4 years Baran would spend most of her days on deck of a whaler ship called "King Reaper". Starting as a regular Cabin Boy (Well... Cabin *Girl* actually), until finally becoming a full blown whaler herself. Her and others from the crew would end up encountering and slaying many gigantic aquatic animals, with each of them celebrating a hunted down whale as much as if they just killed a dragon that threatened to end the world.

Thigo wasn't lying when he said that life as a whaler was how he hardened his body. Baran would also get hardened by the unforgiving nature of the angry sea, and by fighting sea beasts along with a trusty crew. Still, the diligent work did not stopped Baran's passion for combat, and other crew members by no means tried to discourage that. Her crew-mates being descendants of pirates had combat in their blood, so on almost every evening they would organize little tournaments to place their bets and see who can earn the title of ship's strongest crew member, with Thigo being the one to win most of the time, but Baran also had few tournaments where she would be victorious. Fighting whalers while on ship in a middle of nowhere may have not been the most prestigious challenge, but the point for Baran was to just have some good scrap with people.

Everything was looking nicely until...

## Life in the Arena

Baran really liked life as a whaler but around age of 19 she started to think this is not really something she wants to do for the rest of her life. Thinking back to what brought her the most joy in life she decided to stop seeing fighting as a hobby, and more as way of life.

She told Thigo and others that she will be leaving the crew to chase another career path: Pit Fighting. Nobody from the crew would argue that Baran wasn't really a pit fighting material, and so with their blessing Baran would join one of the many small fighting arenas in Port Doom, where for next 4 years she would use the strength that she gained through hard and diligent work, and combining it with fighting techniques she would learn from opponents she faced in the Pit, forging herself into a fighting and killing machine she is today.

After becoming bored with the Arena and once again becoming unsure if this is what she wants to do for the rest of her life Baran decided to take the job that would be the least boring one that she could think of: adventurer.

The idea of being on a constant move, never knowing what obstacles you may face and what opponents you might try to fight seemed like something that the tiefling would enjoy. And if not... well she can always try to use keep an eye open throughout the adventure for something she will like.

In other words: her short term goal is to have fun, and the long term goal is to find a good long term goal.

## Appearance

Only a blind person would mistake Baran for human as her demonic blood really shifter her appearance into a more inhuman one. Not only does she seems to be unnaturally muscular, she also stands 8 feet tall and weights almost 300 pounds of power. And even looking at her face, yellow eyes and extremely big and sharp teeth betray abyssal heritage, and that is not even mentioning a pair of horns that seem to be long enough to fatally impale someone was Baran trying to gore them. Her skin seems to be also covered in all manners of scars, going from simple slashes and scratches, but also not missing burn scars, frostbite scars or acid burns. Even though she may be relatively young compared to other adventurers out there, she has seen plenty of battles and has scars to prove it.

## Personality

Baran is a person that loves a good competition. Be it a friendly match of arm wrestling, or insane brawl to the death. So long it requires strength, Baran is happy to do it. Outside of competition, Baran is known for being able to get happy quickly, often being able to enjoy the moment and not worry about problems of tomorrow. At the same time she is also known for lacking any real directions in life, having no real long term goal. Finally Baran is known for being as subtle as an mortal shelling. She always speaks her mind, insults anybody she disrespects.

## Relationships

Thalia: Baran's twin sister, despite the fact that she has academic level knowledge and training Baran is still worried she might find it hard to survive in the world. They are as close to each other as twins can be. Even though they are complete opposites personality wise. Even when Thalia went to the academy the two would keep in touch via letters.

Elyna: Baran's mother got really screwed over with having 2 children with neither of their fathers helping to raise them. As any person, Baran cares about her mother though ever since she moved out of house she was visiting her less often. Perhaps deep down she doesn't want to cause her more problems.

Izzamid: Baran has mixed feelings about her father. Obviously there were many points in her life when she wanted to find him but there were two problems with that. Firstly she has no idea where to look and what to look for, considering that she only has his name, which might be a fake name, and a description of his non-human form, which is even less helpful, cause her dad is a shapeshifter so the form that he showed to Elyna might not had been his true form. And second problem is: "and then what?". Assuming that she gets incredibly lucky and manages to find her dad. What then? Tell him? "Yeah remember that romance 23 years ago? You actually got your partner pregnant. I am that kid... so how are you?". Its hard to be mad about him for not staying because its not like he knew he had a kid, and him coming back to see how Elyna is doing would actually in his eyes create more issues than solutions.

Crisostomo: Screw this guy, he promised Elyna to help and be with her and then bailed out when children were born. Not even "Oh I am gonna get to the store for some milk". You don't tell someone you want to live a happy life with them as a family and then run away as soon as you don't like the kids you have. Thalia may think that her father left because of some higher purpose, its hard to tell if she really believes it. If Baran ever finds that bastard, she knows exactly what to do, beat him up so badly so he will realize how much he messed up by ruining 23 years of life of several people by bailing out as a coward. The only reason why she wouldn't violently kill him on the spot is because she knows Thalia wouldn't want that.

## Adventures

Vampire King: Probably the only royalty in the multiverse that Baran will ever respect. Her respect comes not only from his skills and power, which in truth is very impressive on its own, but from his dream. Dream that is creating a kingdom where undead, monsters and mortals alike can live together, where people don't just assume that all ogres are evil and thus cannot be trusted, or that all cliff giants are good. Seriously, what is wrong with people? Does nobody ever heard of "nature vs nurture"? Vampire King seems to be one of few reasonable people with enough power to change the world, and Baran will be by his side as he does it. She also likes to address him as "Scarlet King" when talking to others about him, and "Boss" when talking to him directly.

## House of knives.

On Neth 18th 44 Baran would end yet another of pit fights by brutalizing her opponent to the point no one was sure if they were still alive or not, not even the opponent. After the fight she would be approached by a mysterious tiefling who like her seemed to posses a rather impressive physical prowess. The mysterious stranger would tell Baran that while her fight was impressive it was painfully obvious that she wasn't fighting an adequate opponent.

He would introduce her to special place: Temple of Sun Devour, a special unholy place where only honest folks are allowed to enter. Folks that stay true to the inner instincts that drive them into primal ferocity and violence. After coming to the temple Baran would spot a an altar where countless stone knives, old and new, all covered in blood would be plunged. After spotting the alter the tiefling that guided her to the temple would hand her a stone knife, a clean one. After taking the knife Baran would be guided into a nearby arena where one of the cult members: orc named Grunt just slaughtered his last opponent.

Tiefling told Baran that in order to join the organization she would prove herself by fighting in the arena, either with Grunt or literally anybody that was willing to fight. In response Baran just put her gauntlet on and wasted no time charging on Grunt while he was still distracted boasting to the crowd about his latest kill.

With element of surprise Baran got the necessary advantage, for the battle was bloody and Baran was close to dying, but thanks to activating her bloodrage she managed to bit Grunts throat out. The stone knife, now soaked with blood of Grunt started to radiate with heat and Baran felt the presence of something from beyond.

In the end Baran was brought back to the altar full of knives. Now she plunged the knife that was soaked in blood of Grunt, returning the Grunt to Devourer. After that Baran learned more about the nature of Devourer of Sun, how he is a god living beyond, that for most of the time is in deep slumber, that once woken up, will come to feast on the weak and let the strong remain to become something more. Until then the house of knives will live their lives to the fullest, enjoying what the world has to offer and make sure to cull the weak.

After learning all of that, Baran joined the members of house of knives at a giant feast table, as one of them.

House of Knives proved to be an interesting bunch, afterall it was an organization where the only master was violence. Even bruiser seemed to be far from "the one calling the shots" cause even though he is the one expanding and protecting the cult: he has little to no control over other members.

Because of that Baran nobody minded when Baran overheard the conversation between bruiser and other cult members, from which she learned about renegade cultist that left the House of Knives to become a bandit chieftain. Normally nobody would give two shits about cultist leaving to make it big in the outside world and dying horribly in a process, but this one? This one did something that didn't sit right with most people in the cult, he stole "Zevgavizeb's favor" whatever that is. Naturally being hotheaded and irrational person, with little to no intel Baran went on to hunt down the renegade cultist.

On her journey she met paladins from the "Tempest Path" who also has been trying to find the cultist as he became quite notorious. While paladins had issues discovering tracks and clues, Baran's senses managed to find the path that bandits and their renegade leader took, thus having an idea where their camp it. Not being a fan of paladins and deciding that she can end up participating in something interesting... she guided paladins towards the cultists camp, and claimed that she will be going home now knowing that they are gonna take care of it.

In reality she just moved faster, away from the paladins's sight towards the camp, and greeted the bandit chieftain, claiming that she is interested in joining his group (which was a lie) and informing him about incoming Paladin group. Wasting no time, the bandits set up and ambush and a bloody fight between outlaws and holy knights ensured. Paladins proved to be a powerful foe but bandits managed to keep up thanks to their sheer ferocity and skill of both Baran and the Renegade. In the end, last 2 Paladins retreated seeing how their forces may not survive, and the leader insulting Baran and vowing that she will make the tiefling pay for this.

Ironically, out of the bandit forces Renegade and Baran were the only survivors, with Renegade being barely alive. Baran hoped that her target will fall in battle but now that he had no more followers tiefling simply invited ex-cult member for a chat around campifre. Then she revealed to him what her intentions were and that she is here to kill him and take back the favor. After both of them were able to catch up some breath, Renegade made a mistake of aiming his weapon before swinging it. Were he to swing it blindly he would surprise Baran enough to come up with follow up attack, even if the initial blow missed. However due to him wasting precious seconds on taking aim, Baran was able to exploit the opening, grab his shoulder and head in swift motion, and with just one strong push she broke Renegade's neck, killing him instantly.

Upon arriving back to house of knives Baran was surprised to find out that "Zevgavizeb's favor" was not a physical artifact or weapon as she initially thought, instead it was literally divine favor.

As it turns out the way Zevgavizeb blessings work is that some of his followers are granted mythical powers, mythical powers which are then taken by those who strike down the blessed one. The reason why Renegade run away was not only because he wanted his life to be more exciting, but because he was aware that after killing blessed, other members of the cult will target him, thus he escaped, thinking he will be safe from House of Knives now that he is away from them. Little did he know that a newbie cultist will hunt him down using natural abilities, ferocity and cunning, thus fulfilling the will of their god without even knowing.

And so, Baran has became blessed by Zevgavizeb, and ceased to be a simple mortal, and instead turned into avatar of primal might and ferocity.

## Scarlet Kingdom

Many months has passed since Baran has became blessed, and many times she participated in deadly battles. Sometimes because she signed up for dangerous job, sometimes her fellow cult members wanted to bite more than they could chew thinking that road to godhood will be easy.

Her power has grown tremendously, thanks to both Zevgavizeb's blessing and to her always pushing herself to new limits. And it was only a matter of time before she got attention of particular man.

Meeting with Vampire King was not some grand meeting where monarch hides beneath the rags and tests the stranger's virtues to see if they are worthy. Baran has no virtues and this story is no fairy tale, so it was pretty straight to the point, Vampire King offered Baran position of power within his kingdom, kingdom of undead where mortals and undead alike are judged by their deeds and not by their type, where people realize that no magic is inherently evil, merely a tool that can be used for whatever a person may want. A kingdom where people who were strong enough to tell Pharasma to go screw herself and thus achieve immortality through skill and intellect, are admired and not seen as abominations.

After hearing what The Scarlet Kingdom stands for, Baran wasted no time doubting whether or not she should work for Vampire King, as she truly believed that the kingdom where everyone is free from superstition and illogical reasoning of the old world is a great place to live in.

With her great strength and natural familiarity with unlawful behavior, Baran became the quality of an enforcer that Vampire King was looking for.

## Striking the Behemoth

Ever since Baran became Royal Enforcer, a position holding quite a lot of political power, she has tried to be more and more engaged into politics, in which so far she has been completely disinterested in.

Why would a random pit fighter care about nation A attacking nation B, or how there is a rebellion going on because some king cheated on his wife and now the bastard wants some of that power? Conflict between nations as well as the motivations behind it, was beyond Baran, and she never really felt a need to get involved in conflict that she is not the part of.

Now however, things has changed, she was part of a nation. No, she wasn't part of the nation, she was one of the pillars that helped to keep up an idea that she wanted to become global. Idea of people, monsters, and undead, basically everyone being able to live together, where everyone if free to choose their own life. No more killing goblin on mass because some fat farmer figured they are monstrous and too close to their farm, no more stupid priests who claim that necromancy is a forbidden knowledge even though they have no problem with magic that has no other purpose than to kill and hurt other. Scarlet Kingdom is not just another nation, its a nation that will change the world, help it evolve and help people take down the blindfolds of the old world. It is the future, future that Baran and her fellow co-leaders must support as unbreakable pillars, so eventually entire world will be like Scarlet Kingdom, inspired by its philosophy.

Deep inside Baran knows that she and people of Behemoth are kindred spirit. They are people who think that if they are strong enough to take something, it is only right they acquire it. And whatever people may say and whine about, this is the way the world works. After all isn't this whole war because other nations are strong enough to quench down those they dislike? In any other situation? Baran would actually join the Behemoth in this conflict. Not caring about who is at advantage or disadvantage in this conflict, simply joining the horde of barbarian who want nothing more than to kick asses and take whatever they like, fighting against bunch of butt-hurt "civilized" folks that only care about their toys that Behemoth took and may take.

Yet Baran is going to fight the Behemoth. Not in the name of protecting innocent who should be themselves responsible for protecting themselves. Not in the name of taking care of obviously evil barbarians even though plenty of them may have been conscripted into the raiding armies against their will and would be good people if given a choice. Baran is not a delusional "hero" who needs to justify dirty work. She is gonna murder people, good ones, evil ones and anybody in between, because Scarlet Kingdom is still in early stages of growth. It could use any form of allies and its doubtful that chaotic hordes of Behemoth would consider helping out when there is nothing in for them.

Other kingdoms may be honorbound to give at least some form of support to Scarlet Kingdom after people working for it are gonna help kill their vermin's for them. Not to mention that Behemoth if not taken down may end up eventually becoming a threat towards Scarlet Kingdom. Even if unlikely, the weed must be ripped out with its roots and burned down as soon as possible.

And so, Baran arrived to the camp. Together with a small following formed out of citizens of the scarlet kingdom who chosen to help, and some of House of knives members who are incognito and know full well they won't be able to take down Baran, thus being perfect not-backstabbing-godhood-seeking-fear-and-pressure-resistant allies. The greatest enemy in war is not the damage the armies deal or take, but the attrition that starves our the people participating in conflict, thus Baran's goal is to make sure that logistics are top notch. While Baran's followers are trying to settle new faster but also save roads, Baran herself helps out training some melee fighters while also hyping herself up before the future battles.