Rune Aphel

***Name:***

Rune Ryoto Aphel

***Race:***

Half-Elf

***Class:***

Draconic Sorcerer, Celestial Warlock

***Age:***

23

***Height:***

6ft 4 inches

***Weight:***

172 pounds

***Physical Description:***

Rune is a half-Elf at base though the things done to him have mutated his physiology, he sports thick brass scales on his back and legs fading to a slight scaled sheen as they get to his chest and forearms, his feet are a lot more draconic in nature resembling something more akin to the clawed foot of a lizard this doesn’t. As you travel up to his waste a scaled tail protrudes from the base of his spine for an extra meter or so though isn’t physically that strong, he does use it to help with his balance a little. Crowning his head are a pair of brass coloured horns curving back and staying close to his scalp branching and crocked through mirroring each other as they go back where a crest had tried to form. Those are the most visible and eye-catching mutations that were made to him though weren't the only ones his fingers are slightly elongated and his eyes are surrounded by scars and bare silted pupils in a solid crimson iris. Surprisingly little scars linger on his body from the tests only prominently showing where his scaled protection is thinnest. While now being quite hearty as a result of his body stabilizing with the help of Gwyn, his body is weaker than average giving him a slenderer look, he wears his hair long to cover the scales on the back of his neck. Clothing wise he wears baggy 3 quarter length trousers to accommodate his unusual lower half with a loose short-sleeved shirt with his scales offering protection from the heat and protecting his feet enough to net need shoes though it would be hard to find some even if they didn’t, topping all this is a white poncho covering the tops of his arms and protecting his less scaled areas from the elements. He wears some thin bands of various metals around his left horn and ankle and his right wrist, given to him by Gwyn and a pair of Bracers given to him by Wuldaar.

***Backstory:***

Subject 73, later to be known as Rune, was birthed in a vat, his parents were traveling merchants that ran into misfortune being abducted, while his mother was in the earliest stages of pregnancy. They became the test subjects for a mad alchemist obsessed with unlocking the powers of draconic physiology utilizing powerful enchantment magic to dominate their minds, the alchemist would conduct grueling experiments on the couple. Discovering the woman was with child he would first run tests on the father to then try to influence the developing baby by altering both the baby and the mother, replacing the circulating blood with that of a dragon, altering organs, transposing flesh. This turned the father into an abomination and broke the mind of the mother, but the baby still survived adapting to the changes made to its body. The source of all the raw materials used in these experiments was a young brass dragon named Wuldaar. Captured and imprisoned from an ambush set up by the alchemist.

When it was finally time for the child’s birth the mother's basic functions were being maintained magically in a vat of gods knows what. The child itself was mutated by all that had been done to him, though he still did not possess all the qualities of a dragon, deeming him incomplete in the eyes of the alchemist, becoming yet another one of his failures. The father, seeing a fate similar to his own in the future of his child, said a silent goodbye to his wife and son, unleashing the wild magic that had built up in his body from what had been done to him and detonated. The blast was devastating, killing most minions, destroying most the building and research held within, heavily wounding the alchemist and freeing the dragon.

With Wuldaar finally freed from his torturous imprisonment, it enraged at what was done to it. It went on a rampage, turning the rubble to ash and crippling the alchemist leaving him to burn, as all he tried to accomplish disappeared around him. As the dragon went to leave, he noticed the cries of the baby. Protected from the blast by the vat and laying in his mother’s arm as life left her. He took pity and felt a debt for his freedom, brought by the acts of his father, he decided to take the child with him, leaving to never look back.

Baring the scars of what happened, the dragon traveled for weeks, slowly regaining his strength and making his way to a desert in hopes of finding a home. Caring for the child using his polymorphed form to enter towns, obtaining precisions and barring of where he was, eventually finding a home. The home chosen by Wuldaar was at the edge of a desert by a large oasis, normally being sparse with trees this place was suffused with magic. Where the walls of the planes thinned, connecting the deepest parts to the fey wilds, drawing in animals and allowing fey to venture out. In the words of Wuldaar, it was “A great spot to stumble upon a conversation”.

From here on their lives were relatively peaceful, they formed a bond similar to a parent and child, with the dragon raising the child on the stories he had collected, while teaching him history and how to control the magic he possessed. The fey and wildlife close by, were regulars in the conversation halls, always keeping the place lively. The territory connected via the oasis was held by the Archfey Lurue, though she was a rare visit. Her visits caused unicorns from her territory to become more approachable and some even became regular visitors. All this caused the hall to be built more in the oasis than the desert-dwelling, Rune stayed in a room coming off the hall up near the surface not quite in the main lair.

Visiting adventurers were uncommon but still happened from time to time with a wide variety of shenanigans coming from them. Some fey even helped Wuldaar with Rune, being as a dragon isn’t always the best at raising a half-elf child, the dragon barely gave Rune a name for the first few years just calling him boy or child. One of the more long-lived Unicorns named Gwyn that regularly visited the halls for chit-chat took a liking to Rune, even being the one to press for the name only to end up being the go-to baby sitter for whenever Wuldaar had to leave to get supplies. It wasn’t so bad for her having a more maternal instinct than most, though she often wished Rune was a girl, often pressing Wuldaar to bring back dresses to try on him, although Rune will not talk about that part and you will never know if she got her way.

She would often use her magic to help keep Runes body functioning when the strain from his mutations was getting too much for his young physicality to handle, eventually using pact magic to keep his body together. As he aged, the strain lessened and his constitution grew to deal with it. Eventually, Rune reached adulthood and his body had stabilized, though still had obvious signs of what had happened to it. He had grown to want to explore the world finding new stories to tell Wuldaar and Gwyn in the grand hall and although hesitant to let him, eventually, Wuldarr gave him a ride to the closest town and saw him off into the world, waiting for him to come back with stories to tell.