Anje

## Background

Official Anje Artwork by Dmitry Utkin (quacknear)

Anje is a massive being that lives in the region known as the Rolling Hills, south of the City of Alivast near Humbrack Village. He lives in a crudely furnished cave behind a waterfall. Very little known of who or what Anje is. Those that encounter the towering creature share a healthy fear of him and keep their distance when possible. Anje possesses enough sheer physical strength to rip a being limb from limb with his bare hands and also has incredibly powerful magic of unknown origin. In combat he has shown a ferocity and terrifying brutality to those that have earned his anger.

When first The Unexpectables encountered Anje, they observed him tending to a herd of giant goats, the only creatures he regularly associates with. They reconnected with him while fighting the Monster's Culling and freed him from the cage he was held in. Finally, the party tracked him down again in order to recruit him into being the Sweet Dragon's Druid, which he accepted, and was given a special amulet that could shift him to a more acceptable height and appearance.

In his natural state, Anje is a deeply unusual creature, about the size of a troll with a top heavy build, with a very long and scruffy mane of bright turquoise that is marked with several mysterious runes, with coal-black skin on his underside and legs, which are digitigrade. He emits a soft glow from his eyes, ears, and mouth. This increases in intensity and the runes on his mane glow when he uses magic. In his humanoid form, he best resembles a very tall elf with horn nubs on his forehead, with jet black skin, his mane becomes long hair of the same color as before with the runes unchanged.

### Anje the Employee

Anje was enlisted to serve as the druid for the Sweet Dragon. He was given a magic amulet made from a sprig of ivy that grew from a mother tree which transforms him into a more human-like figure as well as allowing him to speak and understand common. Anje is still very simple, and functions on a largely instinctual level, though basic communication is possible. In his transformed form, he is about six feet tall, and has features that are like a blend of a tiefling and elf, though still possesses his aqua mane with its runes.

## Behavior

Anje is cautious and is startled easily. His reactions to sudden noises, strange smells, or other surprises tends to be very primal and often aggressive. He can understand basic pantomime and nonverbal communication, though complex gestures confuse him. His reactions give the impression that he is more similar to a highly intelligent primate than a humanoid.

Despite his primitive behavior, he is more than a simple territorial brute. He has shown to have a more thoughtful and protective side, though his immense size and strength sometimes makes him seem more threatening than he is. He was more than willing to help Anna and Thomas escape capture and fend off Monster's Culling, and giving whatever aid he could, expressing concern for both.

Anje at first appeared to have little knowledge of other sentient races, viewing them with suspicion or assuming they are strange versions of more familiar animals, but later was revealed to understand the basic building blocks of a family unit (mother, baby, father etc.), indicating he has at least some idea of how a humanoid family is supposed to work.

His daily routine during the cold winter months involves a lot of sleeping, but in general he wanders a lot and forages for food and resources. He eats fish when its available, and has no compunctions about eating carrion, having a diet quite similar to a bear with the exception of the milk and cheese from the goats he tends.

In his role as "Guardian" for the Sweet Dragon, Anje cares for livestock and the gardens. He also really likes firbolgs since his ancient role meant he dwelt with them. He also really likes elves. Simply being around them brings him joy.

## Relationships

### **The Unexpectables**

Since Anje has little knowledge of other sentients, he tends to categorize the group based on what he knows.

**Task** - In his language, Task is usually referred to as "Lizard/Dragon", as the translation is an interchangeable term. He also thinks Task is kind of mouthy, and frequently stops him from talking by pinching his mouth shut. That said, he carried him to his waterfall free of charge, as Task was likely too small to keep up with him.

**Greckles** - Greckles is usually referred to as "Bird" by Anje. They get along well enough, though he also tends to close Greckles beak if he thinks he's being mouthy or noisy. Anje believes Greckles is of perfect dimensions for egg laying.

**Borky** - Borky is the only member of the Unexpectables Anje actively distrusts or is hostile to, using the phrase "Fanged Destroyer" to describe him. Borky for his part, is rightfully afraid of Anje and stays back several feet in order to not be beaten within an inch of his life again. Their subsequent meeting while recruiting Anje went slightly better than previous encounters, with Anje detecting no "death" on Borky, but warning him that if he ever destroyed while he was around, he would eat him. Borky was notably quite frustrated with his anger towards him, but accepted the terms.

**Panic** - Anje believes Panic to be some form of odd goat. The first time they met, he was under disguise as a woman, and so he referred to Panic as "Mother". Panic on their second meeting seemed capable of communicating non-verbally with Anje and was able to convince him to bring the group to his den.

### Anna and Thomas

Anje rescued Thomas from the hag Mirehair, allowing him to be safely returned to his mother. Anje seems to have an affinity for the baby and came to his aid a second time when his real mother was shot while fleeing to safety. Though he lacked the ability to heal her, Anje made sure Anna and Thomas were safe by hiding them in his cave away from town.

### Tony

Anje recognizes and respects Tony's connection to Thomas. And makes a point to bow to him and call him a word in his language that means father/male-parent/life-giver.

### Monster's Culling

Monster's Culling quickly made an enemy of Anje because of their violent intentions and their endangerment of Thomas. Though Anje was able to protect Thomas and his mother, he was captured and imprisoned in a large cage. When he was freed by The Unexpectables, Anje used a magic attack to knock out everybody in the vicinity and tore the hunters apart while they were unconscious. He also reacted with rage to the sound of Lobo Slackjaw's war horn. He fought to protect Anna and Thomas when Lobo's ranks converged on his cave.

### Enceladus Anclad

Anje really loves elves, and hearing that there were elves in the city was one of the major reasons he chose to come to the Sweet Dragon. He follows Enceladus around like a puppy, or perhaps how a child follows a puppy. Long ago, Anje worked around firbolg and elves, and has been very lonely since they disappeared from Alivast.

## Trivia

* Before the design was purchased by MontyGlu, he was labeled "Fluffy Mountain Troll" by Quacknear
* Among the various animal feed he carries, Anje has goat cheese in his pouches that he makes himself.

* Anje tore off Mirehair's arm. Probably while performing an Irish Whip.
* Ozzy thinks "anje" is a word from Sylvan, the language of fairies.
* Anje prefers the company of Elves and Firbolgs.
* When Monty was presented fanart depicting Anje and Tiengo fighting, she mentioned that she wouldn’t like the eventual outcome.
* Anje is pronounced as the French word "Ange" which means angel.
* Anje possesses the ability to regenerate quickly from ordinary wounds, but has a vulnerability to fire.
* He has immense strength that allows him to hurl logs as missiles and manhandle enemies, beating them against the ground or rending them limb-from-limb.
* Anje speaks a very rare version of Druidic known primarily to Firbolgs. MontyGlu has created a vocabulary for him in his own language.
* Anje has some innate magical abilities and one of them is to create a blinding flash of light once per day.
* He gets lonely.

## Gallery

* Ange 3d image by Mason Rhoades @MediaRhoades
* Ange 3d image by Mason Rhoades @MediaRhoades
* Ange 3d image by Mason Rhoades @MediaRhoades
* Ange 3d image by Mason Rhoades @MediaRhoades
* Anje fan art by @Yggdrassal
* Stupid Sexy Anje fan art by @Ultraous
* Anje fan art by @SirMalervik
* "What if" Anje fought Tiengo? fan art by @SirMalervik
* Anje fan art by @SirMalervik
* Official Anje art by quacknear
* Anje fan art by @Boo\_Rad13y
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