Adam Stoneheart

"*Look around you. Can you **feel** the Power surrounding you? What we wield, what we have **mastered**...it should not be our kind that feel **fear**. We hold the true power in these lands. The power to crush kings and queens. To usher in a new age. And **WE** are the ones that must live in fear?! I say **no longer!***"
—Adam upon the formation of the Knot[src]

**Adam Stoneheart**, born **Adam of Francisburg**, also known as **Green Eyes**, is the leader of the Knot, a faction of mage supremacists vying to control Pydwell through both political and magical power. A fearsome battlemage and a master of blood magic, Adam seeks to bend all of Pydwell to magical rule via a vast network of spies, assassins and trained monsters.

Born an omen with severe deformities, Adam was brought into the Circle of Magi by the sorceress Yen, and rose to the rank of teacher. Determined to earn the right to marry Yen, Adam made a deal with the Lord of Blood to erase his deformities, transforming him into a perfect form of beauty. However, Adam would soon discover the side effect of his transformation: he had developed a heart of stone, and no longer felt pleasure, hatred or pain. Learning blood magic through his inability to feel pain, Adam experienced a vision of a coming apocalypse, which he shared with his closest friends. Disillusioned with the Circle, Adam led several of his fellow mages in an escape from Tír Miraak, thus forming the Knot, a secret society that aimed to prevent Ragh nar Roog by any means they deemed necessary. Initially operating from the shadows, Adam emerged to apprehend Minerva an Kett, whose beachwalker nature could be used to access the lost realm of Dauðstaður, and crossed swords with the Black Blade Company that had sworn to protect her.

## Biography

### Early Life & Background

Adam was born the son of poor farmers in the hamlet of Francisburg, northern Norgard, in the later decades of the eighth age. Although his immediate family hailed from northern Norgard, Adam's ancestry traces back to the realm of Kiin in Pydwell's south.

Already cursed with a life of hardship in the frozen wastes, Adam was born with hideous congenital deformities: his right arm was attached to his breast; his left arm was free but ended in just two fingers and a thumb; his spine was twisted and his back hunched; his legs were twisted; and his skull was malformed, making it difficult for him to speak, breath and swallow. Only his eyes conveyed any beauty: they were a deep and dazzling emerald green.

Were it not for his mother's love, Adam would have been discarded or slaughtered by omenslayers. However, his mother's love did not last forever, for once it became clear that Adam's hideous form would not disappear with time, his mother began to look at him the same way the villagers did: as a curse upon Francisburg whose life held no value aside from manual labour. To add further insult, Adam's father perished to an unknown disease that his mother eventually blamed on his cursed nature. Little did anyone know that his form was actually the fault of his mother's bloodline, a dynasty rich in mages and elven blood.

Adam himself grew to care little for the distrusting and disgusted looks he received from the villagers, and loved his mother despite her hatred for him. He grew to consider a bowl of warm soup more than enough reward for a hard day's work, even when his fellow workers were paid wages.

### Rise of Green Eyes

#### Tutorship at Tir Miraak

After a long day's work in the frozen fields around Francisburg, Adam sits beside his mother and eats dinner: cold soup. After accepting a beating from his mother after knocking down the soup pot, Adam cries himself to sleep and finds himself on the Beach. Standing at the edge of an endless sea, he spots something massive in the grey water. A gigantic serpent emerges from the sea and towers over him, forcing him to cower in fear. The creature does not attack, however, and beckons to several shadowy figures on the horizon.

Having been marked by the Circle of Magi, Adam was approached by Yen, a sorceress masquerading as a Great Sun princess attempting to spread the Thalmonian religion across the North.

## Overview

### Physical Appearance

Adam's true form is a twisted, grotesque creature with numerous deformaties: his right arm was attached to his breast; his left arm was free but ended in just two fingers and a thumb; his spine was twisted and his back hunched; his legs twisted; and his skull malformed, making it difficult for him to speak, breath and swallow.

Through the use of powerful blood magic, Adam was able to erase his congenital deformities and reform his body into a vision of what it could have looked like had he not been born an omen.

### Personality

Before his transformation, and despite the prejudice he faced due to his omen nature, Adam was warm, kind, empathetic, selfless and noble. He considered a bowl of warm soup a more than worthy reward for a hard day's work, and was endlessly loyal even to those that saw him as a monster. In short, he possessed an "inner beauty" that directly contradicted his horrifying exterior.

After partaking in a blood magic ritual that erased his omen form, giving rise to a body free of the deformities that had plagued him since birth, Adam's personality dramatically shifted. As a consequence of the ritual, he no longer felt any strong emotions or physical sensations, including love, hatred and pain. He was thus transformed into a shell of a man motivated only by ambition and power, no longer exhibiting the warmth and kindness that he once possessed. As leader of the Knot, Adam is more than willing to sacrifice entire villages to siphon Power and further his goals; while his ultimate goal is to prevent Ragh nar Roog, an objectively noble cause, he fervently believes that the ends justify the means, which includes the subjugation of all non-mages in Pydwell.

## Powers, Equipment & Abilities

### Powers

* **Elemental magic:** Adam is a master of the four fundamentals of magic: fire, force, shield and control. He can unleash jets of fire from his hands; harden his skin to resemble armour; unleash concussive blasts that launch debris and oncoming foes; and manipulate the minds of weaker opponents, turning them passive or into temporary thralls.
* **Blood magic:** After losing the ability to feel pain, Adam learned the forbidden arts of blood magic. One of the most accomplished blood mages in all of Pydwell, Adam is able to form weapons from his own blood and manipulate the blood of others, allowing him to burn them from the inside out.
	+ **Bloodflame:** Adam is able to conjure bloodflame using just his blood as kindling. Burning hotter than any natural fire, Adam's bloodflame melts enemy weapons and armour with ease.
	+ **Blood mist:** Adam has mastered the art of blood mist, allowing him to disappear into a cloud of blood-red mist that renders him invisible and able to attack enemies from nowhere. Only a warden's reactions are fast enough to repel such an attack.
* **Pain threshold:** *To be added...*
* **Beach Perception:** Adam's magical nature allows him to perceive the Beach when he enters it in his sleep.

### Equipment

#### Weapons

* **Bloody blade:** Adam's sword, a katana from his ancestral homeland of Kihirrin, is infused with his own magical blood.

### Abilities

* **Master combatant:** As proficient with a blade as he is combat magic, Adam is a fearsome fighter, able even to hold his own against Hermoor MacDuff.

## Trivia

* Adam is a fervent worshipper of Morag, Lord of Blood, the patron deity of blood magic.