Thalion

Tall, pale, built with the sort of strong, stringy muscles that aren’t noticeable when they’re hidden under leather armor but hard to ignore when wearing nothing but a layer of cloth, Thalion has blue-silver eyes, firey red hair, and a reserved look about him. Among the most striking of his features is a long scar running down his face that he doesn’t attempt to hide.

Thalion is a half-elf with a strong background in sailing, ranging, and hating dragons. He’s quiet, thoughtful, observant, and tends to let good buddypal Schmeb drive the conversation.

Easily the most well-traveled of the group, Thalion has been to most of the known world during his merchant travels and knows a bit about the main exports and imports of all the major kingdoms. He’s found himself in Volanil after striking out on his own and has an amount of personal association with all three of the major continents: his mother on the human continent of Huresa, his father on the elven continent of Ealahie, and a mentor who frequented them all but often preferred Volanil itself.

Much older than he looks and quieter than might be expected, Thalion is easily mistaken for an inexperienced old teen or young adult, and he doesn’t have a particularly strong drive to correct people who make those assumptions. It isn’t until after getting to know him that people tend to learn that he can speak three languages, talk shop with a sailor, and if need be, forge his own sword with near-Elven quality.

## Backstory

### A Chance Meeting

Captain Finnian Widrivvr was a fearless sailor hailing from the northernmost human port town of Havensmist. His ship, The Swan’s Song, was known for its grace and able-bodied crew. Due to his ship’s notoriety, it was often used for important trips for dignitaries and trade for the noble class.

Captain Widrivvr was father to one child, Kethra Widrivvr, who sought her fortune as a traveling merchant onboard her father’s ship. She was tall and fair-skinned with green eyes, red hair, and a perpetual wistful look.

On a diplomatic trip to the elven city of Andurán, twenty-two year old Kethra was trading rare ores with a sword master named Naracion Harmamacar. Naracion, ancient to a human but young by elven standards, had ebony hair, skin the color of snow, blue eyes flecked with silver, and a permanently stern face.

During her short stay in Andurán, Kethra fell for the elf. Naracion gave Kethra a pendant of his family’s crest: a silver wolf on a simple leather cord. When The Swan’s Song was scheduled to leave the elven port a fortnight later, Kethra agreed with Narcion that she should stay with her father. He promised he would write to her, but he never did. Kethra was left heartbroken and, unbeknownst to both her and Naracion, pregnant.

### Birth and Early Years

Nine months later, during a particularly strong storm on the seas, Thalion was born. Thalion’s looks favored his father, giving him pale skin and silver-blue eyes, although he inherited Kethra’s fiery red hair. His mother gave him an elvish name meaning steadfast, strong hero and dauntless man.

The first few years of Thalion’s life were as perfect as a young half-elf’s childhood could possibly be. Kethra continued her merchant business as a single mother on his grandfather’s ship. Thalion’s grandfather taught him all he could about the seafaring, making the young boy more comfortable on the water than on land. Sailing was a perfect cure for Thalion’s innate wanderlust and adventurous spirit.

Kethra initially kept Thalion’s father a secret to everyone, but there was no hiding her son was a half-elf. Under strict rule of Captain Widrivvr, none of his crew mentioned Thalion’s unknown sire under the intent of ensuring the boy never felt different from the full-blooded humans onboard. Although this plan worked aboard The Swan’s Song, it could not keep the whispers and sideways glances in the port towns, nor his own reflection, from making Thalion believe he was an outsider.

Kethra finally answered some her son’s incessant questions about his father when he was seven. She told him his father’s name and that he was an elf. Thalion wanted to learn more, but finally stopped asking when Kethra’s eyes began to swim with unshed tears. However, she did give him the wolf pendant to wear.

### The Day the Dragon Came

Ten years after Thalion’s birth, The Swan Song was rounding a particularly rocky cliff that jutted out from a deserted coastline. Thalion was learning to navigate the reefs under the careful watch of Captain Widrivvr, who was teaching his grandson how to use his treasured compass. The boy was charting a course when tragedy struck.

Attracted by a large shipment of gems in the cargo hold, Ryzeldore the Terrible, a red dragon nearly the size of the ship, swooped down from the cliff and attacked The Swan Song. Its flamed breath set the deck alight. Captain Widrivvr and his crew went to their battle stations, but it was too late. The ship was lost.

Amid the chaos, Kethra found her son. She grabbed Thalion, who was hiding behind a barrel in fear, and told him he must be brave in the face of danger. Suddenly, Ryzeldore reached a claw toward Kethra. Taking his mother’s words to heart, Thalion threw himself at his mother, knocking her out of the dragon’s reach. However, the dragon’s talon caught his right cheek, causing him to fall unconscious as a long gash poured blood profusely from his face.

In a desperate attempt to save her son, Kethra emptied the barrel Thalion was hiding behind and slipped her son inside. She heaved the barrel over the side of the boat and watched helplessly as it floated away.

The ship sank. Those who were not killed by Ryzeldore met their watery graves by the tide slamming their bodies against the unforgiving rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Thalion, passed out and bleeding in a small barrel, was the lone survivor of The Swan Song.

### A Childhood Interrupted

A few days later, Thalion woke in a bed inside of an inn with the innkeeper’s daughter placing a wet cloth to the scarring wound on his face. She called for her father once she noticed her charge was awake. The innkeeper explained to Thalion that a ranger in pursuit of a dragon found the boy washed up on the beach and brought him to the inn. The innkeeper grumbled it was just as well Thalion woke up, since the money the ranger left to care for him was running low.

As soon as he was able to stand, the innkeeper pushed Thalion out onto the road. Unsure of what to do or where to go, Thalion was left with nothing but the clothes on his back, the wolf pendant, and his grandfather’s compass, the later which he managed to slip into his trouser pocket at the beginning of the attack.

The girl from the inn came out to meet him. She said the ranger who rescued Thalion mentioned would be back in a few days and wished to speak to him. She agreed to let Thalion stay in the barn loft, where her father would not notice him, until his rescuer returned. Thalion, a quiet boy by nature, only nodded in thanks.

That night, the girl went to Thalion and offered him some stew and half of a loaf of bread. As he ravenously tore into the food, the girl explained her mother had once told her it was good luck to help an elf in need. It was Thalion’s first time realizing humans saw him as an elf instead of a half-elf.

Thalion spent nearly a week alone in the barn loft, mourning the loss of his family and crew, the only people his nomadic lifestyle had allowed him to forge relationships with. Although the innkeeper’s daughter brought him food every day, the boy remained silent both in grief and anger from his powerlessness to save the people he loved.

By the end of the week, the ranger returned to the inn looking for Thalion. Although he had never met another one in his life, Thalion knew at just a glance that the ranger was also a half-elf. The man introduced himself as Morcion.

Morcion was the son of a male human and a female elf. His mother met his father when she was banished from her family’s mountain stronghold. His father died from exposure when he was six, leaving his mother to fend for herself and her young son. A decade later, a dragon killed his mother, leaving Morcion to survive alone. He lived off of the money he made trapping animals and selling the meat and skins to humans living near elven enclaves. He explained he preferred the company of nature respecting and quiet elves rather than humankind and often visited elven cities and towns for supplies and news. However, Morcion spent the majority of his time in forests and mountains, searching for the dragon that killed his mother. Having studied and hunted dragons for nearly six decades, he had more working knowledge of the beasts than any other living being. Intrigued, Thalion asked to accompany the ranger as an apprentice. Morcion allowed him, but warned him he would be facing a hard and dangerous life.

For nearly five years, Thalion traveled with Morcion. The ranger taught him everything he knew. The boy became a proficient archer, tracker, and hunter. Morcion taught Thalion about every kind of dragon, how to defeat them, and even basic Draconic. The boy discovered he had an innate talent for working with animals, both tame and wild. Thalion learned how to live with the land rather than off of it, respecting nature in all its forms. However, he could never quite come to terms with respecting dragons of any kind, unlike Morcion, who found peace for his own troubled past in mentoring the younger half-elf.

### Andurán

Morcion took Thalion on a supply run to Andurán just before the boy’s fifteenth birthday. By chance, Naracion Harmamacar happened upon the pair and, noticing his family’s wolf crest around Thalion’s neck, immediately realized he had fathered a child with Kethra.

Although against Morcion’s judgment, Thalion decided to stay with his father and get to know his elven family. Naracion brought Thalion into the Harmamacar home, however, the elf was cold and aloof toward his half-elf son. Thalion was not accepted by the society of Andurán, least of all by his stepmother Saerwen and half brothers Draugolë and Thandraug. They all referred to him as Bijan, the human translation of his elvish name.

The Harmamacar family was held in high regard in Andurán society. For generations, the family forged the best swords in the known world. Despite this, and much to Thalion’s dismay, the half-elf fit in with elves less than he assimilated with humans. He was more curious and ambitious than his half siblings and much less adept in magic. Although his ears were pointy by human standards, they were perfectly round by the elves’. Tanner, taller, and bigger than even his eldest brother, who was seventy-five years his senior, Thalion stuck out like a sore thumb. In spite of this, Thalion fought to fit in with the society, learning not only elvish customs but to fluently speak, read, and write their language. The one place where Thalion truly excelled in elvish society was sword fighting. It seemed like the only place his father would acknowledge his existence was in the forge and the sparring ring, causing it to be the best part of Thalion’s life in Andurán.

After a few years in Andurán, Thalion became restless and exhausted with being treated as a second-class citizen. He longed for his old life in the wild with Morcion. With no other way to contact him, Thalion vowed the next time his old mentor returned to the city, he would leave with him. However, this was not meant to be.

When Thalion was eighteen, he learned Morcion had been killed trying to protect a seaside village from Ryzeldore the Terrible, the very dragon that had killed his mother and grandfather. A grief-stricken Thalion blamed himself for Morcion’s death, claiming if he had been with the older half-elf, he could have saved him. He could not turn to his family for guidance, as they did not believe that half-elves, with such a short lifespan compared to full-blooded elves, should be mourned for long.

Thalion left Andurán not long after he learned of his mentor’s demise. Like Morcion, he decided to live in the wilds as a solitary ranger. However, he vowed to get his revenge on Ryzeldore, both for his family and for his friend. But no time spent alone in the wild could keep Thalion from feeling lost.

### The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

Four years later, Thalion met a gnome wizard named Shmebulock in a tavern of a small, lonely town. The gnome had managed to get into a drunken brawl for attempting to charm a local blacksmith’s betrothed. Moved to pity by the charismatic, small creature, Thalion stepped in and saved Shmebulock from a massive beating. Although the loud, arrogant, energetic gnome was very different from the quiet, disagreeable, loner half-elf in almost every way, the pair quickly became friends over the bond of not belonging in local societies. They became inseparable, Shmebulock becoming Thalion’s conscience and guide to all social interactions and Thalion becoming Shmebulock’s height and muscle.