Carten

**Carten** is a human adventurer and a founding member of Ascension.

## Description

He wears full plate armor including a helmet and carries two heavy metal shields. He is a big, muscular man and has a bushy black beard that compensates for an otherwise bald head. The color of his soul is smokey gray.

He is quite brash and openly speaks his mind towards anyone, sometimes complicating negotiations, although his comrades can usually smooth things over. He has an uproaring laughter and a sense of physical humor that is sometimes inappropriate. He can be quite inventive with his swearing, which is quite a contrast to Mollo who swears much more often and vocal, but has no imagination.

### Romantic interests

He is particularly attracted to strong and powerful women, not having interest in weak damsels. However, his brash and sometimes misogynistic nature wards off most of his interests. Over the course of the story, he focused his interests first on Lavarro, Ameliah, Velika and most lately Evonna. Carten likes rough bedtime manners and kinky bondage.

## History

He comes from a belligerent family of Fel Sadanis: his mother Carnilla and his aunt Mazel work(ed) as caravan guards, and Mazel became quite notorious among the locals, so Carten was called "the boy related to Mazel Strongarm" and such. From being an adolescent, he has already planned his Defender build, despite the warnings of his mother that this would get him seriously hurt.

Carten and Jamus were on the same team when they met the Essence Monster that awakened them in the Badlands: They met a Face Stabbing Face Stabber and half of the team died.

Carten and Jamus kept adventuring together, and were contracted by Lavarro and Mahria in late summer of 3060. Jamus had met Rain, and so the newbie adventurer was allowed to accompany them. Carten was appreciative towards Lavarro, but realized that the High-Silver adventurer would be able to kill him as an afterthought, and didn't pursue her. After a quest to the Vekuavak Mines, the pair had yet another quest with Lavarro. Afterwards, the pair went with Rain, Tallheart, Val and Ameliah back to the Vekuavak Mines, where they discovered the Everdeep Fortress. During those adventures, Carten persistently made overtures towards Ameliah (right after he met her and learned about her Strength), but she was not at all interested.

In anger about his attitude, Lavarro soon afterwards force-blasted him through the outer walls of the Guild building once, and the main concern was the damage to the building and whether his fall injured some bystander in the city - Carten was of course fine. During the enclosure of Fel Sadanis, Carten willingly shacked up with Citizen Sadanis and was quite content with the arrangement that included fancy bondage for him. After the failed assassination attempt on her, he became something like her closest advisor, given that Arta Rill had died. He was given the position of the Captain of her newly formed guard, did most of the paperwork and dealt with Lord Whatsit who served as something like a political advisor. He was relieved when Rain convinced the no-longer-Citizen to resign from absolute power over the city. However, he was heartbroken when she broke up with him right after the Shift happened. Being a friend of Rain, Carten was eager to join Ascension when it got founded.

The loss of the "love of his life" he lamented loudly over, until Evonna awakened in the Essed Frostbarrows, and Carten got to train her as a new Defender for Ascension. When the company reached Vestvall, they had already become a couple, and they remained so steadfastly, which includes belching contests.

Carten is an Entrusted in Ascension, but is not doing much committee work. He and Jamus were prominently part of the scouting group that joined Rain in Barstone. When the *Temerity* made its way to Eastspar, Carten met his aunt Mazel and his mother Carnilla again.

## Build

His skills include Rebound, Shield Bash, Unyielding Defense.

Due to him having a true **Shieldwielding Defender** build he can tank lots of damage. He doesn't care about being called a "Turtle" (short for Tortugo, but encompassing all kinds of offensive fighter builds based on Endurance), or even a "tank" (a word that Rain brought over from his Earth).

He has made it a point in his character to *get fuckin' irritatin'* because he has planned his build long ago: Become a Defender and get a surefire spot in any big team he wants. He either already put points into the Threat Attraction skilltree (i.e. drawing aggro) already, or has it planned for the future - and doesn't care that it is treated as a joke by many other adventurers. He invested in the Shieldwielding tree and gained Endurance passives.

Carten has reached his Level Cap of 12 and intends to take *Bramble Armor* as a further Skill. He has some chemical resistance.

Although his build is focused on Endurance, he has enough strength to throw a bear.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 14 and 90
2. ↑ Chapter 222
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 89
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Chapter 100
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 122
6. ↑ Chapter 178
7. ↑ Chapters 14, 19
8. ↑ Chapter 40
9. ↑ Chapter 98
10. ↑ Chapter 172
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 213
12. ↑ Chapter 140
13. ↑ Chapter 54

Carten's and Dust's "misadventures" was the Point-of-View chapter #54. Afterwards, he also provided PoV paragraphs in #90, #100 and #120. (Full list of chapters includes PoV breakdowns)