Merl Oft

The Man, The Myth, The Merl

Greg Oft - Brother (Deceased)

**Merl Oft** (merr-ul oft) is a member of the Brigade. He first appeared during the events of Siege for Tower Larimar, where he assisted Hurc Broadblade in gaining control of Larimar Tower and connecting it to Nadir's Zenith.

## Personality

Due to his monk training, Merl is highly thoughtful and tends to take too long to make decisions, looking for a perfect solution even when one doesn’t exist. This often leads to unfortunate events transpiring around him while he is thinking of what action he should take. He does, however, have a strong sense of justice which can often overcome his indecisiveness.

Merl comes off somewhat cold to new people he meets because of his indifference toward strangers and those he doesn’t care about. His aforementioned sense of justice leads him to help many strangers nevertheless. Though, truthfully, he does not care for them as much as he does for writing the wrong he has found. On the flip side, he often gives his friends and family the benefit of the doubt - a remnant from his time before he became a monk - overlooking their flaws and refusing to believe they would do something wrong even when the evidence would say otherwise.

Thanks to his monk training, he can survive with very little and find most places comfortable enough to keep him happy. He tries to raise the morale of his companions when on journeys far from home telling stories from his time at the monastery.

## Appearance

Merl is quite unimpressive to look at. Average height and weight for a male human at 5’6” and 145 lbs. His face is clean shaven with no hint of hair. A majority of his head follows suit, except for a small patch on the upper back of his head with hair that is a couple feet long woven into a braided ponytail.

His simple, sun-bleached green gown covers his body and legs down to his knees. His arms and what is visible of his legs make it obvious he follows a strict training regiment. Basic sandals protect his feet from the ground, easily replaceable when this pair gets worn out. In one of his hands you’ll always be able to find his bo-staff, just barely shorter than him.

## Backstory

### Youth

During his youth he spent most of his time helping his family run their butcher shop. He started out as an errand boy, delivering meat to those who ordered it, collecting payments, or just counting inventory.

Once he was old enough his father taught him to hunt, skin, and prepare kills for cooking or for preserving. He was also allowed to take charge of the shop all on his own if his parents needed to leave town for a few days.

A few years later his brother, Greg, also came of age. Merl was put in charge of teaching him everything he has learned from his father. Greg, however, did not desire to stay his whole life in one town and take over the family business. He got involved with a lot of the wrong people and Merl had to spend most of his time chasing his brother around and cleaning up after him.

It didn’t take long before Greg simply disappeared, not to be seen for many years. Merl left only a week after his brother’s disappearance to see if he could get to the bottom of it.

### Time as a Monk

After a couple months of wandering around and asking after Greg, he came upon a monk monastery. At first he planned on only a night or two to keep out of the wilderness and have a real bed for a while, but those two nights quickly turned into two years.

Merl spent near 100% of his time meditating and training in the teachings of the true god Bahamut. He became more critical in his thinking, but never learned to shut out his emotions, leading him to often spend more time thinking about a solution than acting. His short time spent at the monastery is to blame for this since most monks take five or more years to reach enlightenment but he left after only two to resume his search for his brother.

## Relationships

### Family

Greg Oft: Merl’s relationship with Greg confuses even Merl himself. Greg liked to get into trouble, often causing trouble for Merl too, but Merl grew to become accustomed to it, perhaps even growing to enjoy it around the time of Greg’s disappearance. When they were younger and both free of any responsibilities, they were like most young siblings: roughhousing more than they should, arguing over nothing, but also developing an everlasting bond.

When Greg disappeared, Merl knew that Greg wasn’t as crafty as he believed himself to be so Merl went after him. After years of worried searching, Merl finally found him, relieved that he had managed to stay alive and well, though very disappointed in what he learned to be Greg’s recent endeavours. He never got to talk things out with Greg though. Shortly after he found Greg, Merl watched him die, leaving many of his emotions jumbled and unresolved.Parents: Merl loves his parents Micros and Elane. They treated him well and are hopefully still waiting for him back at their butcher shop after all these years. He still plans on keeping his promise to return home, but doesn’t know how he’ll be able to break the news that Greg is dead.

### Friends

Hurc Broadblade: Hurc was the first member of the Brigade that Merl met. Hurc recruited Merl for the capture and linking of Larimar Tower. As someone who has a particularly troublesome inability to make decisions, Merl admires Hurcs ability to make them quickly (although they are often quite basic and mostly involve hitting, smashing, or breaking).

A simple man, he is easy to talk to and doesn’t pry into subjects that are best left alone.Allaura Zilna: Unfortunately for Merl, he has spent most of his time in the Brigade with Allaura, the woman who murdered his brother. Though a bit brash, over-aggressive, and hasty in her decision making Merl can’t find it in himself to hate her because of how unfortunate her recent life events are. In the few moments that Greg had to defend himself, he didn’t seem to assert that the awful things Allaura was telling Merl about him were false or misleading leaving Merl hurt by his death, but unable to condemn Allarua’s actions completely.

Merl appreciates the fact that she hears him out when he disagrees with her plan and is generally willing to let others try more peaceful approaches first.Bonko the Clown: Bonko is great with other people. He is great at getting what he wants and quickly helping all parties involved be happy with the outcome. Merl loved listening to his orchestra of instruments which were surprisingly calm enough for him to meditate to. His passing was very tragic and Merl will miss him.

## Trivia

* Merl was my (Marc’s) first ever DnD character that was meant for more than a one-shot (despite being used in only one-shots).