Kal Markof

## Appearance

Kal stands around 1.9 meters tall, and weighs about 80 kg. His skin is reddish tan, and weather-beaten, giving him a slightly older appearance. His hair is straight and dark, about shoulder length and unkempt. He seems clean shaven, but in actuality, he cannot grow facial hair. He has a hawkish, somewhat thin face, and his eyes are a pale green. He has on a lightweight buckskin coat and knee-high boots (think oversized moccasins), and his shirt and pants are made of rough cloth; all of which are looking rather travel-worn. Overall, his appearance suggests that he has spent a lot of time in the wilderness.

During the second stage of the Hunter Exam, Kal was forced to cauterize a wound on his left arm, leaving a 3 cm wide burn (and later scar) from his elbow to the back of his hand. Kal tends to keep it bandaged, even after it has healed.

## Personality

Kal is generally very careful, though at times he can be a bit overconfident. He prefers to take time to reason out his decisions. He tends not to say much, but this is mostly because he spends most of his time alone, and isn’t good at maintaining a conversation. Thus far he has been able to get by without relying on others, instead relying only on himself. While generally mild-mannered, he has no qualms about killing, so long as he feels there is sufficient reason for it. While not bloodthirsty, Kal does not see the need to take a life as particularly worthy hesitating over.

## Backstory

Kal comes from a mountainous, heavily forested region of the Republic of Mantura. His father died when he was young, and his mother left he and his little sister with their uncle in the frontier town of Swift Creek. With two extra mouths to feed, his uncle quickly taught Kal how to hunt before finding a job as a manual laborer in town. After that, Kal spent most of his time in the surrounding forests, hunting the plentiful game of the area. Kal turned out to be a naturally skilled huntsman, and was widely regarded as the best hunter in town by the time he was 14. The local boys took to bullying Kal, as he was on the small side, and had never quite adjusted to life in the frontier town. After a few nasty beatings, Kal began to develop a technique that allowed him to work around his size disadvantage. After that, when he got into fights, Kal's responses tended to be excessive, with several ending with the other boys hospitalized, and leaving some crippled. Kal now regrets taking things so far, and tends to avoid town as much as possible.

Last winter, an unknown, unseen power came to the valley, followed by a string of disappearances. Kal failed to track any of them down, and decided that he would need to take the hunter exam to even begin to understand the forces at play.

During his interview with Chairman Legrand, Kal revealed that his sister, Irikah, was among those taken, and that wanted to be a hunter to protect people like her.

## Abilities

### Physical Stats

 Strength
 Speed
 Dexterity
 Aura
 Control
 Total

### Fighting style

Kal is most comfortable fighting with his bow, preferably taking out his quarry before it realizes he is there. He is also handy with his hunting knife, but using it in a fight it is very much a backup. If forced into hand to hand, he is more likely to use his fist. While he has no formal training in martial arts, he has developed a system that focuses on damaging weak points and incapacitating opponents. As such, he will try to end fights quickly by breaking elbows, shoulders, knees and hips.