Arslan Süyek

## Arslan Süyek, the hermit

*“[…] Enough for a lifetime, enough... My only wish is to rest forever in my beloved mountains."*

Arslan, the hermit, the Voidwalker.

## Appearance

A mature bearded and long haired man, with bronzed and wrinkled skin which almost looks like leather, and brown slanted eyes.

Sometimes he looks distracted and tired but most of the time carries an inquisitive eye and a frown, paying attention to everything around him. He has a strong body, covered by claw and fang scars.

He usually smokes a mix of sage, arnica and yellow lotus in his pipe.

## Personality

Usually grumpy. He has his own reasons to avoid people, but he will enjoy a good conversation around a table, and he always will help anybody who needs shelter, a plate of meal or a jar of mead.

He prefers the company of the wolves of the north, with whom he hunts and shares the meat.

## History

### Before the exile

Too much years ago, Arslan Süyek was a tribesman from the mountains of Ghulistan. He was a lieutenant in charge of a few proud men in a time of war. An absurd war against a rival clan, about who owns a piece of terrain and some rocks.

To avoid further clashes, Arslan secretly met one of the rival leaders to try to negotiate peace, and he returned home successful. The warlord congratulated his lieutenant, and convened a meeting with the other clan.

Unfortunately, the rivals presented themselves unarmed, and were ambushed by Arslan’s tribe. No one survived. Arslan didn’t want that to happen, but his warlord lied to him.

*“We will never surrender, Arslan… a true himelian would never give a single branch, not a single stone to his foes. Therefore, what you did… Is treason”.*

Arslan’s men seized him and took him to the north, crossing the Vilayet sea, and then, blindfolded, to the exiled lands.

However, that has no solution anymore. Almost a century has passed since those events.

### Before the fall of the desert wall

The mountainman woke up at the very first time in the northern part of the exile lands, near the green wall, at the east. He passed wandering the frozen north near a year, when he once met a man form the other side of the Cursed Wall named Arcos, and they
started to talk for days, till he went to the south again. Then he started wandering again.

Near a lustrum after, Arslan started to hear the voices and see the ghosts. Arcos warned him about it, so he built a shelter deep in a hidden cave where he could start to meditate and forge metal blades everyday till the voices was gone. He could avoid becoming a soulless.

The hermit, who died and
resurrect several times, was becoming an old man, and as more time passed, this process was repeated more often.

Until one day, the day Arslan understood the terrible truth: those who were exiled, those who wear the bracelet between the Cursed Walls, will be here forever. That day, Arslan, who died of old age, woke up naked in the exact same point he woke up at the first time, as young as he was. Then he traveled to his cave to check if everything he built was still there, and, of course, it was.

Now, near a decade after, Arslan is living his second exile life in solitude, taking advantage of this chance to learn. He is still forging blades and meditating in his cave, while he offers refuge to lost exiles.

### After the fall of the jungle wall

Arslan, after the conflict with Asbjorn and the people of Vargsten, started wandering and exploring the desert and its cities and ruins, till the cataclysm demolished the wall that separates the jungle of the east from the rest of the exile lands. Then he went to explore there, discovering and learning things from the swamps, the river and the coast, before he returned to the north meadows, just to see his cave fortified by other people.

Now he is surviving in other cave, a smaller one, hunting with the wolves and remembering times with lost firends.