Talon

## Appearance

Talon is seen in two different forms.  In his human form, he is almost never seen outside of his armor, a suit of full plate covered in Ulfen designs and runes, with a distinctive helm evocative of a raven’s head, and a black cloak draped over it.  Outside of that, his most notable feature is the large sword on his back, scrawled with Skald runes associated with spirits, life, and death. He constantly seems distracted, and he will sometimes turn his head to stare at seemingly nothing.  The few times he has been seen without his helmet, observers have noted him to be an Ulfen man in his early 20’s, with unkempt black hair and blue eyes.  He gives off an unnerving presence, partially due to the look of the armor, but also due to the frequent feeling that something else surrounds him.

His other form is that of a raven, which is generally indistinct to most observers, although those who have seen Talon frequently have learned to distinguish him from other birds.  In this form he does exhibit unusual behavior compared to similar birds, showing great interest in people around him, while maintaining enough of the menace of his human form to be sometimes unnerving.  Recently, he has been observed in a new form that combines the two, adding large wings and sharp talons to his armored humanoid form.  In addition, Talon is frequently seen with his phantom, a ghostly knight by the name of Maria who appears to be wearing armor of Taldan manufacture.

## History

Talon Kjellich was born to the family of a Thane in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings.  As a child, Thane Kjell trained Talon in combat, in the hopes that he would gain a prominent place in an aspiring Linnorm King’s hunting party, increasing the political standing of him and his family.  However, Talon came to view his father’s political machinations as pointless, and so the young Talon picked up an interest in reading and the wider world during his training, leading him to reject his father’s plans in favor of taking up scholarly pursuits.

With his mother’s assistance, he was sent off to a college in Taldor.  There, Talon studied history and archeology, but only became more contemptuous of the nobility as he worked alongside them.  As a result, he soon tired of Taldor, and after finishing his studies, he quickly took a job that sent him back to the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, from a Taldan noble looking for an artifact of great power in an ancient temple of Pharasma.  After managing to open the temple, Talon and the excavation team were promptly trapped inside by a cave in.  Having no option but to continue, the excavation team members were slain one by one by haunts, leaving Talon alone when he came upon the Raven Armor.

According to scriptures on the walls of the temple, Ravens were Ulfen warriors tasked by Pharasma with gathering lost souls and bringing them to her.  A Raven’s power, however, came not from Pharasma herself, but from the spirits that became naturally attracted to them, which they could use to channel negative energy to harm their foes, or positive energy to heal their allies.  Without a direct connection to Pharasma, Ravens were often less committed to her doctrine, and often consorted with non-malevolent spirits and undead in order to figure out what was keeping them on the material plane, and solve those issues, rather than outright slaying them.

Alone with the armor, he donned it in hopes that it would somehow protect him from the haunts in the temple.  As soon as he finished putting it on, it activated, turning him into a new Raven.  He instantly became a beacon for lost souls, drawing in the remaining haunts, along with the recently departed members of the excavation team.  While the cacophony of voices left him in a dazed state, he managed to make out directions to a hidden passage which allowed him to escape the temple.

After exiting, he was still in a not fully conscious state, and the spirits began to lead him on a road towards Absalom.  He journeyed all the way there in a disoriented state, without eating or drinking.  Sometimes he would be attacked by bandits or wild animals, and the spirits surrounding Talon would lash out, siphoning off their life force and bringing it to him.  After walking for miles straight each day, he would collapse to the ground and pass out, having dreams of soaring the night skies as a raven, after which he would wake up in another country closer to his destination.  After passing out on the coast of Cheliax and another dream, he finally awoke in a gutter in the Puddles.  In Absalom, still having little control over the spirits surrounding him, he felt a sudden connection to Taldor and the events that had happened a decade earlier.  He quickly made his way to a library to study these events, and upon doing so felt this connection strengthen, until it formed into something tangible inside his mind.  Eventually this guest began to speak to him, introducing itself as Maria.

## Goals

   Talon has found that learning more about the circumstances in which the spirits surrounding him lived and died improves his connection to them, and therefore his power, and thus is often found studying in the libraries of Absalom.  As Talon’s connection with these spirits improves, he finds himself trying to solve the problems they face to help them move on.  This can involve anything from slaying murderers, to protecting loved ones.  Maria is currently his biggest project, as he tries to help her to remember more of her past life to understand what she needs.  He also strives to protect anyone in need, to prevent them from becoming another one of his “projects”.  He prefers to work for the poorer residents of Absalom, and frequently chafes at having to perform jobs for the wealthier noble types that he came to hold in contempt earlier in his life.