Aaru

**Aaru** (*Benmurran Aaru*, lit. "Sun-marked Aaru"; born *Nirkaa*, 11 August 396) is a member of the Qanagkaa, one of the many clans of the semi-nomadic Aran people who inhabit the plains around the River Yuu. He is a former warrior-priest in training, stationed at the city of Bataajhang until his banishment in 417. Since his banishment, Aaru has lived in Cōrienor, where he has been employed as a guard by Tistan Drēsacēri.

He is one of the POV characters in the story. He first appears in Chapter I, when he arrives to Cōrienor for the first time.

## Appearance

Like most Aranvalar, Aaru is short in height. Tistan describes him as having bronze-like skin, full lips, and dark hair cut short to the scalp. His eyes are dark brown and he sports thick, shapeless eyebrows. Most notably, Aaru has red, circular marks tattoed on each cheek: the bloodmarks of his clan.

At the beginning of the Story, Aaru wears the typical garb of Aran sentries: a short linen tunic (*saru*), *kebrang* (pants) and worn-down leather boots. He always carries an *urkhok*, a traditional Aran dagger, which he made himself while at Bataajhang.

## Personality

Aaru is stubborn, proud and hot-headed. He values his roots above all, and he is proud of his origins and identity. He wishes to be accepted by his father and he admires his sister, while being envious of her for having attained their parents' acceptance a long time ago. However, he doesn't really want to be a warrior, instead preferring to spend his time exploring the vast steppes of his homeland. As a sentry of Qarajhangaak, he often visited the southern ports of the Smoking Sea, where he meets people from all over the world, and liked to spend time in the markets, to hear the different tongues and see wonders from far-away lands.

Since he was a child, Aaru has experienced precognitive dreams, which the Aranvalar refer to as "Irakaa's gift" – for the Aran god of fate. Following his exile from the Qarajhangaak, Aaru has lost his purpose, and hopes to find his calling in the Vachai lands.

Despite his reluctance to be a warrior, Aaru is a skilled combatant, a skill perfected by his time as a mercenary after joining the guild of the Salamander Shrine. His preferred weapons are his *urkhok* and a bow and arch. As it befits Aran tradition, he always dedicates a prayer for every life he takes.

## Early life

Aaru was born *Nirkaa*, on 11 August 396, on a chilly summer night somewhere in the middle of the Plain of Karanagku, one of the many plains in the steppes around the River Yuu. He was given the name *Nirkaa*, meaning "of the winter", by his mother, because of the especially cold conditions of the summer in which he was born. His mother, Sadru, would die shortly after his birth. His father, Khagaru, was the chief of the Qanagkaa, a warring clan of the plainspeople. As a child, Agkaa was frail and sickly, and his father largely ignored him as he preferred to train his firstborn child and only daughter, Sanaa, to become chief when he was gone. Nirkaa was largely raised by Sanaa, with whom he shared a close bond. When he turned eleven, he was marked in the same marks as his father and his sister, signalling his status as the chief's son and the member of a main branch of the clan.

As all members of the Qanagkaa, Nirkaa was given a choice when he turned sixteen: he would either become a warrior-priest, a hunter, or a herder. Though as the chief's son he would've largely been expected to become a warrior-priest, Nirkaa's father disapproved of this choice and refused to train him as he had trained Sanaa. However, Nirkaa yearned for his father's approval, and so he decided to become a warrior-priest stationed in the city of Bataajhang, a rare permanent settlement of plainspeople where an order of warrior-priests named *sentries* protects Qarajhangaak, a place of meeting where the different plains clans meet once every two years.

Upon joining the order of Qarajhangaak, Nirkaa renounced his given name and instead became *Aaru*, for Aarasu, the guardian of trees. In the order, he befriended another trainee named Bashu, with whom he developed another close bond. During the biannual clan meetings, Aaru would get to see his sister. He would also get to travel, visiting the southern ports where he met people from all over the world.

In the winter of 417, at the biannual *shaajhang*, the Qanagkaa and two other clans failed to come to terms regarding a dispute on land succession, prompting a formal declaration of war – the first in over fifteen years. Concerned for his family and his people, Aaru chose to defect the Qarajhangaak to aid his clan in the war, despite warnings from the masters that he would not be allowed to return if he went ahead with his plan. However, upon arriving at his clan's base, he was turned down by his father, who shunned him for defecting and branded him a coward. To his dismay, Sanaa did not come to his aid.

Unable to return to Bataajhang and turned down by his clan, Aaru realized he had nowhere to go. Destitute, he fled to Mugrajba and took the first ship that would take him: he ended up boarding the *Astasassare*, a Vachai merchant caravel headed to Cōrienor.

## Recent events

At the beginning of the Story, Aaru has a dream in which he sees Irakaa in the shape of a man. He wakes up at the *Astasassare*, and realizes it won't be long until the ship lands in Cōrienor. At the Vachai capital, he tries his luck at different trades and odd jobs, working as a laborer at the harbor and later as a fighter at an underground fighting ring in the Tanners' Quarter. He is later led to the Salamander Shrine by the innkeeper and her daughter, Qita.

In the following months, Aaru becomes a mercenary and later an assassin, becoming a member of the guild of the Salamander Shrine. His work gains notoriety, and he begins to be employed by noblemen seeking to bring an end to their enemies. One day, he is contacted by Sicēo Obarnāi to assassinate the heir to the Drēsacēri name, Tistan Drēsacēri.