Aleksandr Zachary

Aleksander Zachary (otherwise known as Aleksandr, Barbarosa, Judicator, or Aleksandr Light-Sworn) is a human character whose father had a storied life. Regarded as the son of a war hero, Aleksandr put perhaps too much focus on living up to his father's reputation, and eventually found himself in a conflict that was more than he could handle. He managed to impress others with his compassion, heroism, and loyalty, and managed to garner more than just an army to aid in the efforts he put himself to.

## Personal Backstory

The son of Mikhail Zachary, Alek grew up on tall tales of the past. Whether they were true or made up, he yearned to hear his father talk about pitched battle, plague, danger, chaos, and the heroics that won the day in all those scenarios. His father had even been part of that, in some of those stories, but more importantly, it seemed his family going all the way back to Warwick Zachary had been involved in all the great moments of history, even back to the days of William and Daniel Bennett. If anything, the Zachary family was as influential and important to the Kingdom of Haven as the Bennett family. This was something Alek wanted to hear more of, and of course, make his part in that legacy.

When a new danger came to Haven, his father was once more on the front-lines. But, this time, a different story began to circulate. A story of how Mikhail Zachary had killed the King of Haven himself. Of how Mikhail's whole regiment had turned against the Royal Guard of Haven. Of how Mikhail Zachary had turned against the whole of the nation and served the whims of a demonic entity.

Alek refused to believe it, and could never question his father about it, as he had died in the battle over the capital city. He continued to view his father as a hero, but people began to label him and his regiment The Onyx Guard, as corrupted and consumed in nothing but a dark blackness. Infuriated, he ventured off to prove his father innocent, but he was still a child. His mother pleaded with him and tried to keep him away from it all, but eventually, he found himself on the field and nearly killed by this Onyx Guard.

For years, he trained to better himself. When he went out again, he knew better. He could do nothing on his own, and he needed help. The reach of the Onyx Guard and its demonic master had extended to other kingdoms. Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and various others were plagued by the evils they brought, so Alek had to reach out to members of their nations and garner their aid to save and free Haven from the demonic influence.

### How the Story Continues...

RP begins with Alek's life being lived as a Robin Hood-esque character, though fighting a more sinister enemy than a power hungry king with family issues. It has also differed in many ways, as this character is perhaps the one I have played in the second most number of varied continuities from its origin.

## Continuity

Originally, Alek was created fresh out of high school within the game of Shadowbane. He was originally written to be a character situated within the world of Aerynth, and his story surrounded the actual role-play elements of the player base I was connected with. Granted, Shadowbane was a game purely intended to be strictly PvP, rather than stand on its lore and develop any further history or story. The RP I got involved in was fun because I enjoyed interacting with the players, but the world lore was severly lacking. I eventually grew tired of the lack of PvE content and ability to incorporate world lore into what was going on between the people in the guild I was in, and the "enemy" guild we interacted with.

Incidentally, the story I started writing in 2011 is where I base this character's history now, and it is perhaps inspired quite heavily by multiple things starting with the RP in Shadowbane.

#### Video Game Renditions

After Shadowbane, I made a rendition of this character in Guild Wars. In the story of Guild Wars there is a heavy undead menace and a Lich as their master near the end of its story. I felt this fit very perfectly for incorporating Alek's story into the story of Avalon, as the main enemy in the RP in Shadowbane, was a guild called The Undead Lords. This was, of course, further facilitated by the next major game I incorporated Alek into.

In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft, Alek became a Death Knight, a human warrior who had been killed, corrupted, and swayed into the service of the Undead Scourge.

And then, between dead Dragons coming back to life and a menagerie of Draugr and Dragon Priests, playing Alek in Skyrim seems to have cemented the whole idea of an Undead menace to struggle with in my personal writing. There was more than just the undead in my writing, but I clearly took a lot of influence from the very heavily undead focused games I played for over 10 years.

#### New/Recent D&D

In my own personal campaign, based on the Elder Scrolls world, Alek was an NPC who had been a Nord, fighting undead, and then due to conflict with the Thalmor, was moved to High Rock where he eventually became an officer in the guard of the city of Wayrest. He'd have more undead to face, from time to time, but his main efforts in the campaign pit him against Orcs and Daedra.

When I'm actually allowed to play him in D&D, he returns to his roots from the original game appearance in Shadowbane, where he would be a Ranger. And while Rangers are usually bow based, Alek was, and always will be, a melee combatant, with a focus on wielding swords. Granted, I have had very little chance to play him in D&D, and so his build is not something set in stone. I could see him as a Gloom Stalker or even a Monster Slayer Ranger. At the same time, given a DM's approval, I could also see him as a Ghostslayer Blood Hunter.

## Appearance

Name: Aleksandr Zachary

Height: 5'7"

Weight: 169 lbs

Hair: Medium length red hair, tied in a ponytail, and a slight amount of facial hair.

Age: 17 (at the beginning of his story, though in my writing and in stages of RP, I've also placed him at varying other ages; 21/24/28)

Known Aliases: Barbarosa, The Judicator

Build: He was never a very strong person, and in fact, despite being a very heavily melee focused fighter, always dealt more with being able to manuever, and get in and out for quick strikes. Dexterity and Agility were always more his focus.

Scars: None

Tattoos: None

Piercings: None

Images I have for Alek were always from video games and borrowed from other sources, I do not really have an official image of his appearance.

## Family

Alike the Bennett brothers there are very few fully formed characters that constitute family. In the story I began writing in 2011, I also added a few characters of import and interest in the past of the world lore that were Alek's ancestors.

Mikhail is Alek's father, and is not a character I ever played, and never developed much. He is always dead at the beginning of Alek's rp, killed by repurcussions of demonic corruption. His mother, Myst, is a woman of magical origin. While I never developed the specifics of her magical connections, I always hinted at the idea that she was not mortal. I never pinned down a creature type, but to take a D&D view at her, I would say she was Fey, thus making Alek actually only half-human. However, I do not know how that would be represented in a D&D game either.

Aside from that, there are ancestors, whose exact relation to Alek I do not know. There is Edmund Zachary, there is Warwick Zachary, who had their own issues to deal with which are both examples of a kind of "repeating history" kind of issue that the people of this land are always dealing with. Hence, why I named the story I started writing "Repeating History."

Aside from them, there is a character with some involvement with the family in the story, but not in any RP I've ever done. This character was an orphan boy named Marcus, whose parents had been killed by the Onyx Guard just like Mikhail had been. Because of this, Myst took the boy in and adopted him, thus making him akin to a brother to Alek. Just like Alek idolized his father, Marcus seemed to idolize Alek's resolve and conviction to do something, no matter how much his mother and others tried to keep him from it.