Quaid Silverstorm

**Quaid** is a mysterious middle-aged Xuag, he doesn't show his face often unless a point needs to be made. He is kindhearted and willing to offer a helping hand. From untrained perceptions he seems to be a genuinely good and caring person despite his distant demeanor and roughness around the edges.
 Born and raised from an exuberantly wealthy family in the island nation of Lurch, Quaid is of house Silverstorm, once the family with the most resounding power and influence in the entirety of the continent. He, unfortunately, however, is the sole remaining member of this bloodline.

Locked away in the underdeck compartment of the Emilia, Quaid was to be taken ashore in Brackdoom and discreetly executed upon arrival. There is large bounty upon his head in the Kingdom of Mig, though making his death a public event would cause the Lurchic Demagogue to cast a vengeful eye upon Eastmere and break whatever chances of alliance had existed. This is due to the prisoner being born to a royal Xuag family known as the Silverstorms. The prisoner, Quaid Silverstorm, is a dangerous individual, quoted by those who know of his work to, "skin you as soon as look at you.". He is credited with the murder of Captain Meager Borance, as well as inciting a crew of rathman to engage in mutiny, slaughtering several nearby innocent passengers.

## Backstory

The birth of Quaid Silverstorm was a momentous occasion, considered by some as the catalyst into a new era, marked by nationwide celebration and accompanied by a reaffirmed hope that the Demagogues most esteemed political entity would have its long sought after male heir. While upon their births, others had cried, the moment his beady red eyes snapped open and Quaid saw the world for the first time, it is said that he laughed. He was born with a peculiar pigment to his skin, a darker grey diluting the classic Xuag white -- the elders of the Silverstorm family declared it to be a sign that he would lead the house to new heights, as even his skin reflected the colors of the house sigil. He was promptly given the nickname of “Quaid, the Silver-blooded”.

Quaid was allowed to attend public forums from a very early age -- thirteen being standard, Quaid sat in on his first meeting at the age of five. The youth of the forums typically behaved in two ways; sitting sheepishly to the side, keeping their faces hidden and hoping to remain unnoticed, or playfully offering every naive idea that came into their head for the entirety of the demagogue to laugh at. Quaid was different. He sat above the rest, looming overhead and watching, listening, waiting -- digesting every word that was spoken while the cogs of his mind ran wild. Soon, he would begin scowling and cringing at ideas he deemed idiotic, yet he never spoke a word. Despite his silence, his presence and his influence did not go unnoticed. Being such a respected member of the community, the people began to watch his face for clues on how they should behave; being careful to not say anything that would displease him and carefully picking their words and crafting their ideas in a way that would win his respect. Without ever breaking his silence, Quaid had forced the politics of the nation to bend a knee to him by the time he had reached thirteen.

The fifth born child to Morta and Quexic Silverstorm, all but one of Quaid’s elder siblings were dropped from the Silver Tower for being female; the one survivor, Rhaya, older than Quaid by three years, was said to have developed lame-brain as a result of the damage dealt to her in the fall. The second-born Silverstorm boy came only a year after Quaid. Reginald Silverstorm was seen as a ‘back-up’ as time had a way of acting harshly upon the young. Quaid grew up with all the amenities a child could want; food, drink, wealth, and family. He and his sister, Rhaya, became very close and he looked after her, providing her with all the love and support that their parents had starved her of. The head of the Silverstorms, Quaid’s father, Quexic, viewed the relation Quaid had with his sister as unhealthy, stating officially that her idiocy was a bad influence upon him. He took command of the situation and separated the siblings. However, the two went behind their father’s back and continued to meet in private. Their brother, Reginald, caught Quaid sneaking from his quarters one night and alerted his father. Quexic, not being one to play games, ordered the execution of Rhaya by stoning at the next meeting of the forum. The Silver-blooded boy was forced to participate in the killing, as is customary, and cast the first stone at his friend and sister, striking her hard and knocking her dead -- a single act of mercy before he took to weeping out of sight.

Quaid’s response to the loss of his dear sister was strange to say the least. He took the whole ordeal rather lightly, often making dark jokes and scoffing at his former friend’s idiocy. He even took to thanking his father for ridding the world of such a waste of space. Morta Silverstorm was disturbed by her son’s sudden transformation and began questioning the validity of his behavior. He assured her that her concerns were a waste of energy and that he had merely grown out of his childish ways. This impressed his father greatly, and Quexic  got his son a suitable present for a young man of such stature; a grand elvenwood crossbow made by the finest craftsman in the demagogue with wood cut from the oldest and sturdiest trees in the Paegian forest. Quaid accepted the gift, and began devoting his days to training his accuracy, perfecting his judgement, and honing his precision. Quaid offered to teach his brother Reginald how to use it as well, and the young boy was delighted and accepted. However, after a tragic accident, Reginald was shot through the neck with a bolt and died.

When Quexic Silverstorm was to leave one morning for the Kingdom on a diplomatic mission, just after Quaid’s seventeenth birthday, he offered his son a  spot on the vessel that would take them there, as a sort of training for Quaid’s one day acquiescence of such duties. The ship set sail and the two Silverstorm men prepared for a journey at sea, soon to be docking in G’van North. Shortly after the journey had begun, a massive tempest shook the waters, rocking the ship at its very foundation. In the confusion, the ship was thrashed and Quexic was lost to the sea. Quaid managed to secure an escape raft where he would sail blindly at sea for months.

It wasn’t long before Quaid would wash ashore on the sandy beaches of Paegia. Alone, confused, and lost in a strange land, Quaid dragged his boat onto land and began to wander. Assuming he had landed in Eastmere, Quaid used his skills of navigation and took to traveling northwest as far as his legs would take him, knowing that whether he was in Oblivia or Mig territory, if he continued in that direction he would eventually arrive in Prybarrow, where atleast he could get directions from the locals and make his way to G’van North where he could complete his mission. The land seemed so peculiar to him, unlike anything he had ever seen, and yet, here, in the thick forests with these strange and ugly creatures and the threat of death looming, Quaid felt a freedom, he felt in control for the first time in his life.

After a year of wandering, a year of adventure, a year of keeping true to his goal, Quaid finally found himself in the Heart of Paegia. The jungle walls groped in thick all around him, and there was a constant sensation of being on display for an audience of hungry animals. Cutting his way through the thickets, Quaid found himself caught, a vine wrapped round his ankles, the machete pulled from his hand. He batted the brambles away, stomping at his constraints and crawling away with all his might. It was no use, he was dragged upward, hanging upside down, thirty feet above the ground. His eyes scanned around desperately, trying to make sense of his surroundings, when a face emerged from the trees. The face emerged, quite literally, from the trees. A behemoth of a man stood before, the stolid and pudgy features of a mig, carved into a wooden body. A rathman, and not just any rathman, stood before him. It was the General himself, and he spoke to Quaid, questioning him on his presence in the heart.

Quaid admitted everything, the shipwreck, his loss, his confusion. The General waited patiently, listening to every word and digesting every detail. When Quaid finally stopped talking, the General motioned and Quaid was released from his confines and placed onto his feet. Quaid fell to his knee before the man as he realized the hopelessness of his situation -- he was surrounded by them. To his surprise, Quaid was not killed, instead the General placed his hand atop Quaid’s head and pulled  it back, crouching down so their eyes could meet. He explained to him that he needed him to help him, as the job he needed done could not yet be completed by his army alone. He needed someone like Quaid, someone the people respected, someone charming, attractive, and most of all, someone with a body made of flesh and blood. It was then Quaid became a servant of the General, his job to scout out beacons of civilization and lead their people into the heart to be studied and synthesized into the General’s growing army.

Quaid emerged from the jungle a new man, with a purpose oriented to serving his General. But Quaid was still Quaid, he had not been changed or seduced, and his thirst for control over his own situation would only be fueled by this encounter. He would go on to serve the General over the next eight months, leading thousands of people to their deaths in the jungle to the north. He was not ashamed of his job, in fact, he felt a deal of pride at his talents. However, he felt he had betrayed himself by kneeling to a rathman, the lowest of lifeforms in his society, seen as serfs and slaves, in a world where all Xuag were equal. Quaid now saw that this equality bred weakness, as without a king and a unified force to make decisions, the General could easily lead his army to walk over a tiny nation such as the Lurchic Demagogue. So, Quaid began to study. He began to pick up every book he could find, to ask questions and to learn of the past. Soon he would learn of something called the vestiges of ‘The Relic of Anaizamulu’ -- several boxes of magical origin that had supposedly grown from the body of the Sampras god Anaizamulu himself. It was said that they played entrancing music that could control the rathman. This became Quaid’s new goal, and he soon learned just where he could find one -- Bich.

In an attempt to escape Paegia, Quaid walked into the Heart and requested a meeting with the General. In a matter of seconds, the General appeared before Quaid, and the two would parlay. Quaid explained to the general the scarcity of viable candidates for synthesis in Southern Paegia, and how there was a  need to outsource. Quaid promised that he could have an entire nation bow before the general if he was just given a vessel, and a rathman crew to sail it. The General accepted the charismatic Quaid’s proposal, and soon Quaid would sail for Bich, with phase one of his plan complete.

The vessel docked in Bich in the year 3220. The silverblooded boy, now twenty years of age, ordered his crew to wait for his command. He marched onto the demagogue, alone, and through himself down at the mercy of the people. He confessed to murder, theft, arson, he even blamed a number of the cities recent problems on himself, and he was promptly dragged away to face judgement. Presenting himself as unruly, Quaid headbutt one of the guards and bit out the throat of another. The judgement process was skipped and he was brought to the Laughing Pits -- an arena designed to force unruly criminals to fight to the death infront of the citizens for entertainment. Quaid smiled as the gates were lowered, he loaded a bolt into his crossbow, and the first round of the arena began.

His fights were fought valiantly, and without mercy, and Quaid quickly won the favor of the crowd, who still had yet to recognize him for his noble heritage. It would be months before Quaid worked his way through the rounds, making it to round five, the round notorious for being designed to be unwinnable. He was to face a seemingly endless onslaught of rathman slaves. If he could survive for an hour in the pit, he would be victorious. The round began, Quaid surrounded by a hundred man strong wall, they looked toward him blankly, until music began to play. Strange, anachronistic music, representing a time that had fallen into the sea long ago. The rathman awoke, galvanized by the tune, as if each note were a string tied to their limbs, puppeteering them into action.  Quaid cleared a gap in the wall as best he could, fighting with bow and blade, with teeth and claws before he emerged from the other end, covered in their viscous blood as it intermingled with his own. He gazed upward to the source of the music and saw the relic for the first time. Using the bodies of the slain rathman as a ladder, Quaid gained vantage before firing two bolts into the stone walls. He leaped outward and used the bolts to climb the walls. Before long, he had reached the surprised face of the gamemaster, who held the relic in his hands. Quaid drew his dagger and slit the man’s throat, snatching the relic from his limp body. He made a mad dash into the streets, slipped into a nearby alley and disappeared.

For a few weeks, Quaid waited for pursuit of him to settle while he learned to operate the relic. He had mastered its usage and made his way to the docks where he reclaimed his vessel and sailed for Lurch. Using the relic, Quaid commanded the rathman to cut his hair and groom him before the landing, at which point, Quaid the man stepped foot on his homeland for the first time in five years. By chance of fate, the forums were convening just as he had arrived. He took this time to strategically place his rathman guard throughout the city basin. He walked into the demagogue, grinning ear to ear as the people stood, their mouths hanging agape. His mother, now the only other living member of the Silverstorm bloodline, ran to him and the two embraced. In his absence, Morta had taken it upon herself to discuss terms of alliance and engage upon other diplomatic missions that would normally be the man’s duty. The people, unsure of Quaid’s ability by this point, refused to accept him as the new representative, as Morta had proved extremely successful and highly respected in her works. A week later she was found hanging by her neck from the Silver Tower. It was deemed a suicide and Quaid subsequently replaced her as acting representative of House Silverstorm as he was the sole surviving member.

Over the next year, with the help of Quaid, the nation of Lurch would be transformed into a vibrant community, with the strongest economy in all of Miglia. The people sang his praises as his ideas were brilliant and his leadership was strong. Quaid’s bloody past soon faded from public memory and he became revered as a hero of the people, idolized by children, respected by men, and beloved by women. Seeing his influence to be at its strongest point, Quaid took center stage in the forums, and gave a speech, ending it with  the resounding line, “Democracy is for the weak few who cannot risk inflicting offense upon the strong; True strength comes from a nation's leader, someone without fear, and without reprieve. I, Quaid, the Silverblooded, acting representative of House Silverstorm, will be that leader.”. The crowd erupted into thunderous applause and thus began Quaid’s reign.