Erakirak

Erakirak

About My Character

Appearance

Erakirak is an Egalrin who resembles a humanoid falcon.

The feathers covering his body are a haphazard mix of brown and grey, giving a somewhat messy appearance even when he is perfectly well-groomed... which, to be fair, he usually isn't. His face is elongated and culminates in a sharp-hooked beak that, in contrast to most of the rest of him, is rather brightly colored... blue-black at the tip, yellow at the base. His eyes are large, often comically so, and a deep blue.

He relies on his feathers to take care of both warmth and modesty, usually wearing no clothing other than a chain shirt and a headband. He carries a bow, a quiver and a small pack.

He is often accompanied by a griffon and a hawk.

Overview

"Erakirak" is the closest Trade transliteration of his true name in Auran, which is much more of a bird-shriek sound. It doesn't mean anything in Auran, it's just a name. He accepts "Rak" as a Trade nickname.

Ever since early Daeshen 1020, when Rak's wings matured, he pretty much flies everywhere. He's a bit overly proud of his wings, which are unusually strong (Strengthened Wings Feat).

He is very rarely seen inside the Alexandria city walls. When he is, it's usually for a specific reason, and he gets out as soon as he can. He is not comfortable in urban environments, nor around so many humans.

He is kind of bigoted against humans, but he feels bad about it and tries to get over it.

Roleplay Hooks

Some possibilities:

• Patrolling the Undertunnels or the Felwood for threats.
• Being introduced to his griffon.

Details

Early history

Erakirak was hatched in a rogue Egalrin marauder camp in the Sky Curtain Mountains and trained as an assassin, specifically to kill humans. Their intention was to use him to start a war between the civilized Egalrin and the humans of Alexandros by assassinating key humans.

It didn't work out that way, though: Erakirak was injured almost fatally on his way to Alexandros, and was nursed back to health by a human ranger, Lowan, in the course of which he rejected the service of Kakkai'on the Wrathful and embraced that of Cernan the White, rejected his past as an assassin and set out to find a new path.

No longer welcome among the marauders, he relocated to the Hayatiento Aerie. He keeps his shameful origin a secret as best he can.

Capabilities

Rak is an archery specialist and prefers to fight with a bow, preferably from the air.

As an Egalrin Rak can fly. As a Ranger, he can track and navigate the outdoors, especially in the mountains.

Aerie

Erakirak lives in the Hayatiento Aerie in the Redridge Mountains, beneath Fate's Spire. He arrived there in 1018, a couple of years after its founding, and was "adopted" by the elders. They don't know his story, but have some suspicions.

He donates a significant portion of his income from Explorers' Guild jobs to the Aerie. (mechanics note: for RP purposes, his crafting of his Ancestral Bow is free as the bow just manifests powers on its own; for RP purposes, the money he spends on it is actually donated to the Aerie)

He helps patrol the Undertunnels from time to time.

Murder moved in with him in 1020.

His animal companion, Erakirak#Silverwing, spends much of her time around the Aerie when she's not with him. She is gradually being adopted by the community as a kind of mascot, and has even begun patrolling the Aerie's borders and bringing meat to the communal stewpot on her own... her way of pitching in!

Silverwing

Silverwing is Rak's animal companion, a griffon with a tawny lion's body with the head, wings, and talons of a giant eagle. The inner feathers of her wings, for which she is named, are a striking silver.

Her true name is in Auran, not readily reproducable in English/Trade, and means something like "Her Wings Shine in Moonlight".

Pets

Rak takes care of several domesticated birds, most of whom hang out at the Aerie and aren't really well-trained yet. He has one trained red hawk, "Redwing", who follows him everywhere.

Bow

Lowan, the Ranger who trained Rak in the path of Cernan the White, had a masterwork longbow and a mithril chain shirt left to him by a former associate, under circumstances he never explained. When Rak completed his training Lowan gifted him these two items.

The bow, unknown to Rak, is a magical weapon with its own purpose and personality (see Ancestral_Weapon). Its backstory, which Rak does not yet know is as follows:

Back in the fourth century, during the rule of House Aiglos of the Eldanar, there was a half-elven follower of Gilead named Iain Thorne who lived in the human village of Naliaport. He was a crafter and enchanter of bows, and so skilled and well-regarded that Naliaport became famous because of him.

Naliaport was not too far from the Genrivian Gorge, and when Iain was 150 years old the Lich King Kiranix attempted to break his bindings, causing an undead upheaval in the region. Naliaport was an early victim of this upheaval, overrun by skeletal monsters, and the few survivors fled to neighboring villages.

Iain was among them, and he vowed that day to Gilead that he would devote his life to protecting people from the undead the way he'd been unable to protect Naliaport. He trained in both combat and magic, becoming first a Ranger and then an Arcane Archer, and crafted a powerful magic bow he named Song. He spent the next several decades destroying Genrivian undead. The legend was that he could predict undead attacks before they happened, and although this wasn't literally true he did develop quite the knack for being in the right place at the right time to defend local villages.

When Iain was 195 years old, Lord Lionel came to the area, seeking to break the spells that held Kiranix bound. Lionel had been a nobleman and a general during the Daemon Wars, but had died and returned as a Graveknight. Ultimately Iain destroyed Lionel, but sacrificed his own life in the process.

According to legend, Iain was invited upon his death to join the blessed spirits of the Hunting House in the Cradle_of_Nature, but petitioned Gilead to let him continue protecting people from the undead. Gilead ultimately agreed, allowing his spirit to join with Iain's longbow, Song.

From time to time over the next few centuries, Song was unearthed by various adventuring archers, and Iain's spirit sometimes awakened in the process. most recently Lowan, who trained Erakirak as a Ranger and passed the bow along. When Mandiel the Chaos Lich threatened the Mictlan Iain's spirit was awakened, and has been gradually manifesting in Song ever since.

For now, all Rak knows is that the bow seems to really want to defend... something. Or perhaps more precisely, to plant arrows into anything that would threaten... something. Or, well, something like that, anyway. It's all very vague. Also, in Daeshen of 1020 his bow manifested magical ability. Not only do arrows fired from it shoot truer and hit harder, they also discharge electrical energy into their targets.

Ultimately, the bow will manifest the following properties:

• Neutral Good
• Good-aligned
• Elemental aura (Shock, Corrosive, Frost)
• Intelligent
• Has Iain's personality: devout follower of Gilead, jealous of other magical/masterwork bows, good tactical thinker, committed to defeating undead and defending their victims, likes to show off his skills

RP History (highlights)

Meeting Murder

Defending the Mictlan

Meeting Silverwing

They first met while Rak and others were searching for treasure in a cave north of Alexandria, where they discovered a pool of sparkling black water. (There'd been a lot of that lately, a symptom of the taint that had infected the land.) Trapped in the pool was a wounded, miserable-looking griffon, and Rak was moved to rescue it. Both he and the griffon were heavily wounded by the monsters in the cave, and the beast was decidedly not tame, but she appeared to trust Rak. He named her Silverwing, after the silvery inner feathers of her wings. She had an unusually tough hide for a griffon... perhaps a side-effect of her immersion in the magically tainted waters?

He managed to convince her to follow him back to the Aerie, where he got help treating her wounds. On his way there he ran into Murder, who helped take care of them both, and he watched sheepishly as the women in his life negotiated over him.

Over the next few weeks he began to train Silverwing, who took reasonably well to his company and Murder's but remained skittish and reluctant to interact with other humanoids... unsurprising for a wild animal, admittedly, though more unusual for a ranger's companion.

Later Murder, Rak and Silvie were camping overnight in the Redridge when they heard the cry of another griffon, and Silverwing got suddenly territorial. The other griffon turned out to be Erithamiel, Ga'Elian's animal companion, and Erakirak introduced them nervously.

Ga'Elian invited them to attend the Estellen Calen, a sylvanori ritual to heal the land from the spreading corruption, and a few days later Rak did so, with Silverwing following him anxiously. They were both caught up in the ritual, and afterwards their bond grew much stronger. Rak theorizes that the corruption in the cave pool might have been interfering with their natural ranger/companion bond, and that in addition to healing the land perhaps the Estellen Calen healed Silverwing as well?

Whatever the reason, the pair work together much better now, and when they next encounter Ga'Elian and Erithamiel she is much friendlier. Actually, she and Erithamiel are a LOT friendlier, and the two rangers begin to wonder whether the "Second Spring" has affected their companions' mating cycles as well as the land itself.

The next day, Silverwing got wind of a trail that led her, Erakirak, Ga'Elian and Erithamiel to a Corrupted woodland southwest of Vadran Village, where a ghoul had arisen. They can't do much about the Corruption, but they put down the ghoul before it can infect anybody else. A similar incident occurred later, involving an underwater creature.