With discipline drilled into him from a young age by the Sunlit order, Asher works to atone for sins that are not his own. He's constantly nervous and overthinking, but has nothing but good intentions
The superiors of his chapter praise the boy as a lost, corrupted soul being purged of evil and rehabilitated into society. As such, he strives to represent everything a paladin should be. From upholding the laws to simply serving as an example of honorable behavior, he tries his best to do it all right. Since joining the Guild of champion however, his lack of backbone and passive personality has made his code of conduct a more challenging ideal to uphold.
- Age
- 19
- Date of Birth
- 17th Sea of Coldsteel 1440
- Gender
- Male
- Eyes
- Black and orange
- Hair
- Black
- Skin Tone/Pigmentation
- Grayish purple
Appearance
Physical Description
Not very tall by tallmen standards, but strongly built from the very rigid training of his childhood and the 50 pounds of armor he walks around in everyday.
Body Features
Devil tail, hoofs and small scales in certain areas. His skin is a greyish purple, but is black on the tip of his ears, palm, hoofs and part of his tail.
Facial Features
He used to look younger than he was when he kept himself neatly shaven. Since he started adventuring he's less disciplined on that front and looks more his age, but still keeps his hair short. He has four cut horns, black and orange demon eyes, half elf ears and sharp teeth.
Identifying Characteristics
Four horns he cut himself as a teenager so as to stand out less. Has a particularly deep scar just above his tail from when he tried to cut it as well, fortunatly being stopped before he inadvertedly killed himself from rapid blood loss. He's lost (or won) the genetic lottery when it comes to his hellish heritage, having the rather rare trait of hoofs instead of feet.
Physical quirks
Tries not to show his pointy teeth when he smiles. Keeps his tail close to him to make it less obvious. Tries to appear smaller than he is and not take too much space, physically and verbally. Easily flustered, making his face turn a deeper, darker purple.
Apparel & Accessories
Has no clothes of his own, only a number of standard uniform from his order under a fullplate. He carries nothing more than what he needs, with no individuality to it whatsoever.
Special abilities
His teeth are sharp enough to do some damage if he wants to and his tail is dexterous enough to pick up things. He can run faster than a normal tallmen with his hoofs.
Mentality
Personal history
Born Kalessidr Ethir, the tiefling would have been a half-elf had his parents not dealt with devils so much that it tainted their very souls and that of their child. Hidden deep in the Fae wood, they dabbled in all kinds of unsavory magic, from human sacrifices to their demonic Goddess Nesithis to necromantic experiments. They kidnapped villagers of nearby settlements to feed their endeavor for years until a group of paladins came to rid the world of their madness when he was nine years old. Spared and taken back to the Sunlit order in Thyneserine, he was quickly made to understand that his existence was something to be ashamed of.
Yet the order also teaches that forgiveness is within anyone's reach if efforts are put forth. After a harsh disciplinary process to make him overcome his more violent instincts and an even harsher reeducation to undo the damage of his parents' evil ways, he was given a new name and set on a path to redeem what he sees as his own evil and be the better version of himself he can be. Or rather, what his order wants him to be. Eager to please, his dedication to his church tends more toward complete submission at times with his own desires and those of his order separated by a very thin, blurred line.
Many who know him outside his brotherhood often wonder if the boy has any will of his own left at this point, but he always seemed content with the lack of agency. While it came as no surprise to see him enlist with the Guild of Champions and leave for Elderfalls at his superior's behest without a word of complaint, most got the impression that he wasn't too thrilled to leave the comfort of his order's hall and his work as hospitaler.
Education
The teaching of his parents has been pushed to the deepest recess of his mind. His education comes from the church of Odall in Thyneserine, for better or worse. Memories of sunlight is the first book he ever read when he learned common. He became an official paladin at sixteen.
Employment
He's worked as an hospitaler since he was seventeen. Tending to the sickness and wounds of the less fortunate in and around Thyneserine made him feel better about himself. It also helped him gain people's trust more easily and made them less weary of his demonic appearance, dissipating the prejudices of most. Desperate people are willing to overlook a lot when they need something, especially healing. It's not something he ever knowingly exploited, but it worked in his favor nonetheless.
As of recently, he is now a member of the Guild of Champions.
Accomplishments & Achievements
He considers his paladinhood itself an accomplishment. It's the proof that the evil he thinks he was born with and that his parents nurtured has truly been beaten out of him if the sunlit order deems him worthy enough to carry their symbol.
He's accomplished more concrete things since joining the guild, but he tends to downplay any part he had in it.
Failures & Embarrassments
While he appreciates his job as an hospitaler, he was forced into it after a series of accident where he attacked fellow paladins during battles that were particularly taxing. Bloody fights that bring him to the brink of death awaken a deeply buried and violent impulse in him that blurs the line between friend and foe. Hospitalers having a more supporting role, his master strongly advised him to pursue this path, less he start losing any kind of trust he had managed to gain with his brothers and sisters.
This particular problem subdued after his training, but it reappeared when becoming an adventurer and being exposed to more combat again. Failures in general have become more frequent since he joined the guild too. With consequences he never stops thinking about.
Mental Trauma
When the sunlit order killed his parents and burned his home, he barely made it out alive by the mercy of only one paladin. The near death experience and loss of his family left him with a survival instinct that turns to blind rage in those moment when he has to fight for his life.
Even in moments of calm, being part of the order that killed his parents is an everlasting source of confusion and turmoil that he ignores with great skill most of the time. In the rare moment he dwells on the years spent with his parents, he vividly remembers tenderness and care. Despite their evil ways, their love for him was never something he questioned and while he knows his parent's death to have been a necessity at the time, the unknown possibility that maybe they could have found forgiveness too had things been different is a thought that plagues him and weighs heavily on his conscience.
But as with everything related to his family, those feelings are not to be spoken out loud in the order's hall and so he is left to ponder uselessly at it all. He tries not to.
Intellectual Characteristics
He has a hard time thinking for himself and usually relies on others to make decisions or falls back to the very black and white principle of his order. He's not stupid, but a bit naive at time and it's easy to see that his body was trained with more care than his mind. He's very credulous and still believes things to this day that are completely untrue, like how lightning never hits the same place twice, that eating carrots will make you see better or that Tieflings are sterile. Some of those misconceptions are obviously more harmful than others.
Morality & Philosophy
The teaching of his church dictates everything he allows himself to do, but also what to think. Honor, order, honesty, compassion, justice; it all paints a very righteous image he tries to reproduce in his every action. However, among those teaching, he's a particular believer in the principle that everyone is redeemable and that forgiveness should be given to those who seek it. Even more so, people should be guided toward it. His vision appears naive at time to most other paladin, but he consider himself proof that people should be given a second chance no matter how low one might have fallen.
person.sexuality
While attractive men and women alike have made him a stuttering mess at times, he's never stopped to actually unpack what he felt. In the end he doesn't feel like it really matters. The simple idea of having to court someone is one of the most terrifying thing he can imagine doing, so he mostly tries not to think about it at all. No matter how curious he might be, the somewhat puritan nature of his order (especially in his more conservative, countryside hometown) and lack of education on the matter makes sex in general a rather scary thing.
person.gender_identity
Cis
Taboos
Speaking about his family was forbidden at the order and he integrated that rule to his core, but being away from his chapter for so long has started to erode that taboo in his mind. Anything even remotely sexual being discussed tends to make him clutch imaginary pearls, althought most of the time it flies so high over his head he doesn't even realize what is being discussed.
Known Languages
Infernal is his mother tongue, spoken by his parents. They also taught him elven, his mother being an elf. He learned common at the Sunlit order.
Personality
Motivation
He seeks to be everything his mentors want him to be. To prove that sparing him the fate of his parents was worth it. That the savageness inside him does not define him and that while he will always be cursed by demonic influence, he can atone for his existence by serving good.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes: Being useful, homecooked food, cold weather.
Dislikes: Comments about his horns, hot temperatures, making decisions.
Virtues & Personality perks
Hard working and sensitive, he's always moved by people's suffering and eager to help any way he can. He's generally polite and dependable.
Vices & Personality flaws
The shame he feels toward his devilish heritage makes him very self-conscious and self-depreciating. He's extremely obedient to his order, to sometimes worrying extent. He tends to be easily influenced by the people around him however, which is why his code of conduct has become so hard to follow since leaving the company of fellow paladins.
Social
Birthplace
The Fae woods
Current Residence
Elderfalls
Contacts & Relations
The people of Thyneserine and neighbor villages are the only ones treating him like a normal person after years spent proving himself. His superior at the Sunlit Order is master Owens, the paladin that spared him the night his parents were killed. Something of a vague father figure, he's the one who taught him common and trained him.
Wealth & Financial state
Modest
Family Ties
His order is his family, but he's not particularly close to anyone apart from Master Owens. Even then, the relationship is still a rather professional "master-student" one. The other paladins and clerics fall into two categories; those who are neutral towards him and those who hate him, generally for racist reasons.
Religious Views
Follows the church of Odall
Social Aptitude
Not much. At least that's what he thinks. He's not great at idle chitchat, but he's polite and when the time comes to speak from the heart, he generally finds himself surprinsly up to the task.
Hobbies & Pets
Has a horse back in Thyneserine.
He has all the classic hobbies of a child who grew up alone and isolated. Reading, writting, drawing. He's not good at all at the later however and hasn't tried to draw anything for years.
Speech
He speaks well considering the handicapping row of pointed teeth in his mouth, but he always speaks quietly.
Social
Birthplace
The Fae woods
Current Residence
Elderfalls
Contacts & Relations
The people of Thyneserine and neighbor villages are the only ones treating him like a normal person after years spent proving himself. His superior at the Sunlit Order is master Owens, the paladin that spared him the night his parents were killed. Something of a vague father figure, he's the one who taught him common and trained him.
Wealth & Financial state
Modest
Family Ties
His order is his family, but he's not particularly close to anyone apart from Master Owens. Even then, the relationship is still a rather professional "master-student" one. The other paladins and clerics fall into two categories; those who are neutral towards him and those who hate him, generally for racist reasons.
Religious Views
Follows the church of Odall
Social Aptitude
Not much. At least that's what he thinks. He's not great at idle chitchat, but he's polite and when the time comes to speak from the heart, he generally finds himself surprinsly up to the task.
Hobbies & Pets
Has a horse back in Thyneserine.
He has all the classic hobbies of a child who grew up alone and isolated. Reading, writting, drawing. He's not good at all at the later however and hasn't tried to draw anything for years.
Speech
He speaks well considering the handicapping row of pointed teeth in his mouth, but he always speaks quietly.