Innocence

Cursed with existence as a valravn, Innocence was trapped in servitude to a human mage in exchange for his 'human' form. Miserable and filled with a human's complicated emotions, he wants nothing more than to find some sort of life better than the one that he currently leads.

Personality

Lost and unsure of who he is, Val longs to become truly human. His lack of experience dealing with human deception means that he tends towards naiveté and taking people at their word, but he's slowly learning the value of being wary of others and their hidden intentions. The captive valravn is desperately lonely and shy of others due to his eeerie appearance, at odds with his natural inclination towards being part of a group.
Val is easily overwhelmed by the force and complexity of emotions, which can render him withdrawn and mutely obedient. His time since becoming a human has given him little to find hope in and it's taken its toll; when left to his own devices he's often wracked with guilt over the circumstances of his transformation. In brighter moments he's clever and curious, wanting to explore the world and find his place in it.

Abilities

As a former crow himself, Val still retains many of his basic animal instincts. He's most comfortable in the wilderness, and has an intuitive sense of direction, distance, and the passage of time; he's a skilled hunter and forager, and well able to survive on his own. While he can no longer speak directly with other animals, Val can generally read their behavior, body language, and sounds well enough to translate what they're saying. Unfortunately, his former crow brethren actively hate and harass him on sight. Other animals sense something wrong with him and tend to avoid him at all costs.
In 'human' form, Val has a heightened sense of smell and hearing as well as the ability to see clearly in the dark. His hands are clawed and he has sharp canines, which he uses as secondary weapons in addition to the sword he's been trained to use. His strongest ability is returning to his 'true' valravn form; a monstrous creature standing four feet high at the shoulder and weighing hundreds of pounds. While in this form, he's able to put his unnatural strength and speed to great effect and can often catch opponents and prey that saw him as nothing more than a human entirely off-guard. Val hates this form and avoids it whenever possible.

Backstory

Born as an ordinary crow, Val lived an unremarkable life for several years before his unexpected transformation. While eating from the dead on a battlefield, he was abruptly filled with human intelligence and physically changed into the massive wolf/raven hybrid that serves as a valravn's natural form. Reeling from the shock, he fled deeper into the wilderness of the shard he called home to try and make sense of what had happened to him.
He spent approximately a year living in monstrous form, isolated from his former flock and driven by ravenous hunger to learn to hunt and survive. The fact that he now had a human's mind made Val's solitary existence all the more lonely, and eventually he began moving towards civilization for reasons that weren't entirely clear even to him; maybe hoping to find someone to restore him to the way he once was, but more likely just seeking some sort of companionship and the presence of other rational beings.
Stumbling across a human village, Val fell into the habit of watching from the shadows and enjoying the simple life and activity and the sound of human voices. He became a little too comfortable and was discovered by the village's resident mage, Ashen Vallus; though Ashen's initial reaction was fear and he barely escaped being killed and eaten, he later returned to try and bargain with the valravn. Offered a way to become human in exchange for seven years of service to the mage, Val willingly accepted and traded away his freedom.

The price of Val's service turned out to be Ashen's young son. As a valravn with a predator's instincts, Val saw little issue with killing the boy in order to eat his heart; it was only in the immediate aftermath, taking on a (somewhat) human shape and his mind filling with a human's sense of emotions and morals, that he found himself filled with abject horror at what he'd done. Now he lives in servitude to Ashen, full of self-loathing for his own actions, disgust towards his master, and bitter regret for his lost freedom. He's typically used as Ashen's personal assassin and bodyguard, helping the previously-unremarkable fulfill his unending ambition.

Important Relationships

ASHEN VALLUS
Bound in servitude to Ashen, Val deeply resents the cruelty the mage showed in sacrificing his own child for the promise of power. He would like nothing more than to escape their bargain, but doesn't see any easy way out; he's bound to obedience, and Ashen has been working feverishly to increase his own power by eliminating rivals and stealing what secrets he can. Though Val largely abhors violence and is bitter about being used to kill other mages, he sees Ashen as the one exception to that distaste and would be more than happy to be rid of his master by any means necessary.
VALKA
The only other valravn that Val has crossed paths with, Valka is both fascinating and unsettling. He's desperately lonely, and the idea of someone who can truly understand him and the life he's lived is tantalizing, but Valka has embraced the predatory side of their nature and seems to show no remorse for the process of her transformation. For now she's a dangerous enigma, and he can't quite decide whether she's a potential ally or someone to be avoided at all costs.

Basic Information

Name: Innocence, called Val

Race: valravn, formerly crow
Sex: male
Age: ~10 (official), upper twenties (practical)

Storyline: Innocence