Haruspex
Menkhu Artemy Isidorovich Burakh (a.k.a. Haruspex, Ripper, Cub, Vorakh, Emshen (Эмшен), Yargachin (Яргачин))
He stands out from the crowd, my friend... You will know him at once. He is quiet—unlike the others... and has a Steppe phenotype. There's a deep wrinkle on his forehead. He'll wear protective garments... I bet they'll be stained... with blood.
Artemy Burakh — also known as the Haruspex — is one of main healers alongside the Bachelor and the Changeling. He is the child of Isidor Burakh, a menkhu, and a man deeply rooted in the local folklore and tradition, but is also one trying to find his place within it.
One day, Artemy receives a letter from his father, warning him of a coming danger and urging him to swiftly return home. Upon doing so, Artemy finds out that his father is dead, gets blamed for the murder of another man, and is forced to fight to restore his name and to uncover the nature of the doom that is about to engulf his hometown.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Artemy is a man of large stature. Broad shoulders and muscles lightly cushioned by healthy fat.
Special abilities
Has some form of synesthesia. He can "see" scents and can tell how someone is feeling by scent alone.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
During his childhood Artemy was friends with Grigory Filin (better known as Bad Grief), Lara Ravel (nicknamed Gravel) and Stanislav Rubin (more often called Stakh). Artemy claims that they used to disappear for weeks, enjoying their freedom in a way that children of the Town normally cannot, according to Khan. Artemy studied the steppe lore and medicine under Isidor's guidance, learning the fundamentals of surgery and herbalism, all closely tied to the Kin's perception of the world through the concept of the Lines - connections between things both of physical and spiritual nature.
At one point, however, Isidor came to a conclusion that it would do his son well to seek knowledge outside of the limits of the Kin and the Town, so he sent young Artemy away at age 16 to study medicine elsewhere. Artemy left his hometown for several years, and in that time he grew distant from his roots as a man of the Kin and started to see the traditional ways as backwards. He had been studying surgery for some time until the war broke out, taking away his chance to graduate.
His unnamed mother was not from the Kin and died while giving birth to him.
Education
Artemy is educated both in the ways of the steppe's herbalism and of modern medicine and surgery. He did not have the ability to graduate, as he was drafted as a field medic into the war.
Employment
Artemy spent years as a field medic during the war. This desensitized him further to blood, injuries, suffering and viscera.
Relationships
- Any choice is right, so long as it's willed. That's the truth.
- That which is torn must be tied, and that conjoined—split apart.
- Without luck, you can't catch a fish in a flood. Without love, you can't divine truth from blood.
Russian (Common), Kin/Steppe
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