Kairhem of Horizon

When the town of Horizon was first established, it was intended to be a monument to human resilience and self-sufficience. Before Horizon, the largest populations of humans on Teshelyn lived in Dirhun, and were unquestionably dependent upon balaceti and dolphin assistance to thrive and expand. When Arhenna sailed east to the island that now houses Horizon, it was not with the intent to throw away all that the other peoples of Teshelyn had done for the humans, but to prove to everyone that the humans could be more than land-bound subservients to the balaceti. In her vision, Horizon was to be a city where humans and the aquatic races could support and benefit from each other.
Horizon has thrived for almost a century, and Arhenna's faith proved to be well-founded. Today Horizon is a bustling port town in the eastern Balacen, and is a major destination for humans, dolphins, balaceti - even merfolk. But there are some that do not share entirely in Arhenna's vision for the town. Kairhem and others like him are not content to prove that humans can survive without help. Instead they strive to establish themselves as the supreme beings of Teshelyn.
Kairhem railed against the aquatic societies for years, but only succeeded in getting himself branded as a dangerous criminal rather than the revolutionary he saw himself as. The Advent of Sirulis, however, provided him with a huge number of new opportunities. With the dolphins crippled by the new continent, the balaceti struggling against the new diseases, and an unending stream of Sirulan refugees arriving, Kairhem finally had the chance to bolster his forces and dismantle the society that he sees as unjust and useless.
But when he arrived in New Sirulis to seek an audience with the Sirulan warleader Kaene, he and his brigands were repeatedly rebuffed as the Sirulan officials thought of them as nothing more than primitives and, strangely enough, invaders. After proving their usefulness against the magic of the aquatic races, though, Kaene welcomed them to her side.
In the aftermath of the Advent, with Kaene and the militant Sirulans defeated, Kairhem and his remaining followers attempted to return to Horizon. But since Horizon had served as a staging area for many of the defensive operations against Sirulis, Kairhem found that he was unequivocally unwelcome in his home. He and his followers now sail the seas with no true home, raiding trade caravans for survival.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Kairhem's family, like the others of Horizon, were hardy survivalists, capable of living off of the land with minimal outside help. He learned at a young age how to catch fish, sail, and even use basic landshaping magic. Roughtooth dolphins traveling by the city would share some of their knowledge with the people of Horizon, and Kairhem learned from them the core principles of roughtooth umbra magic - a school of magic that had also been adapted by the balaceti to their culture.
But to him, this seemed to conflict with the mission of Horizon to foster a community of humans independent from the dolphins. In the decades since Arhenna's passing, her vision of a human society on equal footing with the dolphins had been warped by some into an almost xenophobic culture of human supremacy. By Kairhem's time, the people of Horizon were still perfectly content to receive minimal aid from the dolphins, but were becoming increasingly isolationist.
Kairhem trained with the roughtooths not to benefit from their magics, but to understand their weaknesses. Though he never learned how to strip an umbra away from its caster, he did learn how to turn it against them, as well as how to design umbras of his own.
As he gained a reputation as a talented enchanter and a true patriot of Horizon, he began to gather followers who preferred his vision to Arhenna's. Together they purged nonhumans from a handful of ports, even managing to kill three roughtooth dolphins, but their control over the areas was short-lived. The horror of his end goal was laid bare, and the rest of Horizon banded together to exile him and his followers.
Horizon was nominally free of Kairhem and other dissidents, but that only meant that they were the Balacen's problem instead. Dolphin and balaceti societies did not view him as a serious threat, however, and figured he and his would eventually fade into memory. They were proven wrong when a great whale was found dead, with wounds inflicted by a sentient being. The deaths of the dolphins in Horizon were horrific but not unprecedented, but the murder of a great whale had never been recorded. An oceanwide search was launched for the violent brigands, with Kairhem managing to elude their grasp for months. Exhausted, starving, and dwindling in numbers, his followers almost forced him to surrender to their pursuers. But the sudden appearance of a large island in the northern Balacen, and the ensuing plagues, managed to distract the hunters long enough for Kairhem to vanish once more.

Current Location

Horizon

Year of Birth

4476 38 Years old

Hair

Dark brown

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Tan

Height

5'10"

Weight

160 lbs