Ares Quinn

Personal History

Ares was born in a nameless fishing village located to the south of the Kingdom of Rendeh. Early in his childhood Ares had begun to exhibit a gift with the use magic, something which his parents were mentally ill equipped to deal with. In particular, his father was a harsh man and would often physically discipline Ares for the mischief he would often find himself in. On one such occasion Ares had accidentally unleashed his powers upon his father, wounding him considerably. The village acted swiftly and out of its own self interest, banishing the young child to carry on living out in the wilderness where his misunderstood powers would cause no further problems. News of this event caught the attention of a traveling high elf bard by the name of Calewin who'd taken an interest in the child. The elf traveled with a flock of gifted children, each with stories similar to Ares and whom Calewin had personally taught in the use of both music and magic.
Years would go by after Ares was taken in by the traveling bard. Having long forgotten his parents, the only life he'd ever known was given to him by Calewin, who had become his role model, mentor and best friend. The pair traveled the continent together alongside an ever-changing collection of orphans and runaways, who each stayed within their traveling company for as long as they needed. Calewin's followers were almost universally grateful for the charity he'd shown them, with Calewin inviting each to stay alongside him for as long as they continued to practice and play music. Ares would inevitably be the last of Calewin's flock as the two seemed almost inseparable, sharing a much deeper bond of friendship than any of the others within their group had. However, their acquaintanceship would come to an sudden and abrupt end. Ares began receiving a series of prophetic visions which came to him like waking dreams. Not long after, Calewin would seemingly vanish without a trace. Ares never knew why he left, but he believed his description of the events within his visions had somehow perturbed his old friend into leaving.
Ares took residence within the city of Saosh, alongside other friends and followers of Calewin who'd offered him a place to stay. His deadly premonitions would continue affect him deeply, and the intervals between each vision were becoming shorter and shorter. Sometimes Ares would find himself living in the same dream multiple times, but from different perspectives. However, he would always bare witness to something that was either deeply horrific or filled with dark foreboding. From within his visions: he witnessed the gathering of massive armies throughout Rendeh, the movement of cults in the shadows, and would be forced to live through vivid scenes of destruction that brought on by monsters of nearly impossible description.
As time dragged on, Ares' affliction would cause him to grow paranoid. He became motivated to act to prevent these dreams from becoming a reality, starting by making an effort to warn the citizens of Saosh about the coming darkness. Ares did this in the only way he knew how: by composing music that was based upon the visions he was receiving. His songs were compelling and were accompanied by stunning visuals he'd created with the reverberations of his bardic magic, but his message was being lost amongst the divisiveness of his growing reputation. He was touted as both a soulful artist who expressed himself with vivid fantasies, and a manipulative doomsayer who invented problems to sow fear into the masses; neither of which aided in quest to warn the public of its impending downfall. Eventually Ares did get the attention of one person who could aid in getting his message across; a silver haired elven princess who had come to Saosh as an ambassador. A woman by the name of Claire. She had approached Ares first after hearing of the rumours surrounding his music. Ares was immediately captivated by her beauty, but also knew that this was a rare opportunity to share his fears of the future with someone who could make a difference. Claire would return to Ares many times during her visit in Saosh, and had become something of a fan of his. The two related learned to relate to each other more personally after she learned of Ares' fluency of the Elvish language in both spoken word and poetry. However, Claire feared her time Ares would be cut short due to the limited nature of her stay within the city, and so she entrusted to him a royal signet ring, a keepsake which carried significance within her homeland should he ever care to travel there. Unfortunately for them both, Claire was not the only one of her house who had taken an interest in Ares, as they soon found out.
Claire had suddenly stopped coming to visit Ares, despite still remaining within Saosh. As time went by Ares grew increasingly frustrated, and eventually the paranoia of not knowing what had happened to her had gotten the better of him. He built up the courage to confront her within the palace she stayed at within the heart of the city. Ares needed come clean to her about what it was that was haunting him and about the truth of his music and the visions that had inspired his lyrics. For the first time Ares used his magic in a way he never thought he would: to infiltrate a well guarded castle and to break into the private quarters of someone who wasn't expecting to see him there. Despite his altruistic intentions, his efforts were ultimately in vain as he was eventually caught, being apprehended by shadowy agents who represented Claire's elvish house. The elves that captured him did not immediately report his break in to city officials; instead, paranoid by Ares' involvement with the Princess, they had decided to exact their own price for Ares' crimes. This came in the form of cutting out the eyes which Ares' had so famously used to foresee the future. Even ending in failure, his endeavor to break into the castle did manage to grant Ares some measure of relief. He was able to catch a glimpse of Claire one last time before the daggers cut across his flesh. The expression of genuine horror upon her face told him everything he needed to know about her lack of involvement and disgust with the decision of his mutilation. The loss of Ares' eyesight had also brought him a sense of peace, as the visions which had driven him to such lengths in the first place had come to a stop. The visions seemingly having lost their medium by which to torture him any further. Lost, blinded and somewhat delirious within the suddenly hard to navigate streets of the city, Ares eventually heard about the crimes committed by an unsanctioned spellcaster who had broken into the palace the night previous. He learned that he had been charged with high treason, and knew his time within Saosh had come to an end. Stumbling at first, Ares eventually made his back onto the road heading east.
Having been liberated of one of his five senses, Ares became convinced that he was walking upon a new path. One he believed he was meant to take from the very beginning. No longer did he fool himself with the notion of being able to change minds of others or change fate through clever song lyrics. Instead, he would walk the path of an adventurer and finally take matters into his own hands. Only he had received the visions, and he couldn't rely on the people of Rendeh to save themselves, and so he would have to save them himself. Or at the very least, die trying. Ares' new philosophy was based on the fact that his visions of the future stopped before he could ever determine what their outcome would be. Could humanity survive the coming catastrophe? By Ares' estimation it could either way, like the flip of a coin; but he was determined to make sure he was the one who would do the flipping.
Ares was motivated to follow the clues that he had left for himself in the details he'd seen in his final vision: a remote and stormy little island which held a great secret deep within, and resided all the way across the continent off the coast located nearly in the middle of nowhere. A journey that would surely require a nearly impossible amount of luck and a great amount of time to complete. Despite his odds Ares was determined to make it. He used every ounce of charisma he had to find whatever caravan, ship, or traveling company was willing to have him, hitchhiking his way across all of Rendeh. It was by sheer coincidence that while playing in a pub far, far away from Saosh that he overheard a group of sailors describe a treacherous sound island of a description similar to the one Ares' had sung about that night. Mustering what gold he'd earned from his travels, he chartered a ship and crew to take him to the island so that he could make this discovery he knew he was meant to make. On the nameless island, Ares and his men discovered the tomb left behind by an ancient civilization, a crypt filled with the petrified remains of soldiers who had been frozen in time. One such statue adorned the center of a final chamber, a room Ares' had seen visions clearly in his visions, and somehow, he knew this was what he was meant to find. As if preordained, the stone which had previously encased this soldier had mysteriously started to fall away, revealing the warrior underneath. A man who had been turned to stone and transported nearly 800 years into the future. A man that Ares learned to call Lyon, the Youngest.
For a great deal of time afterward Ares took on a mentor role to Lyon similar to what Calewin had done for him in the past, teaching Lyon about the information he would need to adjust to his new surroundings. Ares had nothing more to go on but the information that lay within Lyon's head, and so Ares' committed himself into aiding Lyon in retracing his steps and to help recover the truth behind Lyon's stolen history. The two had something of a symbiotic relationship, with Lyon acting as Ares' eyes and arms, and Ares acting as a guide on his quest, helping to interpret the world around him.
More than anything, Lyon was a mysterious figure which Ares wished to learn more about. He was a strange man with even stranger customs who preferred to stay suited in his ancient set of armor, and prayed to gods who had lost their historical relevance centuries ago. While confronting Lyon about his past one evening, Ares eventually made a shocking discovery: it was about one character within his story in particular, the elven woman Lyon believed responsible for petrifying his people was in fact the same name of the viscountess who currently acted as the personal adviser to the King of Rendeh itself. A woman by the named of Alandira. A fact that should be nearly impossible given the many centuries dividing the woman Ares' knew Alandira to be and Lyon's personal recounting of history. Ares believed this revelation to be the next step on the road to understanding the purpose of his visions, and it seemed now that the two shared a common goal which would lead them on a path directly towards the capital of Matlunn.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Physically Ares' condition has been getting worse over the years. He was stricken blind after he was attacked one night; his eyes being removed by force with daggers. Long scars have formed across Ares' arms and torso, the after effect of using necromancy in order to raise the dead. He has done numerous times at the cost of his own life, resulting in his health deteriorating considerably.

Identifying Characteristics

Ares is tall and thin, usually dressed in the colourful attire of a nobleman or court performer. He can be easily identified by the pairs of long scars tracking across his eyes and eyelids, which he oftentimes covers with a simple porcelain half mask. Ares wears a silver signet ring on his left hand, engraved with the symbol of House Eridani. His clothing is marked by irregular strings of beads which he uses to identify on the account of him being blind.

Mental characteristics

Education

College of Traveling Minstrels

Ares is a student of the world. He spent his childhood traveling alongside his companion and mentor Calewin, an accomplished adventurer who tutored Ares in the eclectic ways of the bard who showed him first hand about the world through its peoples and cultures.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Helena's Curse

During their adventures, Ares and Lyon had come across a medusa, a cursed maiden who resided within Anum-Rha Jungle. Ares as a blind man had no fear of the medusa's gaze, and so he conversed with her to learn about the nature of her curse. He learned her name of Helena and that she had died many decades earlier after being attacked by pirates. Ares hypothesized that the bullet that had killed the girl still remained within her body and was the source of her curse, and offered to heal Helena if he could. Ares cut open his arms and used his own blood to fuel the spell that would cure Helena, and through Lyon's and his efforts combined they were successful. The curse was reversed upon the Helena, ostensibly giving her life back to her, an act which placed permanent scars across Ares' arms where he had drawn the blood.

The Annals of the Eternum

After exploring a secretive barrow den hidden deep underneath the city of Greenwitch, a hideout which was in use by a cult at the time, Ares had recovered the Annals of the Eternum. The Annals was a sentient tome which contained long lost knowledge from a time when the Ascora still flourished. Learning that he could communicate with the book, Ares and the Annals had a strange partnership, with Ares learning what he could from the book while he tried convincing it to use its bygone knowledge to aid the world.

Morality & Philosophy

Ares in his adulthood believes himself to be a man of action instead of words. Despite that, wherever he goes he will always try to inspire others into becoming better people. Ares' wish is to prevent the world from falling into chaos; a goal which would accomplish by using any means he deems appropriate. Ares is not above using deception, or spreading a message he himself does not believe it, so long as it serves a greater good and no innocents are harmed by it. He is not a forceful man by nature, and prefers to surround himself with allies who are more hands on and capable than he is.

Fate

Ares is a strong believer in fate, believing that certain events have been preordained by cosmic forces much greater than himself. The idea of an unflinching and unfaltering timeline which is guided by fate terrifies Ares. However, being somewhat hypocritical, Ares realizes that his own philosophies fall apart without this idea; for without the concept of fate, Ares' visions could potentially be nothing but mere delusions, which would invalidate all of the efforts he has made by using them as a guide on his quest.

Gender

Male

Eyes

Eyeless

Hair

Shoulder Length, Dirty Blond

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Fair

Height

6'0"

Weight

150

Known Languages

Common, Elvish.