Torin Grayeye - Burning_Ice

Name: Torin Grayeye

Aliases: The Sorrowful Man, The Gray Stranger, Empty One.

Appearance: Tall and thin, with unusually long arms and legs, Torin tends to put people in mind of a particularly sinister scarecrow, he has brown hair and gray eyes(pupils are tinted gray too). He has a few scars on his arms, particularly on his hands, however none on his body (this should tell you something...) His usual apparel is tough canvas pants, thick leather boots, usually of the same variety that soldiers wear for long marches, a simple tunic, a ragged traveling cloak(green) and a broad brimmed hat. Every piece of clothing he owns has at least one metal plate sewn incorporated into it, including shoes, hat and eye patch.

Weaponry: Torin carries a quarterstaff which he has inscribed with runes. The staff is absolutely unbreakable, and if he wills it can materialize a blade at one end to become a glaive.
He also carries many many knives with various runes inscribed in them.

Armor: Torin wears no armor, relying on his speed and sense of movement to dodge attacks rather than absorbing them. His ability to sense movement makes striking him in melee extremely difficult since he knows what attack is going to come almost before his opponent does, at longe range, it's an exercise in futility

Battle Skills:
Staff Mastery: Torin has become skilled with his staff, being able to strike and block more quickly than an average swordsman, due to the reduced weight of the staff despite the longer heft of the staff.

Runic Knives: Torin has pre-prepared Runes on his throwing knives, set to activate upon impact. Due to his great skill with Runes Torin is able to implant up to 3 functions per knife.

Sense of Movement: Due to being able to sense anything that moves within a given area, even if it is hidden behind walls or other solid objects, no conventionally living creature can hide from Torin as he can sense their heart beating inside their chests.

Eerie Dodge: Because his sense of movement Torin is able to feel the enemy's muscles tensing, and so is able to dodge most conventional blows, and almost all ranged assaults.

Stealth: Torin fights without armor and so knows the value of stealth, able to move silently and dressed in colors that can blend into many surroundings easily, Torin is difficult to detect without use of magic.

Agile Rush: Because he fights without armor or conventional magic taking the enemy by surprise is an important skill of Torin's. He is able to cover long stretches of terrain quickly, using upright surfaces to rebound from if necessary. However he can only do this in a line (not necessarily straight) any turn of less than 135 degrees requires Torin to slow down.

Magic:
Runic Mastery- Torin is very talented with runes, being able to give a weapon almost any enchantment given enough time to inscribe the runes, given not enough time he can still give it any enchantment but the weapon will break after the first use.

Illusion-Torin has a minor talent at casting illusions

Meta-Magic- Through use of Meta-Magic Torin has 2 abilites
1) to "hi-jack" and then alter or re-direct any pre-existing spell, however the casting time for this is always longer than the casting time of the oriinal spell, though not necessarily longer than the time for it to take effect.**
2) Gray-space Torin can open up a portal which inverts matter and magic, usually playing merry hell with any spell that passes through it. The portal appears as a featureless gray plane 2'x2'. Can open up to 50 at once and maintain several hundred (tends to use them in large numbers as a screen to hide his movements)


And because someone demanded it:
All the Runes on Torin's apparel:(any and all runes are on metal plates sewn into the inside of the garment unless otherwise stated)
Boot's: Torin has a rune on the sole of each boot that lets him emit a concussive blast of air and fire. One use only as the fire warps the metal plate the rune is engraved on. He repairs them afterwards.
Pants: A "booster" rune on the side of each leg, increasing his leg strength, allowing him to run faster and jump higher(these will never be mentioned as they are
Shirt:Umm a bunch of on/off "magnetic/weightless" runes that let him carry so many damn knives without jingling with every step or exceeding the load capacity of thick stone bridges.
Glove(left):Decay rune on the outer palm(active channeling rune, causes living things to decay or grow closer to death at an accelerated rate in an area, the longer it's been on the more powerful the effects), Dampner Rune on he outer back(rune specifically made to stop the Decay rune from affecting anything while also making it grow more powerful quickly) The Dampner Rune is less powerful than the Decay Rune and will cease working after about 60 seconds.
Glove(right): Sticky/Grip runes on the inside and on the outer palm.
Jacket:Various protective runes, mostly to take the edge off of attacks(not very effective...). Also contains runes that insulate him from the effects of the Decay Rune (which is to say he is affected less but is still effected. These runes unfortunately severely hinder his movement when active).
Hat: None, it's awesome enough as it is.


Related Chars & NPC's:
Man-in-Gray(Remel)
-A forgotten god. God's of his kind are made and fueled by belief and sacrifice. This god was once great and powerful, but his believers died or forsook him eons ago. Now no-one believes in him, or even remembers his name. As he is a god, and his influence on this realm is fueled by belief he now appears as a moderately well dressed man in gray. No mortal can remember his name, his wording when he speaks to them or his exact apperance, though they can remember the information imparted and the general meaning of what he says. His powers are for the most part gone. He has a store of power from the old days but is loathe to use it, as with no believers it will never replenish. He is not omniscient but remembers some things from the days when he was.
He seeks to re-establish his church, but because no one can remember his name (even if he says "There is a god named Remel" they remember "there is a god named [memory blank]). In order to come to power again he must have people belief in him, worship him and sacrifice to him for who he is and what he has done before knowing his name.
Over the eons he has tried time and again to get mortals to believe in him again but has failed every time. He recently tricked Torin into making a single Great Sacrifice to him. (He killed the population of a small manor for him). Because Torin holds so many of the beliefs and morals that he originally encouraged his followers to hold, he seeks to use Torin to start a new church for him. He does not care who gets in the way of this, nor does he care if Torin wishes to do this(He doesn't, doesn't even know Remel's a god). He will do anything to see it happen.

Cael-
Though Torin was not aware of it, another came into contact with the crystal. His childhood friend, Cael. Cael sees no moral ambiguity, and views himself as absolute justice. He took up a crusade in the name of light and order, and eventually, after speaking with some scholars Balance. To rid the world of evil. For a time Cael and Torin were close friends and traveling companions. This ended about 8 years ago, when the events at Almoth led the two to be estranged. Though he grieves over it, Torin's actions in the past have led Cael to believe that it is necessary Torin be killed. Cael has been blessed by the Elemental Lords he now serves. In particular the Lord of Order bends chance and fate in Cael's favor. The Lord of Light allows him to summon bars of light which can act as spears, though he can summon but a few every day.
Cael wields a double handed Great Sword, and he wields it in one hand with a dexterity you expect from a short sword. He is a capable (but not exceptional) mage of all elements but cannot cast Arcane or non-elemental magic. He wears plate armor on his chest and legs but wears only a bracer on his sword arm(left) and a huge round shield on the other. He has incredible strenght and endurance.
Torin has fought him three times. The first was just a simple sparring match, and Torin lost in less than 10 seconds. The second was a fight on a sinking ship, Torin barely won because of the advantage of being in near pitch darkness. The third and final time was on the plains of Mardeo as Torin was fleeing the country. Torin was badly defeated, his leg ran through, his ribcage collapsed, his skull fractured and his right arm mangled, he only survived by using an illusion to fake his own death. He was eventually healed by Remel, who still needed Torin, though Torin does not remember this.

with meta magick does that count for like conjured items? like ice spike wind sphere ice armor etc.

If the spell is powered by mana yes.
So if you summon a flaming sword you have an item that was magically created and summoned with mana. Meta-magic can now screw with it to it's hearts content.
If you summon a rock then less so. Meta-magic can screw with the summoning process(like say instead of "appear in the air at location X" it would be meta'd to "appear in the air at location X, with a velocity of 60 mph aimed at original caster's head")but since the rock was a pre-existing mundane item meta-magic can't effect it.\ in and of itself, just the way in which it is summoned.

Okay I have to admit. I made Torin a long time ago as a more complex character who functioned in a somewhat different world, and his backstory depended very heavily on several counter-parts of his. When I first made him here I tried to make him still be essentially the same(which skill-wise he is) and with his background essentially the same but with less dependence on other characters I wasn't going to introduce in the arena. That part failed miserably.
So here I will be posting more about Torin's revised background (which you can consider to overwrite anything contradictory in the original piece)

So off the top of my head
The Crystal(s)(the one Torin touched):
The crystals are relics/creations that are made from the clash of elements.
Not just light vs. dark spells but ALL light and ALL dark and ALL chaos and ALL order.
They are a symbolic representation of the clash and struggle between those elements, made from the very fabric of reality itself.
In touching it Torin gained an affinity for those elements(a slight affinity for Light & Order a great affinity for Dark & Chaos), as well as being "enlightened" to the true nature of the elements (that they have been subtlety manipulating the whole world in an attempt to use humans (and every other thinking species) to further their agendas).
However this knowledge is all sub-conscious Torin knows it but doesn't know he knows it.
2)Torin actually touched 2 crystals (the Light-Dark crystal and the Order-Chaos crystal) being made from reality itself two of them can exist in one place at one time.
3)When he touched them he partially absorbed the crystal(mostly the dark/chaos portions respectively), later when Cael touched it he absorbed the other halves(gaining a great light/order affinity) and they disappeared. They will re-appear when either Torin or Cael dies or when the strain between the two elements is great enough to cause a new one (several billion years to create one the size of a pea, don't count on it)

There is one crystal for every elemental "set" or pairing of opposites which directly clash.

Torin's Origins.
Torin has no clue who his real parents are or even if he has any. He was a foundling at the end of a war. (Foundling=child orphaned by war, soldiers would sometimes take them home as sons, especially when their own sons had died in the war).
Torin was taken by a soldier he would there after think of as his father, his "mother" treated him like her own son for years, despite the early onset of his decaying sight (which started as a little fuzziness in the distance and increased almost noticeably on a daily basis, it halted at 1.5 feet of clear vision before everything fuzzed out).
Then his mother took ill and died one winter many years later.
Torin's father became a broken man, taking to drink his business(he was a farrier for a small town/village) declined. For three years he moped about the village, before finally deciding that the place had too many memories attatched to it. He left the village, taking Torin with him, and joined the trade caravans as a year round worker, putting his expetise with horses to good use.
In the caravans Torin met another boy named Cael(also a foundling though his family had been amongst the caravans since the end of the war), who he became good friends with.
Some few years (age:7) later Torin's caravan stopped in some ancient ruins and Torin went exploring. Unbeknown to him Cael also explored those ruins....

Growing Up Alone...
Torin was forgotten by everyone he had ever met, Cael included. He was fortunate enough that the caravan was willing to take him on, but he wasn't willing to stay with the caravan, his own father, looking at him with no more care than he would for any other boy. To Torin's surprise there was another boy whom no one seemed to remember either, named Cael,(yes with the explaining later) the two became fast friends, and when Torin left the caravan at the next city (for while he had no wish to stay on he wasn't foolish enough to leave in the middle of the wilderness). Cael for his part, was sad to see Torin go, but wanted to stay on with the caravan, for he wished to see the Blue Citadel, home of Vallan'al Cara, an order of warriors dedicated to protecting and serving all people's. It was far inland, while Torin had stopped in Sharbain, a bustling port city.
Torin was quickly shunted into an orphanage, and just as quickly learned that there was no possible way that he could survive on just what the orphanage gave out. He slept at the orphanage or in allies as was required, he joined a gang of street boys, his blindness (which in a city, with all its stationary obstacles, was indeed a handy cap) proved to be an asset as, well to put it simply, even the most suspicious shop keeper didn't bother to check the blind kid, eventually moving on to odd jobs a well, taking messages. He lived like this until he was about 10, when he idly attempted to pick the pocket of a curiously forgettable man in gray. He failed miserably, but rather than thrashing him or handing him over to the watch as Torin came to expect the man simply gave him a coin and asked if it was enough. Torin responded that it was, and the man smiled and murmured something about it being cheap for the value. Thereafter Torin saw the man often, every time he turned a corner or was alone it seemed. The man would smile, and bid him sit, and Torin always would, and the man would tell him things, of gods, or numbers, of plants, or of history, every time something different, and he would give Torin food, or perhaps coin. Torin could never say how long these sessions were, they sometimes seemed like days, but those he knew would often act as though he had been away for no more than a few minutes, still he was not dissatisfied, for he found that the more the man taught him the more he wished to learn. Soon he hungered for knowledge so strongly that he would often go without food for some days so he could afford a book in one of the cities few stores (for in Sharbain, all the libraries belonged to university, and access was for it's members and nobles alone). When not working, stealing, reading, or speaking with the man Torin would sit for hours listening to the tales sailors from far off lands would tell.
When Torin was 16 he met the man again, and the man bid him go to the University, and give his name as Torin, and he would find a place for him there. Torin went, gave his name, and found a place there.

The University.
The University of Sharbain is a large institution, dedicated for the sole purpose of learning. It produces many fine engineers, philosophers, statesmen, writers, artists, historians, and magi, particularly aeromancers and hydromancers(being after all a port city). Torin was given no direction in his new life, he found that his tuition and board had been payed for, presumably by the man in gray, but that he was not enrolled in any classes or sessions. For a time he cast about, unsure of what to do. He tried politics, philosophy, history and writing, none of which appealed to him for very long. He moved on to artistry, but aside from some skill with engraving (since it was an art in which feel was far more important than sight) but was deemed to not be creative enough, he had the skills but not the spark. He moved on to the more academic arts, math and the sciences, he was far from the best but he could pass the muster, however he found it uninteresting, especially since the scholars who taught seemed to refuse to accept the magics of the world, Torin on the other hand felt that if he was to learn the sciences of the universe he might as well learn the mystical laws of the universe too, or at least how they affected the physical. He continued on in the sciences for a bit but eventually gave up on this too. Reluctantly he turned to magic, he had little interest in being a mage, for to him all the other studies could lead to a paying job, which would allow him to live as he pleased, while mages were always "chained" to some institution. Magic was not something the public much needed or used, in order to live as a mage he would have to give up his freedom, and work for a university, the government or one of the very few independent sources that used mages, mostly in very specific fields for magical items, or retrieval of raw materials. These institutions let the mages live in the lap of luxury, giving them food, drink, and living quarters....and not paying them a cent. Mages weren't slave labor, but those who used them went to great lengths to ensure any mage that worked for them wouldn't and couldn't ever work for another.
So Torin was reluctant when he turned to magic, and was almost glad when he was found to have a block with it. Try as he might he couldn't seem to cast any elemental spells. The closest he could get was illusions that contained equal amounts of Light and Dark. Most of the teachers and scholars considered it a pity since Torin's initial assesment had shown that he had a naturally large amount of mana and his skill in manipulating it was moderately good. Still so long as he was unable to add elements to his spells there was little that could be done. Torin was out of options, the interest of the professors more or less trapped him in magic studies but his inability to cast elemental spells hindered him hugely, not only could he not cast the most common magics but by extension he didn't have the practice or experience to cast the more complex non-elemental spells. Eventually however he was forced into runic magics, where for a time he excelled...

Fire runes are rare to make cause the thing they are written on may get motlen by triggering?

Is it possible then to store amounted fire energy in from of runes on lets say stones, using those as bombs?

Runes are only mana-related? What if pure elemental energy, unrelated to mana, were to be used to charge runes, or would it create something completely different?

I already know my plans for the question, I'm just asking if your system applies to differnet types of energy.

Also, I'm going to edit the Lore section to be Lore/Systems. Could you move this information or increase it to seperate topics about your systems? This way it's more readily accessable than having to look in character bio when it can apply elsewhere.

Moved the sys description accordingly, and added Torin's personal lore to his bio.
And the runes might work with a different energy but the runes would most likely need to be differently drawn to compensate for it.

Bah, History Post chars maxed out so I have to double post to continue it.

Descent
Torin excelled at runic magicks, runes only required that he fill them with ordinary mana, they would align the mana to the right element(s) on their own. He wasn't exactly a genius with them, he didn't create any new runes nor did he ever master the most complex runes (True Seals), but still he was talented and advanced quickly. Eventually he caught the eye of one of Salic, an old mage with many honors and titles. He didn't teach any classes but was widely known nonetheless. In his day Salic had pretty much been the most powerful mage involved with Almoth, he had served under the king, first as a battlemage then eventually as the royal mage, and sometime during his rise he had become one of the Twelve Pillars, the twelve mages who were given rule over all other mages in Almoth, a Pillar could question the king himself, they were also the only mages granted access to the Royal Library, a small but ancient library which was said to hold secrets of magic not known anywhere else in the world. However Salic had eventually grown weary of the conniving politics of the courts and of being so tightly chained to the kingdom. He sought to leave, and found he could not, so he made a nuisance of himself, constantly bickering with the king, countermanding orders, and eventually caused enough trouble that the king grew wrathful. The Pillars convened, and it was decided that Salic would get the Pillars abolished, so they came upon him and bound him, they stripped him of much of his power, they weakened his body and made him fragile. Afterwards they claimed he had taken ill and would never recover from the side effects, that he would never be great again, the king was satisfied with this, and so placed him in the Sharbain University(for while he was hated, throwing a Pillar to the streets reflected badly upon all Pillars, and he could not be stripped of his title as a Pillar for so long as he held the knowledge of the Royal Library. So he was placed in the University, rapped in swaddling cloth and looking ancient, he was not given classes and nothing ws expected of him. They left him to rot within a gilded cage, with only memories and regrets for company, he was bitter for a time, but eventually stirred himself to try to at least do something useful, but found that he could not teach, everyone was scandalized to think so great a mage should waste his talent on mere students. Once again bitter he withdrew or a time, but once again he could not stand idleness for long and looked for a student, a disciple, someone to follow in his footsteps. He found Torin, the almost-blind mageling who was so talented with runes, but couldn't cast elemental spells to save his life. Salic looked and saw the potential, and when Torin entered the phase of his education where he studied more or less independently, Salic came for him. He took him under his wing and tried to teach him magick, but to little avail even the great mage could not make Torin cast elemental spells, but still the old one persisted, for truly Torin was a challenge, and was the most entertaining thing Salic had done for years. Eventually Salic gave up on elemental spells and did the unthinkable, he broke his oath, in his desire to make a follower he secretly taught Torin some of the spells from the Royal Library. At first Torin had little skill, but soon they stumbled upon one school which Salic had mastered though had little use for, and so Torin learned Meta-magic. Torin's lust for knowledge was suddenly indulged in a way it never had been before, he wanted more, DEMANDED more, and soon the well ran dry. He was far from a master in practical applications, but as far as theory went Torin new everything Salic had to teach him. Torin grew angry and bitter, he saw the locks on the libraries at the university, and when he heard of the restricted access to the Royal Library he was upset. He did not think of how dangerous knowledge could be, but only saw censorship, lies and restrictions, the seeds Salic had planted grew and bore fruit, but not as Salic had planned, rather than hating the King and the politicians on a personal basis(as Salic had) Torin came to disdain the very country itself. In his 4th year Torin created his staff, using runes to make it unbreakable by any force known to man, and the masters of the school recognized it as a masterwork. Torin now free to do as he pleased, though he was expected to soon join the Battlemages, simply disappeared. One day he was at the University, the next he was gone, along with some of the restricted books from both the magical and philosophical libraries(while he had never been good at philosophy it did fascinate him). All attempts to find him by magic failed. Salic realizing what happened took his own life before the 11 other Pillars could. For Torin's part he had taken on the guise of a traveler and sought answers, trying to find ways around the censorship of certain books. For a year he wandered, he even saw the Blue Citadel, though he did not see Cael(then a knight-errant within the Blue Citadel), eventually however, he heard whispers of cults dedicated to a society in darkness rather than light, he investigated and found they had access to many forbidden archives, they sought to learn of forbidden knowledge. Torin was overjoyed, he joined them, dedicated to a society where any truth, no matter how disturbing or unsettling was available to anyone. It was during this point that Torin first became a criminal, it wasn't just petty stealing or even the stealing of the books from libraries anymore, after he had been among them for sometime Torin was introduced to the idea that they must kill certain individuals in order to bring about their "Truth spread wide" philosophy, and so Torin became if not their best, at least one of their better assassins, known as The Empty One. For a time it continued, Torin was an assassin, not a murderer, he would kill or silence the target, he killed very few, and no magic was able to trace him. The Pillars were in a fury, they knew it had to have been the same person who stole from the University, that he had to have been using meta-magic, but since Meta-magic's very existence was a secret they could do nothing. Torin continued his career as an assassin of darkness for a time, but a he grew more successful so too did he move into higher and higher echelons of power amongst the cults. Soon he could keep track of the activities of those at the top. He was revolted, sickened even. The "leaders" were living in luxury, using their power not to spread truth but had fallen to corruption and used their influence to do nothing more than hoard power and money for themselves. Torin was furious, for near 3 years he had devoted his life to them, to their lies! He left the Dark cults, and soon their leaders began dying of mysterious "accidents". When he was done, before even the blood of his last victim was washed off he was approached by the agents of Chaos...

Chaos Wars
Torin at first reacted with anger to the emissaries of Chaos, to his eyes they were just as bad as the dark cults. For a time he travelled as a beggar or scholar. He had a wide grounding, in many subjects, though was a master of but a few, so he could sometimes find short jobs for short pay. For about a year he wandered as such, looking not just for work, but for some purpose. from the day he was boorn he had always had some purpose, something to do. When he was child he had to please his parents. When he was older and his past had been erased it had simplybeen to survive, when he was older still he was supposed to study, and learn. Recently he had been supposed to fight, and kill, in the name of the freedom of knkowledge and most recently of all he was supposed to kill those dark leaders that so fooled their disciples. But now, he had no purpose, he drifted like a boat with no anchor, searching for some purpose to his life. However always would the agents of chaos approach him whispering to him of what Chaos could offer him. He turned them away until finally they began to find the levers. The Dark Cults were fools they said. They sought to free knowledge but the very system in which they operated would not allow it. Regardless of all else they whispered, until the system itself is torn down, nothing will change. Torin stil did not join, butdid begin to listen. What you want is not freedom, nor even knowledge, what you want is change. And Chaos...is the purest force of change. And so Torin wa convinced, he turned to Chaos now swearing to bring down the whole country, so that a new, free state, would rise from it's ashes. Torin was not alone amongst the new recruits for Chaos, there had been a great influx, as the forces of Chaos in Almoth had been seeking new blood, blood for their great project. It was not long after Torin joined Chaos that the project was put into place. The Marrdean Uprising began, urged by the forces of chaos, and bolstered by their legions, whole towns and villages rose up against the state, the King mobilized his military, while Chaos Legions appeared seemingly from now-where, and every peasent in he southwest armed himself with spear and bloodlust, and went to war against his king. Upon the first clash with the forces of Chaos the Vallen'al Cara realized this was not just an uprising of the people against a king but instead that the people they had sworn to protect were being corrupted. The Vallan'al Cara set up an uneasy truce with the King and began to mobilize against the Chaos Legions, being their superior in warrior quality(for the Vallan'al Cara were the finest warriors in that land and in many for miles around). Torin was not a fighter, not at first at least. Rather he was sent as a spy into the Blue Citadel itself. There Torin at first acted as a refugee, fleeing the war. However the Vallan'al Cara were first and formeost a military order, they would aid people for a time but if they could not provide some use for themselves they were shortly after removed. Needing some way to stay Torin applied his rune mastery into making enchanted weapons and armors for the Cara. So he stayed and listened, and reported. Eventually however something he had forgotten about came to pass. His old friend Cael, met him. Cael was overjoyed, his old friend, still alive, and aiding the war effort no less, however Cael was disturbed by the fact his friend didn't know how to use the (obvious) weapon by his side. So in the Citadel Torin came to know how to use both staff and glaive, eventually going so far as to test himself against some of the Vallan'al Cara, where he performed well, until fighting against a Cara Captain, namely Cael, who laughingly disarmed him within the first minute of the fight. Outside the walls of the Citadel however he war was going badly for the forces of Chaos, they had been prepared to fight the kings army but the Vallan'al Cara's aid had put them at a disadvantage. They recalled Torin and upon discovering his much increased combat skills placed him in a raiding party. Torin's group moved fast and struck behind enemy lines, but as the well of reinforcements ran dry their eventual losses were never replaced. The Vallan'al Cara recognized that the major armies of the Uprising were battered and broken, and began hunting down the raiders. Torin's group, now with some fame in the war, was near the top of the wanted list and Torin himself(though known only as "The Sorrowful Man" for appearing to weep after battles) was among those wanted. Then Torin was positively identified, in the last 2 years of the war Torin's raiding group participated in one of the last victorious pitched battles for Chaos. In order to gain control of a river the forces attacked the garrison and small navy holding the crossing. At first the attack on the garrison failed, but Torin's group attacked the navy by sneaking on under cover of darkness. The battles erupted in many of the boats, though a few fell quickly and easily. Torin however had the bad luck to attack the boat a certain Vallan'al Cara Captain was stationed on. Torin managed to dispatch the other fighters with a minimum of trouble, but Cael was a different matter(and yes it was an overly dramatic and almost angsty reunion/realization. Let's not discuss it). The fight was almost entirely one sided in Cael's favor until Torin doused the lights. Robbed of his sight, and with little practice in using other methods of combat, Cael lost his advantage and was forced to retreat. Torin was considered a hero among Chaos as he took command and ordered the ships siege weapons against the garrison, securing victory for the forces of Chaos. Unfortunately Torin's likeness now began appearing on wanted posters for high treason. Still Torin fought on, eventually gaining a small command near the end of the war. The war died down slowly, the official victory of the King's Army and the Vallan'al Cara was probably sometime 1.5 years before Torin forsook Chaos, at the age of 27. His last act being considered one of he last tradgedies of the war. Having recognized that the forces of Chaos were all but defeated Torin fell into a fey mood. He had escaped capture thus far, and now sought to deliver some crippling blow, Chaos was finished but if he could strike true Almoth may be fractured, broken and susceptible to future invasions, future change. He got lucky, and heard of a meeting of heads of state, generals and foreign diplomats at a manor in the mountains, a place called Becueqerel. Torin rode quickly and reached the manor hours before even the guard. He etched runes into several key locations, then left. Later as the sun set, he came upon the manor, activating his runes to silently disable the guards. He managed to singlehandedly kill all but one person(a guard, who survived his wound, later identified him) within the manor, an event that would thereafter be known as "The Slaughter at Becuequrel". As he left the manor, blood still soaking his gloves a man in gray stepped out from the trees. He seemed absolutely furious. Torin tried to raise his weapons but somehow couldn't. The man raged at him for his stupidity, declaring that the price he(the man) had paid was higher than he ever thought it would be. The man talked to him, though Torin could never remember exactly what he had said he came to nderstand what he had done. He begged the man to tell him how to make it right, at first the man was repulsed, but then slowly he seemed to give in to some temptation. He bid Torin go draw a design in blood on the ground, and light a fire in the center of it. Torin, stricken with grief did not think to question him and did as he was told. When he returned the man's face was lit with an other earthly light and he seemed...fuller, more healthy, but somehow looked nauseous. He told Torin he had taken on a great burden for him. Torin once again asked what it was that he should do, for he now knew he could never return to Chaos, but now he had no direction in life, and was a wanted man. The man looked at him with pity for a moment the told him he would find his answers in a god, but the man coud not tell him which. Torin nodded numbly and walked away, once more no more than a traveller...

seems good just some minor spelling mistakes

It's almost done anyway...only 2 more "chapters" to his life before he joins the arena

... Chrissake Bi...

When I make a history I don't screw around. Yes it's hackneyed and not terribly original but at least it's fairly in-depth.

Too many characters again... damn max cout...

Exile
Torin wandered, he was a wanted man but he was also able to capitilize on his blindness. No one believed Torin Grayeye, a vicious war criminal, could be a blind beggar and wanderer, who seemed to be trying to find god. He wandered and quickly became sure that the god he sought was not a mainstream god. However as he widened his search, he began to access or sneak into church libraries, old book stacks, and other sources of knowledge. It took a long time but by seeing more and more lore of gods presented side by side he began to see the true nature of all gods. Gods, (and later he would determine, Elemental Lords) all sought to increase their own advantage in the world. Their primary means of doing so was through subtle manipulation of mortals. He became enraged, he felt he was one of those manipulated, it did not lessen his share of the guilt but they were just as much to blame as he, and more, for he had only fought in the war, certain gods had caused it. He thought of the words of the man in gray. Oddly enough Torin reflected, he couldn't rememeber that man's name, despite having heard it often. Regardless he came to believe that whatever god the man had told him to seek would be one who did not try to manipulate his followers, this would mean one who saw no good, no evil, no chaos, no order. A god who was not interested in power or glory or even success. He began to doubt he would ever find such a god, but searched anyway, for he felt he could do nothing else. He was not crushed by guilt, but neither did he feel he could cease what was to him, a search for redemption. He searched his country over, hurrying as he could. He eventually swore that should he ever have the power he would end the influence of the gods upon man, that mankind should hold their destiny in their own hands once more. He could not say if it would reduce the suffering, if it would reduce the wars and bloodshed and pointless strife and struggle, but at least what strife there would be, it would be because man willed it, not because soem god demanded blood. Torin for his part, wandered about, finding every library he could, later becoming more and more interested in those out of the way or hidden, where there might be knowledge found nowhere else in the world. However soon the last war parties of Chaos were caught, and executed, and Torin became one of an ever shrinking list of marks. People with bounties on their heads, Torin began to have to get more and more creative to avoid capture, until he heard that the Vallan'al Cara themselves had dispatched a small unit in search of him. Torin didn't need to hear it to know that Cael, who by this time was a powerful figure in the Cara, which due to it's efforts in the war was now a major political body and ruling force in it's own right, would be heading that unit. Torin knew that sooner or later he would be caught, so he stoped visiting cities, he had a few more libraries to investigate before he could afford to run, so it was a race against time. Would he examine those libraries in time? Or would the Cara find him first. There were close calls, many of them in fact, but time and again Torin outpaced or outmanuevered the patrol and in one case even outfought a significant portion of the patrol, though not Cael himself. Torin was lucky and suceeded, investigating the last library, days sooner than the Cara(who had since caught onto his obsession with religious texts and studies) expected him to be able to. Torin now knew he could not stay in the country, he took a horse and fled for the border to the southwest, but his luck ran out. The remanents of the Cara had picked up his trail, and for near on five days closed the gap daily. However Torin had but one advantage. In stealing horses and leaving his winded ones behind, he was able to force more and more Cara men to drop out of the chase. On the fifth day there was only Torin and Cael, now in the open fields and muddy rivers of Mardeo. The gap closed by the hour until at last Cael was close enough that he could strike down Torin's horse with some magic. Raising his hand above his head a bar of light appeared and struck Torin's horse in the leg, maiming it. Torin cleared the falling horse, just in time to see Cael bearing down on him. The fight was short and brutal, by the bank of a river they fought, every possible accident happening to Torin, and ever more bars of light appearing, acting as spears, or clubs within the air. Cael himself wielding his Great Sword and magics. Torin was easily outmatched and lay broken upon the bank of the river. Using the last of his strength he took a palmed dagger and stabbed it into himself, casting an illusion of himself upon himself. The illusion of him croaked a speech of defiance before slitting it's own throat. Cael for his part, spoke words of sorrow but also of justice and determination, he turned and left Torin for dead. Torin was weak, bleeding and dying, so his feeble attempt to rise only ended with him rolling over the bank, into the river below. There he passed out from the shock and floated downstream. For ages he floated, eventually coming to rest on a rock in midstream, unconcious. There once more the man in gray appeared, sitting on the rock. He once again was annoyed, but said nothing. He laid hands on Torin, and the worst of his injuries were healed, the rest became bent, as if old and partly healed. Still heavily injured, but no longer in danger of losing his life, the man pushed Torin off the rock and let hm float downriver once more....