Kael Rayne

Description:

Kael stands 6' 5" tall. He has a muscular and athletic build with broad shoulders. He is fair skinned with brown hair and green eyes. He has large claw mark scars along the side of his bare chest. He wears hardened dark leather armor. Including a kilt, bracers, gloves, and a left pauldron with spikes made from hardened bone. Often seen wearing decorative facial and body "war paint". He wears a bear claw necklace around his neck and carries a massive war staff with thick ridged ends on both sides.

Character info and behavior:

Kael is a fierce barbaric warrior-hunter and part of a clan of people who lived in a cold mountain forest and comes from an unknown land. He lives with a zest for life, can be cheerfull, sometimes agressive, gruff , or even quiet, but always a bit wild. He is very protective of his friends and sometimes acts a bit animalistic in his mannerisms. This is due to a wild and feral magic he possesses which allows him to manipulate elements and transform his body slightly and take on certain abilites of animals from his homeland. He carries a large fighting staff which is carved with the likenesses of these animals along its handle. He also has a new found aversion to metal which must be linked to the new powers he posseses. The powers appear to be druidic or perhaps shamanic in nature but are a wild version and he is untrained in their uses and unleashes these powers instinctively and out of neccesity.

Stories, memories, and more (Kael's Written words):

   I awoke in what I later learned to be known as Marble Dale Park. I was confused, disoriented, and unfamiliar with my surroundings. I sat there on the grass,  looking around and I realized my memories were lost to me. I did not know who I was or where I was from. And then slowly, like tiny rivulets of water slipping through the cracks in a dam, my memories began trickling back to me. At first I began to recall only broken bits. Fleeting images and raw emotions. The kind more akin to a nightmare or a strange dream. I remember a great blackness, an overwhelming and crushing bleakness....A strange hand offering a small cube...Feelings of fear, and despair. Like I was trapped in a small room with no escape... then I remebered a child with me. a small girl.. then a strange distorted carnival or festival of sorts. My feelings were of hunger and loneliness. Then I realized these were memories were of this place. This strange new world I was in now... But who was I? ....What was my name?....Kael.. Kael Rayne. That was me. This was not my home, not my land. I knew it in my bones.

   So I closed my eyes and I took a deep breath and emptied my mind. And I searched deep within myself and I saw a mountain. Like a great white tooth sticking up into the sky. And I saw the surrounding forest. Cold  and dark,  thick and immense, teeming with life. And I felt a sense of home. And I began to remember my people. Vaguely at first. Hard faced, stubborn,  and proud they were. I saw their log cabins half built into the earth. A great long house, lined with the heads of many great beasts, and I remembered feasting with friends in it. I remebered hunting with those people, and defending our land in battle with them. Bloody battles filled with the images of clashing weapons and with painted faces stretched in rage and pain. I saw arms being hacked clean off and faces being smashed. Hot entrails spilling onto the muddy snow hot and steaming. And the images brought fresh pain to my mind and I opened my eyes...So I remembered who I was. A great mountain warrior, a hunter and defender of my clan. And I smiled. And I was proud. I closed my eyes seeking more answers.

      That was when I remebered that fateful night. A night which left me forever changed. I was alone in the forest. Patrolling, perhaps hunting I do not remember which. But I remember sensing something approching. A great power. Something immense and enormous like Tooth Mountain itself comming to life and stalking me. It was the Wild Magic. And it was old and wild. Old like the mountains, old like the trees and wild like the beasts of the forest. And it came for me and it possessed me and I possessed it. It fiiled me up and coursed through my body. A Wild Magic born of the spirits of the earth, the spirits of the wind, the wood in the trees, and the blood and bones of the beasts.  All of these things seemed to link with me and I could sense them all at the same time. I stood in awe. Enraptured. And then, something changed. Somewhere deep in my soul I felt a tearing of some part of myself. And my awareness sprang down the mountain and across the valley far below. And I could sense a great beast. A great frost bear. And I could see it and hear it as if I was right there next to it yet I knew I was far up the mountain! I could smell it's musk and hear it's heart beat in rhythm to mine. And then I felt a great ripping into the beast and I saw it roar in pain. And I found my awareness back to myself and I roared and bared my teeth. I looked down at my arms to see the skin stretching and changing. hardening like a thick furry hide and I felt my limbs growning slightly and I felt a great strength coursing through my body. And I roared again. I was still very much a man.. Just tougher and stronger..similar to a bear..I felt amazing. Then just as suddenly the feelings were gone and I again felt my awarness cast across the forest and I saw a fierce mountain cat. And again came the ripping into the beast and then change. The shifting. Only this time I felt a great nimbleness and a leaness to my limbs and a lightness to my bones. So I lept up into a tree from were I stood without even thinking, And I landed safely in the tree! I half laughed half hissed at the feelings of wonder and grace coursing through my body. Then several more times this repeated with other animals and each time the affects began to lessen. A ram gave me only a feeling of sturdiness and an eagle gave me only amazing eyesight and clarity of vision. A white wolf which I barely could sense in the distance, gave me only heightened sense of smell and hearing. But soon it was over. and I stood there for I do not know how long and I felt the earth under my feet as if it was alive and speaking to me. I felt the wind as if it were caressing me. I sensed the trees and their great age and patience. And the power of the mountain itself, grand and all knowing. And I knew I was changed forever. Whether those powers layed dormant in me for years or suddenly were thrust upon me that night I knew not. But very little of the Wild Magic was known to my people but I knew it was real. And I felt whole. Complete. I felt the Magic inside me. A part of me. The beasts still there inside me. And the subtle hints of more to come and powers I had yet to discover or understand. This was just the beginning. The magic was raw and I was unschooled with much to learn. And I was eager.

   Soon after I began to shake and I remember reaching for my sword, a weapon which was always dear to me and could bring comfort just being held in my hands. But when I grasped it in my hand, a great pain and nausea beset me and ran up my arm and into my body. I cried out in pain and dropped the sword. And I knew in my bones I would not be able to pick it back up. My new abilities had come with a price. I did not understand why the aversion was there, it just was. But as I looked at my sword on the ground I became scared for the first time that night. And I ran away from it. I ran confused and half panicked into the forest. I ran aimless and crazed until I felt something. Something calming and it lead me towards it somehow. I ran deeper into the forest for what felt like hours. The trees grew thicker, until I must have reached the cold dark heart of it. Until I came to a great dark tree. I stopped, panting heavily and bent over gasping for breath. The great tree was towering over me like giant and at my feet before me was a single branch. Detached and laying on the ground. The wood was dark, and it was straight long and thick like a staff. Impulsively I pulled out my obsidian knife and began to carve it. Just removing a few sprigs at first and then before I knew it i was lost in the work. I began shaping it and then I must have fallen asleep. Because the next thing I remembered was waking up in the early light of morning. Yet I was warm and covered with the thick hide like white fur of a frost bear. I chuckled. And to my amazement I held the branch in my hands. Yet it was no longer a branch at all. It was a staff. A staff meant for war. Perfectly balanced with thickened ridges on both ends and carved into the handle were the outlined images of the beasts from the forest. A mountain cat, the great bear, the ram, the eagle, and  the wolf. All carved neatly into the upper-handle of the staff. And as I ran my hand along the carvings I sensed the powers in me flare to life and I knew it was much more than a weapon. It was a tool which I could use to focus my new powers and draw upon them and alter myself. Becomming one with the spirit and blood of those beasts.

   Then suddenly a great flash of blue light came from the giant tree before me. Washing over me and coming from the center of its thick and wide trunk. A blue line had appeared in the trunk and the line began to widen untill it appeared to grow almost to the size of a doorway. Then the light began to change in color until it became yellow, and I could see yellow light coming from inside the tree.. Perhaps it was a doorway?....And the choice was made. Although I do not remember making it. I immediatley jumped into the tree and that was all I remembered of that fateful night.  All I could remember of my life until now... Until I awoke in Marble Dale Park...

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