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Stulyer Tannerson

Physical Description: Large human male, about 6’2" and 100+ kg. Imposing appearance through a combination of shear size and intense demeanor-although this can change rapidly. When telling a story or caught daydreaming, his features soften to a remarkable degree for a campaigner. He has green eyes and is normally tanned, wearing his long, coarse, brown hair swept back in a pony-tail wrapped in leather to keep it from getting loose during strenuous activity ( such as combat ). His armor and clothing so signs of wear but generally everything is well taken care of, most especially a small, weather-proof pack that he tends to keep with him at all times ( his journal, writing stuff , etc.) and an embroidered neckerchief ( gold and burgundy with silver stars and cressets set around the green tree in the center-modified heraldic banner of House Maldaran ). On those mornings after a serious binge, he is truly a pathetic and horrifying figure.

Psychological Description: Having suffered a rather tumultuous life thus far, Stuly tends to be in a generally pessimistic and depressed mood a great deal of the time. He isn't satisfied merely guarding baggage carts or smelly little accountants on short trips around the relatively safe lands of Kevarr. The historical military figures call out to him to join their ranks someday and he is certain of his qualifications-he just needs more exposure and opportunity and he's decided that he won't get it here. He remembers the "good old days" with his best friend Korban or his short time spent with the Widow Maldaran; both of the memories can bring him to tears during his lower moments. Both Y'ssora and Korban embody his deep-seated fear that he is unable to bring anything but ruin to those that he loves and that nothing he ever can do will be enough to make a difference. Even little instances of failing to meet an expectation can cause him grief but he has made progress in controlling these feelings. His drinking is a serious problem and he knows it, hence he is agitated and easily angered when in and around bars and taverns. He tries with occasional success to limit himself to one single glass of beer when he drinks. But all it takes is a good excuse or somebody buying him a few rounds and he falls off the wagon -- hard.

The two things he hates with a consuming ferocity are (1) people ( esp. children ) suffering needlessly and (2) people who let/force others to suffer needlessly -- either of which will cause him to intervene. At heart he is a dreamer, just one that has gotten lost on the way. Probably a Pisces or a Leo, he believes in the power of the Gods and of the fate that they have written for mortals. To Stulyer, our lives are merely the Gods speaking the words of the Story of mankind, unfolding the scenes and characters as each day dawns, each page turns. He tends to worship Koshka although generally in his own personal way.

Possessions: Not much, just what he can easily keep or carry with him: Mess, toiletry and writing kits; normal clothes, cloak, boots and wide-brim hat; chain mail armor, helm, shield, knife, dagger, bastard sword, long bow. His only special possessions are his old mustering ring from his lost unit, a few letters he has received from home over the years, and his neckerchief, which was a gift from his lover/friend Widow Maldaran.

Background: Stulyer was born in Ardiston a small to moderately sized town two days to the south-west of Avenal in Kevarr. His father was the town's most successful tanner although not the only one and his mother was simply a busy housewife, with three boys to tend to. As Stulyer was the oldest, he went into the tanning business to help his father almost immediately and got to be a fair hand at skinning, cleaning and working the hides of the beasts that his father then put through the tanning process. The stench was rather horrible and tended to cling to your body after a days work so he tended to not be a very social person during his adolescence; that and the fact that his father kept him working nearly every single day from the time he was old enough.

When his younger brothers Graham and Jedeph ( 2 and 3 years younger respectively ) were old enough, he was the one who showed them how to get the skins prepared for their father. Then his father began to teach him how to mix the solutions and cook the skins to get the right types of leather and so on. But Stulyer was already growing restless and when his attention strayed, his father's temper flared. The final straw broke when an argument turned into an actual brawl after Stulyer had ruined an entire batch of soon-to-be leather for an armoring contract for theup coming war. His father beat him and eventually won the fight but not before Stuly had proven that he could hand out some serious blows himself. By the time dad's ribs healed, Stuly had already left and joined "Calhoun's Cohort"-just in time to get into the second stages of the fighting. Graham is the only member of his family that he still talks to when they meet in Avendal or through the letters that Stuly writes; the others have nothing to say to him and that's just the way he prefers it.

He proved to be a good soldier although he had a bad tendency ( so his monetarily motivated commanders thought ) to let his personal beliefs interfere with his sense of duty. Once, his several of his comrades were forced to hold him back from beating one of the personal guard of their employer, because he liked talking about how he could force the commoner women to have sex with him even the young ones. Well, Stuly found out just how young the guy was meant and went to castrate the son of a bitch. Luckily, his best-friend Korban got to him first-with a few other guys from their unit-and stopped him from getting himself court-martialed and expelled from the unit. And that was part of the major change in his life: friends, he found some. Korban was the best and closest but most of the men in his unit became dear to him and they risked their lives together; eventually the feeling of camaraderie became more of an incentive to Stulyer than the money and he would routinely drop whatever he was doing to help out or sometimes just hang around some of his buddies.

Then, late in the conflict surrounding the Agyar Wood, his unit fell to a treacherously planned ambush and was destroyed nearly to a man. Only three men survived that battle, Stuly and the two men he managed to save; one he carried and the other he managed to patch together long enough to get to a real doctor. But all of the others, including Korban, died. He has never been able to determine who sold out the unit but if he did-well, that's just an opportunity he would always welcome. After that brutal summer, Stulyer and the other two parted company mainly because they had trouble looking each other in the face without feeling that they could have done something-ANYTHING to stop the destruction of their unit and the deaths of all of their brothers, even one more would have been something. The name of the cohort was whispered around bar-room tables and generally referred to as a sign of horrendous bad luck by most. The truly brave ones went further saying that the cohort was a shoddy outfit and that if they'd been half-way competent, they would never have been wiped out.

So Stulyer went the way of odd-jobs and drinking heavily, sometimes getting drinks from bartenders and innkeepers that he could entertain with his stories about the war or amusing anecdotes about country life ...anything that kept the beer coming in and the memory of "his" failure out of his mind. Then he took a job out of town at the Maldaran estate, protecting the recently widowed Y'ssora until her son and his wife could come and claim the family lands. Her husband had died in the war and it helped her to talk about him and how it felt to not have him around anymore. Stuly was not only the best confidant of the group but he truly felt that she understood the loss that he was feeling for his sword-brothers. Together, over the several weeks until her son arrived, they shared and healed and befriended one another. She encouraged his stories because they were so entertaining and enjoyable and even taught him Mahalese and reading and writing so that he could send her letters and learn even more from what books he could find.

Unfortunately, the night that the son and his family arrived, Stuly was "relaxing" after watch sharing a small bottle with the night-baker; he didn't make a very good first impression, lurching to his feet with a guilty look and a slight stagger. Soon after, the family noticed that something wasn't quite right between the him and Y'ssora and immediately dismissed Stuly. Y'ssora sent him with a neckerchief that she had embroidered herself for her late husband but which he had not lived to receive or wear. Fourteen days after he left, at his favorite tavern, he had finished his first beer and was contemplating a second ( or several ) when news came in that the Maldaran estate had been sacked and burned to the ground in retaliation for some offense the son had perpetrated against some merchant clan.

Y'ssora was found dead in the back of the kitchen, presumably trying to help the girls there to escape the attack. Feelings of guilt, helplessness and utter despair came crashing down on Stulyer reinforced by the utter certainty that had he not screwed up and been sent packing, he could have made the difference during the fight. Y'ssora's selfless sacrifice inspired him and made him proud almost to bursting but that just made his misconduct and his dereliction of his duty and her trust that much worse. The three months immediately following Y'ssora's death are a blank to Stulyò

Since then, he continues to tell and write the stories that Y'ssora loved so much and has even learned Korifine. He studies other languages and cultures, expanding his knowledge of people and their individual stories. Dealing with those perpetual feelings that he never seems to do enough to help people or that people he cares about die because he fails them in some way, is a huge part of his life but he does it by giving his aid whenever and where-ever he can; no more waiting for others to step in or worrying about who might take offense-just do it and help anyone who needs it. His will is stronger now and he is definitely more determined that he has a mark to make upon the world and the Gods preserve anyone who gets in his way. But in the end, his alcoholism is the one true enemy that he can't defeat. If anything kills him, it will most likely be a worsening of his depression-fueled drunken binges.

 

Background and Symbology questionnaire:

1) Entire family resides in Ardiston ( 2 days SW of Avendal ) consists of Stuly's Father and mother, his two younger brothers, his uncle and paternal grandparents.

Vitals
Father: Victor, age 46, 6', medium build, brown hair, brown eyes, deeply tanned

Mother: Evrelle, age 43, 5'3", pudgy, red hair, green eyes, fair, freckles

Brother(middle): Graham, age 24, 5'6", stocky, brown hair, brown eyes

Brother(youngest): Jedeph, age 23, 5'10", wiry, red hair, green eyes

Uncle(father's side): Hecedral, age 49, 6'2", slender, bookish, brown hair, brown eyes, rat-like face

Grandparents(mother's side): withered old folks, bed-ridden and slowly dying

The family owns a goodly sized piece of land just outside of town ( to the west of course, so that the tannery is down-wind from town ) that is the family home and the sight of its tanning business. The entire family works in the tannery and several of the hired workers are considered honorary family. Graham is the only friendly member of the family now and Stuly tries to keep in contact as often as he can. The rest of them think that he is a dried out, washed up, drunken ex-merc and are waiting to here of him dead in some alley any day now.

2) As noted above he has some difficulty dealing with what he perceives as serious short-comings in himself. He feels that people are bound to get hurt around him and maybe even because of him; certainly in spite of him, and everything that he tries to do to prevent it. He is proud of his stories and his flair for telling them and he can't hold anyone in higher esteem than he does the bard's of the world, tipping them outrageously and bugging them ceaselessly for more stories and songs from far-off places he hasn't gotten to yet. And "yet" is the word, too, because he knows that there are big things in store for him ...he just has to have patience and be ready. He is aware of his stature and his abilities as a soldier and is damn proud of them, never letting a day go by without practicing or polishing something or other. He also believes that he has an obligation to help anyone who needs it because of all of the harm that has followed him around throughout his life.

3) He is sick and tired of the little "quiet life of desperation" and is ready to go out and live his own "Oddessy" right now. Money is not a big deal as long as he has enough to get by and survive. His main goals are to
1) continue to improve himself in his eyes as well as for the memories of Y'ssora and Korban,
2) see the world and learn all about the stories that "live" in those far off lands, and
3) to become the object of his own story that can live on like the military figures of history.
4) Morality. Wow. Simple and yet so difficult to describe. First and foremost, Friends are friends and Enemies are enemies unless something VERYsubstantial occurs to change his mind. Doubting his trusted comrades is something that just wouldn't occur to him. Given that outlook, betrayal of a trust is the greatest offense one can commit and there is no room for forgiveness of an Oathbreaker-as he sees it now ( I expect this to pose significant problems for him as he realizes that the world is not so cut and dry). Second and very close to betrayal is the abuse of power or position; in other words, bullies are his favorite hobby-correcting their behavior that is. Next on the list would be plain old fashioned Stupidity because he despises and is highly intolerant of waste and needless activity of any sort, especially when it might cost people their lives. As he sees it, Law and Chaos are pretty much irrelevant since both are tools of people with Good and Evil intentions; the axiom "the path to Hell is paved with good intentions" is one of his pat observations on this conflict. Good and Evil then.....they are nothing more than labels that he imposes on other people's motives-in other words, they do not exist in absolute terms and even these labels cannot be applied to the Gods because they too act for their own hidden agendas. But he does believe in the "common good" and he will defend and uphold that ideal with his last breath, if need be. His code of ethics can be easily written out: Talk straight and don't deceive people; Honor all obligations and require the same; Treat others as they treat with you; Lighten the load of others whenever you can; Never turn your back on a needy person; Be the best man you can be ( thanks to Y'sorra!! ); Never suffer a wrong to go ignored;

5) The cultures as a whole don't tend to impress or interest him too much. Instead, it's the specific individuals that make up the cultures and the nations that are exciting because they have unique stories to tell, some funny, some sad, some huge and grand, and still others are quite plain and simple. He has had no exposure to other races, nor has he heard of anyone who has but it would certainly make an interesting story. So far, all of his travels and knowledge are centered in and contained by Kevarr and Avendal in particular.

6) What about Death? When the Gods spin a character out of the Story, that's it. We are left to wonder what happened to him/her and to what place they went. But we never know that and it is that same unknowing, the suspense, that keep us guessing right up until the last second before we "find out". It is the end of the story-line and a time to wrap-up and move on to something new and more exciting but that doesn't mean that those left, like a audience for a story, cannot feel a terrible loss for the character's absence. For Stulyer, there could be no finer Death than fighting the good fight, even against uncountable odds-make it a good Death, brave and legendary, and he will be content. In fact, a heroic fight and making a good account of ones time in the Story are the most moving and important aspects of one's life; if he's bound to die, make his a good death.

Symbology:
a) Weapon: The Sword ( Blades often cut both ways, injuring the incautious wielder or an innocent nearby. The perfect warriors tool, it is still not as mighty as the pen of Fate.)
b) Animal: Marrakinai ( Renowned as the finest guard dogs in the world, they are fiercely loyal, fearless and if need be, selfless as well. Being compared to such a valiant, fearsome animal is nothing less than the highest honor. Was also the mascot of Calhoun's Cohort.)
c) Song: "The Lament of King Desallo" ( a Mournful dirge that charges on, almost abusively, through heartbreak, tragedy and sorrow until, in the end, the good King wins the day-and then dies on the spot. Great Story, wonderful "good conquers evil" theme and the King was a true Class Act.)
d) Gem/Metal/Mineral: Steel ( tough, resilient and light. Shining brightly when given proper opportunity and care, steel makes up the tools than Stulyer's life depends upon and so in turn, he assumes some of its properties.)
e) Weather: Tornado ( Often called the Finger of the Gods, these are one of the most concentrated displays of nature's power, elemental fury and precision destruction known to mankind. Stulyer fancies himself the same. When it's time to thrown down, you'd best not be on the other team.)

Portrait of Stully
Stully's 3rd Edition D&D stats