Corvus Gwynstredd'ae

[Cafall]

The following is Corvus' background/history. I did my best to pare this down but I realize it's still a little long. DMs can find a more concise summary of Corvus in the second post -- the history's just in case you're interested.

Corvus was the kind of child who left trails of twigs, sand and puddles you could track all through the house. He'd tell you how he planned to grow up into a druid and marry the girl who swam at his choice swimming-pond in the same breath. His scratches, which he gathered often around his home in the western High Forest, showed up mostly on his arms and under his chin, healing around flecks of bark and pine-sap.

His father was the kind of man who'd learn his wife was pregnant and start writing up lesson plans. To Corvus, naturally, the sun rose at the back of his mother, who was a druid.

When Corvus was seven, the family took a trip into the Lost Peaks which resulted in the disappearance of his mother (presumed dead). Two days later, Corvus was snatched by orcs and dangled in front of his captive father. His father slew the orcs, but Corvus' face was raked by his captor's claws. The boy and his father were forced to hike back to the nearest settlement without looking for his mother's body. Though the father returned with search groups more than once, they came up empty-handed. Corvus, whose wounds had festered without a healer, returned to his childhood village with one eye hooded under scar tissue. That was the end, Corvus found, of any marriage plans with a swimming partner.

Corvus' father became a sterner teacher. Without a druid in the village there was no one available to teach Corvus, and he had no heart to leave his family. His father didn't offer; in between lessons he frequently left to represent his village in campaigns, fighting with two swords -- as he'd taught his son -- against the forest's tribes of orcs and gnolls.

When he was gone Corvus fought boredom by walking farther and farther from his village, half-hoping to stumble on some other hidden settlement in the remote forest. It was on one of these walks that he came across a wild elf called Keln. Caught in the right mood Keln would describe himself as a devoted servant of his god, but he seemed irreverent -- almost flippant at times -- toward most of the Seldarine. He carried only a bow and a long dagger, but he was comfortable in the wild parts of the woods without a companion for safety. Corvus was fascinated. Eventually, they became a quiet sort of friends, and Keln taught Corvus the knowledge to which worshippers of Fenmarel are privy. The boy learned how to survive in the wilderness with no village to feed him; how the hunt was a sacred act, how he could employ it to keep balance with nature and glorify his master's god. He learned how to snipe and disappear, and how to trick his quarry into a trap. To a boy who'd spent his childhood chasing birds and tracking deer, stewardship of the wilderness came naturally.

When Corvus reached the summer of his one hundred-twenties, two things happened very suddenly. First, his apprenticeship ended. Keln had little to say about it: mostly, he just sipped a jar of tea and shrugged. "You know it all," he told his pupil, "unless I don't know it. The rest, someone else could teach you better anyway."

Corvus spluttered, "but there is no one else. Fenmarel worshippers don't exist in the High Forest, except for us!"

Keln only hunched lower and shrugged. For the first time since he'd met the ranger, Corvus noticed how wildly Keln's hair fell into his eyes; how his face could have been carved out of the trees behind him. "It's that time for you, boy." The wild elf leaned forward. "There comes a time for you when you go looking for new territory. We need to find a tree that isn't marked before we know what sign to scratch. It's true for everyone, and trackers like us 'specially."

Less than a week later, Corvus' father found out about his apprenticeship, and the young elf packed up his two practice swords, bow and hunting knife, and left. He didn't like to dwell on that last meeting; he preferred to remember his father some other way; any other way than the storming, the man's shoulders rattling every wall they swung into, the wrinkles in his face bunched into a fist. More than once, he wondered why he didn't throw his swords over some lonely bridge.

Corvus travelled for months, only guided by Keln's last words to him. After a while foraging through the High Forest, he left the trees of his old home and angled his pilgrimage toward the east. He sometimes heard rumors of tiny enclaves of wood elves out beyond the Inner Sea, warring with orc tribes for their ancestral land; he pointed himself whatever way they led, slowly making his way through the Dalelands and the woods of Cormanthor. Somewhere, he thought, he'd find a stand of trees he could stay under, and scratch in his mark.

[Cafall]

Corvus: Basic Character Sheet

This post is written for the convenience of DMs -- not for players. Unless you're a DM, reading this will probably spoil more RP than it will inform.

Corvus Gwynstredd'ae

Stats
STR: 14
DEX: 18
CON: 10
INT: 12
WIS: 14
CHA: 11

Alignment: Chaotic Good.

Deity: Fenmarel Mestarine

Languages Known: Common, Elven, Goblin, Orc

Character Sketch
Corvus' ideal life is not very different from that of a homesteader's, if you erase the homestead. His dreams are tied fiercely to a family in the loosest sense -- friends, companions, fellow travellers he can trust with his life -- but a real home doesn't figure much into how he pictures his future. He likes to live, in other words, like a gypsy -- anchored through his timeline by people rather than surroundings.

Influenced by the teachings of his god, Corvus tends to put himself in the protector or guardian role of such adopted families. To his mind, it's what he's good at -- he wouldn't be fit for much else anyway. On the other hand, his time in the Vast has taught him that it's a mistake to get too caught up in the guard's role and disengage from the people around him -- that has left him with no one close enough to guard.

Though Corvus feels like he has not found a place to settle yet, he fools himself when he thinks that what he's looking for is a place. Whether he knows it or not, he's really searching for the archetypal band of adventurers, the ones that ramble up and down the countryside in a caravan wagon. He has a duty and charge to protect the wilderness, and he takes it very seriously, but his overriding desire -- family -- trumps it. This is the crux of his character: at the end of the day, Corvus is loyal to people, not places.

Notes & Hooks
Corvus is a very spiritual person, and unlike his old teacher, he's increasingly felt a connection to more gods than just Fenmarel. He's sometimes uncomfortable with his god's glorification of estrangement, afraid that his ties to friends and his duty to help protect them will not be looked upon with favor.

Corvus does not play an instrument, but he has a love of panpipe music that stretches back to his childhood, when his mother played for him, to brighten his mood or make him laugh. His mother's disappearance doesn't often catch hold in his mind, except when he hears the music of woodwinds; the loss of her pipes stand out in his mind. He'd do much to recover her old set.

Corvus knows that worshippers of his god are rare, and that the teachings of Fenmarel's domain are hard to come by. He tends to seek out rumors of wild elves or worshippers of Fenmarel, hoping for a lesson or just communion with a likeminded servant.