Percinious Nutbolter (click for larger image)
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Born in the city of Heldorn on the 17th of April in the 1,562nd year of the Sinking, Percinious was the son of a successful healer, one Larhisa Runestone. Larhisa never told her son who his father had been, but the fact that he was of the Khylar people was inescapably obvious in the boy’s achingly pale hair.
Perhaps fortunately, however, he was granted that sort of blunt unhandsomeness normally associated with buildings. This, along with his startling green eyes, distanced his features noticeably from the stereoptypical eldritch beauty of the Khylar and their kin. This, and his mother’s overwhelming usefulness and inoffensiveness, kept them from suffering the fate often encountered by half-Khyle and their families.
Larhisa taught her son everything she could about the healing arts, but the yearning for adventure was clear to see in him, and she did not stand in his way when he announced a desire to travel and make his own way.
He took to the streets, and fell in with the thieves’ guild of Heldorn. Never completely trusted by them, he nevertheless managed to learn enough to enable him to take on a challenging house-breaking – that of the Alchemist Nurvan. This involved going undercover and studying with the scientist for a while before making the heist.The usual loot was forthcoming, most of which the guild of course creamed off for themselves. However, among the items he extracted from Nurvan’s house was a small, strangely illuminated crystal pendant that somehow, compellingly, attracted him more than anything else.
Knowing nothing about it, he realized that to learn, he would need to be able to read, and he entered service to the scribe Ixalus. The knowledge he sought came slowly, and Ixalus was a cruel taskmaster, beating his young apprentice with sadistic glee. Everything came to a head one stormy night when Percinious discovered a book with a description of his prize.
To his mixed horror and fascination, he discovered that the trinket was a genuine example of Imperial Khylar workmanship, and enchanted to boot. Named the Maugre Claw, it could (among other things) store magical energy. Ixalus discovered Percinious with the book, and saw the Claw; it was clear he desired it, and they fought. Percinious killed the scribe with some relish and left his scriptorium forever.
Eagerly, he returned to his mother, intending to show her how it could help in her working of the healing arts. However, when he tried this, something went wrong, and the resulting uncontrolled flows of energy injured him badly and killed Larhisa.
Traumatized and afraid, he realized he had strayed into things far too dangerous for him. Unable to give up the Maugre Claw, he signed on to a ship’s company and spent a year at sea, hoping recent events would be forgotten when he returned. And so it seemed, but the memories were too much to bear. Seeking distraction, he signed up with the up and coming captain Rurik Bloodwind for a stint in the army.
As our story opens, he has been serving under Bloodwind for nearly a year. He has friends, and he has enemies within the Company, but generally life has been good.