Hi people!! I've got d&d later today and my DM wanted some backstory stuff so he could traumatise me with it later and I decided I want to share it here. He kinda forgot that I'm a creative writer on the side and did not expect the multiple paragraphs of lore :3
Name: Nero
Race: Shadar-Kai (Shadowfell elf, servant of the Raven Queen)
Class: Eldritch Knight (fighter subclass, magic using melee)
Nero leaves the Shadowfell as a young-ish Shadar-kai fighter who was a bit of an anomaly amongst his people in that he didn't hate every other race and is mostly curious about the Material Plane.
Shadar-kai are known for chasing strong emotions (including pain, passion, excitement, etc) and so the young, reckless Nero joins a free-roaming mercenary band called the Long Hawks. This is an independent group that never joins a guild or stays in one place for long. They're made of up outcasts, most of them races that have a lot of prejudice against them (tieflings, half-orcs, drow, etc). There's only about 6 of them. They are led by Arnudall, a half-orc.
Despite his Shadar-kai nature and upbringing, Nero begins to develop attachment to his group. He cares for them deeply. He's slept with some of them, honestly (that's normal for his race, part of that thrill seeking). But he's more-than-half in love with Arnudall, whom he respects and admires as a strong leader who cares about and protects his people. It seems to be one-sided love, though.
The Lone Hawks emblem.
Nero has been with the Hawks for a little while, but is still considered the newbie when they are recruited to join a human war. It seems exciting, but mostly its good money. And they end up under command of a military Captain (which makes his band captain technically a sergeant in army terms). This Captain is some arrogant noble and sees the mercs and disposable cannon fodder, despite their skill and experience. Nero has probably been with them the least amount of time and is still somewhat green. It's not actually that long before they were ordered into a battle to claim a strategic point on a hill. The merc band kinda knew it was a Bad Idea and their side was at a major disadvantage. Nero didn't think too much about it because death doesn't hold much weight for him. So they're sent in and it goes horrifically, they don't get the point before they're forced to retreat, and their band leader (a half-orc called Arnudall) is killed in the process. Nero hadn't really thought about death, true death, until this makes him realise that he might be functionally immortal but the people he cares about certainly aren't, they can die a true death, and this fuckin devastates him.
just a couple days after that, their company is ordered into another battle that is clearly a trap. He argues with the army Captain about it but is shut down pretty severely. So they get sent into this battle in a ravine and the opposing army summons a Titan (mountain titan, I was basically looking up huge monsters that can be summoned and would decimate an army). For the first time in his life, Nero experiences fear. Already broken from losing Arnudall, and separated from his company in the chaos, Nero turns and flees. He's shadar-kai, he can use the shadows to his advantage, and has a teleport up his sleeve if he needs it (he's ont an eldritch night yet, just a basic fighter). He goes back later that evening, after the battle is well over, and all he sees is death. there is noone left alive on the battlefield. Anyone who did survive is long gone.
I imagine he finds some of the bodies of his friends, but not all - its too chaotic, some bodies are beyond recognition. But he assumes that they're all gone. He's absolutely wracked by guilt for running and living. Shadar-kai use strong emotions to counter the oppressive gloom effects of living in the Shadowfell and keep their soul tethered and whole. Pain is one of those feelings that they can use, but emotional pain is a whole different experience. Like most of his kind, Nero is a bit of a masochist, but this experience destroys him. He leaves the entire kingdom, moves as far away as he possibly can (the side of continent?). He keeps working as a merc, because that's all he knows, but mostly solo, he doesn't join any permanent team, determined not to get attached again. He stops chasing those intense emotions, which is a major risk, but he's kind of resigned to a living death - he's embraced apathy. And it might actually destroy his soul.
I've been watching Buddy Daddies (and spamming art on my main blog) and thinking about putting my boys in a similar situation. It would he hilarious. Altho, extrovert, intelligent, golden retriever boy is the heir to a crime family instead... And while Rei chose to choose his found family over that life, Mika would aboslutely be like "why not both???"
Anyway, it's not the first time I've thought about this. Maybe I'll write something about it eventually.
So this is the start of something I began ages ago from the POV of another character who occasionally pops up with Mika and Takeo. This is Cain. In this AU, I think Mika was a vampire and Tak was a werewolf and Cain is an immortal fae that they stumble across when they hook up with him and try to kill him during sex (Mika needs to feed and Tak is just violent). They're actually kind of overjoyed when he doesn't die, and he weirdly falls in love with them. Non of them understand what a healthy relationship is, but anyway. Cain's fun. Maybe I'll go back to this one day.
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I figured out I was immortal - or at least invulnerable - when I was 19.
I was on the streets from 16. Left the foster family I had been placed with at the time and fell into a rough world of drinking, drugs, sex, and violence. Got into more fights than I could count, usually a result of my own temper or being a smartass. So when I was cornered in an alley by a bunch of guys I had pissed off, I wasn’t overly surprised. My overwhelming emotion when they stabbed the guy whose dick I had been sucking was annoyance. When I got stabbed, I wasn’t even shocked. The shock came later when… Nothing happened. I bled. That was about it. It hurt, of course, but I didn’t bleed out, I didn’t lose consciousness, and I didn’t die. I should have - it wasn’t a mild wound. But I didn’t. I flipped them off and walked away.
For a time, I didn’t test the extent of this invulnerability. I was scared of getting it wrong. That maybe I had been mistaken, or it had been a fluke, or something. I didn’t want to die. As fucked up as my life was, I was having fun.
At 22, I got shot. Multiple times. In the chest. And was fine. I went down, and the pain was so intense that I passed out for a few minutes. But then I woke up, stood up, and walked away. They had left, of course, assuming I was dead. Made it way more amusing when I walked into a house they were all in a week later with a metal baseball bat.
I left the city that night. My blood was at the scene of the crime. This was before DNA, but it still wouldn’t do to stick around. After that I didn’t sit still, moving from city to city, country to country. I built useful connections where I needed to (fake documents are necessary for someone who stopped ageing somewhere around the mid to late twenties) but didn’t bother with anything significant. Mostly. I thought I was in love once. That ended with him and his side piece being found with their heads so bashed in they were unrecognisable and me having to skip town again. Getting older didn’t calm my temper at all.
It has been somewhere around a century since that first incident. Honestly, the worst part is the boredom. What do you do when you’re bored and can’t die? My sources of entertainment have gotten more extreme.
I’ve been in this current city for around four years. I make enough money to get by from things like bar work and bending over in dirty bathrooms.
These two are my main characters that I have thrown into nearly every AU you can think of - urban fantasy, mafia, army, historic, fantasy romance, high school, cyberpunk... it goes on.
So I decided to mess around with avatar makers and stuff to give you an idea of what they look like, but honestly, none of them /really/ catch their personalities.
First boy, on the left, is Mikhael (aka Mika, Mikky). He's Spanish/Chinese and he's an absolute little shit. His personality is a lot easier to capture because its hedonism, shit-stirrer, complete flirt. He's a bit sadistic and doesn't really give a shit about anyone that isn't one of his people. I call him a boy, but he's masc non-binary and definitely doesn't conform to any gender concepts when getting dressed.
Takeo (aka Tak, or Koko only to Mika) is Japanese/Korean. He's a lot more reserved, but has a temper, with a bit of a violent streak. He listens to Mika, but that's about it. Can be somewhat obsessive, but Mika encourages it. He gets bored easily and is prone to vices (like smoking, alcohol, etc). Takeo is 100% gay, and 100% dedicated to Mika.
Their personalities change slightly depending on which AU they're in, but they tend to lean towards the 'morally grey' to 'morally black' side. In many AUs they're literal murderers.
The 2 main stories I've got them in are:
Unnamed (Mafia AU): Mika is the son of a major mafia boss in the city. Takeo is the young police officer sent undercover to investigate Mika's father. Instead, Tak and Mika fall in love and Tak betrays everything to become Mika's right-hand-man as he takes over the gang and finds out who framed him for his father's murder.
Shadows on the Wall (military AU): Mika and Takeo are part of a specialised military unit of about 7 augmented humans (aged 15-25) gathered from around the world. (I've put a lot of time into the characters for this one, but doesn't have much of a plot yet)
Most of the ideas, drabbles, parts of stories I post will involve these two.
