Cian
Pronunciation: KAI-an
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| Age | 14 |
| Birth Year | NRC 516 |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Human |
| Homeland | Nomadic |
Physical Description
Cian is somewhat small and undersized for his age, but he’s a handsome young boy. A clear innocent, gentle face, framed by the black locks of his hair, with the boy’s dusky skin make him noticeable. More than once his deep gray eyes and innocent smile have won him alms on the street. He has a kind face which is very emotive. He has been mistaken for desert people stock, while this may be true, Cian certainly has the look of survivor for one so young. Life on streets and given his occupation have kept him with a slender, svelte build. He is a bit under nourished but not apparently so to the eye.
| Height | 5’ | Hair Color | Black |
| Weight | 85lbs | Eye Color | Gray |
| Build | Slender | Skin Color | Light Chocolate |
Clothing and Armor
Cian is dressed in a white Valis squire’s uniform, which consists of a short-sleeved tunic that falls to mid-thigh, and a pair of loose-fitting breeches. The heraldry of Valis is emblazoned on the right breast of his tunic. His boots are stout leather and rise to mid-shin and he has a pair of leather gloves for sword wielding. His armor is plain hardened leather included a pair of bracers and thigh plates, and a breastplate of sectional pieces laced together over his pectorals, shoulders, and back. He has a plain, but fine white wool cloak with the Valis heraldry on the right breast.
He still has his old thief clothing, thinking that it might be handy in the future. His old clothes include a sleeveless dark blue jerkin and brown long pants, and two leather armlets which hold most of his thieves’ tools in special pockets; no more than four lockpicks, two to an armband. His shoes are simple, but padded in cloth strips to help him move more quietly. He also has a simple cloth headband (he always keeps a few coppers there), and he has a very small, and worn leather backpack.
Weapon DescriptionCian carries a wooden training sword, which is a well-carved replica resembling a short sword with blunt edges. It’s weighted with sand to feel nearly as heavy as a real short sword. The quality of workmanship on a training instrument that often doesn’t survive more than a year is a show of the capital Valis has to spend. Cian was also provided with a fine dagger for utilitarian usage. A double-edged, six inch blade, set into a polished brass hilt. Set in the crossguard is a red-and-white lacquered Valis heraldry icon.
Cian also has two daggers, sheaths included, well made and decently balanced for throwing. And he carries a simple leather sling, a strip of leather cloth with a larger partition in the middle, with eight stones for ammo.
| Class | Thief/Knight |
| Occupation | Retired Thief, Squire of Valis |
| Weapons | Wooden Training Sword, Fine Valsian Dagger, Two Plain Daggers, Leather Sling |
| Armor | Hardened Leather Breastplate, Shoulder Plates, Bracers and Thigh Plates |
| Equipment | Small backpack; a small blanket, 1 grappling hook, 25 ft rope, food rations, waterskin, wooden flute, 4 jugglers pins, a few pieces of jewelry |
| Horse | Reielle |
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Abilities
Cian is a very talented thief. He’s very dexterous, adept at climbing, jumping, and dodging. While not as accomplished as former “teacher”, Emir, he is very good at picking locks and spotting traps. Cian has very good manual dexterity, he is a talented knife thrower. He is somewhat skilled in knife fighting, though not as accomplished as a fighter, and knows where to strike to do damage. He has very light fingers, and knows the tricks of the pickpocketing trade. Cian is very perceptive, he doesn’t have enhanced hearing or anything, but he tends to notice things, imperfections and oddities others might not. The only talent he has apart from his thieving skills is at playing the flute and juggling, while it’s a bit rough. He’s quite good, and has learned a few tunes apart from the others his mother taught him. He’s a very good juggler, and uses this talent to drum up cash.
PersonalityCian has a street-smart sense of the world, and is a free spirit. Life’s harshness has hardened him to the realities of the world. In many respects he is quite mature on things, and in other things he is in some ways naive, Cian finds it hard to ask others for help, but in return will always repay his debts to those he deems honorable. While the young boy sees no wrong in stealing or thievery to survive, he does have certain codes he never breaks; he never steals from the poor, and refuses to steal from temples or holy servants. Cian has a good heart and cannot stand to see anyone mistreated or hungry, mostly children. He’ll do whatever he can to help them, and worry about the whys and hows later. He doesn’t like rules, and prefers to follow his own way. He sees thieving as a legitimate way of life, provided you take from those who can afford it. He has a sense of honor and refuses to take from those who have little, meaning if you’re rich or seem well off, you’ll loose your purse to this kid. He believes in sharing with others who aren’t as fortunate as his “givers” (those losing their purses) and gives freely to the young, the sick and the old.
Cian can be overconfident of his abilities at times and this gets him into trouble. He has a hard time trusting adults, and is suspicious of them. Because of his small size, he’s not much in a straight fight, he prefers to attack by stealth or not at all if he can find other ways out of a sticky situation. Depending on others is something, he doesn’t do easily and finds asking for help difficult.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Quotes: “...”
HistoryCian was born in the year 516, a chaotic time for his parents, just after the formation of the Kanon free army. Cian’s father Arlic, Suria, his mother, and little sister, Linette, were all part of a group of traveling performers. A band of no more than 15 to 25 individuals, the closest thing to a traveling circus you can get in Lodoss. Arlic was an accomplished acrobat and Suria was a musician. A simple people, most of the children were raised to follow in the footsteps of their parents, peaceful and freedom loving they owed no allegiance to anyone or any nation. Nomadic by nature, they traveled constantly. The only name they used was “Han’eel” (pronounced han-EE-il), which in their small clan’s language meant “Those give joy and share laughter.” Many of these individuals consisted of artists, musicians, acrobats and performers, they usually would camp outside of a town and setup their tents and perform for food, money or items. Even though, at times some settlements regarded them with suspicion or harshness.
But while the Han’eel were fairly peaceful, the state of Lodoss wasn’t and Arlic made the mistake of running afoul of a few mercenaries who had worked for the Marmo army. For some reason, they had either been separated from their main division or were just in the right place at the right time to accost Arlic and his people.
The reason for attack was unclear, but they were definitely searching for something. Arlic and several other men were killed, while Cian, Linette, and their mother were taken as slaves to be sold as were several other women and children. Years before, the Han’eel, during their many travels, would often stay near settlements, always camping on the settlements’ outskirts. Some of these small camps were near old ruins or long past forgotten places of importance, some holding nothing more than the ruined pieces of cultures long past. And some—very few—held a bit of treasure here and there, but nothing to give any of his people any true wealth. Still, the rumors of possible secrets or treasure held by Arlic’s people abounded and this made them a target.
While traveling to their destination, Suria and some other women devised a plan to escape. Remembering the death of her husband had spurred her to action. After days of painstaking planning and devising, Suria was ready to put her plans into action. Unfortunately for Suria and her companions, one of their captors got wind of the plan, and those involved were severely beaten, but Suria fought back forcing one of their captors to kill her. The woman’s dying form was cradled by her young son. Cian and Linette were left in the care of some of the other women, since they would still catch a good price on the market. After reaching their destination in Raiden, Cian was separated and sold separately from his sister, who was taken by a well-dressed man in purple robes. The only clue the boy has to her fate was a name: Count Vencale, the only thing he heard before he was taken away as well. Cian was purchased by an individual named Emir, a rogue who had a penchant for raising urchins and using them to fill his coffers as thieves.
Emir took the boy and raised and trained him in the thieving ways. He noted the few skills that they boy had from his upbringing with the Han’eel. Emir had known of the Han’eel for some time and the prospect of purchasing a child from their stock with performers skills, and ready to mold into the perfect little thief, was enticing to him. Emir wanted more than just a thief did, he wanted someone to oversee his many other urchin slaves while he attended to other matters, taking a large part of the responsibility off Emir, which would leave him free to handle other matters. Emir was planning on branching out into other forms of business, basically getting into other types of unlawful activities, which would involve much harsher penalties by many kingdom laws than slavery would present.
For the next few years Cian learned the trade as a pickpocket and thief, at times suffering under the lash for not being as profitable as Emir thought he should be. The skills of burglary, stealth and even a small bit of knife fighting were all included in the boy’s training. Everything was made to gear Cian towards a role of obedience and finally preparing him to become one of Emir’s main subordinates. For years, Cian was obedient to Emir, at times he was called on to do whatever job his master deemed necessary for his “profession”, as long as it kept Emir’s pockets full and his business booming. Despite the training and Cian’s seemingly subservient manner to the man, he longed for his freedom and to find his sister. Cian snuck into Emir’s quarters and found a few items from his past, his mother’s old backpack and some of the juggling pins on of the performers had owned. Unfortunately for the boy, Emir returned and caught him; the beating Cian received was harsh and would’ve killed him if not for a lucky shot the boy made to the slaver’s arm. Cian’s dagger strike injured Emir horribly, the boy succeeded in removing several fingers from the slaver’s hand, which gave him the chance to grab his few possessions and flee for his life. It was then he made up his mind to search for his sister and be free, Cian vowed never to be owned again, and to help any other urchins he found by using his skills as a thief, and of course, find his sister.
Fleeing Emir wasn’t exactly the easiest venture in the world, as Emir wasn’t about to let his prize investment get away with such insolence and the fact that he turned on his master. Emir’s pursuit of the boy has been nearly relentless, only Cian’s quick thinking luck and the fact that he’s traveled mostly at night have kept him ahead of Emir’s hunters or the man himself. The boy has dreaded what might happened if the Slaver were to recapture him.
The boy’s escape brought him to Lesmoa, in Valis. He made the mistake of getting caught stealing a rich man’s purse, but what almost ended in arrested turned into an opportunity. Cian ran into a Valisian knight during his escape, Ciprian Tremas. Instead of throwing Cian into holding, Ciprian decided to give the boy a second chance and offer him squireship. Cian told Ciprian his story, and the knight agreed to help him hunt down Emir, then whisked him off to Roid. The next day, Ciprian pulled some strings and had Cian registered as a squire, then acquired a warrant for Emir’s arrest. Before leaving Roid, the young thief gained the company of a Rada priestess, Carianna, and a demon-slaying half-dark elf apothecary, Kylia, for his quest.
