Arshad

[Arshad]

Name: Arshad

Race: Human

Age: 26

Height: 5'7'

Weight: 147

Physical: Arshad was once described as the single most handsome young man in his clan, a paragon of male physique, with broad shoulders and a strong sinewy body. His neatly combed hair fixed into a graceful braid behind his head. The women of his village would spend hours talking about his soft loving eyes, cooing about those radiant pools filled with life and love. Yet now, his shoulders, while still broad and muscular slump at his sides, as if some great weight now rested firmly on them. His hair, now unbound from the formal braid, lies tangled and filthy at his shoulders. His once loving eyes, now appear more the stagnant pond, then pools of life, blood-shot and filled with an aching tiredness of life. He wears a once fine leather jerkin of sorts over a cheaply dyed green shirt with several holes in it. A care-worn green cloak rests heavily on his shoulders, the weight of his hidden grief given physical manifestation.

Possessions: Arshad was trained like all of his fellow hunters, to travel with little gear, most of what little he had he tossed to the wayside once he neared Marn. What he did keep was a badly worn short sword that had not been overly well cared for, a beaten wooden buckler covered in rawhide, and the single most valuable item to him, a small iron pendant in the shape of a crudely made eagle clutching a small black stone in the shape of a skull in its talons.

Strengths/Powers:
Momento Mori
Arshad believes that in order for a person to understand their own existence they must first understand their own mortality. This along with the strange influence of his pendant, gave him the ability to make others recognize that their own life will indeed one day end. The way this manifests in each individual varies wildly, those who fear their own mortality seem to be stricken by a sudden morbid fear of death. Others, especially those like Arshad himself, who have come to accept that the curse of mortality is nothing that they can prevent or avoid, and have learned to accept it instead, experience a sudden cool clarity of mind. A few, those sure of their mind, body, and skill, may even brush aside the creeping tendrils of thought and keep going as if nothing has changed. This ability is active at most times, though its strength at most times is highly variable as Arshad has little to no control over it. Most of the time the greatest extent of its power is to make the victim vaguely anxious. Just to clarify, this ability does not force thoughts into the minds of those touched by it, it simply erodes their ability to ignore or shut themselves off from these thoughts. So someone with no understanding of the concept of death would be entirely unaffected by it.

Resilience
Arshad's people are a tough folk, living a brutal harsh existence on the steppes of central Tian Xia. Arshad himself is a sterling example. Yet, something about his stubborn refusal to die in situations that even the toughest of his people would not be able to replicate, such as surviving a brutal winter without proper winter clothes and suffering no frostbite. Or hiking for over a month on only a handful of jerky.

Weapon proficiency
Life in a militaristic horse-loving steppe tribe lead Arshad mastering archery not long before his thirteenth birthday, by which point he was able to hit another man square in the chest from a horse going at full gallop. By his fourteenth birthday he had surpassed every other fellow tribesmen with the spear. Unfortunately for him, he lost his bow in his travels, and his spear was only really very useful when he was on horseback, and had a large area to maneuver in. He quickly realized that once he was in Marn, such an unwieldy weapon would be more a hindrance then a useful tool.

Horsemanship
Being a member of a tribe who for all intents in purposes raise their children in the saddle, it is no surprise that Arshad is a very skilled rider.

Weaknesses:
Swordsmanship
While knowing enough about combat in general to at least be modestly proficient at using a sword, Arshad is not overly skilled at fighting off of a horses back, let alone with a weapon he never bothered to truly learn. He has a bad tendency to leave himself open in the middle of making an attack, a problem that could be easily exploited by even a modestly trained swordsman.

Apathy
A life of hard living alone on the steppes and in the mountain ranges, combined with being abandoned by his friends and family, have left Arshad, who was once a vibrant young warrior, a broken man. His interest in living and enjoying life is gone, as to why a man who's spirit and desire to live are dead and gone continues to live, is a mystery in of itself.

Callousness
Arshad is a fairly cold man, having managed to cope with all his own personal problems and issues by himself, he fails to see why others cannot do likewise. Put simply, Arshad could not care less about what others are going through and will not lift a finger to help them, unless, of course, he sees it as benefiting himself.

History:
Arshad was born to a Altaic chieftain and his favorite wife in the harsh Central Tian Xian steppe. Born in the wake of a major victory against another tribe. Arshad's birth was celebrated as an omen of good times for the tribe and its new chieftain. Indeed, all of Arshad's childhood was filled with one great triumph after another. His father, Haran, had managed to unite his tribe with three other powerful and respected tribes, and seemed poised to unite the entirety of the Altaic tribesmen under his banner. His son he doted on, giving him a great horse brought from the east, A war horse unlike the smaller steppe horses, a big black thing with wild eyes and a wilder temper. The seller had bragged the horse was too wild to tame, that he had killed three of his past owners. No doubt this was entirely fabricated to pique the tough and overly self-confident Altaic Chief. the horse had clearly been owned before, even if it had lived for some time in the wild without an owner. Despite this it still proved to be a tricky mount, refusing to allow Haran to mount him.One day, when Arshad laughed at him after being thrown for the third time that day by the recalcitrant beast, Haran dared Arshad to master the horse, or face exile, Arshad accepted. Within a week, the ten year old had the horse obeying his every command. After Arshad had proven his mastery of the horse in front of the tribe he was asked to name the creature, Arshad smiled and replied, "Haran"*. It was said that the warriors and their chief could not stop laughing for half the night.

Still, the greatest gift Arshad was ever to receive was to come on his fourteenth birthday, when his father purchased an elvish slave, a girl named Elene. She was to be Arshad's teacher in the ways of the strange westerners. It was Haran's every intention that after he died, that his son would take up his mantle and begin his foolish notion of invasion. So it made sense for Arshad to understand their culture and language. Despite the girl being only nineteen, she proved to be unusually good at teaching and learning, she had memorized the entirety of Aristophanes great tragedies, could recite the whole of the Tomes of the First Settlers from memory. Within a week or two of tutoring Arshad, they had already become fast friends, despite her grasp of the Altaic language being relatively tenuous.(though she seemed to improve somewhat noticeably every day.) they seemed to share a bond of understanding so strong that the two seemed inseparable. After the first year or so, Arshad had begun to master four different languages, much to the amazement of his father. Their relationship however, had begun to grow more intimate, yet nothing would be allowed to come of it, if Arshad were to marry her and have a child with her, it would shame his imagined royal blood. So on the eve of Arshad's sixteenth birthday, Elene was ordered to be executed. She was dragged out of her tent and killed in front of Arshad. Arshad, for his part, seemed not to be bothered by it, only stooping for a moment to take a treasured pendent of Elene's, presumably something of value to him. The next morning when several tribesman became worried when Haran nor Arshad had left their tent, they went in to see if they were still asleep. Haran was laying on his back, his eyes gouged out, his chest had been torn open by a knife, and his son, who he had loved second most of all things, was nowhere to be seen.

Arshad spent the next ten years wandering the steppe, even making a brief excursion into one of the trade cities. He was a dead man for all intents and purposes, a shell of something that was once alive. Yet still he persisted, refusing to die for whatever reason, driven on by some unknown force, after a while a small voice, calling him without words, told him to head west, that he would meet his destiny there. Arshad dutifully changed direction, heading at a slow pace west, towards whatever fate awaited him there.

*The joke about the horse being named "Haran" would require some explanation to understand why they felt it was so funny. The joke raises from an ancient Altaic story, in the story the hero masters a rude and disobedient horse which he then goes on to name Ashal, after his son who described as being "just as rude and disobedient as this horse!".

[Saruna]

Hey Arshad, and welcome to Thar! I really am quite enamored of adapting mongal tribes to Thar's setting.

I've got a few questions though.

How old is Arshad? If you don't want to be specific you don't have to, but a general age range (25-28, for example) would be good for your fellow rpers to know.

The first is in regards to Memento Mori. You explained it very well, I just want to clarify it for myself (and I'm really just being curious here -- it's a perfectly acceptable ability to have). How did Arshad come about this ability? Did it result from his heartbreak, or is this something he worked at on purpose? Is it magical, or something else (maybe related to his own emotions)?

'Asia' should be replaced with Tian Xia, as that's the modern Thar equivalent of Asia.

I am intrigued by the little detailed notes you have here and there about the Altaic culture, and would like to see a bit of a more detailed explanation of them in world dev, done at your leisure. http://www.tharshaddin.com/rp/viewforum.php?f=40

The part in Arshad's history where he kills his father rather makes him out to be a bit brutal. Is he dangerous to other people when his apathy and heartbreak is combined? Is he likely to lash out at others, or withdraw from them? Could he be tempted into a life of crime, or does he have some hidden bastion of honor?

I really like where you're going with this app.

edit - I forgot: Please leave a reply to this thread after you make any edits, so I know to come back in and look. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask them in this thread, in a pm, or in chat.

[Arshad]

Agh! I was sure I had inserted the age part but I hadn't. Oh well, I fixed that, along with the part about Asia=Tan Xia. (I had seen Tan Xia used in the setting portion of the site, but it didn't show any info on it, so I simply assumed it was more the equivalent of China.) I changed a portion of the line in the description of the momento mori ability,(its the part in bold.) I think that should clear things up. I was hoping to sort of subtle hint that the Pendant had something to do with his powers, but now that I re-read it, I realise I was being far too subtle.

As for Arshad's brutal slaying of his father, that stems from his rage at his father killing the woman he loved, since then hes withdrawn into himself and closed himself to any more emotional attachments that may lead to him becoming so enraged. As for lashing out, unlikely, hes cooled down a bit since then, he wasn't as apathetic right after Elene's death. However, on the life of crime? Yes, I could see Arshad going down that path, It would only lead to more self loathing, but yes, if it earned him money he might very well do it.

On the topic of the Altai, the people that Arshad is a member of, they aren't Mongols per se. They are more closely related to modern day Turkish people then the Mongols. Yet, i can see why you would get the two confused in that culturally they are eerily similar. (The mongols would dwell more towards the south and east of the Altai.) And yes, I would love to describe his people in more detail, it may take me some time to get around to it though.

[Saruna]

I'm looking forward to that write up.

Approved.

[Metarie]

Hi there,

Just one more thing -- the pendant, if it is magical or offers special abilities, will need to be approved for use in canon play.