[INFO]

Khale Brangaine
If we're in a situation where I am the "voice of reason," then we are in a very, very bad situation

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STATS

NAME Khale Brangaine
AGE 27
Occupation Mercenary / Bounty Hunter

SPECIES Human (mixed race)
HEIGHT 6 ft or 183 cm
WEIGHT 194 lbs or 88 kg
BUILD Muscular/Athletic
HAIRPeach
EYESAquamarine
OTHER Beauty mark under left eye. His blood is royal blue, not red.
ORIENTATION Gayer than Richard Simmons singing a duet with Elton John on a rainbow

FAMILY TREE

MOTHER Unknown
FATHER Duke Leefolt Brangaine

SISTER (Adoptive) Ildikó Odala and the rest of the Atheris
Pet Mariella, a horse-sized tiger

ROADMAP

BIRTHPLACE Carmadine
HOUSE Brangaine's State
LOCATION South of the continent
CURRENTLY IN Travelling

 

 

SETTING

☾ WORLD ☽

The world where the continent of Carmadine is located is a fantastic setting similar to the European Middle Ages. It mixes traits from other classical periods and different cultures as well, such as Medieval China, Ancient Egypt and Medieval India. Slavery had been happening for centuries in Carmadine and, while it depended on the ethnic group, more often than not slaves were wholly at the mercy of their owners with little protection from society. Some slaves are personal servants of individuals, others belong to estates of temples and noblemen and are taken during a military campaigns if not bestowed by the king.

Magic is a common thing, so are gods, spirits and all sorts of mythological creatures like dragons, dwarves, elves, humans and other races have their own pantheons. The current magic in the continent is residual magic. At the beginning of time, the Gods tried to share their existence with humanity and the barrier that separated the Gods' realm and the human world was broken. It caused many troubles to humans, and the Gods, not wanting their creations to suffer, withdrew to their own world. The brief contact, however, changed the human world drastically and many new races and creatures appeared, most of them influenced by the magic of the Gods: vampires related to the Gods of the Death, trolls and werewolves related to Earth Gods, dinosaurs and other giant animals that people use as pets or rides...

Not all the magic was the same because it came from very different Gods, and thus it affected humans in different ways. Some humans were born with a noticeable level of magic in them while others learned to train their powers and make them grow. Magic became inherent and could be transferred through spells, but they could kill the user if it was done the wrong way.

Technology is not very common in the South half of the continent, but the North has steam-driven machines. Northerners have managed to develop certain advanced technology, while the Southern technological fields stagnated, especially those related to communication.

Khale lives in the south of the continent. Outside the few major urban areas the landscape becomes rural and eventually gives way to the natural areas of vegetation. The landscape consists of scattered rainforest and large areas of savanna grasslands which eventually merge into the different desserts. The 'Forests of Giants' gets its name from the fact it as some of the tallest and biggest trees on the planet.

The South is really hot; it's humid and the summer sun bakes the landscape sending columns of heat into the atmosphere. When the monsoon finally hits it rains for two months straight, day and night, sometimes bringing deadly floods. The weather is harsh in the South, and so are its inhabitants.

Despite the difficult environment and periods of extreme heat, the South is home to big population of creatures, from normal (horses, dingoes, snakes, cows...) to magical ones (Nagas, dragons, chimeras, trolls..), and all of them want to kill anybody who gets close enough. The South is also one of the richest mining places in the continent, which is the main reason why people still live and work there.

  

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HISTORY AND PERSONALITY

☾ HISTORY☽

Legal slavery has been going on in the south and their preceding colonies for a little over 400 years. The Duke Leefolt Brangaine once came back from one of his military campaigns with a baby and all but dropped the little creature on the first maid he could find. Khale’s biological mother was unknown, but given Khale’s looks it was easy to tell that she had been of dark colored skin. While he recognized Khale as his son, Leefolt refused to acknowledge him except when disciplining him and didn't pay him more attention than necessary.

Ironically, that spared Khale from growing up with the same narrow minded racist mentality as his father, since he was raised mostly by different maids and babysitters who were slaves in his state. The most notable one being Mama Jo (Real name Joeline), whom Khale adored and considered a surrogate mom.

When he was fifteen his dad caught him messing around with the stable boy, one of the slaves of the plantation, named Percival. They grew up together and were practically jointed at the hip and while the revelation of what had been going on with them didn’t come as a surprise for Mama Jo, Leefolt didn’t take the news well.

He got ballistic and had Percival arrested and executed. After a heated and violent argument with his father about Khale’s preferences and whatnot, it was only thanks to Mama Jo’s intervention that Leefolt didn’t kill his son on the spot. The Duke almost stabbed her with his sword when she tried to defend him and Khale threatened to make everything public if he hurt Mama Jo, knowing that his father’s pride wouldn’t stand the embarrassment. Leefolt agreed to let her live, giving his word, but in a fit of rage he marked Khale’s nape with a slave branding iron before kicking him out the plantation.

He was left to flee for his life, literally on his own, and in the subsequent years he survived hustling and doing some not so reputable things that he regrets. At nineteen he joined the The Atheris, a group of mercenaries led by a woman named Ildikó Odala, who took a liking on him after Khale managed to lift a pouch of gold from her.

The reason why Khale stole it wasn’t because he wanted the money, he had seen the man who gave Ildikó the pouch, a Potioneer, soak the gold in poison beforehand and wanted to warn them. Ildikó confronted both Khale and the Potioneer. When she confirmed that the man wanted to kill the The Atheris and make sure none of them spoke of the work they did for him, they killed the Potioneer for his treachery and raided his store. Life went on, Khale learned how to fight from The Atheris as well as how to use some magic spells, and Ildikó liked having someone around who wasn’t trying to get into her pants. They got into trouble more often than not, both with commoners, the knights, and other mercenaries.

One day Khale found Mariella, horse sized tiger that people use for racing, in a street market. She was in a cage way too small for her, malnourished and being sold to be butchered for consumption because she was too old to keep up with the racing. Being really fond of animal and lonely creatures, Khale used all the money he had to buy her and restore her back to health. He tried to set her free once she was healthy enough to survive on her own but Mariella refused to leave his side and he had been using her as a ride since then, much to Ildikó’s amusement.

At age twenty-five they parted ways and Khale traveled on his own as a mercenary for hire. He only had one goal in mind: to make enough money to be able to go back to his father's state and set Mama Jo free, because money was the only language people like this father spoke. He also wanted to help other slaves in her same situation, so it's not an easy goal. He used the money he earned to buy people who were kidnapped and enslaved and returned them to their families. Each time he saved some of the gold to one day get back to his father’s estate and buy it from him.

But being a hero was expensive and he never seemed to have enough money, so he started taking more dangerous jobs. That was how Khale eventually found himself after a wendigo. When his plan to corner the creature in the forest went wrong, he was separated from Mariella and in need of a ride. Khale headed up the hills, knowing that the wendigo favored areas with more vegetation where it could hide, and was lucky enough to find a cabin. It wasn’t inhabited and, much to both men’s surprise, the owner of the house was someone Khale had met years ago.

It’s worth mentioning that initially Galahad Farkas wasn’t very thrilled about meeting Khale again. Galahad was a bisexual boxer who wasn't in good terms with his homoromantic side and always had a hard time fully accepting himself. The day he met Khale, after he just won the Championship Belt, he was baffled at how little the other man cared about what society thought about his preferences. They drank, talked and slept together. The next day, Khale was gone back to The Atheris and Galahad collected the money from his prize and left town.

Back to the present, Galahad let him into his house for the night and they made up for lost time. However, the wendigo had followed Khale up the hills and because his scent was all over Galahad he attacked the man, almost killing him in the process. Khale managed to trap the wendigo inside the house and set it on fire to kill it but he was not expecting the whole place to blow up. It turned out that part of Galahad’s job consisted in brewing alcohol in his basement and the stash exploded when the fire reached it. They did manage to kill the wendigo but nothing of it was left and Khale had no way to prove it was there, so he wouldn’t be paid for the job.

Galahad had it much worse. He was left homeless and in trouble with the clients who won’t be getting the alcohol they already paid for. Not to mention that, while Khale healed his injuries in time for him not to die, he was bitten by the wendigo and affected by its curse. He had no place to go and decided to join Khale while they look for a cure for the wendigo curse. Eventually, they found Mariella again and a horse for Galahad, and started traveling around. During the following days Gallahad’s change became noticeable: His ears were pointier, his fangs more pronounced and his sense of smell increased. It only got worse after they got attacked by a gang of men working for the Mungik family who were less than happy with Galahad leaving without fulfilling his part of the deal in the alcohol trade.

At first Khale thought they were the group of slave traders he had tricked a few weeks ago, and when they shot an arrow at Galahad's neck upon showing up, he was too stunned to do anything but to try his best to cure him with his magic. It didn’t seem to work and Khale was left exhausted after using the spell. Believing himself the cause of the death of another person he cared about, Khale didn’t bother to fight back when the men used that to their advantage to torture him.

Galahad, unstable but alive, turned into his monster form upon hearing Khale scream and killed them. Because he was not a natural wendigo but he turned into one due to its bite, his other forms was not decaying and none of his bones were visible. That didn't make him any less intimidating or deadly. Once he calmed down, Galahad dragged Khale to the nearest inn so he could rest, knowing that Khale would be able to heal himself properly once he woke up. Feeling guilty for what happened, Galahad left. He didn't get very far because Khale tracked him down the next day and refused to leave. In the end they agreed that they were both at fault for all that had happened to them in the last week and kept traveling together.

While looking for a cure to Galahad's curse, Khale attracted the attention of the jaguar goddess Ixchel after they saved a small village of her followers from a Hellhound. Through her priestess, as gods can't directly interact with mortals, Ixchel granted him a boon that allowed Khale to see in the dark, gave him enhanced reflexes and strength. Fortunately, it also gave him cat ears and a tail, the same color as his hair. Khale can use a minor glamour spell to hide them and look mostly human; it just doesn't always bother. The goddess could not undo Galahad's wendigo curse, but she took away his hunger for human flesh and gave him more control over his transformation, being able to retain most of his human personality even when transformed. The change also undid his immortality. After that, they continued to roam the land as partners, looking for mercenary contracts and perhaps some other way to under the Wnedigo curse compeltely.

 

☾ PERSONALITY ☽

Overall, Khale is an easy going guy. He’s friendly, he likes to joke, to tease, and he’s the first to give a hand when someone needs help…or when he can get something out of it. He’s a practical man on a mission and he needs all the money and resources he can get. Nearly everything he does is done with the purpose of freeing Mama Jo, getting back to his father, and helping the slaves he finds on his travels.

He has his own agenda and acts accordingly. Sometimes he struggles with gray morality and he can be selfish on occasion. While he never does it out of malice, he tries to see the bigger picture of things: In the past he had to make deals with human traffickers to gain their trust so he could trick them later and free their slaves. When a wendigo he was chasing was in Galahad’s house, Khale burned the whole place down to kill it, not even stopping to consider he was destroying someone else’s property. From his point of view that was the fastest and safest way to stop the creature. And so on…

When it comes to the protection of those he cares about, Khale is ready to throw ethics on the bonfire and toast marshmallows in the subsequent blaze. However, he’s still prideful and has his own set of morals that he would not cross for anyone, such as hurting kids or taking advantage of those in a desperate position.

He can be genuinely charming, understanding, and truly care about the people that get close to him. He’s a hard worker and definitely has the brains to back up the high spirits personality. Khale has the tendency to get himself in bad situations because he long ago stopped caring about what might happen to him. It’s one of his worse traits and the one that drives Galahad up the wall, since he is dragged into Khale’s troubles more often than not.

At the same time, he is snarky, violent and vengeful, but that’s a side he reserves for his father, slavers or abusers. On the surface, Khale is smiles and confidence but that does cover up a lot of damage. After he got someone he deeply cared about killed, he promised himself never to fall for someone that way again and carried on. If there was one thing his father had drilled into his brain, was that men did not cry or confront their feelings, because they were not weak. That's something Mama Jo had spent years trying to undo but didn't quite succeed because of Khale’s unresolved daddy issues. Because of this, he’s prone to drinking himself into a stupor when upset, but he doesn’t do it often.

Deep down he suffers from survivor guild and a never-ending fear that he won't get back to Mama Jo in time and that those he cares about will end killed by his actions. This happened twice with Galahad: first with the wendigo attack and then when the Mungik gang almost killed him. The second time, in which Khale wasn't able to fully heal Galahad, he was shocked to the point of not even trying to defend himself and mentally shutting down for a while.

Despite his upbringing, or maybe because of it, Khale greatly values freedom, has a great deal of compassion and can't stand it when people are imprisoned. He is a strident humanist who fights for people’s right to make their own decisions and mistakes, free of the control of others no matter their race or species. That clashes spectacularly with his father’s view of the world. Khale was never all that fond of studying and he's more street smart than anything else but he is well read and educated and that might give people hints about his less than humble origins. Given the sort of father he grew up in, he definitely has a violent side. Most of the time he keeps in in check and rarely loses his temper outside a battlefield but there are certain things that trigger his rage: hurting children, sexual abuse, violence against animals (Khale is really fond of cats), and certain name calling will get a violent reaction from him. His bad temper it's like a claw: it only appears when he needs it, and the rest of the time, no one knows it's there.

When he fights, he does it because he's getting himself in trouble, he likes a challenge, or he sees some material gain to be had. He might get cocky in battle but always keep in mind his limitations and do all he can to win. Combat pragmatist is his thing. Khale’s willing to use different tactics to do what needs to be done quickly, to use mundane tricks and to take advantage of people’s weakness. Unless he faces an opponent that got his respect, which is rare considering that he’s always antagonizing criminals and slavers, he feels no remorse in using every scrap of advantage available in a fight. He's a mercenary, not a knight, and he doesn't follow the same code. Winning is important to Khale, sometimes cheating is the easiest way to win. Those who care more about honor than reason make good corpses, it's not like one gets style points in these things.

However, Khale does love fighting knights, much more than criminals, because he was taught the knight’s code when he was young and he knows they always follow the rules…so it’s fun to trick them. He had a blast fighting Lady Gawain because she was trying her best to keep the fight honorable until she got fed up with Khale’s antics and reverted to her younger days dealing with the drunkards that populated her father's inn. Their quarrel ended in a punch-up and Khale couldn’t be happier. He even said he would bed her if she weren't a woman and Lady Gawain was so amused by the end of the fight that she let that slip away.

The issue of sex was the spark that finally burnt out the relationship he had with his father and made it unsalvageable. Khale likes men, he’s not shy about it and he doesn’t see any problem with it. He’s neither shy nor ashamed of his body, he knows what he likes, but his promisquity and incapacity for commitment to long term relstionships are a trauma response and a coping mechanism.

He really gets around as one could easily lose track of his exes, even if most of them are just occasional encounters. He doesn’t brag about them unless he’s doing it on purpose to pester Galahad ("You know, I had sex with a dwarf once...he was really good at it, the little fucker") or to get a get a rise out of someone. He's rarely been jealous when one of his lovers have slept around either but he does not cheat himself. Technically he’s not into any formal relationship so there’s no cheating to be had, but he still wouldn’t do it if it was the case. He gets really offended if someone call him a harlot and the few occasions that happened, Khale absolutely trashed the person afterwards, because that's the specific insult his father used against him. Khale has been called all sort of unsvory things, but the old fashioned 'harlot' is what really gets under his skin.

Khale's never had a real, long term relationship. He has other things in mind, he's been constantly traveling and deep down he’s worried he will get the person he cares about killed again. His worries both proved to be correct and wrong when he started traveling with Galahad. He almost gets the man in danger each week but Galahad is more than capable to defend himself.

☾ POWERS ☽

Khale is a normal human, he doesn't have super strength, enhanced speed, or anything of the sort. His only advantage consist of being a really skilled fighter and very good at dodging. He learned how to fight with all sort of melee weapons since he was a kid, as he was first raised to become a knight, but swords aren't his preferred weapon of choice. He’s more willing to use crossbows, lances and long range weapons; if someone gets close enough to him, he goes for the axe or his fists. Khale is really fond of weapons in general and can turn almost anything (even bones) into one if he puts his mind to it.

He's totally inept when it comes to magic. In his world, because almost everything is tainted with residual magic, normal humans can learn and use it. It takes a lot of studying and concentration and Khale never had the patience for it, and so he only mastered two spells.

- The first one it's a healing spell that proved to be useful on more than a few occasions. However, because Khale’s not properly trained, using healing magic exhausts him almost to the point of passing out, his body shuts down and he can barely move. He’s really vulnerable after healing himself or someone else and that’s why he tries not to use it if there’s another option available.

-The second spell is using the Black Space, it consists on creating a hole into a parallel dimension to use as storage. Basically, it's having access to hammerspace. He likes to travel light and uses the Black Space to store weapons, clothes and money. Food rots and anything organic cannot enter or survive in there. Better wizards can create a hole in thin air or any surface available when they want to retrieve an object from the other dimension. Again, due to Khale's limited abilities when it comes to magic, he only enchanted his cape and that's what he uses as a portal when the occasion calls for it.

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