Sile
Male | 24
Appearance|
Let's start with the obvious: Soren stands at 175cm high and weighs in at just 69kg. Like all Sile, Soren has patches of white feathers on his body. He has two on his left arm and one on his right forearm, two more on his back, and one more on the right side of his neck. While he holds a slim frame beneath his clothes and pasty white skin, Soren has long, strong legs to support him and anyone or anything he may be carrying. The legs trail off into avian feet, and have three forward toes and single backward one that are able to hold Soren upside-down with a bucket of water and then some. He has short red hair, messy and reaching little more than an inch away from his scalp; he has green eyes to match; and every so often he'll have dark rings under his eyes due to his magic leaving him burnt out. Lastly, Soren has a semi-thin but noticeable burn scar reaching from the top-left side of his forehead down to his upper cheek, crossing over his eye. It drags into his hair where it's wider, but that's usually covered from how scattered his hair grows.
Personality|
Formerly a prideful person and a risk-taker, Soren loved that he could make himself useful to those around him while he could still rely on himself. He doesn't worry about being as intelligent as scholars, since he grew up as a hunter, but he's equally interested in humans and what they live like outside of forests. He took a rough blow to his dignity shortly after the war started, but with new experiences it became a lesson for him that he has to work with others for a better result than if he'd gone alone. Obviously, he still acts proud of himself, but he's much more modest about it. Soren's also a forgive-and-forget kind of person toward his fellow Sile, but he's more than willing to kill a human that crosses him.
History|
Raised as the only son of a hunter, Soren didn't have much going for him in terms of the intelligence. Instead, he was immediately integrated into the forests of Algam like many of his brethren, introduced to the plantlife and what is and isn't safe to ingest, and he learned how to fight with his bird-like feet. (Some of those things he'd learned the hard way, and some of his friends he'd taught the hard way with wagers like, "I'll give you a third of my supply today if you eat it," similar to how human kids bet on each other eating worms or doing other stupid things.) Once he came of age, Soren was brought into hunting game, and proved to be an above-average marksman. Of course, almost all physically capable Sile have an above-average proficiency with a bow, but Soren still managed to impress with how quickly he could go between drawing an arrow and firing it at his target when he had one.
When the Magewar began, Soren started bringing supplies to war encampments and helping to take care of the injured or bring them back within Algam's forests, while his father joined as a soldier. Things were smooth for the first two months or so, as he didn't have to directly deal with human assaults until about seven months in when he was in the middle of resupplying a camp. Sadly, despite his skill with a bow, he had no experience with Citians, or mages in general. A run-in with a skilled Fire mage left Soren scarred and blind, and had him carried back home on a Kanloi's back in near-shame. Since then, he'd all but lost the respect he had from his peers, driven into a depression over the impotence he had in his society. Before he decided to kill himself, though, a black-haired human met him on the border of The Desert with a proposition.
"You're contemplating suicide, right, young man?"
"Who's asking?"
"Just someone who'd like you to humor her."
Magic|
Soren is capable of using Soul magic with moderate skill. Instead of manipulating mana, though, he can sense it, taking place of his lost sight by watching the emissions of mana from living things â the intensity of the emissions and the features he can see vary with what it is. For example, sentient beings are the easiest to distinguish, while inanimate objects are nearly invisible; Soren can see residual mana from magic activity, but this tends to be "noise", so to speak. He can also feel the flow of mana around him to a short distance. If he takes the physical and magical strain of focusing his ability, Soren can release a mana pulse that acts as a similar, yet more accurate, sense to echolocation.
Additional Information|
Soren always carries a small knife around â a habit from hunting.
Writing sample
I don't recognize his features. Regardless of whether he was spotted or not, he could still be prepared for the worst. This man was surely looking his way, at the least.
"Who are you?" Soren asked. The silhouette stopped for a moment and tapped the object in his hand against his leg, almost pondering on how to respond, but gave no answer. At least he figured out the object was blunt. Something to bludgeon people with since he didn't seem dependent on walking with it.
"Why are you carrying that?" That question elicited the same response as the first. Rather than choosing common sense and simply leaving to somewhere safer, the Sile instead approached the figure and grabbed at the shoulder opposite him. He could kick the man down if he had to. However, Soren felt nothing. His hand passed through the silhouette, and it was gone. Since it was nearing his build-up date, Soren almost pinned it on seeing residual mana activity, but the way he could interact with it left some doubts.