Calon, from The Multiverse, a roleplay on RPG

Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Black
Height && Weight: 4’5”/66Lbs
General Description: A small and slender built boy still undeveloped and soft with boyhood. His chest hasn’t filled out yet and his shoulders are still rounded and always drawn into his body. He is built more like an elf with a flexibility and quickness to him that buckles under heavy armor but excels more in arts of stealth and archery. The boy has always had “gifted fingers”. He is averagely tanned, neither dark nor fair with black hair cut around his cheeks and almost always contained in a band on the back of his neck and never allowed to hang freely around his face. His softer face always is incapable of holding a lie, finding tears come and his shame he can never hide. His honest expressions but stiff soldierly pose seem contradictory. Calon is not a flashy person and would rather not stand-out in a crowd but he keeps a standard of cleanliness and decency (whenever possible) which he feels is proper of any moral man. He has a small dark mole beneath his right eye and short nervously bitten fingernails. His lean form is proportional as is his face and he could easily be described as a handsome young lad if not for the meekness often following his petite build.

Personality

A good boy, always trying to do the right thing and do it well, always aiming to please everyone else around him and almost never pausing to consider himself. Calon can’t feel good about himself unless he’s in the service of someone else. He has always done what he’s told to do, always been the bottom of his family’s pecking order. Calon has never had to or been given many opportunities to make his own decisions or been asked what he’d like to do, see, or how he would approach a given problem. This has forged a very soldierly boy, never questioning orders, but also a very beaten-down boy that had let go of any control over his own life. He heavily doubts his ability to make decisions and becomes nervous when asked for his input sometimes even unable to answer, stuttering like a fool with a blank mind. It is extremely hard for Calon to speak his mind. His morals drive him even deeper than his fears and if put against a wall with doubt in one hand and one of his morals in another, he would unquestionably follow his morals and throw doubt away. The boy’s dedication to his moral compass is a major part of his ability to pull through hard times and continue on even if depressed, shaken, or anxious. Major points of his personality are driven by his sense of right and wrong. He is a very steadfast, dedicated person with many qualities that could be polished true by the right mentor.

Equipment

History

Calon was born in Minas Tirith to a military family whom had always served Gondor. The child was born into tales of old and of great battles where the good and evil of the world was clearly defined. The path, his path, always was clear as those stories. He would defend good, defend Gondor, defend all things dear to the heart’s of man. His father spent most of Calon’s years away from home in the Gondorian Army, always his father spoke of the great Captain-General Boromir whom he served and agreed with his commanders desire to see Gondor crush out her dark enemies in Mordor. He believed, and hoped, for the day when their horizon was not plagued by evil.
Calon stayed in the company of his Uncle, a retired soldier living in Minas Tirith and now working as a jeweler. He also helped care for his mother because that’s what his father told him to do while he was away even though she was a strong woman and didn’t actually need any help from him (which she told him often). He lived with his mother, uncle, aunt, and three cousins. Calon was an only child but grew up with his Uncle’s three sons (Meldor, Calpedir, and Caltinu) who were all bigger and stronger than Calon (much to the boy’s frustration). Coming from a family of tall & strong heavy-armor wearing soldiers, as the son of Calben, Calon felt there was much in him to be desired and was often jealous of his cousins wishing he has their build and fortitude.
Calon’s early childhood was occupied by trying to make his father proud and even from this early age he felt inadequate as a son. His father often favored his cousins and Calon always felt shamed when his father would place a warm hand on his shoulder with the gentleness that suited a girl and tell him lightly, “You may serve Gondor in whatever way best suits her.” Calon knew this was his father’s way of telling him he wasn’t sure if he would be able to be a soldier and, if so, he’d still be proud but the boy didn’t believe it. He didn’t want to be the one who broke his family’s long tradition of soldiering. His father died in battle when Calon was eight years old. Though young, understood his father’s death was not something to feel ill-will over and tried to find strength and comfort that his father had died fighting the evils of Mordor and defending Gondor and his family. So it was a good death, a soldier’s death. That had to have been what his father would have wanted.
Calon met the great Captain of the White Tower Boromir, who patted his shoulder, and told him his father was a great man shortly after Calben’s death. This encounter, while brief and fleeting, only reconfirmed the boy’s feelings of loyalty to Gondor that his father had always adamantly spoke of and actively pursued. He practiced with his cousins, his Uncle, and another retired soldier whom was a close family-friend named Duron. Duron, more practical a soldier, encouraged Calon to use lighter armor and continue practicing with his bow. He praised the young boy for having a keen eye and steady hands and often laughed that Calon’s hands held all his confidence.
After his father’s death Calon was told a story by his long-time tutor Duron of a dark skinned, black haired man he called Gaedraug. Duron told Calon this “shadow” is an old curse that sometimes shows itself in their line. An evil part of them that draws a great evil forth. Duron described this evil adamantly as “a pool of tar, which hot and boiling begins slowly beneath with a gulp of air and as it works up pushing and pressing within you causing such a terrible discomfort when you opened your mouth to finally let it pop, a slush of madness is all you can speak. So you must be silent, utterly silent, and pray not to mutter in your sleep. Once you feel it within, filthy uncontrollable tar, you know to seek silence- don’t open your mouth.” Calon never got the moral of his mentor’s story or how it related to Gaedraug and after several years of hearing this sermon he finally mustered the courage to ask further. Duron said before their family came to Minas Tirith they were enchanted by an “evil wild” and upon breaking from its curse gained a shadow which their forefathers called Gaedraugh. He says his father and his father-father had always warned their sons not to ever skip in their service to Gondor and the good of man for the moment their blood forgets goodness and takes a step back they will step onto Gaedraug and they would suffer a quick and grotesque demise. Always, Gaedraug is stalking their morals and hearts.
Calon still didn’t really understand but did link some of these dark concepts Duron spoke of to his nightmares, feeling uneasy and not wanting to put any faith in such a story (one he was fairly sure he was being told to further scare him into not even daring to consider not joining the Gondorian Army). Calon made sure his mentor knew it was his good intention to become a soldier but Duron never took back the tale though he didn’t bring it up again either.
Calon tried to research this tale but found nothing of Gaedraug and all talk of shadows always lead to the evils of Mordor. Bothered by it, he asked his Uncle what he thought of Gaedraug and was promptly told he had no idea what the boy was speaking of and he ought to stop reading so many tales and train harder for Meldor is joining the Army soon and he with him. Calon found it terribly strange his uncle didn’t know of this family legend, passed on from father-to-son for many generations. He gave up on the tale and joined the Army a few days after his 13th birthday with his cousin Meldor. To Calon’s great disappointment his mentor of so many years had seemingly vanished and not only could Calon not find him he did not show for his birthday or to see him off to the Army.
Even though Meldor was a large boy and their personalities couldn’t have been more different, Calon thought of him as his best friend, and the two grew closer upon joining the Army together. Meldor’s fiery personality and boundless energy frequently shook Calon from his worries. While on duty in the Army, only a few months after they joined, Calon was especially disturbed by a nightmare where he stumbled across his entire family brutally torn apart by some kind of monster. In his nightmare he is aware whatever did this is still nearby and in the shadows he sees movements and hears, loudly, “Gaedraug!” in his mind when he opens his eyes within the dream. A dream within a dream and is again standing in his home with his family murdered all the same only this time he is the thing in the shadows- he is Gaedraug. Calon is disturbed by this dream, already housings fears over the story Duron told him. It robs his concentration and leaves him unable to think of anything else, he is suppose to be watching his cousin’s back as he is standing guard for their camp and Calon is higher-up with bow and arrow, they are look-outs for the East side of the camp. A night-attack of Orcs, Calon fails to draw and shoot his bow fast enough to save his cousin but does manage to light an arrow aflame and shoot it high up warning the rest of the camp of the attack. Calon survives but feels personally responsible for Meldor’s death, this stains his relationship with his Uncle and cousins when Calon recites the account with all his faults and guilt.