Preliator
Name: Requinn Voss | Alias: Quinn | Age: 681 | Gender: Male | Race: High Elf | Height: 5'9" | Weight: 142 lbs
Appearance: Standing at 5'9" and weighing in at only 142 lbs, Requinn Voss is anything but physically intimidating. Despite this, he possesses a chilling presence and a perpetual look of temerity that contradicts his otherwise disarming countenance and warm, comforting words. His jet black hair, uncommon among the High Elves, reached shoulder length and was often loosely stylized. More often than not, it partially obscured his face. His golden eyes, which he got from his mother, are relaxed even in the most tense situations, and together with his brow and deceptive smile lend toward a look of quiet confidence and dependability. Like all elves, he has sharp, pointed ears and angular facial features, and the signs of his age are visible only to the most perceptive of non-elves. His fair skin, which can appear pale in certain lights, is typical among elves in that any scars or impurities fade away within months, leaving it flawless, at least by the standards of other species.
Voss wears traditional Pax Alma light armor, consisting of elven leather and elven steel plate, materials that are designed to suit the smaller, lighter elves and their agility based fighting styles, however, his armor no longer bears the Pax Alma sigil nor any of it's gemstone adornments or silver inlaid patterns. In addition, it has been stained black and Requinn's own sigil has been etched into the chest with magic doubling as aesthetic design and protection that absorbs some force from magical attacks from the front. In accessory, he wears gloves and boots made from stained black elven leather and inlaid with silk for comfort, a black leather belt which holds the unadorned black sheath for his sword. To top it all off, he often dons an unassuming black cloak.
Personality:
Ruthless, cunning, and ambitious, Requinn Voss is a self described master manipulator and tactician. While some might view him as immoral, he would correct them by claiming to be amoral. He sees things not as right and wrong or good and evil, but as efficient and inefficient, necessary and unnecessary. A poster boy for Machiavellian scheming, Voss can sometimes be overconfident and even arrogant, but he is not above his own reproach. He has lived long enough recognize failure when he sees it, in himself and others, and will change his approach to fix it.
Like most elves, he possesses patience far beyond that of shorter lived species, and that has contributed greatly to his goal. He is in no rush to see the outcomes of his plots, often waiting years and even decades to see them come to fruition. Utilizing both his patience and his skill with illusion and charm, Voss has accumulated a power base on Varnon of informants, politicians, and other influential individuals, granting him great personal wealth and influence, though always from the shadows. Voss does not like being in the spotlight, because unwanted attention could have unforeseen consequences, and so often operates behind the scenes, using proxy agents to do what he needs to do. However, the lure of a lodestone was too great, and he trusted only himself with retrieving it.
While his intelligence, skill, and influence are vast, his downfall is often his own hubris. His pride is certainly justified, to an extent, but he is still open to mistakes that he has not already made. He is obsessed with immortality, and is pathologically afraid of death. As such, he is willing to go to any length, betray any ally, and kill anyone, in order to acquire the lodestones, which he believes can help him towards or even grant him his immortality.
Fighting Style:
Requinn spent nearly two hundred years as a member of the elven order of peacekeepers known as Pax Alma where he eventually earned the rank of Imperator, one of the most prestigious ranks among combatants of the order. He uses the enchanted sword that he did while he was in the Pax Alma, a finely made blade of elven steel stained black that is devoid of any decoration save for the small thunderstone embedded in the crossguard, powering the magic within.
Although Voss isn't nearly the biggest or strongest warrior around, he is still quite capable a fighter. Preferring to turn an opponent's strength against them, Voss augments his own abilities with considerable magic, granting him enhanced speed, strength and agility, as well as increasing his perception and acrobatic ability. He utilizes elaborate flourishes, flips, and footwork to avoid his enemy and give himself the most advantageous position. Just as well, he will use anything to his advantage, including taunting and cheap tricks, and is quite adept at improvisation. He is also known to employ magic extensively, be it as an illusion or as crackling lightning, one of his personal favorites. The downside to his fast paced and magic fueled style is that he tires very quickly, and although he has had centuries of conditioning, if he cannot win a fight quickly enough, he will begin to falter. To counter this, he rarely fights at a place not of his choosing, and he rarely fights without already putting himself at an advantage.
As is typical of elves, Requinn is skilled in the use of a bow, and he carries one of fine elven make whenever he travels. However, it is not his weapon of choice and he is thus not as skilled as specialized elven marksmen. He only uses it if he has to, or as a last resort.
History: Born over half a millennium ago at the height of the elven empire of Rexia, when the elves ruled over nearly half of all the known world, Requinn Voss was heir to the Voss'Eht'Ahn bloodline, a family of noble knights who served the Pax Alma for nearly ten thousand years, and was given the birth name Thanare'Quinn, the same as his father's father. As was expected of him, he joined the Pax Alma, an order of peacekeepers, when he came of age at 40.
During his training, Voss learned a great many things. Only the skilled and capable could serve in the Pax Alma, as duty required violence as often as it required diplomacy. While he proved himself in many fields, Requinn truly excelled in combat and magic, and by the time he was 50, he was granted the rank of Praetor, one of the youngest in history. For the next 50 years, Voss earned a reputation as a prodigy, but during this time of peace, the Pax Alma primarily investigated crimes, and Voss was not content to be a glorified city guard. When the emperor declared a human nation on the border of Rexia as an enemy, Requinn saw it as an opportunity. The Pax Alma was reformed into a military role, and it's members served as generals and assassins, leading the rank and file soldiers of the empire and undertaking dangerous missions.
Requinn, of course, fit right in and was instrumental in the successes of the empire's early campaigns. However, as the war dragged on, the human nation refused to submit, and more and more nations joined them in their war against the empire. This war would eventually become known as the schism, as it split the continent virtually in two as all the human nations banded together to fight the empire. Despite the empire's early success, the combined might of the allied nations pushed the empire back until they were at a standstill near the original borders. For nearly 100 years, the empire and the allied human nations remained in a cold war, and neither side could gain any leverage, until the emperor died of old age almost 500 years ago. The resulting power vacuum caused the elven empire to fracture into warring factions, and that is when the allied nations attacked, pushing the elves all the way back to their capital. Although the siege lasted years, the allies eventually prevailed and the elves were forced to sign a treat. As one of the few Pax Alma to survive the war, Requinn was witness to the signing, and it angered him deeply.
The empire was a shell of what it was. The Pax Alma were all but dead, and although they would eventually rebuild, they would never be what they once were. Requinn became disillusioned with the order and with the empire, and so he left, abandoning his honor and the right to bear his full name. He was branded Requinn Voss, a name that marked him as a deserter, and stripped of all titles, but it did not matter, because he had greater aspirations. He came to realize that even something as great and powerful as the empire or the Pax Alma would eventually crumble, and that the reason for this was that their creators the elves, despite their thousand year life spans, were still mortal. Voss concluded that the only way to build an immortal legacy, he first needed to become immortal himself, and he began his research.
As years, decades, and centuries passed, Requinn fell deeper into his obsession, and as he grew older, he also grew desperate. In order to fuel his research and experiments, he needed wealth and power, but as an exile, he commanded next to none. To that end, he went to work building his power base, accumulating wealth and power and knowledge for the sole purpose of uncovering a ritual which could grant him everlasting life.
With his goal in mind, Voss was relentless. Throughout the centuries, Voss has gathered one of the largest repositories of magical knowledge on Varnon, and takes no shortcuts in ensuring it is hidden and well defended. In his quest, he has acquired many magical artifacts and items, including various magical stones. It is his belief that the greatest of these possibly plays a part in the ritual that could grant him immortality, given lodestones legendary propensity for miracles. When rumors of a giant lodestone resting in Naua Te reached his ear, he could not pass up the opportunity, and took the first passage the archipelago he could get, a ship called Anya from the port of Saridur.