User Profile

Character: Gladius
Description of World: Gladius's world is one where medieval meets fantasy and magic. Technology in the world is very basic with developments recently beginning in steam-power machines and firearms, though the use of magic (or manipulation of the natural elements) balances things out.

There are three layers or realms to the world: the human realm, the realm of the guardians, and the realm of Gods. All three realms are connected and interact directly with each other. The deities actively listen to prayers and offerings and meddle in the affairs of mortals and any arguments they have within their own group affect the humans. They've also been known to take mortal form and travel around to observe. The Gods are neither benevolent nor malevolent; they simply are.

Below the Gods are the Guardians, mythical creatures appointed to watch over the humans. This category includes dragons, mythical equines (unicorns, pegasui, hippocampi, etc.) gryphons, and other mythical or enchanted creatures. Within their own groups, they have their own clans/groups/packs/etc, with the largest and most complicated being the dragons. While their job is to watch over the humans (and in a sense, be the eyes and ears for the Gods), they've been known to meddle and change things for their own gain or amusement at times.

There are six major kingdoms in the human realm; Hirykui, Tenbnea, Aquila, Sandari, Kanjara, and Kanjadu. Each one has a patron deity and guardian assigned to them as well as their respective areas of influence. While treaties try to keep things peaceful, wars and arguments are not uncommon, especially when Gods and Guardians choose to meddle.

The dragons echo this system, with five distinct clans sorted by the elements (water, air/wind, earth, fire, and lightning). While they are most aligned with the Hirykui kingdom, due to their power, they oversee the other kingdoms and even Guardians at times. To no surprise, this has caused tension between some of the Guardian groups (the water dragons are on very shaky terms with some of the water guardians) and even within the dragon clans.

Personality: Gladius is energetic, cheerful, and highly curious, traits understandable for a young human boy (or in his case, a dragon whelp). Gladius looks at things with wide-eyes and bouncing paws, always curious what that shiny thing stuck in the sand is or what's inside the locked chest high up on a shelf. He doesn't try to be a troublemaker, but he has a tendency to get under people's feet (or paws).

But even with his curiosity and innocence, he's not a complete idiot and has a healthy amount of childlike fear; he's afraid of the dark and wary as humans as he's heard the stories about dragon hunters from older dragons (and hasn't quite realized half of the time they're teasing him). He's also quite polite, always remembering to say please and thank you and staying quiet when the older dragons are talking (because dragon whelps should be seen and not heard).

Background: Born into a city inhabited only by dragons, Gladius grew up with the kind of upbringing all proper dragons received growing up; reading, writing, ancient history and lore, magic and transformation, and how not to get eaten by the older and more irate dragons. By all means he was a good student. The only problem was he was inquisitive, even too inquisitive by dragon standards. He always had questions and he replied to every answer with even more questions. He also had the habit of sneaking around and listening in on conversations or peeking through belongings not out of malice, but because curiosity was getting the better of him.

While the clan elders agreed he would be quite the capable and intelligent sage in his older years, right now he needed someone to pull him back and teach him discipline. The answer was sending him off to be raised by Araseth, a dragon who had been exiled from the clan for treason (the true reason was buried under a fair deal of mystery and magic and those who knew the truth had no intention of saying anything). The idea worked to their advantage in more than one way; Gladius would be out from under their paws and they could all have a bit of peace and rest and when he came back he would be properly disciplined and act as a dragon his age should and Gladius would serve nicely as a way to keep tabs on what Araseth was up to.

Unaware of the intentions of the clan elders, Gladius agreed to leave the clan for an undetermined amount of time to train under Araseth and learn the knowledge the elder dragon possessed.

While Araseth was initially displeased with the idea, she agreed to take care of the young dragon and teach him discipline and the ways of forest hunting. At the same time, she had taken in another disciple, a young human named Tobrias who was to learn the same things as Gladius. While Tobrias and Gladius were initially distrustful of each other, Gladius being quite wary of humans and Tobrias being unused to working with dragons, the two eventually put aside their problems and began to learn from each other as well as from their strict teacher.

During a training exercise, Gladius found himself separated from Tobrias and Araseth and took a bad fall down a hill. Upon waking up, he found himself no longer surrounded by forest but desolate city.

((ooc: An original character RPed by icarused for adstringendum, icons are from Gunslinger Girl by Yu Aida. and Breath of Fire.))