Atharen, A Fantasy Roleplay Forum

Hakon was born to a working class couple of farming Noruners in Northradica in a village near Osthwick. His birth was difficult, and unfortunately, his mother did not survive it. His father did his best to care for the baby in his household, but he struggled to manage the small plot of land he was assigned without his wife. There was one thing that Hakon's father had going for him, however: his looks. A Valran passing through Northradica saw the strapping peasant tilling the land and invited him back back to his Lord’s household, and he, sensing a better life for himself and his son, accepted.

It did not turn out as expected. The Valran was no gentleman, and what the Lord required was quite explicit, and not at all aligned to Hakon's father's interests. After a fraught two years on the estate, he managed to escape with Hakon back across the border to Radenor. He did his best to keep his head down and disappear, but the Entente could not excuse the insult of his impudence (or perhaps the sting of his rejection), and sent one of his Valran after him. Hakon's father was brutally murdered in front of Hakon, then just seven years old. To add insult to injury and to ensure the young man would not be able to have the freedom to seek revenge, Hakon was initiated by that same man into Brand immediately afterward. The assassin departed, leaving the young Hakon clinging to the lifeless body of his father.

He was discovered the next day by his neighbors, and his attempts to hide the telltale black diamond mark failed quickly. He was brought to the Guild without hesitation, and has remained there ever since. To this day, some people in his village do not believe that there was ever an assassin, maintaining that the young Hakon had been initiated while his father was in Daravin and then snapped one night, killing him. Between this and not having any real ties to his remaining family in Northradica, Hakon was raised entirely by the Guild. Despite it being something of a prison, Hakon adjusted quickly. His guards became his friends and, in time, a few became something like family. His youth, lack of friends or family outside of the Guild, and suspicion of the other mages endeared him to the staff of the Guild. When the leader of his Guild heard about an experimental program, the Endurnotkun, Hakon was the first one she recommended.

Rather than merely monitoring Hakon, the Guild encouraged him to take on two additional magics: Sundering and Grave. He was then sent out on retrieval operations for rogue mages. At first, just Guilded who had not come back from their allotted family visitation times, or who had run off. Eventually, though, he was the go-to choice for any mage retrieval assignment that his Guild leader had on her plate. His abilities in combination with his zeal for the task and professionalism meant that he was only lightly monitored. In time, the Guild taught Hakon to speak Gentavarese so that he could go on missions to Daravin and blend in slightly better with the populace there. At this point, he has over two decades of assignments under his belt, with almost all resulting in capture or execution of his quarry.

His track record is remarkable, but what really sets him apart is his enrollment in the Endurnotkun: In addition to his conventional duties, he is involved in an ambitious project to increase the Four Kingdoms’ access to fragments. When criminals in the nearby prison were bound for the noose, they would be initiated into a magic instead. If it killed them, well, they were dead men walking anyhow. If they survived, they would be allowed to attain up to an Apprentice level of mastery in their abilities under the tutelage of a guild mage, after which point Hakon would Sunder them, producing a fragment that the artisans of Radenor could use.

This did not, and does not, bother him in the slightest. Hakon believes that mages are irredeemable once marked, and that criminals are little better. He carves out a small exception for himself as someone who was initiated against his own will and has subsequently dedicated himself to the pursuit of eliminating others who are perverted in this way. He takes a good deal of satisfaction in his work, and is proud of his contributions to Radenor.

Hakon has not ventured out of Radenor too often, though he has been sent on a few missions in to Daravin to Sunder escaped mages.

• 4491-4492: Near Osthwick, Northradica, Radenor
• 4493-4494: The outskirts of Amoren, Daravin
• 4495-4497: a town outside of of Leiden, Radenor
• 4497-Present: Mages Guild, Vesterhal, Jorikford, Radenor, with sojourns to Daravin and extensive travel throughout Radenor

TBD

Hakon's nightorch feeds from the man himself unless offered a continual supply of fresh vitescence. Additionally, Hakon is barred from using many of the standard Grave abilities, in return for greatly enhanced utility of one ability in particular: Wither. His tethers glow blue, not white, and chill the target instead of warming them.