Vane “One-Eye” Black

Vane “One-Eye” Black
  Half-Orc | Carpenter of the Darkwake Corsairs
  The Eye He Paid
  Vane Black lost his eye in a moment that should have killed him.
  During a chasm collapse, the Darkwake’s hull split along a pressure seam—stone, water, and void rushing in at once. There was no time for orders. Vane wedged himself into the breach, bracing beams with one arm and sealing the rest with his own body while the ship screamed around him.
  The pressure crushed his face against raw timber. The eye burst. He didn’t move.
  By the time the breach was stabilized, Vane was still there—half-conscious, blood in his mouth, one hand fused to the hull by splinter and sap.
  The ship lived.
  So did he.
  The Ship as Flesh
  From that day on, Vane stopped thinking of the Darkwake as a vessel.
  To him, it is alive.
  Beams are bones. Planks are skin. The keel is a spine that must never be broken.
  He talks to it while he works—not prayers, not madness, but constant low murmurs of reassurance and warning. He listens for changes in tone when he strikes timber, for the way the ship answers stress with vibration.
  He knows when something is wrong before anyone else feels it.
  Reverence and Rage
  Vane repairs the Darkwake with reverence.
  He repairs damage with rage.
  Poor workmanship enrages him more than battle scars. A sloppy patch is an insult. A rushed repair is cruelty. He will tear out another carpenter’s work and redo it himself if it feels wrong beneath his hands.
  Those who damage the ship through negligence receive one warning.
  Those who damage it deliberately do not receive explanations.
  The Carpenter’s Arsenal
  Vane’s tools are heavy, brutal things—part carpentry kit, part weapon set:
  Iron-bound hammers that double as mauls
  Sawblades sharpened beyond reason
  Resin mixes hardened with alchemy and blood
  Black nails etched with runes only he understands
  He carries them like a warrior carries arms.
  Relationship with Verda
  Verda trusts Vane with the Darkwake the way she trusts herself with command.
  She does not override his calls regarding structural safety. If Vane says the ship cannot take another hit, the argument is over.
  They rarely speak at length—but when they do, it is about survival, not comfort.
  Smithy’s Boundary
  Smithy enforces discipline everywhere aboard the Darkwake—except in Vane’s domain.
  The carpenter’s space is sacrosanct.
  Smithy learned early that punishment involving the ship must go through Vane first. Not because Vane outranks him—but because damage done without understanding costs lives.
  Smithy respects that.
  Superstition and Truth
  The crew has developed rituals around Vane’s beliefs:
  Touching a beam before a dangerous passage
  Leaving small offerings of resin or nails near the keel
  Avoiding loud arguments while the ship is under strain
  No one calls it superstition.
  They have seen what happens when the ship is “angry.”
  Reputation
  Among Underdark ports, Vane is known as:
  “The Man Who Became a Plug”
  “The Carpenter Who Bleeds for His Ship”
  “The One You Don’t Lie To About Damage”
  Some swear the Darkwake creaks differently when he’s not aboard—as if waiting.
  The Truth of One-Eye
  Vane Black does not fear death.
  He fears hull failure.
  The ship saved him once by holding long enough for him to hold it back. He will spend the rest of his life repaying that debt—plank by plank, nail by nail.
  And anyone who harms the Darkwake without cause will learn a final lesson:
  You don’t hurt a living thing and walk away from the carpenter who keeps it breathing.