Carne (Car-n)

He is more physically fit than most others and is quite faster than most. His eyesight is also more advanced letting him seething that others can’t. Other than that he is quite healthy. Even through pain and injury, he manages to keep his body working the best he can.

Pale white skin

• Ambidexterity

• Tends to walk quietly

• twirls knife in hand

• scar in his life shoulder.

Can see Spirits with Second Sight

Outcast at Birth

  Carne was born into a world with only his mother to care for him, and he never knew who his father was. Only he was a nobleman who met her during the Roderick Rebellion. With him leaving her before he was even born. He was often forced to stay indoors as he was born different from other people and was often made to pretend to be blind by wearing a blindfold when anyone came into the house or left it. Never to see what the village of Whitewood he lived in ever looked like. Growing up, he did not have any friends, so he was the only person close to his mother. She taught him how to read and write, allowing him to read any book he could. She was his whole world, and he did not know what to do without her. They often bring him books about adventurers, plants, and animals, which he read thoroughly as if his life depended on it. Even though they didn't have much money, they did what they could to make each other happy. He would often be alone much of the time as his mother worked, making him either daydream or do chores around the house to help his mother. The village children would often harass him from outside their home as well as they saw him as a weakling for not leaving it and that he was blind. He always wondered what the world was like and what it was better than living in a house all his life, even though he did not wish to leave his mother behind. But it seemed that fate had other plans for him.   One day, his mother became ill, and the village healer could do nothing to help her as it was a disease that he had never seen before and did not know how to cure. He only told him to make her comfortable and spend what time he had left with her. That was what he did, and the thought of losing her was eating him up inside. His mother told him to be brave and follow his path, which was better than this. He stayed with her until the day she died at her side. He was only eight years old at the time and was alone in the world now. It was not soon after that the villagers discovered his secret. His eyes were a peculiar color, yellow, and the villagers feared him. Believing that it was a sign of evil and misfortune from their old superstitions. They hated and despised him, even though he did nothing to him.   The months that passed were not as kind to him as well; he was thrown from his home, and all that he owned was taken from him, leaving him out in the cold. Forced to eat the scrapes, the villagers did not eat and slept in barns to stay warm on cold nights. There was also another reason why he often covered his eyes, he often saw the spirits that passed through when they were open and was often afraid to look at them for he could not understand why he saw them when no one else could. The people did not help him anyway, and the children around him often picked on him and beat him. He knew he could not stay here any longer as winter would come, but he did not know where to go since he did not know any places. The only place that he did know of was the Great Forest since he explored the outskirts, often hiding from those who bullied him. His best meals were from there and from traps he learned to make from watching hunters and small slings to catch rabbits and other smaller animals. He also learned what plants were edible from the books he read. He just thought this was better than staying where everyone despised him for what he had no control over. He would instead take his chance in there than out here with them. He started well in the first few days, until he couldn't find any food and learned how to climb fast to escape whatever tried to eat him.   Later, he found himself lost and on the verge of starving to death, finding it sad he would die alone with nothing to live for. Then, out of sheer luck or destiny, he found an old hut isolated. It is a good place to shelter from the elements and possibly find food there. But when he entered, he realized that it was not abandoned and that whoever it was was only left recently. When he was about to leave, the hut's occupant returned, and he was an old man from the forest tribes. He feared what he would do to him, even though he was an old man, as he heard that the tribes had done a terrible thing to trespassers. But rather than hurt him, he fed him and clothed him. He soon discovered that he was a shaman who decided to spend his time in contemplation and seemed no threat to him. But the most alarming thing about him was what he told him about his eyes. That he was a seer said to have been chosen by the land and the Spirits to protect the land from significant change that would one day come, though he thought it was just the ramblings of an old man.  

Forging his Own Path

  The old man went by the name of Root, a strange name to have even in the Forest Tribes of Ve’tal but didn't know what else to call him, so Root it was. It took some time to trust this strange old man, but he finally found someone who accepted him for who he was and felt like he belonged, something he hadn't felt in his entire life. He was full of surprises as well when he taught him what he knew. He would learn the way of the forest and the creatures that lived in it. How to hunt, track and speak the Old Tongue among other things. Along with him awakening his primal instinct through shamanistic practices. He was also quite natural when it came to bows, as his aim was often true. But this happiness was never meant to last for him for long. Like his mother before him, the old shaman passed away two years later, and his heart broke once more. For everyone he loved died as if he was cursed to be alone with only the spirits he saw to keep him company, which he had learned to accept and no longer be afraid of.   He stayed in the Great Forest to live in solitude and away, often wearing a hood over his head to hide his eyes. Living off the land and keeping clear of anyone due to his past. A year passed in his isolation as he honed his skills. Until someone decided to intrude on his grounds. A Ranger had entered his territory battered and wounded, trying to recover from his injuries. Behind him, several bandits set on killing him as they were on his trail. He did not want to get involved but remembered what his old teacher told him. "Follow your heart and believe in what is right." It was with that he decided to help the man with his troubles. The bandits were relatively easy to deal with as they were quickly scared off by his traps and injured a few, but he was unwilling to kill them as he had yet to do so. The Ranger was surprised and puzzled by the boy who seemed to have saved his life. He would tend to his wounds and ensure he could escape the forest. His name was Fredrick Lumbren, and he was grateful for his help, and he saw how Carne was living and wanted to repay him for saving his life. He asked him to join on his travels back to Oaken Tower to become a Ranger as it seemed he had the skills for it.   He was hesitant initially, but then he thought about the bandits he let get away. He knew they would come back and figured that he needed a place to stay, as leaving his hut and finding a new home would be difficult, especially with autumn coming and scarce resources. He accepted his offer and journeyed to the castle where he was stationed. They decided to journey outside the forest due to their danger and past several settlements along the way, even the town of Hebonar, which Carne thought was a city he had only read about. Which sparked his child-like mind that he forgot he had for some time. He tried to hide his excitement in front of Fredrick but was terrible at doing so, and he never seemed to enjoy such things and explored a little bit. He also discovered what money was and how it worked as he took food from stalls without realizing what stealing was. Then he started to feel happy again even though he tried to fight it. As they continued to travel he learned more about Fredrick and his duties as a Ranger in the Forest Guard. They were responsible for keeping the peace between the Great Forest and the kingdom. Though skeptical about it due to his experience with other people, he knew they weren't all bad. I also witnessed the things that dwelled in the forest firsthand occasionally to see why people need protection. So he decided to accept his offer to become a Ranger and wanted him to train him to be better prepared when they arrived. Fredrick was taken aback as he quickly went through most of the basic training and decided to teach him some advanced training along the way, which didn’t seem to stop him at all. After a few more days, they reached Oaken Tower, which stood out in the distance.   Of course, when he got there, he wasn't greeted as friendly as he would have expected. They didn't see his eyes, but they were skeptical that a scrawny child like him could be a Ranger and told him to return in a few years. But Fredrick told his Warden-Commander Galas Curts to give him a chance, for he was much more than he looked. Hearing this, he bet with him: if he won, he could begin training, and if not, he would leave. The challenge would be archery, which most Rangers were quite good at. Those who were present thought it would be nice to have a few laughs and watch the boy fail. Their best marksmen were sent out and fired a few shots at the target, which was a moving bucket that was pretty good. In a few seconds, Carne effortlessly shot the target, all of which were bullseye, shocking everyone and leaving a long silence. The idea that he was a prodigy at his age terrified them, and they started to take him seriously. The marksmen, however, frustrated at being beaten by a child, threw a rotten tomato at him, which he kindly returned to him with an arrow above his head, and the tomato fell on top of him. It made Galas impressed and accepted this extraordinary boy as a recruit. But he wanted to see his face, and Carne quickly refused, and a chase ensued, with most of the castle missing the boy before disappearing. He hid in one of the old towers so no one would look for him. Fredrick would find him and get him to explain why he didn't want anyone to see his face. He convinced him to show his eyes, but he did not treat him differently. Making him realize that not all people would treat him like a monster by knowing his secret. They then went to Galas to talk to him privately and promised to let him wear his hood until he was ready to show his face. The training was relatively easy for him physically, but mentally, it took all his will to control his emotions. He managed to get the hang of it with time. After a few months, he was put on active Ranger duty despite not being of age yet.  

A Ranger and a Soldier

  Being a Ranger helped him be a part of something; it gave him a purpose in his life that he had none of before. Though working with others was a little difficult for him, he managed to trust those who served beside him. He was even able to make some friends along the way. As for his service record, he was above average regarding his duties. His gifts also enabled him to be far better than most Rangers, making him a force to behold. He would often be gone before anyone could speak to him when given an assignment. Despite being told countless times to have someone come with him, considering he was still a child. But that didn’t stop him at all, and even if someone tried to go after him, they often had trouble tracking him despite their training. He would be assigned all sorts of things while on duty, from hunting beasts wandering too close to settlements to bandits preying on unsuspecting travelers. However, his interactions with the forest tribes were completely different than most would expect. The Forest Guard often had an understanding with most of the tribes, and peace was maintained between them. But there would be flare-ups between both sides from time to time. But treating them with respect and tolerance rather than with suspension and deception. He followed the old ways rather than the new ones and found peace and acceptance with them when the others rejected him. Using the Old Tongue enabled him to ease tensions with them and avoid bloodshed. Here, friendlier relationships began to grow between them and the other tribes. Most notably when he helped stop slavers from abducting tribesmen looking for easy money. He always seemed to be putting his life in danger and never anyone else, as if he had something to prove. But instead, it was all about protecting his comrades and avoiding bloodshed. When he wasn't on a mission, he trained himself and anyone willing to join him to improve their skills. He was a born leader, and even Galas saw it. He made him a Sergeant of his squad to prove that despite his objections. At first, he did not work well with those under his command, often working alone as he always did and not involving them at all. His team thought he was selfish and arrogant until they saw the lengths he would go to protect them. Soon enough, they managed to work things out and began to work as a team. But he made sure that they were all as good as him if they were going serve under him, and hard training began to make them look like a pack of wolves rather than Rangers. It soon gains them an infamous nickname as well, " Grim Hunters", due to them causing terror against anyone who faced them. With them, begin instrumental in ending the Wolver Border Raids and the reign of Luthor, the Bandit King. He was also close to them, treating them as his friends rather than subordinates. Among them were Darren Nettle, Loran Lusca, Philip Lumbren, and Arnold Masterson. Life was going well for him as he seemed to have everything he ever wanted. But the world had other ideas in mind as the drums of war began to beat in the north beyond the forest.   It was like any other routine scouting mission on the border; Carne and a detachment of some of the best Rangers in the Forest Guard were sent to spy on imperial movements that had been more active than usual. When they discovered several Imperial Legions preparing to march along the Narrow Path. After a brief skirmish with some imperial scouts and quick integration, they quickly headed to Fort Hightower to warn its defenders of the invasion. Only to arrive as it was besieged, thus beginning the War of the Raptors. During the Siege of Fort Hightower, the Legions of the Empire tried to breach the old castle through any means possible. but were repealed by its sturdy walls and defenders on them with day after day of harsh fighting. It was apparent that a quick victory was impossible for them, so they began digging in, trying to find ways to breach the walls or force the defenders to surrender. But Carne would let the besiegers rest one moment while they were there as he and his comrades began a series of raids to strike terror into the enemy. Often, under the darkness of night, they would steal food, sabotage their equipment, set fire to tents, and randomly kill anyone they came across. They were not safe at day either as Carne, with his longbow, would hit many of the besiegers, most officers, at great distances, forcing them to move their lines back several times to avoid more casualties. But he managed to keep hitting them anyway and ensured they knew it was him by using arrows with black fletching.   Their actions would halt the enemy's progress and give the kingdom time to gather its armies to prepare for the coming onslaught. But after a month of holding the fort, the imperials were tired of this act of defiance and started to prepare a massive assault to end the siege. Seeing the remaining defenders, they decided it was time for them to leave as they could not hold out much longer and would destroy the fort so it could not fall into the hands of the empire. As they fled through the ancient passageway underneath the old castle, the assault began, and Carne stayed behind to hold the enemy back on his own. Using the castle's ruins to his advantage and a series of traps, he managed to devastate the enemy and trigger the fort's pillars to collapse. Many of the defenders and his squad thought he was dead, but they were astonished when he emerged from the collapsed passageway. He and the surviving defenders managed to escape as they headed to safety behind friendly lines. He would soon become infamous amongst the empire's legions, with them giving him the name "Windwalker" for supposedly being able to control the wind and even walk on it when it was simply his skills that aided him.   After his courageous actions at Fort Hightower, Carne would become a part of a series of operations using guerrilla warfare to cause damage behind enemy lines as the empire advanced more profoundly and deeper into the kingdom. He and the Grim Hunters would target to commit many deeds against the empire and insight fear even the toughest of Legionaries even when they were mentioned. Their infamy would only rise during the Battle of the Long Night as they capture an agent of the Imperious Oculus, revealing selective information that would lead to massive defeat to the empire with thousands dead. Causing large amounts of resources that the empire would use to eliminate them, but they always managed to get away. But they would be on the war's losing side as the kingdom continued to lose ground. It was then that a secret meeting took place in the village of White Wood that high-ranking officers of the Forest Guard would attend with Carne and his men invited as well. Though the place of his birth brought up bad memories, he cared little about it and cared only for the future. But before any plan was met, they were betrayed by one of them, Darren, as he brought imperial legionaries into the village and set it ablaze. Carne watched as many of his comrades died from the sudden attack, along with being the last of Grim Hunters. As for Darren, Carne personally ended him after stabbing him through one of his eyes and tossed him into one of the many burning flames surrounding them as a fitting punishment for his betrayal. He and the remaining survivors manage to flee into the Great Forest to try and recover from their sudden losses. Only to realize that the enemy was still pursuing them to try and finish them off. Carne chose to stay behind to hold them off, and no one argued with him due to his state of mind. He was out for blood and almost lost everything because of the empire. What transpired afterward was considered the stuff of nightmares as a lone figure began killing any imperial in his sight, with their screams being heard throughout the night for who knows how many hours that it lasted. With that being said, dozens upon dozens of imperials were found dead across the forest border of Whitewood, even miles away from it. It is unclear how many were said to be killed during the "Night of Wailing," but they most certainly knew it was Carne, as he left one of his arrows with black fletching to let them know that he was still alive. By the time he returned to the survivors, he was drenched in blood, with even the stench of death being smelled from a short distance away. He also had with him a boy by the name of Dylan Tilbrook, though he never spoke of what transpired that night, and no one ever wanted to know.  

A Determined Rebel

  After Whitewood, no one knew what to do as they were cut off from any information or way to contact anyone from the kingdom or the Guard. Many were wounded and had to be taken care of so they had a chance to survive. As Carne and those still able to move, they would often come and go to patrol the area to ensure that they were safe; they would often return to the smoldering ruins that were once Whitewood when it was safe to bury their dead. Only to be horrified to find that most of the bodies were either crucified or mutilated and left to rot. Carne would bury all his squad members alone and avoid the others as he mourned his loss and failure for not seeing Darren's betrayal. Often blaming himself for all the deaths caused by it. They would often find others during their patrols in the forest, some of them peasants fleeing their destroyed homes, others being soldiers from losing battles, all of them heading to the forest as the empire made it advance deeper into the kingdom. Then, one day, the news that they dreaded finally came: the war was over, and the empire had one. The capital of Asran was in flames and the Royal family of House Kasval was killed.   What's worse was that the Forest Guard was all but destroyed their castles destroyed or under imperial control. Many of its members were feared dead at this point. No one knew what to do as they were leaderless. Galos died in Carne's arms, and most of the captains that were present were killed. Except for Fredrick, he was worse for wear as he had become partially blinded from burning debris that severely burned him and had yet to recover. But in all of this time of struggle and suffering, Carne, who felt like he was no longer living, heard a voice slowly reach him. But they did not know where it came from, whether deep within him or even a spirit. It only said two words repeatedly, "Save them." It was these words that made him realize that he had to keep on fighting for those who were still alive and knew what had to be done. When he finally returned to the group, they ceased arguing with one another as an arrow was shot near their feet to gain their attention to Carne. It was that he spoke of a place that was hidden where they would be safe and no one could find them that only a few trusted Rangers ever knew about, the ruins of the ancient elven fortress known as Del Toren. With this, they would travel deeper into the forest, face many dangers, and pick up other kingdom stragglers they came across.   When they finally arrived, they were glad to be safe from danger despite the ruins being a total mess. At least they had supplies hidden away inside of it to rebuild it as best they could. In the coming weeks, as they rebuilt their new haven and began scouring the forest for news and resources, more and more people joined them as they fled the tyranny of the empire. It caused quite a stir as people from all over began fighting over just about everything. Carne and a few others kept the peace for some time, but eventually, it all fell apart. With that, he began forming a council to lead the fledgling settlement and help share the burden of leadership. It was here that the Circle was formed with Cassius Flint, Jacob Morris, Sophia Kelner, Sir Dayne of Wayne, Fredrick Lumbren, and himself were chosen by their groups to lead them. However, he believed he was not the right man for the job due to his failures, despite the support he had. This union would also lay the foundations of the resistance against the empire known as the Brotherhood of the Wood. With him forming his branch of the brotherhood known as the Silent Stalkers to wage a guerrilla war against the empire.   From here, Carne, more notably the stalkers, would be some of the most wanted individuals in the empire as their effect on the occupation forces of the empire started to cause problems for them. Their ability to attack without warning at a moment's notice and leave without a trace tends to put even an experienced soldier on edge. That and all the things they seek to liberate from them, from weapons to food, to continue their war. Many of their acts of defiance also caused many to rally under the Brotherhood to aid in the liberation of Ardania. It also caused their bounties to rise, with Carne's being the largest, making him a prime target for any Bounty Hunter feeling lucky to have a go at him. Many imperials were assigned to kill him, seeking a promotion, with many covering the forest floor when they finally found him. This has only strengthened the legend that has revolved around him, making him more like a ghost rather than a man, but he cares little for such trivial things as all he wants to do is keep his people alive as long as possible in these dark times where very few people can be trusted. He even slowly revealed his secret to only those few, who could be most of them in the circle. He knows they are all in this together, and it must be kept that way to ensure they have a future worth fighting for.

He often isolates himself from others but will talk to them when he needs to. He is more comfortable with people he has known for years rather than new people.

He speaks plainly and calmly never revealing emotion and will only yell when he needs to.