Name: Edric Snow Age: 18 Gender: Male Race: Hylian Place of Origin: Northern Hyrule/Fringe of the Snowhead Region PWC: 4/1/2 Treasures: Specialty [Fire] Goron Iron (Applied to sword) Fighting Pet/Mount Spin Attack Height: 5'8" Weight: 170 pounds Equipment: Edric fights with an expertly crafted cruciform-style bastard sword designed for use with one or two hands, as bastard swords usually are. The sword, called Longclaw weighs approximately 1.3kg and is approximately 138cm long. The hilt of the sword is wrapped in dark leather, stretched and broken in from years of use. The cross-guard is made of two arms of steel and extending upward along the axis of the blade slightly, forming two very shallow arcs. The steel pommel of the weapon is crowned with two pieces of near flawless obsidian, one on each side of the pommel. The sword was given to Edric by the leader of a small group of warriors living in the snowy lands north of Castle Town (see back story). The sword has seen many years, being crafted some time before Ganon invaded Southern Hyrule. In fact, the steel was forged from ore taken from mines in Death Mountain, and used to craft Longclaw for the previous owner's family by a Goron smith. This, of course, makes the sword very valuable to Edric, and rightly so. As a result of the techniques and ore used to craft it, the steel that makes up Longclaw is of the variety that most Hylian smiths would envy. The metal is very strong and holds a superb edge (think of this). Edric uses this weapon as an extension of his own arm. In addition, Edric has a simple long knife with a sharp, steel blade and a hilt made from bone. Edric often carries a yew longbow and a hide quiver of steel tipped arrows. This is far form the first weapon Edric will choose in a fight, and often times he chooses to leave it behind, but it is an option for him as he may be in a situation where he can use some fortification to his advantage. Mostly, though, he uses the bow for hunting. Appearance: Edric is a lean, fit young man. He is not particularly huge, but for his size he has no lack of muscle tone. He is built much like a young warrior would be built. His face is a mix of young and adult. It has yet to show the years of strain that an older face might display, with that youthful sort of freshness and resilience. At the same time, he has a prominent, almost sculpted jaw covered by a layer of beard the same dark, dark brown, nearly black color as the ruffled hair on his head. His brow is stern, and his eyes are a sharp blue color. Like all of his compatriots, Edric wears a black wool cloak, versatile for dealing with harsh weather, especially the frigid snows where Edric lives. Nothing about Edric's garb is particularly showy or fancy. He mostly wears very simple clothing. Most of the time, this means layers of wool and boiled leather underneath a coat of dark, oiled chain mail. Personality: Edric is a very honest young man, viewing honor as having very high importance. However, as Edric is not a god, he has weak moments. Still, Edric is a fairly virtuous person. Moreover, he is certainly brave, but tries to maintain a certain restraint and reservation. Edric does, however, feel a bit of an outcast, being a bastard child. He was included among his siblings, but never really felt like one of them. When he joined the Black Guard, he found himself among outcasts, which gave him what he felt was a sort of niche in this island of misfit men. Still, though, Edric feels somewhat that he is a man alone in his own world. As such, though, Edric is often friendly to those who are also even slightly shunned by society. There are those types of people who are legitimately hated, but those decent souls left out by the masses often have little trouble finding a friend in Edric Snow. Overall, Edric Snow can at times be quiet and reserved, and other times outgoing, but he is always in some way kind at heart. Residence: An old, run-down castle (not personally owned) north of the Tourist Center, in the shadow of the mountains Pet: Ghost, a large, arctic wolf found by Edric as a pup, is similar in appearance to the Kenai Peninsula wolf from some fantasy world called Alaska (but that sort of wolf would probably be extinct anyway). Despite being a wolf, Ghost is extremely loyal to Edric, and shares a deep bond with his master that might even be difficult for some brothers to understand. He will fight at Edric's side, and while usually left to his own devices, Ghost is rarely far off, although he may not be in immediate sight. Perhaps most interestingly, Ghost's most identifying feature is that he is an albino wolf, to some extent. As such, he has a pale grey, almost white coat, and an eerie, red tint in his eyes. Even while albinism may be associated with poor eyesight, a wolf has plenty of well-adjusted senses to compensate, and as Ghost is not a complete albino, his eyes do function. Backstory: Edric was born the bastard and eldest son of a relatively wealthy man named Rickard Snow. The Snow family did not live beneath the grandeur of any of Hyrule's larger cities, nor indeed the glory of Castle Town. Rather, the Snow estate was a small manor on a plot of land on the opposite side of the Northern hills from Castle Town, southwest of the Woodfall Tourist Center. This manor was owned by the Snow family, and surrounded by a small settlement including a few artisans and other people, amounting to three or four families other than Rickard's. Edric's mother, according to his father, was a woman from the Nabooru area far south of Castle Town. He never knew his mother, and probably never would. Rickard himself was unaware of her whereabouts. Moreover, Edric was conceived around the time Rickard was to be married to his legitimate wife. Moreover, this was also around the time of Ganon's invasion of the south, and Rickard was down south to see about joining in the defense of the south. Rickard did end up getting into a skirmish or two near Death Mountain, where he and his group of retainers were attacked by moblins and the like, but he was never involved in any of the important fighting, as many had said a young man in green dress scaled the fiery mountain alone and challenged Ganon in single combat. When Lord Rickard returned home, he had with him an infant boy named Edric. At the time of Ganon's assault in the south, a handful of skilled, brave knights, free-riders, and men-at-arms abandoned their homes and families and rode north. They had been gathered together by one of their number, Sir Jorah Mallister, a noble man of Hyrule Castle Town, who felt that even with those precautions that might have been taken, the King was not making enough provisions to defend the free lands in Northern Hyrule. Mallister dispatched messengers to his associates and those friends of his he trusted felt the way he did. These men gathered in the far northern hills and formed a small brotherhood of their own. One of these men was Edric's uncle, a brave knight and Rickard's beloved brother. While they totaled only about 34 men, counting the prominent men who had gathered in the mountains plus their own groups of retainers and loyal swords, they showed heart. Some of the men worked to gather free-riders to the cause from across the land to bolster their numbers, while others used their accumulated wealth to buy steel for arms and armor, and to hire artisans who could build for them a small home in the north. While Rickard agreed with this cause, he was not one of those to run off and join this small, ragtag band of iron brothers. In the years after Ganon had been silenced, Rickard had three more sons and as many daughters. Though he was the eldest, as he was bastard-born, Edric was never truly accepted by his surrogate mother, who loved and preferred her true-born children. Rickard, however, loved and cherished all of his sons and daughters. Despite his very human weakness and disloyalty to his then-future wife in fathering Edric, Rickard was by all counts an honorable, loyal man. At the very least, he worked hard toward such ends and respected honor very highly. As such, he tried to instill these qualities in his children. What he also worked to instill in his children, mainly his sons, was an affinity for the sword. Edric and his brothers practiced in the courtyard with blunted tourney swords and shields, and with bow and arrow. In his fifteenth year (age 14), Edric found a young wolf pup in the woods near what he presumed was the corpse of its mother. He took the pup in as his own pet, as it was an albino wolf, and was different from other wolves, just as Edric, a bastard, was in some way an outcast from his siblings. Despite the objections of his mother, Edric kept the wolf, which he had named "Ghost," for his pale, white coat. Over the years, Edric and Ghost became well nigh inseparable. As a young man, age 16, Edric decided that he would go north with his uncle to be a part of the small band of rogue warriors that had taken to calling itself the 'Black Guard," so named for the heavy, black wool cloaks its members wore. So, Edric's uncle, Sir Emrys Snow, took the boy north, over rigid waters by ferry, and over snow-blanketed lands to a small castle built long before Ganon invaded the south. The stone of the fortress was in some places crumbled. In truth, this castle was becoming more ruined than not. Over the past 17 years, its new inhabitants and their hired workers (who came and went in waves, usually in the warm months) had rebuilt multiple portions of the walls with stone, and patched others with wooden constructs. The castle provided fundamental shelter, and could yield some protection against foes, but mostly, it served as a home. To be sure, the Black brothers had been fairly successful in turning this old, run down castle into a defensible position again, but in the case of a large scale assault, it would hold up to nothing the size of what Hyrule Castle might withstand. This old castle, the home of the Black Guard, whose numbers had by then swelled to 67 strong, was called Northwatch. Edric soon became a worthy member of the Guard. He excelled in training with sword and bow with the few other young members who had just recently joined, which irked the "master-at-arms," if he could even deserve such a title, a great deal, as Edric was also a willing and effective teacher. He also learned to grow comfortable being very close to fire. As a men would learn in such a cold environment, fire is life. At night, fire gives light and warmth. Fire lights the steps one takes to walk homes. Fire simply is life in the snowy north. As such, Edric learned to make fire on wood and cloth wet from snow. Oddly, though, he demonstrated a notable talent for sparking fire where none of the other brothers could succeed. Even he couldn't know, but this was far beyond a mortal talent. Less than one year ago, the snowy hills of the north were disturbed by a godly event. Where there was once a large expanse of icy hills and valleys, there was suddenly a range of high, snow-covered mountains. The change happened over a period of a mere few days, and while this left the watch reeling (a massive and abrupt geographical shift can have that effect), it also brought down upon them a whole new range of horrors. The mountains seemed to radiate nothing but inclement weather in the form of almost constant blizzards. To be sure, the brothers were quite used to the cold, northern weather, but this was unlike anything they had yet seen. The Guard built large fires to keep warm while on watch, as even their heavy, black cloaks and layers of wool and leather struggled to keep heat in their shivering bodies. Nights were hellish times for the the Black Brothers. Through the white walls of snow and ice falling from the grey skies in sheets came monsters born of ice and snow. While, in the south, Hyrule Castle Town was under siege by the beasts of the cold, the Black Guard fought tirelessly to stave off these creatures of the night. While steel was still a Brother's best friend, the Watch employed fire as a main weapon against these armies of snow and malice. Men fought with sword and torch in hand, pouring barrels of burning pitch over the walls and showering the enemy with a rain of arrows whose heads were wrapped in burning, oil-soaked cloth. While the first days were tiring and dangerous, only one man was lost. It was only after, one night, the beasts managed to scale the walls where the stones were low and crumbling, and fight inside of the old fort. The Black Brothers fought with a fierce resolve, but twelve good men fell in battle, cut down by frigid, crystalline sword. Edric Snow fought a hard battle in his own right, cutting down several foes and even saving the life of the "lord commander," Sir Mallister, at the expense of a partially burned right hand. Such a wound was seen to by the nearest the Brothers had to a physician. In the end, the castle held out and as the next day dawned, the Brothers let their guard down long enough to give their comrades a proper ceremony on a funeral pyre. As soon as the snows started to wane (they had long yet before finally calming), Sir Mallister called together those brothers still standing and called for an expedition into the mountains of Snowhead. Edric was one of 25 brothers willing to march out and take the fight to the enemy. The rest of the Black Guard was to remain at Northwatch and hold the defense. Though Edric had been injured in the most recent attack on Northwatch, Sir Mallister had faith in the young swordsman. It was by the advice of Sir Mallister, in fact, that Edric was making a habit of constantly moving his scarred fingers as much as possible. Flexing his hand would keep it strong, and he could not afford to lose his sword bearing hand. This advice transitioned to a gift to Edric. Sir Mallister bestowed Edric with his family's sword, Longclaw, claiming that he was too old to justify using it, and that Edric was the better man to wield such a fine blade. Edric used this sword well in the mountains, as the 26 Black Brothers brought retribution down on the icy creatures. Mallister's expedition ended poorly as the men were ambushed at an old, abandoned outpost that had survived the brutal lifting of the terrain. The brothers fought hard as ever, but lost two of their top men as a result, and suffering two more missing, one of which was Edric's uncle. Before the Watchmen were forced to withdraw, the snows began to calm more, and, as the days went on, the icy storms looked as though they might cease altogether. The expedition returned to the Northwatch, licking its wounds, and towing two corpses on carts. Two more bodies burned the night the Brothers returned. As the moon showed itself then, the Black Guard knew this latest ordeal had passed. Weeks passed as the Guard recovered from its hardships. Sir Mallister used what money the Brothers had to spare to hire some workers from Darunia and Castle Town to come north and help rebuild Northwatch by gathering lumber and stone and helping the masons and carpenters build walls and shelters. This would be the time of reconstruction. After some weeks, the numbers of the Guard had risen to 69, several of which were still green, young men with minimal experience, but plenty of courage. In recent days, Edric Snow approached Sir Mallister about finding his uncle in the mountains of Snowhead. Jorah Mallister refused to assemble another expedition, as it would cost too many men the Guard needed to keep at home. After a brief debate, Edric Snow volunteered himself to conduct a short, one-man expedition into the heart of the mountains to track down some sign of Sir Emrys. Reluctantly, Sir Mallister yielded. He feared he might lose one of his finest men, but the boy had convictions, and he would not be one to deny them.
Sorry, Idarian, but I can't pass this yet. It's really up to Toko to decide if your creation of a string of non-canon settlements is alright or not. Thank you for your patience.
Yeah, Idarian, I'm not ok with you creating a bunch of separate towns and villages full of TENS OF THOUSANDS of people... What do you think the population of a place like Lon Lon ranch is? Or Darunia? They defininately are not in the millions range, they themselves are in the tens of thousands, maybe even low 100 thousands. This is to significant an addition to be allowed. Is it possible your character's family lived out here with maybe a couple other families? Yes, but whole entire settlements? No. This isn't a sandbox here, in the sense of create your own origin thing. Sure, they can be created with staff approval, like in Blonde Panther's case, but in the case of this, there are already a bunch of towns up there, including Hyrule Castle Town, that border Snowhead. Now I am going to be revamping things soon, meaning changing Origins and the PWC to working more smoothly and allowing them more freedom, but for now make it reasonable and don't add huge colonies lol.
All right. I can tone down the settlements, definitely. I hadn't realized the towns already in place were that sized. I had in my head that the towns listed on the map were just the cities found in Hyrule, which of course in terms of a medieval-esque setting 40,000-70,000 people (High Medieval Period London was around 50,000, I think), with Castle Town being more in the neighborhood of 100,000 people, and other settlements up to a maximum of let's say 15,000-20,000 people counting maybe as generic towns and other minor settlements. At that point, I figured they might be acceptable as the minor locations mentioned in the Quests explanation thread. Clearly, that was a misconception on my part, so I'll gladly change those figures. Would you say to keep the numbers down to maybe 1,000 tops, so I've now just gotten to talking about small, nonspecific settlements? If it's anything to you, I wasn't planning on making much use of those unspecified villages up in the north. I was just trying to describe the sort of environments Edric and his companions would have originated in. Still, I totally get that even the low tens of thousands is too big. While I'm at it, just to be sure, I didn't do anything disagreeable with the little Black Guard group, did I? I was hoping that, for a warrior group that is intended to be a little spread around the local region, a few thousand total was a reasonable size, given that the garrison at each one of the Guard's outposts, ring forts, and castles would only be a few hundred for the larger stations. However, if that is also a bit too big, then I would be easily able to reduce the Guard to fewer outposts and therefore a smaller size, though if I may I would prefer to keep it as is.
No, not even 1000. That is still too significant. Anything on a massive scale like that has too big an impact on the story and geography of Hyrule. And, I also don't like you creating new millitaries of thousands of men, even hundreds of men. The military for Hyrule has already been stated in Canon and I'd expect you to follow that. Please do not create significant things such as these. Sure settlements are ok, but not entire villages that would have histories and such behind them and their creations etc... When the quest thread says you can have stuff like this, its on a much smaller scale, meaning its feasible to find a monster encampment or temple or such in the expanse of Hyrule, but not whole villages and separate armies. Sorry.
Oh, I gotchya. We're talking really small. Sorry about that, I didn't realize we were thinking only that small. I'll get right on it. Also, I take back what I said before. Judging by what I came up with as an alteration, I would totally prefer to change the back story. What I have coming is probably going to be way cooler to RP anyway.
Re: Edric Snow (Work in Progress) Try to remain within the set cannon of HC. It seems you are always trying to create some grand army or in this case towns of thousands of people and guards etc... You can have just as much epic fun staying within what has already been set :)
Re: Edric Snow (Work in Progress) I'll be on the road for the next few hours, so I'll finishing up my reworking later. Just, before I get to it, did I move it in the right direction so far? I've already rewritten about half of the back story thus far, and have covered I think everything you expressed concern over, so please let me know if I did it right. Again, I'll be back later. Edit: I've finished updating it. Quill says he thinks the alterations I made may well work out by you, but that was just a prediction I asked from him. Obviously, it's your call Toko.
Character Initial Assets: [Fire] Specialty (-20 Rupees) Goron Iron Ingot (-10 Rupees) Fighting Pet "Ghost" (-60 Rupees) 10 Rupees
