Post by Ranulf Argentum North on Jun 14, 2015 8:18:40 GMT
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[attr="class","classictitle"]RANULF ARGENTUM NORTH
[attr="class","classictitle2"]23 . MALE . EXCALIBUR RIDER. HUMAN . NICK .
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[attr="class","classictrait"]FEARLESS
[attr="class","classictrait"]HONEST
[attr="class","classictrait"]STEADFAST
[attr="class","classictrait"]TACTICAL
[attr="class","classictrait"]RECKLESS
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[break]
However, Ranulf is only willing to risk his own neck for such things. He takes the safety of protection of others very seriously. When the survival of others rests on his shoulders, he doesn't show off, take risks, or look for fights. As reckless as he is when it's just him, everyone knows he can be counted on when it matters. His main role is often as the vanguard for Excalibur's forces, scouting ahead with his dragon and utilizing their superior physical abilities to pick out dangers of any kind. What is most strange about this is that Ranulf's personality itself doesn't seem to change at all, nor his attitude.[break]
[break]
You know that filter that exists between your brain and your mouth? Ranulf doesn't have one of those. He says exactly what he's thinking, as soon as he thinks it. And he is often thinking something sarcastic. Oftentimes, he comes across as too forward to others because of this. It is a very polarizing personality trait; either you find him endearing or incredibly annoying, and this first impression rarely changes. But Ranulf's brutal honest extends to everyone, himself included, with no exceptions or excuses. He is capable of something few other people are: he can look at himself objectively and understand his flaws, his strengths, what he can improve on, and what kind of effort that will take from him. He'll be the first to admit he takes stupid risks for the fun of it, and that he's a thrillseeking idiot, but he's alright with that.[break]
[break]
One very scary thing about Ranulf is that he's a highly skilled, natural-born tactician. His ability to come up with strategies is acceptable, but nothing to write home about. But his ability to read the flow of live combat, to predict it, even to shift that flow or calculate that one interception that will change the outcome entirely, is nothing short of brilliant. This works well with his dragon, who is capable of following his plans at the speed of thought, but Ranulf often intercedes himself when he can, and with a telepath around to link him to the right people, he has coordinated incredible maneuvers in the past. [break][break]
[break]
When he was eight years old, Ranulf's life would change when he met Grounded. He was making his way to the runners' barracks after work when four dragons literally fell into the alley he was in. Ranulf took shelter in a doorway as the fight went on. It was, he realized, a fight of three on one. Dragons being slavers aside, this was distinctly unfair to his senses. But a human child could do nothing, not even to dragon children. Not that it seemed to matter—the lone dragon proved to be a far superior fighter, thoroughly crushing the other three, who took to the skies one by one. But then they stayed, hovering above the one who'd beaten them, taunting him incessantly, and the one on the ground seemed unable to do anything but snarl and roar back at them. Finally, they left. Ranulf, who even at that age seemed to lack a filter, immediately shouted out how cool it was that he'd won three on one, and asked why the dragon hadn't gone after the others.[break]
[break]
Most likely, the only thing that saved Ranulf that day was the fact that Grounded was tired of being looked at with disdain or pity, and open curiosity was a step up from that. Grounded, as it turned out, was something unheard of among the dragons, as he could not fly and seemed to have no powers. This had led to his name—a mockery, a change from his original name by his parents to show their shame and their disgust of their crippled, powerless child. But Grounded was a monster with his claws and fangs, more vicious than any his age should have been. When Ranulf learned all that, he only commented how amazing it must be for someone considered powerless to feel, beating those in power. Grounded, uneasy at the treasonous words, nonetheless left Ranulf alive and unharmed, simply because of his indifference about the dragon's situation.[break]
[break]
As time passed, Grounded began to seek out Ranulf in his off hours, looking to speak to someone, anyone, who didn't see him as an aberration. He noted that Ranulf was strong, for a human, able to run so much. When Ranulf pointed out that he was far and away the best messenger of anyone his age, Grounded laughed him off and challenged the puny human to follow him. He scaled a building and curled up, resting his head on the edge where he could watch. This began a daily routine between the pair, where Grounded would assert his superiority to assuage his pride, while Ranulf would answer the challenge with gusto. It took the human three months to find a way to scale the building safely. It took Grounded three seconds to leap to the next building and laugh.[break]
[break]
And so the years passed, with human talking to dragon, dragon challenging human, and both becoming closer friends than either realized. Soon, Ranulf was able to follow Grounded up walls and over alleys, having learned something once known among the humans as parkour. Now 21 years old, Ranulf was, unknown to him, selected as a candidate for Royal Messenger, a position that would have him moved to the royal court itself. As such, he was being observed by an elder Fire dragon. When this dragon saw Ranulf and Grounded interacting, he became enraged at both, landing in a hurricane of flames. He was furious at them both: Ranulf for daring speak to a dragon as an equal, Grounded for allowing it. The dragon would have to go to trial. The human...a noble dragon's judgment was enough. He reared, sucking in breath, preparing to end Ranulf in dragonfire...[break]
[break]
Grounded's roar of fury was as a physical thing, so loud and intense that it knocked the fire dragon aside. Grounded was a runt of a dragon, scarcely larger than a horse, but his very being seemed to bristle with power and strength. The fire dragon was a noble, one of Ryluth's oldest children, but he'd never encountered anything like this. Grounded moved like a bolt of lightning, so fast even dragon eyes could scarcely track him. Yet when he leapt and snapped down on the wing joint, the teeth were as steel, and the larger dragon's bones snapped like dried sticks. Grounded ripped the wing off with a snarl of fury.[break]
[break]
They had to run. They were both dead for certain if they stayed in the city. Grounded didn't care. He had no attachments save the human before him. Ranulf had his family: his mother and his older sister. But there was no time. So the dragon did the unthinkable, and allowed a human to sit on his back as they fled Gorgoth. It didn't take long for the crippled fire dragon to be found, or for a pursuit to be created. But even the power of wings couldn't match the pure speed of Grounded. During their escape, the pair of them bonded, and ended up traveling for months before happening upon Excalibur. During that time, Grounded had come to a conclusion: the dragons were not wrong to enslave humans, who were weaker than them. But he didn't want to anymore, and he didn't care what that made him. Ranulf, for his part, was all for dragons who would just let him be.[break]
[break]
They joined Excalibur, where their incredible physical abilities quickly garnered attention from others, human and dragon alike. Grounded was the first of a new kind of dragon, one that used their inner energy directly through their body, rather than through a medium like fire or shadows, or through the mind.[break]
[break]
The first Force Dragon, and his Rider.
[attr="class","classictitle3"]APPEARANCE
Ranulf is a tall individual, standing just north of six feet tall. His body appears to be lean, but he is deceptively strong and fast for his appearance: all his muscles are like whipcords, incredibly resilient for their size. His body has scars from the claws and teeth and flames of dragons—he considers them trophies, and never considers a fight to be a good one if it doesn't leave a permanent mark somewhere on him. Generally speaking, he tends not to wear armor at all, depending on the powers of his bonded dragon to suffice as protection. Rather, he tends to wear a full-body coat that camouflages him within Elysium's trees, while underneath that, he generally wears light clothing that won't hinder his movement. He is fond of greens and blacks, often foregoes wearing a shirt beneath his coat, and is always barefoot. Ranulf's eyes often have a serpentine appearance, as one of his main duties is to act as a lookout for Excalibur's forces. His body will also shift, depending on the attribute of his dragon he is taking on—he can grow claws, sharpen fangs, his skin can shift to scales, and so on. [break][break] [attr="class","classictitle3"]PERSONALITY
The name Ranulf means “shield wolf” and is quite an appropriate name for the young man sometimes called the Gatekeeper of Elysium. He prowls the borders of the great forest, scouts ahead for raiding parties, sneaks in and out of Gorgoth to collect information and converse with spies, and generally takes on the most dangerous tasks that the rebel movement has. And he does it all with gusto. Ranulf loves the thrill of being in danger, loves the high of standing on the knife's edge of life and death, and he often goes out of his way to make things more exciting for him. Even when he's merely acting as a member of the Watch at Elysium, he can't just patrol routes with his dragon. No, instead, Ranulf dances across the tree tops with the surety of experience and the joy of mastering gravity. He looks for any opportunity to interpret orders more to his liking, something that constantly annoys his superiors who would really rather not see him die just to get a thrill out of things.[break][break]
However, Ranulf is only willing to risk his own neck for such things. He takes the safety of protection of others very seriously. When the survival of others rests on his shoulders, he doesn't show off, take risks, or look for fights. As reckless as he is when it's just him, everyone knows he can be counted on when it matters. His main role is often as the vanguard for Excalibur's forces, scouting ahead with his dragon and utilizing their superior physical abilities to pick out dangers of any kind. What is most strange about this is that Ranulf's personality itself doesn't seem to change at all, nor his attitude.[break]
[break]
You know that filter that exists between your brain and your mouth? Ranulf doesn't have one of those. He says exactly what he's thinking, as soon as he thinks it. And he is often thinking something sarcastic. Oftentimes, he comes across as too forward to others because of this. It is a very polarizing personality trait; either you find him endearing or incredibly annoying, and this first impression rarely changes. But Ranulf's brutal honest extends to everyone, himself included, with no exceptions or excuses. He is capable of something few other people are: he can look at himself objectively and understand his flaws, his strengths, what he can improve on, and what kind of effort that will take from him. He'll be the first to admit he takes stupid risks for the fun of it, and that he's a thrillseeking idiot, but he's alright with that.[break]
[break]
One very scary thing about Ranulf is that he's a highly skilled, natural-born tactician. His ability to come up with strategies is acceptable, but nothing to write home about. But his ability to read the flow of live combat, to predict it, even to shift that flow or calculate that one interception that will change the outcome entirely, is nothing short of brilliant. This works well with his dragon, who is capable of following his plans at the speed of thought, but Ranulf often intercedes himself when he can, and with a telepath around to link him to the right people, he has coordinated incredible maneuvers in the past. [break][break]
[attr="class","classictitle3"]HISTORY
Ranulf had an easy life, growing up in the city of Gorgoth. Easy being relative, of course. He was still a slave, as all humans were, but Ranulf grew up as a messenger in the great city of the dragons. Messengers, unlike most slaves, were given explicit protection under the law, to spare them from the wrath of a dragon being delivered news they did not want. That wasn't to say a dragon couldn't have a messenger killed; it was merely a shield to keep them from being targeted by dragons angry at the message they carried. Good messengers, after all, are hard to replace overnight. By the time he was five years old, Ranulf was running through the city all day, scrolls strapped to his back or memorized words playing through his head. He answered to a shadow dragon who coordinated the messengers, sending them where they needed to go. Ranulf proved to be one of the best messengers, even at that young age—better by far than any others brought in, and he was given extra rations, but also given all of the longest-distance jobs, his body slowly built up over the years to handle the rigor of carrying messages for nobles across an entire city designed for animals much larger than he.[break][break]
When he was eight years old, Ranulf's life would change when he met Grounded. He was making his way to the runners' barracks after work when four dragons literally fell into the alley he was in. Ranulf took shelter in a doorway as the fight went on. It was, he realized, a fight of three on one. Dragons being slavers aside, this was distinctly unfair to his senses. But a human child could do nothing, not even to dragon children. Not that it seemed to matter—the lone dragon proved to be a far superior fighter, thoroughly crushing the other three, who took to the skies one by one. But then they stayed, hovering above the one who'd beaten them, taunting him incessantly, and the one on the ground seemed unable to do anything but snarl and roar back at them. Finally, they left. Ranulf, who even at that age seemed to lack a filter, immediately shouted out how cool it was that he'd won three on one, and asked why the dragon hadn't gone after the others.[break]
[break]
Most likely, the only thing that saved Ranulf that day was the fact that Grounded was tired of being looked at with disdain or pity, and open curiosity was a step up from that. Grounded, as it turned out, was something unheard of among the dragons, as he could not fly and seemed to have no powers. This had led to his name—a mockery, a change from his original name by his parents to show their shame and their disgust of their crippled, powerless child. But Grounded was a monster with his claws and fangs, more vicious than any his age should have been. When Ranulf learned all that, he only commented how amazing it must be for someone considered powerless to feel, beating those in power. Grounded, uneasy at the treasonous words, nonetheless left Ranulf alive and unharmed, simply because of his indifference about the dragon's situation.[break]
[break]
As time passed, Grounded began to seek out Ranulf in his off hours, looking to speak to someone, anyone, who didn't see him as an aberration. He noted that Ranulf was strong, for a human, able to run so much. When Ranulf pointed out that he was far and away the best messenger of anyone his age, Grounded laughed him off and challenged the puny human to follow him. He scaled a building and curled up, resting his head on the edge where he could watch. This began a daily routine between the pair, where Grounded would assert his superiority to assuage his pride, while Ranulf would answer the challenge with gusto. It took the human three months to find a way to scale the building safely. It took Grounded three seconds to leap to the next building and laugh.[break]
[break]
And so the years passed, with human talking to dragon, dragon challenging human, and both becoming closer friends than either realized. Soon, Ranulf was able to follow Grounded up walls and over alleys, having learned something once known among the humans as parkour. Now 21 years old, Ranulf was, unknown to him, selected as a candidate for Royal Messenger, a position that would have him moved to the royal court itself. As such, he was being observed by an elder Fire dragon. When this dragon saw Ranulf and Grounded interacting, he became enraged at both, landing in a hurricane of flames. He was furious at them both: Ranulf for daring speak to a dragon as an equal, Grounded for allowing it. The dragon would have to go to trial. The human...a noble dragon's judgment was enough. He reared, sucking in breath, preparing to end Ranulf in dragonfire...[break]
[break]
Grounded's roar of fury was as a physical thing, so loud and intense that it knocked the fire dragon aside. Grounded was a runt of a dragon, scarcely larger than a horse, but his very being seemed to bristle with power and strength. The fire dragon was a noble, one of Ryluth's oldest children, but he'd never encountered anything like this. Grounded moved like a bolt of lightning, so fast even dragon eyes could scarcely track him. Yet when he leapt and snapped down on the wing joint, the teeth were as steel, and the larger dragon's bones snapped like dried sticks. Grounded ripped the wing off with a snarl of fury.[break]
[break]
They had to run. They were both dead for certain if they stayed in the city. Grounded didn't care. He had no attachments save the human before him. Ranulf had his family: his mother and his older sister. But there was no time. So the dragon did the unthinkable, and allowed a human to sit on his back as they fled Gorgoth. It didn't take long for the crippled fire dragon to be found, or for a pursuit to be created. But even the power of wings couldn't match the pure speed of Grounded. During their escape, the pair of them bonded, and ended up traveling for months before happening upon Excalibur. During that time, Grounded had come to a conclusion: the dragons were not wrong to enslave humans, who were weaker than them. But he didn't want to anymore, and he didn't care what that made him. Ranulf, for his part, was all for dragons who would just let him be.[break]
[break]
They joined Excalibur, where their incredible physical abilities quickly garnered attention from others, human and dragon alike. Grounded was the first of a new kind of dragon, one that used their inner energy directly through their body, rather than through a medium like fire or shadows, or through the mind.[break]
[break]
The first Force Dragon, and his Rider.
[attr="class","classictitle3"]OUT OF CHARACTER
Alias: Nick[break][break] How did you find us: Suzie decided I should play a character here :O[break][break] Anything else: Hi Suzie [break][break] #ENY ADOXOGRAPHY
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