Name: Aerik
Race: Human
Mana:
Home Plane: Lania
Status: Open

Appears in: Meetings

Aerik was born to a life that has rarely known serenity. He has felt, nearly all his days, a stranger to his own life.

Aerik's family have been Mariners for more generations than they could remember, never venturing much further than the coastal fishing trade. The sea was in their blood, as some said, but each generation, there seemed to be a child born to the family that longed for something more, one that rejected the docile peace of village life and braved the deep waters, to join the expeditions far further out, where krakens reigned. Aerik’s uncle was one such adventurer, and he died in a Homarid raid the year Aerik was born.

Following that, Aerik’s parents raised him and his older brothers far more cautiously, fearing that the adventurous streak they had seen in his uncle would reappear in them. They tried to warn against the dangers of the deep and urged their children to resist any desire to experience the thrill beyond the coasts. Unfortunately for them, their precautions worked too well, and Aerik grew up with little love for the sea at all. He had no desire to sail the deep, but he also had no interest in working the shallows. He saw the years of drudgery and salt weathered cold before him and felt a strange detachment for the life laid out around him, as if the life they lived was some ritual whose purpose he could not fathom.

But, a child had to pull their weight, and Aerik learned the same trade as his brothers and forefathers before him. He did what he had to for a time and saved up what little coin he could. As soon as he could afford it, he quit sailing, bought a sword and left the village by the waters, joining a mercenary company.

Aerik journeyed with the company for a time, but he found the work more tedious than predicted, days of long trekking to protect merchant goods and little else. He enjoyed the travel, and developed a familiarity and strange appreciation for the endless snow, but it was, in its own way, not unlike the drudgery he had sought to escape in the sea. For what minor excitement occasionally came to him, it was a dull existence bereft of meaning.

Then one day, while protecting a merchant convoy on trade route to the southern continent, Aerik found something to make it all worthwhile.

On that trip, he met Maevi Kona, an Elf huntress. The merchant convoy was forced into the elvish territories by an unseasonably vicious blizzard, and Aerik and the company found themselves surrounded by elvish steel. They were "politely" escorted to the nearest town to await their travel papers. He and Kona had managed to develop a surprising rapport with each other on the trip, and once in the town, they had nothing but time. They spent most of their time with each other, explaining the nature of their lives and cultures, but were parted soon after as the company continued south. Despite the novel experiences, Aerik's mind constantly wandered back to the elvish dame as they traveled. Weeks later, when they passed through on the trip back north, Aerik retired from the company to stay with her. Although elves were notoriously courteous to guests, they highly disapproved of the obvious relationship developing between the two, and any who knew of their relationship sneered at their dalliance. Kona and Aerik departed from her lands as it became obvious they would never be accepted.

They settled together just outside elvish lands to live in relative peace, and Aerik found himself once more in a town by the sea, not too dissimilar to the one he grew up in. But Kona's presence with him made all the difference. She taught Aerik elvish magic, and he quickly developed an affinity for it and the pair of them traded their skill with both swords and charms to make their living. It was a simple but contented life for the wedded couple.

Unfortunately, one of the traders that passed through the town carried wares even he was unaware of, and peddled them without ever realizing it. Most of the town fell to the rare arcane plague that had come from the farthest northern reaches. It didn't take a very skilled mage to determine the unnatural origin. The sickness was a demon's work and little could stand in its wake.

Kona was no exception.

Aerik's wife wasted away more each day, and neither she nor Aerik had the skill or the power to cure her. She lost her voice completely within days, and despite every effort, died of the plague in less than a week.

Following Kona’s death, Aerik shut down. His magic seemed to lose all potency, and his mind became cold. He briefly feared that he had himself contracted the plague, but he couldn’t muster the energy to care. He spent most of his time in the frozen wastes, not saying a word, but rather embracing the cold and the quiet, seeking some solace in those cold nights. He did not, however, surrender to death. He did not want to die, he simply couldn’t bring himself to care. He would occasionally wonder after his family, or his friends from the mercenary company, but always that curiosity would fade quickly into chill apathy.

His home stood empty for tides at a time, the only familiar location the icescape surrounding the tomb he had built to house his wife's remains, a feat he accomplished calling on the cold depths of the sea of his childhood, poured into the shape of the totems he'd learned to fashion with his wife.

His apathy continued and deepened until one day it came to a disturbing head. Sitting on the plinth where his wife rested, he realized he could no longer feel the cold. It felt as if he could no longer feel anything at all. And Aerik suddenly began to wonder why he didn’t care. He reached out for something, anything, and called to the mana he'd used in the past. Something quite different answered his call.

The purity of the ice all around him.

It understood. Yet it did not care. But suddenly, in that moment, he did. Then he was elsewhere and he reeled at the revelations. He experienced things he did not have words for, an unbearable light high in the sky, the stars gone, and so many other things, but he could feel the presence, even in this new place, of the icy reaches of the world. Familiar and intimate in a way he could not express any more than before. It was a cold purity which reassured him.

He stepped back through the Blind Eternities, the chaotic aether stilling in his passage, and returned to the world of his birth. He found a world of unknowns unfolded before him, something that had been in front of him for his entire life that he had searched for. And that serenity was etched on many other worlds as well.

Aerik is somewhat shorter than average, but built solidly and lean, giving the impression of strength without the definition one might expect. He favors simple clothes, made of tanned leather, and though they were obviously made for warmth, he seldom wears them for that purpose. Large wrapped leather boots and water resistant pants round out his most common outfit. More often than not, he'll wear a simple sleeveless linen shirt of elvish cut rather than the leather overshirt with its thick furred collar. Even when he wears the overshirt, he often pushes the sleeves past his elbow. Despite the conditions, his magic prevents him from experiencing the effects of the biting chill, meaning the clothing is more affectation than practical.

There are two pieces of his equipment that he rarely parts with. One, the tool and pouch laden belt that cinches over his shirt and contains most of his readied charms and the various tools to carve them. The other, which he never takes off, the cord around his neck that is strung with the amber betrothal charm that belonged to his wife.

Aerik is pale with dark brown eyes and features of an indeterminate age, those usually cloaked in a couple weeks worth of short stubble. When rarely caught after having shaved, his features are best described as "sharp and expressive." His short choppy hair, a pale blonde, is rarely tameable, and he has long since stopped trying altogether, giving him a somewhat bedraggled look, though he would favorably describe it as "rugged".