Shane Xoriander Graymark [Finished]

by Guest June 26th 2009, 9:57 pm

[[Main]]

Name: Shane Xoriander Graymark

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Race: Male

Alliance: Sentou Gakuin

Homeland: Shane hails from a far western land called Cyronal (Sih-row-nahl). The land is a monarchy, with a king who is, in truth, more of a figurehead than anything else. For a long time, various organized crime syndicates referring to themselves as "families" have held the real power in Cyronal. They control the government and law enforcement, effectively making them the ruling power. Each section of Cyronal is divied up between families, and there are often civil wars for control. The people live in varying conditions, largely dependent on the family that controls their area. Although there are many families with smaller amounts of control, to the public eye, Cyronal is seperated into five different districts, each of which is controlled by a family; namely: The Shadowhart family, who control the colder far north expanse; The Ark family, who control the hot, arid southern expanse; The Albert family, who control the grassy, plain covered west; The Sheridan family who control the mountainous east, and the Graymark family one of the more powerful families, who controls the grassy, heavily forested central area of the country. The Graymarks are not only a powerful syndicate family, they also act as the surveillance for the rest of the families, specializing in the collection of information, particularly with reference to the king and his activities.

Physical Description[Appearance]:
Shane Xoriander Graymark [Finished] Prettypinkhot

Shane Xoriander Graymark [Finished] Prettypinkhot

*This is NOT my character. I have chosen this picture only because the hair best represents the style that I wanted my character to have (if a bit shorter perhaps), and wanted to have a visual aid rather than just say something like "spiky" or "sweeping". So, just to reiterate, other than the hair style, this does not reflect at all on my character's appearance.*

Shane is of about a middling height for a person his age, reaching about 5'10" without stretching, and weighs in on the lighter end of the spectrum, coming in at about 148 lbs. total. Due to rigorous amounts of physical training, very very little of Shane's weight is body fat, giving him a slim appearance which somewhat hides his true physical strength. His frame is between medium and small (closer to medium), meaning that he is not small, but well suited for acrobatics and quick, precise movements. His skin is very smooth (meaning very very few blemishes) and is fair with slight permanent tanning thanks to large amounts of outdoor training. He has slightly longer arms than some, not so much as to mar his stature, but often enough that people misjudge his range. His legs are by far his strongest feature (though his arms are strong enough to support good sword fighting ability) well suited for quick running, high jumping and acrobatic maneuvers, and are also his primary weapon choice when using martial arts. His eyes are calm and intelligent, often with an almost questioning quality to them that seems to catch people's attention. They are a deep, vivid green, adding to his defined appearance. His hair is similar to the hair depicted in the image above, though a bit shorter at the back and top, with slightly longer bangs at the front. It is a light, dusty brown, and quite fine, though not stringy or fragile-looking. He dresses in a fashion that is acceptable for public use, but is prepared for battle at any time (casual light armor if you will). In the armor aspect, he wears a pair of light steel pauldrons on his shoulders. They are not large or sweeping but rather discreet and compact, really only encompassing the shoulders that they protect. He wears a pair of light steel gauntlets on his hands; like the pauldrons, they are simple and effective. allowing him good hand protection and with supple black leather joints for the fingers and wrists, comfortable grip and control as well. In addition, underneath his torso clothing lies a nearly skin tight complex light steel sleeveless curiass, with joints all around the major motion points of the torso and thin but durable plates of steel, allowing moderate protection with quite a bit of manuverability. In the way of normal clothing, he wears a loose cotton button down t-shirt (open) with a slightly tighter white shirt underneath. He also wears a pair of somewhat loose fitting ash gray pants held up by a black leather belt with an iron buckle. On his feet he wears a comfortable pair of sneaker-like shoes (black and white with white laces). He wears his sword strapped behind his back at all times, lengthways across his waistline.

Ranking: Yellow

Personality: One trait that defines Shane and contributes to many of his decisions and relationships is his natural gravitation towards people and his natural social tendency. Because of his upbringing, Shane has a natural acclimation towards people in general, particularly for people who are in distress. He can very rarely ignore someone who is in need of help or who is being bullied or beat, and tends to take up with any side that he deems right or orderly (usually he deems correctly). However, he has conflicting elements of his personality, which make him a rather interesting character all around. Due to some experiences later in his life, Shane also has a conflicting tendency not to trust people very easily. He considers this to be a curse, because it makes it difficult for him to help people as much he wants to. However, this trait actually acts as a relatively effective "radar" if you will, because it means that people are less likely to fool or trick him by acting needy or helpless which keeps him safe at times. He is generally a very friendly person, if a bit judgmental at times, though he tries to keep his opinions to himself. Though his trust is hard to earn, once a person has managed to obtain it, he trusts them implicitly, counting them as a close friend. He is a little shyer around girls, though he's more charismatic and charming than he thinks he is. He's naturally quite intuitive, capable of judging situations well, although he tends to keep his thoughts and observations about such things to himself, which makes him sometimes seem a bit spontaneous, since he tends to act without telling anyone first. In combat, he is calm and usually focused, depending of course on the situation. His style is swift and strategic, focusing mainly on two things: 1) Redistributing the enemy's force. Since his sword is obviously no buster blade, he uses acrobatics and various other complex maneuvers to use his enemy's weight and force to his own advantage. 2) Using the terrain and his intelligence to his advantage. During a fight Shane tends to be constantly evaluating the surrounding area, looking for ways he can trick his opponent and use the terrain to launch attacks from different and surprising angles. All in all, Shane is a good guy, if a little unpredictable at times. Shane enjoys meeting new people, learning and inventing new techniques and putting them to use, spending time with his friends, reading, exploring various places and investigating almost every new thing he comes across, and taking on challenges whether they be combatively, activity or intellectually based. He dislikes people being mistreated or taken advantage of, doing anything that's not really active or being bored, eating fish (he hates the flavor), fighting if he doesn't have to and wasting time.

Warrior Class: Swordsman, Ninja
-Sub-Class: Assassin, Martial Artist

Elemental Affinity: Wind

History/Background Story: Shane was born 19 years ago in a small village in central Cyronal called Arven. His father was a local kendo teacher by the name of Marc Warwing. His mother was killed in a raid by one of the small families less than a year after he had been bored. His young life was a relatively peaceful one. Shane grew up in without many of the luxuries that the people in bigger cities grew up with. He had his fun the old fashion way, exploring woods with his friends, climbing trees, swimming and so on. This was mostly because his father held a very simple view of the world, and demanded that his son have the same. Being a swordmaster and teacher of the art of the sword, Shane was trained very young; about from his fifth in swordplay, starting with a long wooden stick and eventually progressing to an actual metal kenshi, a weapon type invented by his father and master. He learned the way of the falling leaf, a power that his father had discovered long ago, a power which allowed the manipulation of the very wind through the use of an energy which he called Chi. Under his father's eye he progressed quickly, soon becoming a sort of self procalimed protector of his village, brought on by his father's impression on him. His father taught him to hate the opression of the families; to despise their iron grip on the people and their belongings. By the age of 15 Shane had become a respected member of the village despite his young age, and many of the younger ones in the village looked up to him. Still, he could never best his father. No matter how many times they fought, no matter how much he trained he could never beat his father in a duel, which really urked him, and drove him to train ever harder. During one month at the age of 16 he began, without his father's knowledge, sneaking out into the woods a distance away, training himself rigorously. Without his father's tutillage, he began not to lose skill, but to gradually develop his own style, which soon began to show in his training. One day, feeling betrayed, his father disowned him, claiming that he was tainting his family's sacred art of kendo and banished him from the house. Shane meerly went back to the woods again, resuming his training to rebel against his father's wishes. Later in the day, he had decided to leave the village, and was returning to collect his things when he saw smoke rising from the village in the distance. Reminded of the raid which took his mother's life, he rushed back to Arven, only to find it in flames. Picking his way through the burning wreckage and assissting those that he came across, he made his way to his home where, through the window, he saw his father surrounded by thugs from the Graymark family, rulers of central Cyronal. They were questioning his father, asking about someone called Xoriander. Attempting to protect his father despite his earlier anger, he rushed in headfirst, taking on all of the thugs at once. Of course, their numbers brought him down, and he was forced to watch while they beat his father. The truth, the truth, they kept demanding that he tell Shane the truth! What truth? Shane gasped out before he was silenced with a punch to the stomach. At swordpoint, his Marc finally told him the truth. Shane, was in fact, not a Warwing, but a Graymark. He had been born in Cyronal's capital of Nor'Aphirim to a woman named Angelene Graymark, the wife of one of the higher up members of the family. His mother had indeed been killed in a raid, but not as Shane had been told. The raid had in fact been led by his father, who had once been the head of an anti-family organization that had attacked the city in an effort to weaken the Graymark hold on the city. Marc himself had slain his mother, and taken him, intending to do away with him as well. However, realizing that he could instead turn the child against his own family, he escaped, fleeing to the small village of Arven where he had believed the Graymarks would never find them. Shane, or rather, Xoriander Graymark, was shocked. He had been lied to all this time? Fooled? Meant to have been used as a weapon? He cursed his father, preparing to launch himself at the family that he hated so. His own brothers and sisters were his sworn enemies. Knowing that they would kill him anyway due to his compromised opinion of the families, Marc acted first. He rushed the thugs, forcing them to release Shane. As the house continued to burn to the ground, Marc pleaded with Shane to run, even as he was being cut and stabbed by the thugs. His mind blurry, logic distorted, he did. Against his nature he cut and ran, racing through the forest, even as Arven, his home burned behind him...even as his father, the man who had raised him like he really was his son, died behind him. After a while he stopped, finding himself in the clearing where he had spent so long, trying desperately to become stronger than Marc. He hid there for a week or so, trying to understand what had happened; to decide who it was he wanted to be. Marc had indeed tricked him. Intended to kill him even. Yet, he still raised him, trained him, tried to raise him to be just and strong. And he now truly recognized the Graymarks for what they were: evil, selfish and destructive. But the truth remained that they were his family. In the end he decided that, despite his lineage, he was a Warwing, and certainly would not go to the Graymarks. He kept the name Shane, but input Graymark and his true name to always remind him of what he might have been if Marc, his father, had not done what he did. Still, he knew he had to escape; that they would keep hunting him as long as he stayed where he was. He left Cyronal then, never to return. For three years he travelled the land beyond Cyronal's borders, moving from city to city, perfecting the style that he had come to call his own. After three years, he came finally to the area where the Akamori forest lay. After making his way through the treacherous forest, he came to the gates of Sentou Gakuin. After seeing the many students learning and growing and hearing of the conflict with the nearby Suzaku, he joined the school, hoping to make up for his former cowardice at Arven by assissting the school in any way he could. And besides, who couldn't use more training?