Character spotlight: Blaine

I did a character spotlight on Blaine many, many moons ago, but much of his history has been altered since then. So here's an updated one, along with a little intro to the actual story. I'll probably do a Guild and Temple District post eventually, since those have changed, too.

name: Tyrin Samarkand/Blaine Torkehaav
status: Apostle of Varun; ex-thief
age: 17 at the beginning of the story, mid-late 20s by the end
appearance: Blaine is the epitome of ordinary; he's exceedingly skilled at fading into backgrounds and getting lost in crowds. His height, build, hair, eyes, and skin-tone can all be described as "medium," leaning slightly towards "sparse" and "skinny" depending on which stage of his life we're dealing with. He has some nasty scarring across the bridge of his nose and his mouth, over his shoulders and down the left side of his body, and on his hands.
family: Civet Seldriss (mother); Hawk Samarkand (father); Foxbird (daughter); Silverlock D'Alestri (partner)

Tyrin's parents were both well respected members of the Guild; it was a great disappointment to them when it became clear early on that their son would not be following in their footsteps. While not accident prone in normal ways, Tyrin was incapable of touching anything that might be construed as a weapon without hurting himself. He learned to use chopsticks at a very young age after a few too many accidents at the dinner table.

Civet and Hawk knew a losing battle when they saw one, and they gave up on training their son as an assassin. When he was eight, they sent him to the Thieves' Guild.

It turned out that, while he failed utterly at assassin skills, he excelled in areas of sneakthievery. He earned his tags at the age of fourteen and became a happy, healthy, productive member of the Guild, specializing in pickpocketing and burglary. His parents were immensely proud of him; they still kept in touch, since the two Guilds were practically down the hall from each other. (Shaivhen has an extensive system of sewers and catacombs dating back to the early Second Era; they were used primarily by the royal family until the end of the Third Era, when gypsies, the Rogue Guilds, various religious cults, and a few races of monsters that dislike sunlight moved in.)

Life continued on in this vein for awhile until someone sold out his team on a heist. None of them escaped; a few were lucky enough to be killed outright by the mark, who didn't take kindly to being burgled. The mark had the survivors flogged and then cut the tendons in their hands. Then they were left unconscious in different alleys in the harbor district- the harbor district being, of course, home to the slave markets and various other unsavory businesses.

Tyrin woke up a few days later in the Temple of Varun, where he should have been for the last ten years or so. Varun himself was starting to get a bit irritated by the delay; normally the people he chooses as Apostles realize they've been God-Touched before they join the Thieves' Guild and nearly get themselves killed.

Unfortunately for Tyrin, no one in either of the Guilds realized that his inability to use weapons was a sign of holy favor. They saw it more as being shitty luck that would probably get him killed, and he tended to agree with them.

He wasn't entirely pleased to hear that his life had been planned out beforehand by a god he didn't even worship; he was even less pleased when the Avatar of Varun told him in no uncertain terms that if he didn't become ordained as an Apostle, he would live out the rest of his life as a disfigured cripple.

He didn't really have any choice in the matter. He was the only survivor of his team, and his hands were useless; he couldn't go back to the Guild. He agreed to Varun's terms, but he made it clear that he wasn't happy with the situation.

And so, Blaine Torkehaav was born as the Most Revered Eighty Sixth Apostle of Varun.

He spent the next few years growing into his position and picking fights with then-Avatar, Lady Nagendra. Nagendra didn't approve of Blaine beling alive, never mind Blaine being an Apostle.

Blaine and Nagendra did their best to make each other completely miserable; Blaine found himself feeling devout reverence for his god and utter scorn for the voice of his god on the middle plane. Unfortunately, the Avatar sets earthly doctrine, and Blaine, as the most junior of the Apostles, had no real influence in the church.

Foxbird's arrival was the final straw; as a creature of demonic descent, she was anathema according to Nagendra's laws. When a couple of Acolytes found her floating off shore, the general consensus around the temple was to ship her back out in a box. Blaine decided to adopt her; Nagendra banished and damned them both. Blaine's response was, "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" He went back to the Assassins' Guild and got a job as a healer; unlike the Theives' Guild, they don't outsource their doctors.

As an Apostle, Blaine ranks in the upper echelons of the church hierarchy; the only person closer to Varun is the Avatar. He hears the voice of Varun whispering in the back of his head at all times. Being human, he can't understand the words- but he doesn't need to. Like it or not, the desire to worship Varun is built into him. It's not his god he has issues with, just his church.

All of Blaine's abilities- his healing talents and sensitivity to emotional and physical states- come from his connection to Varun. He doesn't have any magical talent on is own, but the strength of his faith is remarkable even for an Apostle. When Nagendra damned and banished him, she broke his connection to Varun. She couldn't sever it completely; instead, whenever Blaine is in the presence of someone or something Nagendra has decreed to be evil or unclean, he stops hearing the voice of Varun. To Blaine, this feels a little like someone hacking off the back of his head with a cleaver, scouring out his brain with acid and steel wool, and shoving hot coals into his skull.

He's fine around most members of the Assassins Guild, because they're no more or less evil than anyone else in the world. But sometimes he runs into someone who matches certain criteria on Nagendra's shit list, and he has to spend a day or so in utter agony, praying for forgiveness. The Guild is large, though, and the people who reek of evil and wrongness tend to not end up in the Healer's Ward, anyway.

He refuses to return to the temple and apologize to Nagendra, however; he is convinced that what he's doing for the Guild and Foxbird is right, no matter what the Avatar decrees. The fact that he doesn't lose his connection to Varun around Foxbird, even though she is a Malestri, is proof enough for him.

A number of traumatic events occur to him in the Guild; as a result, he picks up the bad habit of moping and being emo. Eventually he meets Silverlock, and more angst ensues. If Silverlock hadn't already been acquainted with Foxbird, he probably wouldn't have given Blaine a second thought after their first meeting- but his curiosity was piqued, and he's a tenacious bastard when he wants to be. It takes a few years for them to get past the screaming and vomit stage of their relationship, but they do manage it eventually, and Silver successfully cures Blaine of his emo.

Just before the actual story begins, Nagendra dies and a new Avatar takes over the running of the church. The new Avatar, Mandhatri, ushers in a new era of tolerance and universal acceptance for the church; with Nagendra dead, Blaine's banishment and damnation are lifted.

Blaine's life after this is pretty rockin', all things considered- until a number of high ranking and talented assassins go missing for a few weeks. They return, over the course of a few days, in bite-sized chunks. The story (which has no title) begins with Blaine cataloguing body parts from the last delivery of assassin-bits, and finding some too-familiar, tattooed pieces of skin mixed in among the rest.

DUN DUN DUNNNN.
--

Technically Foxbird is the main character, but I think Blaine may have displaced her; he certainly gets the most awesome fight scenes later on in the story. *grin* And I like him almost as much as I like Silverlock; the two of them tie with Jubal and Len of Boffo as my favorite original-character couple. I have a weakness for excessive cuteness in the face of adversity.

This story originally had a lot less religious and social commentary in it; Blaine only recently decided he was actually a fanatical priest of an incredibly screwed up religion. *sigh* And it's possible that my scar fetish is getting out of hand, but these guys are really old characters for me, and I don't think I'm quite as bad anymore. Just- mm, facial disfiguration.