Physical Features
- Height:
- Six feet.
- Weight:
- Lean, although sinewy.
- Complexion:
- A fair skin bronzed by hours of work in under the sun, toughened by the very same in place. Calloused, rough hands easen into leathery arms before receding into ordinary smoothness further in over his body.
- Hair:
- A swathe of dirty blonde locks cover, often messily, the man's crown. A few stripy strands hang in curls down over his forehead, a few locks delving down to obscure his ears partly, likewise down his neck. Down his temples, the locks give way to a light stubble, shadowing his jaw.
- Eyes:
- Clear blue eyes.
Other Features
A few tattoos mark the man's skin. A serpent, inked in black, coils itself around his lower right arm, the tail by the nook of his elbow and the head resting just shy from the back of his hand. On his left shoulder sits a simple black anchor, no work of artisan workmanship, but simple and sufficient for its purpose. A final tattoo sits on the inside of his lower left arm. A dark red rose, its shaft just barely depicted, pierced by a slightly faded black dagger.
A number of rather unremarkable scars and blemishes have been collected across his body. Notable, however, is a larger thin scar that runs down under his left clavicle to the sternum. A few years old, it has faded somewhat but is still quite discernable should it not be covered up.
Social Interactions
Personality
As the situation may call for, in his own interests, anything from a friendly smile and an invite for drinks and cards to a cold disregard of someone elses very existance.
Background
- Age:
- Early twenties
- Origin:
- Outside Verdant Row
- Residence:
- Roving
History
Born into a seaside, and by no means affluent, life, the young William grew up helping his family with work at home. Little education was provided, instead he helped his father and mother with canvas and rope in their small shop. As he grew older, the work shifted to helping what ships had dared the treacherous waters once they were moored. Spending his days lifting barrels, crates, or tarring decks made the young lad grow stronger and tougher as the years went by. However, during those very same years, William became all the more enthralled about the stories sailors would share with him during their respite ashore. Hazardous indeed, he figured, but the prospect of sewing canvas into his old age did not appeal to the now young man. Instead, he hungered for something more from life. Coin, adventure, his own stories to tell! At the age of seventeen, William bid his family a teary farewell as he took aboard his first ship. A small thing, by all means, freighting small amounts of cargo along the coasts and rivers.
William quickly felt at home in this new work. His boyish dreams of exploration and adventure were fulfilled as they passed by new, strange lands with their own quirks and events. As the years passed on the waves, he found employment on both one ship and the other, learning much about life from those crews that became second families in many cases: How to play dice and cards for enjoyment and to quicken the passage of time, how to defend himself and their cargo with both blade and bow, how to drink, how to be resilient in tough times as they worked through merciless weather or other misfortunes, and how to savour life in every which way.
However, as with most good things, they tend to come to an end. Recently, not long after setting out on the main, the ship he crewed was caught in most foul weather. Listing from side to side in the rough waves, the crew did what they could to stay the force of nature. Yet, their misfortune soon worsened as the Captain was swept overboard in the blink of an eye. As the sailors braved the whipping rains and treacherous winds to spy for the lost commander, a rope staying the boom burst unexpectedly. With the wooden boom now swaying to and fro across the deck, the crew quickly became convinced that they had sailed into cursed waters or even worse: their very own ship had been cursed.
With darkness encroaching, the struggle aboard became all the more frantic as it shifted to one of pure survival. The ship rolled along the waters uncontrollably, with not one aboard with a clue as to where they were by now. Suddenly, in the darkness, the final blow of ill fate struck as the ship struck a reef, causing the doomed ship to quickly take water. As for William? He had stood on the deck as disaster struck, in a last-ditched attempt to jury-rig the boom back in place. The sudden stop and sway sent both him and several mates down into the cold waters.
William woke many hours later, exhausted, bruised, and battered on a dark shore. He slowly crawled inland, not quite grasping how he was alive. One thing he was certain of, however: this had certainly been the work of some curse or another. The man, having spent most of his life yearning for adventure on the seas, now felt a sudden dread for the depths that had almost swallowed him. What if he was cursed? He did not think it too likely, but should he stay this path, he was sure that the mists might claim him sooner or later.
With his childhood ambitions not quite sated, he took it on himself to prove that he could find wealth, adventure and stories ashore as well as aboard.
