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Xanin Erran
Pronunciation: ZAN-in er-RAHN

Forum ID Werewolf Xanin
Plot New Marmo Republic
Xanin is © Z/Werewolf Xanin.
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Xanin’s Gallery
Age 27
Birth Year NRC 503
Gender Male
Race Human
Affliction Lycanthropy
Homeland Marmo

Physical Description

    Xanin is an excessively tall, lanky man, who tends to walk with slump to try and lower himself to a more comfortable level. His auburn hair is long and curly, growing to about shoulder length, but usually pulled back in a ponytail. When let down, the curls fall around his face, making him appear even more feral than he normally does. He has an attractive face, with a defined jawline that’s grown over with a scruffy beard. He usually tries to shave once a week, but leaves the hair on his chin, though it’s trimmed to about two inches in length. Xanin’s eyes are brown, and his wolven nature shines through them. His fair skin is surprisingly unblemished for the most part—at least on his face—and freckle free, even with red hair. As a former soldier, he does have his fair share of scars, but most of these are scattered across his body; a sword slash here, an arrow puncture there. His hands are large, proportionate with his height, with long, slender, claw-like fingers with long nails. When transformed, Xanin takes the form of a red wolf, his coat color similar to his natural hair. Due to his years of training, he can illicit a partial transformation with enough rage.

Height 6’8” Hair Color Auburn
Weight 205lbs Eye Color Brown
Build Slim Skin Color Fair

Clothing and Armor

    Xanin lost all his Marmo garb, and now he dresses in leathers, skins, and furs. Xanin wears a leather vest, lined with fur, that is fitted to his frame. His pants are a pair of soft, somewhat baggy doeskin breeches with a fur trimmed leather loin cloth hanging from his waist. His boots are knee high, of stout leather, with fur around the top. On his forearms are bracers, and he wears fingerless gloves on his hands. Tied around his left bicep is a leather cord, and around his neck, several bear claws on a leather cord. The belt for his scimitars is slung across his waist.

Weapon Description

    His first line of defense is a pair of fine scimitars, forged by a Marmo smith. They are styled after dark elven weapons, but are not elven steel. The swords are set with Marmo style fixings, a start difference from Xanin’s leather garb. The handles are wrapped in purple dyed leather, and the crossguard and pommel are both gold plated. In the center of the crossguard is the Marmo eye symbol. He also carries a hunting knife, but it is rarely used for fighting, but for its intended purpose of hunting and skinning.

Class Soldier/Ranger
Occupation Former Marmo Werewolf Legionnaire, mercenary
Guild Membership Mercenaries’ Guild (4)
Weapons Dual-Wield Scimitars, Hunting Knife
Armor Leather Vest
Equipment Clothing, knapsack; utility knife, bedroll, waterskin, flint & steel, whetstone & sword care supplies
Stats
ST 11 (+10*)
EN 12
AG 14 (+2*)
IN 11 (-1*)
LU 9
PB 12

Abilities

    As a normal man, Xanin is not exceptionally strong, but his slender frame lends itself to being more agile. His fighting style with scimitars reflects this agility, and it has a good measure of grace and speed. Xanin’s greatest strength, however, lies in his lycanthropy. Because he was afflicted as a child, he has had twenty years to grow into the ability to shapeshift. From being only able to transform into a mindless beast under the full moon, Xanin has grown to be able to shape shift at will, though it comes easier nearer to the full moon.

    While he turns to scimitars first, in more serious battle, he’ll force a partial or total transformation. His partial transformation so far is limited to claws and teeth, but when incited enough, he can fully shift to a man-like wolf form. He is self-aware when he fully transforms, but he becomes more feral and bestial near a full moon. He also cannot avoid changing forms under the full moon. Some of his more lupine traits have manifested without effort including a heightened sense of smell.

    He is a soldier, but a part of his training as a child included hunting, tracking, and other woodcraft skills. His clan provided for themselves, for the most part, and so he knows how to live off the land. His strong sense of smell lends itself to an ability for tracking, and along with that, he knows how to track using his eyes.

    * Bonuses apply to were-form.

Personality

    In the pack structure, Xanin is a beta male. He follows those he recognizes as stronger, more intelligent, and more charismatic than he, but he will not blindly follow anyone. Before he swears his loyalty to any ‘alpha’, he must know that that person has the best interest of those that follow him at heart. There is the potential in Xanin to take the lead himself, but only if there were no one better suited for the job. However, his lycanthropic curse has made him an outsider to humans and other races. His presence seems to exude ferality, and even those who do not know he is a werewolf feel uncomfortable around him. He has somewhat low-self esteem, and doesn’t realize he is rather attractive. He would like to one day find a lover, but even for his good looks, many women are intimidated by his nature.

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Quotes: “...”

History

    Xanin was born to commoners in Persei. A young couple, both born of deported Alanian criminals, who scratched out a meager living on Marmo doing whatever they could to survive and support their children. Xanin was not an only child, in fact, his mother bore many children, but he was one of the few to survive. Not all of them proved to be as resilient as their parents. The Erran family didn’t care much about who held the power on Marmo, so the transition between the council and Emperor Beld was an easy one for them. In fact, they found life a little easier under Beld’s rule. Xanin was born into this empire.

    When he was seven, the invasion of Lodoss had been launched, and Xanin’s father and eldest brother were conscripted into the army. Little did Xanin known, but he would be recruited as well. Marmo had a strong werewolf population, and in the generations prior, they had banded together in the Dark Forest to support and protect each other. Once Beld united Marmo, this small tribe of werewolves were invited to join his invasion force. They would not serve together, but scattered in small factions throughout the Marmo army. However, they would need to shore up their numbers and ensure future generations. One way they did this was to abduct youths—the younger they started, the more time the afflicted had to develop their abilities. Xanin was one of these children.

    While playing outside the city walls, Xanin strayed away from his siblings and playmates. With no warning, a burlap sack was thrown over him, and he was carried off. He tried to fight free, but whoever carried him easily overpowered him, and eventually, he wore himself to exhaustion. Xanin awoke in a cage within a cave with several other wayward children, from Salbad, Persei, and even the barbarian tribes, ranging from around age five to nine. For the next few days, more children joined Xanin. They were fed well, but most of them feared that they would be fed to ogres or kobolds; the good food was only a means to fatten them up. After several days, the children were freed from the cages, though to keep them from running away, they were tied together with rope. With much ceremony, the children were bathed, redressed, and fed a great feast. After their meal, they were taken to a chamber in the cave where an aged, feral looking man waited upon a mat of furs. He was introduced as the clan leader, though what clan, not even the barbarian children knew. One by one, the children’s palms were slashed with a blade, and they were forced to hold out their hands. The clan chief did the same to his hand and walked along the line, dripping blood into the childrens’ wounds. Once this was finished, they were told they were now his sons and daughters, members of his clan, though they had been told little about this clan.

    The children were taken to new, much stronger cages, and one child to a cage. That evening, a change over took them all; little did they realize, after all their time in the caves, that it was a fully moon. For the first time, Xanin underwent the painful transformation from boy to were-wolf. As a child, his were-form reflected his small size, making him appear more as a half-grown pup than a fully grown wolf. He lost all sense of his identity, however. The children were released from their cages and allowed to escape the caves, though they were shadowed by the more mature and controlled werewolves who could keep their sanity. That night, Xanin roamed the dark forest, hunted like a beast, and defended himself against the terrors of the forest. The werewolf following him was an older female, Nizoka. She observed him, but otherwise left him alone. As the moon set and morning came, Xanin’s humanity slowly returned, but exhausted, the boy passed out in the forest. Nizoka, changed back to her human form, collected the unconscious boy and carried him back to the caves.

    When Xanin awoke again, he was no longer confined, but sleeping on a bed of furs with another boy, Sieb, and Nizoka. The other two slept, and quietly, Xanin tried to wake Sieb so they could try to escape, but Nizoka was woken too. The young woman was all smiles though, she wasn’t the harsh warden they expected her to be. Convincing them to listen to her, she explained everything; why they were taken, what had become of them, and why they could no longer return home. Xanin felt violated by this, and was resentful. Nizoka did her best to soothe the boys, but Xanin wasn’t so easily assuaged.

    For the next few months, the children were taught about their affliction, and their service to Marmo. They were kept under close guard, and their training as soldiers began. After their training, Sieb and Xanin went home to Nizoka, who was attempting to take the role of their mother. Xanin was not impressed though. After six months, Xanin found an opportunity to slip away. He escaped into the forest, and though he didn’t know which way was north or south, or any clue of how to reach the cities, he wandered aimlessly until he found a road, which led him to Persei. When he finally found familiar land marks, he tracked his way home, only to find his family’s home abandoned. He didn’t realize that his his family had moved to Kanon and assumed him dead. Nizoka tracked him down eventually, finding him in the empty little house, crying on the floor. Nizoka offered her comfort, and though Xanin resented the werewolves still, he was heartbroken that his family was gone, though he didn’t know to mourn for their deaths or to believe that they moved away, abandoning him so soon after his disappearance.

    Nizoka was able to coax Xanin back to the clan, and he poured his existence into his training. Some other children would escape as the years went by, some were lost when they went to hunt in their were-form, but Xanin and Sieb managed to survive and became close as blood brothers. Xanin became a star pupil, with nothing left to live for but the clan. A dark elven werewolf in the clan caught Xanin’s attention with his scimitar based fighting style. When the young boy expressed an interest in learning to use them, he became the dark elf’s pupil. Sieb chose a more direct fighting style, using a longsword and shield as his martial skill. Beyond this, all the children were taught control of their shape-shifting.

    When Xanin reached the age of seventeen, he, Sieb, and Nizoka were deemed ready to join the Marmo forces. The boys had not completely managed to master their were-form, but they maintained an amount of consciousness when fully transformed. The Marmo empire was currently holding Kanon and battling the Kanon Free Army. Beld was long dead at this point, and Ashram assumed dead as well. The council was back in power, but the werewolves’ agreement with Beld was still honored. Most of the remaining children, now entering adulthood, were sent out to Kanon, and stationed across the country. Xanin, Sieb, and Nizoka were sent to join the forces along the northern border, where they joined a troupe of Marmo soldiers, commanded by a knight, with a dark elf and his company of kobolds.

    Over the next few years, this force would clash with the Free Army on many occasions. Many soldiers were lost over the years, but the ranks would soon be reinforced by more monsters. Three years into their tour of service, Sieb fell in battle. The enemy had learned of the werewolves in the ranks and focused their wrath on them. Sieb was brought down by a fire trap that he had been lured into. Xanin never saw his friend’s death, but after the battle, while looking for wounded, a soldier came across the charred remains of a half-man, half-wolf form pinned against a tree by a silvered spear in his chest. The Free Army had only rumors and old wives’ tales to go on for ways to kill a werewolf, but the treatment Sieb endured would have killed anyone. This particularly gruesome death of his brother struck Xanin hard. In the next battle, he lost control of his rage, and fully transformed in daylight combat, raining down terror on the guerrilla army. He didn’t care for his own welfare, and the majority of the scars across his body were earned in this very battle. However, they succeeded in defeating the entire faction that had been tormenting them. In the weeks to follow, there was silence on the front, giving Xanin time to heal and mourn the loss of Sieb. The battles would start again though, as more Kanonians took the place of their former enemy troupe. On the Marmo side, rumors of Ashram’s return were filling the ranks, giving hope to many soldiers.

    In NRC 525, Ashram’s return became more than just rumor. Word of him coming to the council spread from Marmo, and soon, the duke charged with overseeing Kanon, Rabido, was executed by Ashram. Not long after that, recall orders were issued. However, there was little time to recall most troops, those at the farthest reaches of Kanon had no time to reach the ports. While Xanin’s company retreated, they were cut off by a large faction of the Kanon free army, and a far more skilled faction than the rest. A bloody battle ensued, and nearly all soldiers were lost. Xanin watched Nizoka slain by a spear she could not dodge. Their knight saw the impossible odds, and when all seemed lost, he ordered his remaining men to retreat before taking on the enemy leader. Xanin reluctantly obeyed his order and escaped into the forest. Some other men made it out alive, but they parted ways, giving them all a better chance to survive if they were scattered.

    The young werewolf never made it to the boats. By time he reached Shinning Hill, every Marmo ship had left the harbor or was sunk. The Kanon Free Army had taken their nation back, and Xanin had been abandoned. Knowing he would find no comfort amongst the people of Kanon as a Marmo soldier, Xanin retreated into the forests for a time to evaluate his options, but despite his lupine nature, the young werewolf still had human needs. After several months hiding out in the forests, he had shed his Marmo garb and redressed himself in leathers and skins. He wanted to return to Marmo and try to find some trace of his clan, but he had no money with which to do so. After venturing into Shinning Hill, he learned of the rewards being earned by mercenaries and bounty hunters for killing Marmo soldiers. To earn a bit of quick cash, he turned in his former uniform to the Shinning Hill Mercenaries’ Guild, with a convincing bloodstain from one of his last meals, and earned a reward for one soldier killed. With the reward money, he was able to enroll in the Mercenaries’ Guild, but he soon found that most of the local jobs were hunting his former countrymen, something he couldn’t stomach. He tried to take jobs that didn’t involve Marmo soldiers, just to make enough coin to return home.

    In his time in Kanon, Xanin crossed paths with the Band of the Black Baron, a mercenary company run by a former Marmo baron, Magnus Thane, who had been left behind as well. In his ranks were many Marmo soldiers and dark elves. Xanin quickly pledged himself to the company and reunited with his countrymen. However, like most of his life after being turned, he felt like an outsider. In serving his company, he usually took solo duties—reconnaissance, guard, tracking—instead of the more direct and active jobs where he would be in the limelight. However, the company wasn’t just about work, but preparing to take back Marmo from Flaim.

    When Thane returned to Marmo, Xanin began to search for what remained of his clan in his off time. However, when he found their caves, they were abandoned. He found signs of battle, and it appeared that they had been wiped out by the Flaim. Again, Xanin had lost his family, though he would find a new family serving under the Black Baron. He now serves the band loyally, looking forward to the day when they can oust the invaders in their land and taken revenge for the spilled blood of his clan.

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