[OOC] Character History
Stahn grew up a simple farm boy in the little village of Lienea; though he was comfortable there, and had family (his sister and grandfather) that he loved, he wanted to seek fame and fortune in the greater world around them. Thus, at the age of nineteen, he left to see the world as an adventurer. Not having any money for passage, the normally law-abiding boy sneaked onto the airship Draconis as a stowaway--this quickly proved to be a BAD idea for so many reasons, the main one being that on this trip, it was carrying a certain very important item. After being beaten in an attempt to interrogate him, he was finally discovered to be innocent (just unlucky and stupid). He was put to work as a deckhand, but this only lasted until the Draconis was attacked a short time later by a horde of monsters. Stahn managed to get away in the ensuing confusion, knowing he needed a weapon if he was going to survive this, and broke into a storeroom to find one. There, he discovered a sword… that told him its name was Dymlos. The sword managed to get Stahn to understand that it (or rather, he) was a Swordian, a sentient sword from the long ago Aeth’er Wars, and that Stahn was “special”, he’d been chosen, hence being able to hear Dymlos’ voice. Learning to work together was something of a trial by fire (somewhat literally, too, as Dymlos taught Stahn the spell Fireball to help him) they fought their way to an escape pod, but the impact wasn't gentle in the pod either, and Stahn was knocked unconscious.
After a very fortunate rescue by a kind passerby, Stahn recovered quickly and continued on his journey. In the snowy town of Janos, Stahn ran into Mary Argent, another adventurer. Mary was very glad to meet him, because her fellow hunter Rutee Katrea had gotten caught in a trap within an ancient ruin, and Mary couldn't get her out without help. Because it was the right thing to do, Stahn went with her as asked. With his help, they freed Rutee; she and Stahn didn’t exactly hit it off, though, considering Stahn could tell Rutee wasn’t really the law-abiding type, and Rutee… well, as she said later, “When I first met you, I thought you were a naive countryboy I could easily manipulate. You're honest to the point of being stupid, and you give your trust to people so easily...” Because of these traits, though (for the most part, Rutee was either dead on or not far off the mark), even if he didn’t realize it, Stahn was best off finding some traveling companions. It also happened that Rutee had her own Swordian, Atwight. They finally explained to Stahn that only some people could hear Swordians' voices; as Atwight put it, "Unless the user's neural wavelength is the same as ours, we can't even communicate with the user." They couldn't choose who heard them, just wait for the right person to come along... or whoever they could get. As it turned out, Dymlos hadn’t been entirely honest about the “chosen” thing… when Atwight called him on it, he all but admitted he’d lied, but Stahn didn’t quite get it.
Still, while Stahn was definitely a little too willing to believe the best of people, he quickly discovered his initial impression of Rutee wasn’t wrong when she got them all in a bind just the next day; the temple they had been raiding for anything valuable turned out to be under the protection of the kingdom it was in, and a group of soldiers tracked them down at the inn they were staying at. One soldier actually recognized Rutee, and given her reputation for thievery (among other things), he demanded she come with them to be questioned at the castle. Predictably this resulted in a fight; Rutee's group defeated them all, but their victory lasted only until the Knight Captain of the army, Leon Magnus, appeared. He defeated them all with only the help of his Swordian, Chaltier, and had them thrown in jail until the king could see them. The story might have ended there if Hugo, the king's trusted vassal, hadn't realized they were Swordian Masters and pointed out they could be useful on a certain mission. He wasn’t willing to trust them, but they could be kept under control with special restraining devices made for prisoners. They functioned not only as tracking devices, but as punishment tools--they could generate a severe electric shock via remote control. Said control was then handed to Leon, who was ordered to go with them as an escort. Their mission was a highly delicate one, as it turned out; the extremely powerful weapon Eye of Atamoni, secretly kept under Straylize Temple, had possibly been discovered and they needed to make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands. Their group was to go investigate the situation, and if anything was happening, put a stop to it.
Unfortunately, by the time they got to the temple it had already been attacked. Even considering that this was the second senseless slaughter that Stahn had seen in the space of maybe a week, he was more angry than upset; he hadn’t known any of the people here, and growing up in a little, isolated, backwater village he was likely no stranger to death. (His parents are never mentioned; I assume they died when he was young. Farm accidents or illness, most likely.) In their investigation of the temple, they found and rescued one of the priests, who led them to where the Eye was normally kept. It was gone by then, the room empty except for a stone statue of a girl... who turned out to be an actual girl, Philia, who had been petrified. One Panacea Bottle later, the apprentice priestess was herself again and could explain that High Priest Lydon, whom she was studying under, had stolen it. Blaming herself for not realizing what he had been up to sooner, she convinced the group to let her go with them; it seemed that the mission they had been sent on was going to last far longer than anyone had anticipated. Shortly after, a tip came as to Lydon's whereabouts, and so the group went after him. Upon stumbling across some of his followers, Stahn’s group learned of Lydon’s Plan to Take Over The World in Atamoni's name, as they were The Only Ones That Understood Her True Teachings. Stahn objected, "Hey, you're no different than us!" but obviously that didn’t exactly make them have an epiphany.
Over the course of their journey, Stahn experienced a lot of new things, but his basic personality never really changed; he always strongly objected to cruelty of any type, be it the tormenting of an innocent child or the electric-shock torture-interrogation of an enemy. His commitment to honesty never wavered, with him actually scolding Rutee whenever she tried to raid someone’s house (not that she listened), and he never grew capable of really tricking people. Though he found himself confronting true evil, and came to understand that some people have nothing but ill intent, he stayed willing to believe in people no matter what.
However, this was tested after they retrieved the Eye of Atamoni and returned home; it was made very apparent that they had let their guards down far too soon when the Eye was promptly stolen again, this time by Hugo… and Leon. As bad as things looked, Stahn refused to believe Leon was honestly trying to help bring about the end of the world. Eventually it came to light that he was correct; Leon’s hand had been forced when Hugo took Marian, the one person Leon really cared about, hostage to ensure his cooperation. To the end, Stahn tried to help him; he ordered Leon to step aside, but he wasn’t forgetting what would happen to Marian. Instead, he planned on saving her when they caught up to Hugo. Leon would have none of it, though; he knew perfectly well he was being used, but to protect Marian he fought his former group. He was defeated, but while they hurt him badly, they didn’t kill him. To keep them from following Hugo and too likely getting Marian killed, he flooded the caves they were in, sweeping the party far away, and drowned there, alone.
Worse, he wasn’t the only former ally the party was forced to fight; after contributing to the death of Ilene, a woman who had helped them all and been very kind to Stahn most of all, he had something of a breakdown. He admitted he still had a “country boy” mentality, wanting to help those around him, but the concept of helping the entire world was more than he could understand. Still, Rutee got him to agree that he was fighting alongside his friends for at least the sake of those who were important to him. The next time they came across an old ally they had to fight, he still didn’t want to fight him, but he did and this time they killed him.
When they finally found Hugo, there was no hesitation; he had to be stopped, and that was all there was to it. The surprise came after they defeated him; he had not been acting by his own will, but his Swordian’s. Even he had goodness in him, but he’d been unable to act on or even show it. That wasn’t the only surprise, though; the Swordian was also someone unexpected--Kronos, the mastermind behind this war and the one before it, and he nearly killed them all. They managed to get back to him for another battle, but it was a bigger struggle than anyone had expected. Still, Stahn knew enough not to hesitate or consider mercy; many more lives were at stake than their own. Even if he was only fighting for those he knew, it was enough.
He also learned that sacrifices, big and small, would have to be made. The Swordians as they were weren’t powerful enough to go up against Kronos, but there was a way to upgrade them. Unfortunately, the method was painful; still, Stahn was able to agree to put Dymlos through it. He also proved shortly after that some things never change; when taking a powerful artifact from a thief, he made the man swear to give up his life of crime. Rutee pointed out there was no way he’d meant his promise; Stahn simply replied, "You have no faith in people."
When they finally caught up with Kronos, Stahn was ready to kill him and be done with it… until he told them he had arranged for “something special” for them. To the party’s surprise, Leon walked into the room. Ever hopeful, Stahn exclaimed, "You're alive?!" only for his hopes to be dashed in the most cruel way possible. It really was Leon, but he had been brought back as a zombie under Kronos’ control, able to say little other than “…kill me.” The party was forced to fight him once again. Despite his anger and sorrow, Stahn was able to join in, and in killing him for good finally gave Leon the peace he deserved.
After all that, they were finally able to face Kronos down and defeat him as well. However, Kronos had made the Eye of Atamoni go out of control, and its power threatened to destroy the world after all. The Swordians could stop it… but it meant one more group of sacrifices, as the action would destroy them all. Once again, Stahn found himself having to say goodbye to a friend. Before Dymlos went, he told Stahn that he had lied about the “chosen” status (…which somehow came as a surprise to the idiot), but after all they had been through, it didn’t matter. They bid each other farewell, and then the group bolted while they still could. They made it to safety, barely; once there, Stahn nearly collapsed in tears.
[[This is actually slightly beyond where I'm taking him from, but that's partly because I'm debating if I should take Stahn from RIGHT before they escaped.]]