Ajkanir al-Atabiyah's page

Ajkanir stands 6 feet tall, but is whip-thin, weighing only 150 pounds or so. He has gleaming black hair, tied back from the browned skin of his sharp-featured face, his dark eyes shining with a glint of humor even in the direst times. He moves with a leonine grace, and even when standing still, appears to be on the edge of springing into sudden movement. He wears faded brown leathers in combat, his long fingers maintaining a precise grip on the gently curved scimitar he wields.

Ajkanir al-Atabiyah is a child of Katapesh and, like that teeming city, he is quick to anger and quicker to laugh. He was orphaned by the age of six or so (he doesn’t remember, and there’s no one to tell him). He lived briefly with an uncle, but the uncle was cruel and saw him only as a burden, and Ajkanir ran away, settling into the life of a street urchin in the medinas of the great city. At age 7 or 8, as part of a pack of guttersnipes trying to distract an old man and cut his purse, Ajkanir found his wrist had been caught in the old man’s iron grip. The man was Valen, a renowned but somewhat faded sword-master. Valen had spotted that the boy was very quick and after collaring him, sat him down with a plate of fried doughstones and talked to him, soon discerning that he was also clever. Without asking if it was what the boy wanted, Valen took Ajkanir on as a servant in his home and teaching studio.

As part of his duties, Ajkanir watched his master teach, on hand to bring lemon water, a towel or whatever else might be called for by the noble sons who studied with Valen. Watching raptly, he absorbed every sly trick and subtle nuance shown by his master as he taught the Katapeshi stlye of swordplay, which seemed equal parts dancing and fighting. One day, when Ajkanir was about 9, Valen caught him practicing with a small scimitar in the teaching studio. Valen beat him soundly - not for presuming to take up a weapon himself, but for failing to keep his blade angled slightly upward as he struck, to account for his lesser height. From that day on, each day would begin with a lesson - some days in the art of the blade, others in endless runs up and down the stairs of the old walls of the city, or other endeavors meant to toughen and test Valen's pupil. Each evening, after Valen’s students left, he would school Ajkanir in history, geography, and other subjects, teaching him to use his mind as well as his body. And, when Ajkanir lost control of his temper, or found life a joke when he should be serious, Valen would beat him in a fruitless effort to rein in these impulses.

This continued on for some years, with Ajkanir showing prodigious skill with a blade for one so young, and master and student coming to feel for each other like father and son. Over time, Valen formally took Ajkanir on as an apprentice sword-master. In Ajkanir's 17th year, Valen judged him ready to test before the Weaponmaster Guild as a journeyman teacher - the youngest to take such a test in living memory.

However, before Ajkanir could be formally sponsored to the Guild and begin his testing, a group of pupils of a rival master accosted Valen. They had heard the tales of a supposedly unstoppable thrust the master had developed, and wished to test the old man. Valen had no wish to expose the secret of his technique in the ensuing melee, nor did he wish to be executed for killing several sons of the nobility in a single morning. As a result, he simply took out the right eyes of the first two bravos who crossed swords with him - the others soon fled, fearing their own fates, for a one-eyed swordsman is no swordsman at all.

The injured nobles claimed Valen had attacked him, and asked that their case be reviewed by the Pactmasters of Katapesh. As the sons of powerful merchant families, and members of the mercantile guilds, the one-eyed youths naturally won the case against Valen, who was sentenced to 3 years in the dungeons of Katapesh, stripped of his guild membership, and forbidden to wear a weapon again. Ajkanir now had no guildsman to sponsor him and thus could not test to enter the Weaponmaster Guild.

In a fury, Ajkanir challenged the noble sons who ruined his master’s life, one by one. He did not escape unscathed, but he succeeded in killing one of his hated foes and badly injuring a couple of others. Before he could face each one of them, however, the city watch began hunting him, and he was sure he would face more than jail time if he were captured. He fled Katapesh, and has not seen his native city since.

Ajkanir travelled the deserts of his land and neighboring countries, living off what he could make as a hired sword. His skills continued to grow in this regard, but he felt there was more he could learn still, and the life of fighting did not nurture his mind. He found a temple of Irori in Osirion, where the monks practiced a style of unarmed fighting not unlike his own brand of sword-dancing, and he studied with them for a time. He enjoyed the mental and physical effort involved, but found the monastic life stifling, and missed the freedom of life on the road. He continued his wanderings, which eventually brought him to Thuvia, where the great value of the Sun Orchid Elixir engenders a need for sell-swords, hired by those who wish to safeguard the elixir and those who wish to claim it for themselves.

In spite of the troubles he has suffered, he takes great joy in life, finding many things funny that would cause other men to feel fear or anguish. His pride as a swordsmen can be quite touchy, but his education and innate intelligence generally keep him from getting into trouble solely for trouble’s sake. He feels that life has dealt him many a blow, yet he has survived, and even thrived. This has led him to conclude that fate smiles upon him, so he’s always willing to take a chance. Though he can be quite strategic, this belief in fate’s favor does lead him to take wild chances in battle from time to time, and men who have served under him love this daring side of him. Before a fight, Ajkanir is fond of saying to his opponent, “All men must die one day. Let us find out if today is your day or mine.”

ooc]Round X, HP: 41/41 Status: , round x of y
Move:
Standard/Full: Attack with scimitar, fighting defensively[/ooc]

[dice=Scimitar]1d20+11[/dice]
[dice=Damage]1d6+6[/dice]

[dice=Scimitar (fighting defensively)]1d20+10[/dice]
[dice=Damage]1d6+6[/dice]

[dice=Sling]1d20+9[/dice] [dice=Damage]1d4[/dice]
[dice=Unarmed Strike]1d20+9[/dice] [dice=Damage]1d6[/dice]
[dice=Flurry of Blows]1d20+7[/dice] [dice=Damage]1d6[/dice]