William Archibald Kane's page

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William stands just shy of 6' tall and is a broad, muscular man weighing in at 220 lbs. While most would not consider him fat by any means, he has a little bit of a gut from the last few years of fairly heavy drinking.

He favors his human heritage, possessing a fairly human skin color, dark brown hair and eyes, and small tusks that barely protrude over his lip. He is a fairly handsome man who keeps his facial hair trim and he uses it to accentuate his fairly square jaw.

He has a tendency to wear nicer clothes than most who spend their time learning about and destroying undead and his clothing does a lot to hide his stout stature. He wears a fairly large silver holy symbol to Sarenrae around his neck that has a small lid on the top that opens into a reservoir of whiskey within, which holds around a cup or so of whiskey at a time.

He's not a negative person in general, often doing his best to see the good in others, but he does struggle to see the good in himself if left to dwell on it for too long. Instead, he keeps his focus on spreading the love of Sarenrae when he feels it's needed. He simply considers himself the agent willing to do what other followers may not and he's at peace with that. He's usually trying to find some way to distract him from himself.

When he opens up and talks to people, he often relies on rhetoric to convince people to see things his way, something he was trained in when studying to be in the clergy. He can be very imposing socially when things don't seem to be going his way, especially when he is drunk and he spends much of his time at least mildly intoxicated.

Far away... a thousand miles from home...

The story of William Kane begins a few years before he was born in the wilderness area known as Verisia. William's mother, Marina Kane, had been a lifetime devout follower of Sarenrae and had always turned to the Dawnflower for strength growing up in the Principality of Ustalav. She devoted her life to using the goddess' healing magic to help those in need and aid all those who would otherwise seem hopeless find salvation in their life.

Her mission work on this front landed her in Verisia where she met an Orc man who had spent his entire life doing what he thought was expected of an orc like himself; evil. The orc, Azuzar Ghazobari as he would become known to Marina, was struck by her beauty. Using her gift for words, she was able to eventually lead him to salvation. They found love with one another before Marina had to return to Ustalav unknowingly pregnant with a half-orc, half-human baby she would give birth to named William.

Does everything have to have a reason?

Marina raised William within her church finding ways for him to learn and grow to understand the importance of Sarenrae within Golarian. For as long as he could remember, William was ready to turn his life over to the Everlight and do everything he could to help those in need. His mother grew proud of William even though there would be those within the small town in which they resided who would have their superstitions about him. Half-orcs were rare enough as it was--many of the superstitious inhabitants would even go so far as to say all orc blood is evil. Despite this wariness, however, William's faith remained strong.

When William was a child, his mother's home was attacked in the middle of the night. The door flew open almost as if it were blown open and a dark figure almost seeped into the small shack. Unsure of what to do, William did the first thing that came to mind; he silently slid out of his small bed and hid beneath it.

He could hear the screams of his mother from the other room as she begged the figure for her life.

"Why now?!" was the last thing he heard her shout before he heard an abrupt slash. William held his breath until he saw the figure seep back out of the shack. The only sound it made was a deep chuckle before closing the door behind it.

He remained under the bed and sobbed until he was found by the clergy the next day who arrived after realizing that his mother had not shown up to the church.

The professor arrives...

The church took in the seemingly orphaned boy despite a number of requests from the local residents against the idea. William would become the adopted son of Father Tibertius. Within days of the attack, a certain Professor Lorrimor paid the church a visit having heard word of the description William had given of the attacker. Willing to do everything he could to learn more about what happened, the child answered all of the professors questions to the absolute best of his ability.

He described the way it looked, the way it moved, and what it sounded like.

"Interesting..." he remembered hearing the professor say "Some sort of undead creature, perhaps. Don't you worry, son. I'll learn as much as I can and write you with what I find."

The professor was warm to William and kind. He helped ease a grieving child's mind. True to his word, the professor would continue to write to William every couple of weeks and he always looked forward to his letters.

I'm lucky that I've been shown what to do... can you really say the same?

After finding a way to cope with the death of Marina Kane, William very quickly figured out what he wanted to devote his life to and what he wanted to achieve; he wanted to become a priest within the church. He strove to be an esteemed clergyman alongside all of the people who were idols in his life; including his mother. He began studying and evangelizing his faith first in mirrors and then to actual people. While not as wise and many of the other clergymen, he had a knack for talking to people that quickly developed into him holding occasional sermons on different topics as a teenager.

As he grew older, he found that his messages were more clear when he used a more imposing tone of voice and emphasized the negative aspect of life without Sarenrae. While he viewed this as a balance and necessary topic of discussion, not all of those that would receive his message were in agreement.

He prayed to Sarenrae in the hopes that she would provide him with the healing and holy magic that she provides so many of her priests and clerics that enables them to do so much good in the world and it seemed for a long time like his prayers weren't being answered. Father Tibertius was a patient and kind mentor, however, and preached patience to the young man.

"Sarenrae hears you, child. She will know when you are ready."

Those words rang in William's ears for what would be years to come.

There is a darkness which lies within us all...

Attempting to tap into the divine magic he so desperately desired, William eventually began seeing some results. In the beginning, he was able to do little more than Prestidigitation. Nonetheless, he continued to call upon Sarenrae to help him heal the sick within his town.

That is, until the first time he was able to call on something more powerful than an orison. He approached a guard who had been wounded defending the town in the hopes that he could close the guard's wounds as a couple of the other priests looked on. He felt the magic build and when he finally let it go, the wound did not heal. Instead, there was a look of pure panic and horror on the guard's face.

"Y-you! I knew we shouldn't have trusted your kind within our community!" he shouted at William, kicking away from him from within the bed. "Get him away from me!"

Horrified, William backed off from his studies for a few weeks. He began to drink lightly which he hadn't done before and began reflecting on himself and how far he'd come just to be slapped in the face. He hadn't developed a drinking problem but he was using it as a crutch for what he was considering his own trauma.

It wasn't until the professor wrote back to William about the incident reminding him that 'Wouldn't Sarenrae teach redemption? You deserve to give yourself the same.' that William decided to pick himself up and begin studying and praying once again.

Not long after the then-teenage half-orc began holding sermons at the church again did the word come that the town was frightened of having William as a priest at the church. Father Tibertius told William:

"Do not worry, my son. We preach redemption in this church. They will understand someday."

The scaffold is calling...

William spiraled into a deep depression. The only people he felt he could trust were Father Tibertius and Professor Lorrimor. Over the next few years until around the age of 21, William's drinking problem became severe. He continued to pray for divine magic but never received an answer. He could only feel the magic of the occult seep deeper into his mind. At least, that's what he thought he felt through the numbness of the alcohol.

Then one day, it happened. Usually, William drank in private but this night was the anniversary of his mother's death. He sat drinking in the town's tavern.

"Hey, half-breed." a local man jeered "How'd you get here anyway?"

William scowled and tightened the grip on his bottle but tried to ignore the comments--as best as someone as intoxicated as he was could anyway.

"Hey yeah, no orcs around here anywhere!" another chimed in "Have to get that blight somewhere a long ways off!"

"Oh, I bet he's really a servant of the Whispering whoever, he's here to trick us all!" the room erupted in laughter.

"I recommend you leave me be." William growled in a deep, booming voice.

The mockery did not abate. As William stood to leave the tavern, one man named Zorno Fantal leaned in to whisper "Did your mom tell you about how bad it was? No half-orc is conceived willingly after all."

While the memory of the night was fleeting to William, he remembers the laughs become silence abruptly as the rage got the better of him.

"Get down!" and Zorno obeyed. William then understood that it isn't hard to accidentally kill a man with your bare hands.

William left the town that night, remembering only the calls after him calling him to the scaffold for what he'd done. "Scaffold Kane won't get away with this!"

Can a little time really change anything?

It was 4 years since that day before the letters from the professor stopped coming. William never told him that he'd accidentally killed a man. Just that he'd decided to start over someplace else.

He spent a lot of that time in a drunken stupor but he's decided to rebirth himself as a follower of Sarenrae. He has explored his occult magic more deeply and decided that sometimes being stern is more important than being forgiving. He has decided to take what he has learned from the professor, the only true friend he had at the time of the professor's death, and apply it to doing some real tangible good more suited for his talents. Fight and kill undead.

Since making that decision, he has studied and learned more about his orcish heritage and, while still not as skilled as a trained soldier, he's picked up some fighting skill to accompany his sinister magic--that he hopes to use for his idea of good.

... Can you still hear my voice?

Unresolved Mysteries:
1) Circumstances involving mother's death.
2) The whereabouts of his father.
3) What? Who's there?

Potential Trouble:
1) Father Tibertius' position on the murder; he could be seeking William out.
2) He may be wanted for murder.
3) The undead who killed his other may want his head as well.
4) The clergy of Sarenae may be, at the least, disapproving of his proclaimed faith.