[littlemanpoet]

NAME: Thorn

AGE: late fifties

RACE: Ulfing

GENDER: Male

WEAPONS: oaken staff covered in totemic carvings of beasts and birds, topped by a lifelike representation of an owl; bow and arrows; a dagger; a carving knife.

APPEARANCE: weather beaten, wrinkled and craggy; hair is stiff and gray, cropped short and uneven, ears are visible. His eyes are dark brown. He is average height for a man. Wears handmade boots, trousers and tunic of deerskin; a dark brown and weatherstained woolen cloak with attached hood worn only during inclement weather. Has a leather waterflask hanging to one side.

PERSONALITY/STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES: Curt, to the point, even to the point of being harsh and offensive (this can be seen as both strength and weakness). Keeps his secrets. Astute about people and their motivations, but not gregarious. Prefers wandering in the wilds to human company. Makes certain of what he says before he says it. Loves children and is compassionate to the powerless.

HISTORY: Oldest of three children, he was a very smart child but nothing came naturally to him. He had to figure out everything through studying and experimenting, from swimming to whittling to shooting an arrow to conversing with other people. At his time of testing, age 14, he stayed in the wild for the seven appointed days, but did not come back to his village. They searched for him, and finally gave him up for dead, unsurprised at his supposed failure to pass his testing. But he had figured out how to survive in the wild, and saw no point in returning to the limits of his village. Hungry for knowledge, though he did not know it at the time, he wandered far and explored the wilds, ever curious. He lived alone for years.

One day, being alone and quiet, he came within a half a moment of surprising an Elf. This Elf was intrigued by a human that could move so quietly, especially one so unfair to look upon and like an Elf in no other way except his woodcraft. This Elf, named Celehan, was not of the Three Kindreds who went westward, but was of the Laiquendi; however, he had come west as far as the eastern feet of Ered Luin before turning back, quailing at the relative proximity of Thangorodrim. Celehan taught Thorn many things, including the gift of foreknowledge, for he recognized the singular percipience of Thorn's Fëa, and trained it and him.

After a few seasons (a little over a year), they parted ways amicably, for Celehan wished to go eastward while Thorn sought westward, and finally rejoined his people; but he had been changed by the years and by his newfound wisdom. The Ulfings that welcomed him were rare. So he wandered often in the wild, returning to his people now and again with words usually bitter to hear.


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FIRST POST FOR THE GAME:

Thorn sat on a seat of moss that covered a fallen tree. The sun was westering and he was staring at the eyes of Owl. Some folk had guessed that his forethought came from the staff itself, that an Owl fëa had been caught and enslaved to his will. Foolishness. Owl's eyes served as a point of focus so that his own fëa could be fee to catch echoes of the Song that Celehan had taught him.

Thorn's teacher had told him that he had wakened beneath the stars long, long ago, and had been taught by one who had come from the West, who called himself the Great Hunter. That one had called the Eldar to come west, and Celehan had, with many others, harkened to the call and journeyed west. But the farther west he had come, the harder the road until the fear of Thangorodrim had stopped him. So Celehan wandered the wilds of Middle Earth, still hearing the Song though not crossing the Great Sea to be with his teacher.

Thorn listened for the Song. Sometimes it sounded unclear. At such times he would look to his own heart to see if he had allowed his steps to wander from the truth and the right. Usually he found some way in which he had, and when he eschewed such ways, found that the Song could again be heard. He could hear it now. Doom was afoot for the Ulfings, his people. Their lords would lead them into evil. It was time to return to his folk and tell them what he knew. He set his face westward, for he would have to pass north of the Ered Luin and come south to meet the Ulfings.