Edmund Mercer
Appearance
Edmund is an average sized man, standing just over six feet tall and weighing a little less than two hundred pounds with a slightly athletic build. It’s clear by his physique he is above average, but no longer maintaining a trim figure he may have held in his youth, while maintaining the sinew in his limbs. Edmund keeps his brown hair and beard both trimmed short, often described as messy or ragged. Grey has started invading his scalp around the temples and chin, marking him as an aging man. Lines and wrinkles have appeared around his mouth and eyes and his face generally looks weathered. Edmund’s eyes have been said to be hard and stern, however he isn’t normally very off putting. He bears the scars of his youth on his body, particularly his arms and back which show marks from numerous cuts and lacerations he has suffered during his training and early years.
Personality
Edmund is outwardly quiet and reserved, observing and gaining a measure of those around him. It doesn’t take long for the warrior to warm to strangers, and he is more than capable of taking and giving light-hearted jabs around a campfire or while on the road. Edmund is generally light-hearted and easy going when he does speak, considering himself to be witty when he decides to be. He maintains a strong morality, showing concern for the well-being of others, especially those he considers to be innocent or helpless. His idea of justice doesn’t always align with the law. Edmund is careful about choosing people to care about, but is willing to step up and fight for strangers, holding the virtue of loyalty in high esteem.
Skills and Abilities
Edmund is a warrior, skilled with his swords, capable with a bow or crossbow, and knowledgeable with basic magicks, however his strength lies not in masterful skill or wondrous power. It rests in his indomitable will and determination. He is skilled with weapons and shields, considered an above average warrior, though he prefers to use his two-handed sword as his favored weapon. Edmund has little knowledge of the finer points in magic, mostly concerned with simple cause and effect to supplement his degrading martial prowess. Age has started to take its toll on the warrior, aches in his knees and hands from injuries and life having begun to cause problems, especially during cold mornings. This has cost him some of his endurance in regards to long marches or extended battles.
Magic
The House of Mercer wasn’t known for its archmages or the like, however they did teach their scions the fundamentals of Magic. Edmund makes use of simplistic spells, such as using magic to mend his weapons or armor, purify food and drink, or detect poisons or afflictions in something. These normally cost something simple, such as the tools or saw materials to repair, such as carrying a steel ingot for it to deteriorate as the armor and weapons are repaired. Sometimes he makes use of simple thaumaturgy such as lighting or snuffing out candles, altering the volume of his voice, or open doors and windows with a gesture. This will often leave his voice hoarse or give his fingertips small burns and the like. Simple druidic magics to make grass grow or flowers bloom at his command fall within the scope of his abilities.
The direct abilities he is capable of performing consist of feats such as stabilizing a wounded person, provided they aren’t too critically injured, or healing simple injuries at the cost of some of his own vitality. Healing someone’s knee may cause him to develop a limp or aches and pains in the spot they were injured unless he is able to transfer this by taking the vitality of something else such as an animal or person. He can generate simple magical wards to defend himself from magical and mundane attacks, much like a temporary shield about himself at the cost of his endurance. Edmund can create small flames from his hands, manipulate ice and cold, and generate electric sparks using magic at close range with limited effectiveness. These aren’t highly dangerous or damaging, but can be beneficial in the right situation.
The direct abilities he is capable of performing consist of feats such as stabilizing a wounded person, provided they aren’t too critically injured, or healing simple injuries at the cost of some of his own vitality. Healing someone’s knee may cause him to develop a limp or aches and pains in the spot they were injured unless he is able to transfer this by taking the vitality of something else such as an animal or person. He can generate simple magical wards to defend himself from magical and mundane attacks, much like a temporary shield about himself at the cost of his endurance. Edmund can create small flames from his hands, manipulate ice and cold, and generate electric sparks using magic at close range with limited effectiveness. These aren’t highly dangerous or damaging, but can be beneficial in the right situation.
Possessions
Edmund carries a Type XII Sword around forty inches in length, and a Type XIIa Sword around fifty inches long, both made of well forged steel and leather. He carries a round steel-banded shield that he normally straps across his back, and a medium-sized crossbow with a number of bodkins and broadhead bolts in a quiver, using them as the situation warrants. His armor and apparel is simplistic, a cuirass over a brigandine hauberk with pauldrons, vambraces, sabatons, and greaves covering the his limbs. Sometimes he wears a long traveler’s cloak, other times just a few warm furs over his shoulders.
Biography
Background
TBA
Lore
The House of Mercer was never well-known of influential, always little more than a small House with a Manor in the wilderness along one of the east roads from Belgrath. Its serfs and peasantry that resided near the family keep served them while the family's knights and men-at-arms protected them from bandits and held a reputation for kindness and duty to its servants.
One tradition was the annual Trail of the Heart, in which the children of the serfs were allowed to join the family if they could spend the cold winter night standing outside the Keep's gate without wavering from their post. For those that could, the House took them in and trained them as one of their own as they had proven the strength of the determination.
To the House of Mercer Knighthood was about proving oneself rather than nobility. Only blood could be noble, but any with the heart and courage could be a Knight. The Lord Mercer oversaw several traditional trials held throughout the lives of his subjects which tested the different aspects they held in renown: Courage, Determination, Wisdom above all others.
Though the House never survived long enough for a golden age of prosperity, its decline was slow across the course of a century. Bandits in the woods claimed several of its knights, several small battles with Blight Orcs from the north mounted a bloody cost, and the House which had kept the serfs safe could no longer do so. The farmers left, little by little, and with them went the men-at-arms and yeomen as ever winter they went hungrier than the last. For those that stayed, they were forced to watch Lord Walter Mercer die long and slow across the last years of the House, and when he passed without an heir in the twilight of the House. Many of his nieces and nephews divided what was left of his meager wealth and went their separate ways leaving those children Walter had adopted through the annual Trial without a lord or a home, to make their own way.
One tradition was the annual Trail of the Heart, in which the children of the serfs were allowed to join the family if they could spend the cold winter night standing outside the Keep's gate without wavering from their post. For those that could, the House took them in and trained them as one of their own as they had proven the strength of the determination.
To the House of Mercer Knighthood was about proving oneself rather than nobility. Only blood could be noble, but any with the heart and courage could be a Knight. The Lord Mercer oversaw several traditional trials held throughout the lives of his subjects which tested the different aspects they held in renown: Courage, Determination, Wisdom above all others.
Though the House never survived long enough for a golden age of prosperity, its decline was slow across the course of a century. Bandits in the woods claimed several of its knights, several small battles with Blight Orcs from the north mounted a bloody cost, and the House which had kept the serfs safe could no longer do so. The farmers left, little by little, and with them went the men-at-arms and yeomen as ever winter they went hungrier than the last. For those that stayed, they were forced to watch Lord Walter Mercer die long and slow across the last years of the House, and when he passed without an heir in the twilight of the House. Many of his nieces and nephews divided what was left of his meager wealth and went their separate ways leaving those children Walter had adopted through the annual Trial without a lord or a home, to make their own way.