`
Nathaniel Turnkey
Birth Date
Summer 2nd, 482 AV
Gender - male
Race - human
Age - 29
Known Languages:
Fluent in Common
Some Kontinese
Concept
"My name is Turnkey. TURN-key..."
A native of Ravok, Nathaniel spent his childhood idolizing the Ebonstryfe, the dark and enigmatic military hand of the Black Sun. He dreamed of one day joining their elite ranks, stealing through the shadows, cutting down criminals, and rooting out dissenters seeking to overthrow Rhysol's rule.
Yet though he tried, he could never seem to gain their attention. Perhaps he went about it all the wrong ways, focusing hard on his combat skill rather than the art of subterfuge. He joined the City Guard in attempt to earn some recognition, but as years slipped by, Nathaniel passed the prime age for joining.
He had long ago stopped believing they would invite him into their ranks, so he was content with letting go of his dream. Now he commits himself to the protection of Ravok and its people, from criminals, outsiders, and whispering conspirators.
Appearance
height: 5ft 11in
weight: 160lbs
"I was once told that I'm 'accidentally handsome'. Do you think that was meant as a well-veiled insult?"
Nathaniel believes in a clean shaven face, but by the end of each day he begins to look a little bedraggled. Beneath his clothing lies a stocky build that could always use a little more toning. His limbs are long for his size, purchasing some acrobatic ability and allowing him to more easily wield tall polearms, like his glaive. Soft brown eyes sit beneath a mop of sandy brunet that refuses to listen to reason.
History
"Ravok was my beginning, and I pray it shall be my end."
The son of a weaponsmith, Nathaniel grew up surrounded by instruments of death and destruction, quicker to fantasize about them than to fear them. He would often steal smaller knives from his father's workbench and sneak off to play Slavers or Paladins or to battle the terrible creatures that lived beyond the lake. His father, Harold, disdained such play, but Nathaniel was a rebellious upstart and was slow to let go of his fancies.
He never knew his mother, and his father rarely mentioned her except to remark that Nathaniel and his older sister Diana shared her eyes. For much of childhood, Diana and Harold were the only family that Nathaniel knew. That changed, tragically, when he was twelve. Diana was on the cusp of womanhood, and she had become engaged to a wealthy aristocrat's nephew from the Noble District. This boded well for the Turnkey family, with a dim reputation and always strapped for coin, but there was no wedding. The details were always vague, but as far as Nathaniel could discover, Diana and her fiance had a violent disagreement. Though he claimed to never do harm to her, she somehow fell into one of the canals and her dress caught on debris at the bottom.
Nathaniel, who heard her cry out but hadn't seen her fall, turned see the turbulent ripples on the water. He dove in without a thought, swimming down and down until finally he could see the struggling form of his sister. For many long, nervewracking seconds, they both worked to tear her dress from the claws of a wrecked ravosala. By the time she got free, both of them had been underwater far too long, and their strength was ebbing away.
It was Harold Turnkey who pulled both his children from the water. Nathaniel coughed up water and was gasping for air soon after reaching the surface, but Diana never drew another breath. Unable to prove that her fiance was to blame, nothing was done about her tragic demise. Harold and Nathaniel returned to their lives, glad to be away from the troubling politics of the Ravokian aristocracy.
The incident left Nathaniel almost completely blind in one eye. He tells few about this handicap, and only his father knows the little ways in which it hinders him.
It was only then that Harold agreed to being training Nathaniel in weaponry and unarmed combat, too late for him to easily join the Ebonstryfe, but Rhysol can always use able bodies in the city. The youth favored the graceful glaive, a bladed staff, for its versatility and optional lethality. Though it took some work, Harold showed his son ways in which he could compensate for a large lack of depth perception and ways to protect his blind spot.
Nathaniel joined the City Guard, proud to serve Ravok and protect its people. |
by Nathaniel Turnkey on January 24th, 2012, 4:09 am 
