Backstory: Born in the countryside, a few hours outside the small town of Silverdyne, Sigyl lived with his mother, Selia, and his grandparents, Elda and Addleby, on a farm. He never met his father who was, in his mother's words, "some slimy conman asshole" who ended up swindling more than a few Silverdyne residents and then bolted as soon as mercenaries working on behalf of another town's residents showed up looking for him. Sigyl did, however, enjoy semi-frequent visits from his Uncle Brand, Auntie Hilda and cousin Annifred who lived in town. He never went to a formal school, but was taught by his grandparents, with Elda, a witch, teaching him about magic and Addleby teaching him how to read and write, though Sigyl often took his lessons less than seriously. Otherwise, he would spend his days doing chores on the farm or running around the surrounding fields, playing with other children from Silverdyne.
At the age of 6, while playing outside, Sigyl and a few other children were set upon by a relatively small wyvern that ended up snatching Sigyl up. They managed to get help and Selia gave chase on a flying broomstick and used her skills with magic to wrench her son from its grasp and drive the beast off. While he recovered fairly quickly, this event left him with a lifelong wariness towards wyverns, causing him to grow a little nervous at the mere suggestion that they may be nearby. In addition he began to take his grandmother's teachings in magic more seriously to avoid being unable to defend himself should such an event occur again. Over the next several years, Sigyl began to grow as a magician and found that he actually really enjoyed improving his ability to cast spells. He learned mostly offensive spells and took up the job of using them to drive predators away from the farm animals and protect himself from weak monsters when he was out and about. His mother also began teaching him how to use a flying broomstick, though he found it difficult to get very high off the ground due to his previous wyvern-related flying experience, and mostly used it to ferry items back and forth between the farm and nearby villages.
When Sigyl was 10, Alwyn Albrend, the young king of the Leahdour Kingdom sent a messenger to the farm, asking that Elda assist in defeating a dragon that was supposedly terrorizing an area of the kingdom, despite the fact that the Frey family lived outside the kingdom's borders. Elda was against it as it wasn't any of their business and she was generally wary of the Leahdour royals as a result of her experience working in the castle decades ago. However, Selia insisted. If it was hurting people, she couldn't stand by and let it happen if she was being asked to help, even if she wasn't sure why her mother was being asked specifically, having always been under the impression that her mother had worked as a maid and magic tutor.
Selia would leave a few days later, along with Sigyl's Uncle Brand who decided he would help out as well, as he was gifted at creating and enchanting armor and weapons. Sigyl did extra farmwork to help out in his mother's absence and redoubled his efforts to improve his skills with magic, occasionally making extra trips to town to bring materials to his Uncle's smithy where his cousin was filling in and creating weapons in her father's stead. A few months later, Brand returned, missing an arm.
Sigyl's mother didn't return at all.
Unfortunately, it would turn out the dragon was much more powerful than King Alwyn realized. Of the five adventurers that went to slay the dragon, only Brand survived. Selia had channeled all the energy she had into attacks to hold the dragon back in an attempt to save the others and was ultimately killed. Young Sigyl, in his grief, vowed to slay the dragon...until his grandmother put some sense in his head.
"Your mama couldn't kill that thing, you think you're gonna? Besides...dragon's just doin' what it's gonna do. You'd fight back if someone was tryin' to kill you, wouldn't you?"
For the first time, Sigyl knew what feeling powerless was like. He also realized that strength wasn't absolute; even strong people could be weaker than someone or something else.
Several weeks later in the wee hours of the night, Sigyl awoke hearing a conversation between his grandmother and another unfamiliar voice. He couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but his grandmother sounded angry. Before too long he heard the other person depart, the sound of a horse's hooves fading into the distance. It would only be in the following days that Sigyl and his grandmother would learn that King Alwyn had been assassinated in the dead of night.
Sigyl would never see anyone one from the court ever come to express condolences or to offer an apology for what the king had done. He began to understand why his grandmother had expressed disdain for government and the rich. While the queen declared a day of mourning for Seline, the other adventurers were seemingly forgotten, with neither the Queen nor any other government spokesperson even bothered to refer to anyone else besides Seline by name in official statements.
"They'll make a big show for someone with a big name, but if you ain't no one, they'll step right over ya. N' sometimes, right on ya, too."
Still, in the years that followed, Sigyl would lead a relatively quiet life on his grandparents' farm; making deliveries, running errands for them and caring for the animals. However, he would develop something of a fear of dragons after his mother's death. He would occasionally experience nightmares about the incident and about dragons in general. He eventually decided he was going to seek out the dragon that killed Selia; not to kill it, but just to see exactly what kind of creature it was in an attempt to gain some kind of closure and to try and overcome this fear.
About a month into his travels, he would reunite with his childhood friend Galinda, who had left Silverdyne at 7 years earlier to study in the city of Pearlbarrow. Now using magic through music, she would decide to help him knowing how deeply it affected him. They would later be joined by a hunter of the name of Arthur Wyndelwax. After staying one night in his forest cabin, he unexpectedly insisted on assisting them.
Personality:
Sigyl is pretty easy going, for the most part. Having grown up under his grandmother's relatively strict guidance, he's hard-working and honest. He's open about the way about the way he feels and isn't shy about expressing his thoughts. Following his grandmother's example, he sees no good in keeping his opinions to himself when something important is on the line, even if his opinion is unpopular.
Sigyl is confident in his own abilities and has some measure of pride, but he's not arrogant. He understands himself to be competant and knows he can handle himself but he also understands that strength isn't absolute. No matter how strong one gets, someone or something is always stronger and he knows that compentant as he is, he may not be able to do things alone. However, it's this view that gives him the courage to push a little further against a strong opponent than some others may not following the idea that even the strongest opponent isn't unbeatable. Unless an opponent is overwhelmingly powerful, Sigyl will at least try and isn't afraid to get a little roughed up if he needs to.
He's friendly enough and gets along with the average person, but he usually doesn't immediately trust people who are wealthy or are otherwise in positions of great authority. After the death of his mother, he came to believe that those with wealth or power will step on those with less to obtain more for themselves; he's more likely to trust an authority figure if he feels they're similar to himself, i. e. someone who works hard, an everyman kind of person. This is also why he's willing to stand up for the little guy; every day people ought to stick together against those that would step on them for their own benefit.
Abilities:
Physical Strength
Having grown up on farm, Sigyl spent a good part of his life doing a lot of physical labor and is probably a little stronger than the average person; he won't be single handedly punching out monsters, but he can hold his own in a brawl.
Magic
(cw: mentions of accidental death and self-harm)
Sigyl has magical abilities. Magic in Sigyl's world consists of channeling the ever-present energies of the world through one's body and expelling it back into the world in a different form, though it puts some strain on the body. It's something that pretty much anyone can learn, but it's easier when one has magical lineage, i.e parents/grandparents/other blood ancestors that have learned and can perform magic already.
The more energy one channels into a spell, the stronger it is at the cost of longer casting time and greater strain on the body; it's not unheard of for magic users to accidentally physically harm themselves or die from trying to cast too powerful a spell to the point where they overwhelm themselves or cannot expel the energy fast enough. For example, someone that tries to cast too many fireball spells in a short period may start experiencing heat exhaustion. Pushing the example further someone who tries to pump more energy into a fire spell than they can handle may end up immolating themselves.
There are typically two ways to gain the ability to handle magic: study endlessly and learn how to properly regulate the flow of energy and/or become physically strong enough to handle it. Sigyl primarily used the latter method, though he's still working on the former. Multiple wizards can cast a powerful spell together to alleviate the strain, but they have to maintain some form of physical contact and also they all have to generally know what they're doing.
There are of course, other forms of magic but Sigyl primarily knows what is called "burst" magic wherein the energy expelled from the body takes the form of bursts of energy, ex: fireballs, blasts of cold wind, blasts of lightning, etc. He still can't cast spells that are too powerful without hurting himself, though. For example, He can blast a hole in a wall large enough to walk through, but he's not going to be knocking down a building with a single blow.
Alignment: Thras. Sigyl's journey starts with the intent of facing a fear that's sat within him for many years, but the bravery to face this fear is what pushes him to continue.
Re: Sigyl Frey | Original Character | 2/2
Born in the countryside, a few hours outside the small town of Silverdyne, Sigyl lived with his mother, Selia, and his grandparents, Elda and Addleby, on a farm. He never met his father who was, in his mother's words, "some slimy conman asshole" who ended up swindling more than a few Silverdyne residents and then bolted as soon as mercenaries working on behalf of another town's residents showed up looking for him. Sigyl did, however, enjoy semi-frequent visits from his Uncle Brand, Auntie Hilda and cousin Annifred who lived in town. He never went to a formal school, but was taught by his grandparents, with Elda, a witch, teaching him about magic and Addleby teaching him how to read and write, though Sigyl often took his lessons less than seriously. Otherwise, he would spend his days doing chores on the farm or running around the surrounding fields, playing with other children from Silverdyne.
At the age of 6, while playing outside, Sigyl and a few other children were set upon by a relatively small wyvern that ended up snatching Sigyl up. They managed to get help and Selia gave chase on a flying broomstick and used her skills with magic to wrench her son from its grasp and drive the beast off. While he recovered fairly quickly, this event left him with a lifelong wariness towards wyverns, causing him to grow a little nervous at the mere suggestion that they may be nearby. In addition he began to take his grandmother's teachings in magic more seriously to avoid being unable to defend himself should such an event occur again.
Over the next several years, Sigyl began to grow as a magician and found that he actually really enjoyed improving his ability to cast spells. He learned mostly offensive spells and took up the job of using them to drive predators away from the farm animals and protect himself from weak monsters when he was out and about. His mother also began teaching him how to use a flying broomstick, though he found it difficult to get very high off the ground due to his previous wyvern-related flying experience, and mostly used it to ferry items back and forth between the farm and nearby villages.
When Sigyl was 10, Alwyn Albrend, the young king of the Leahdour Kingdom sent a messenger to the farm, asking that Elda assist in defeating a dragon that was supposedly terrorizing an area of the kingdom, despite the fact that the Frey family lived outside the kingdom's borders. Elda was against it as it wasn't any of their business and she was generally wary of the Leahdour royals as a result of her experience working in the castle decades ago. However, Selia insisted. If it was hurting people, she couldn't stand by and let it happen if she was being asked to help, even if she wasn't sure why her mother was being asked specifically, having always been under the impression that her mother had worked as a maid and magic tutor.
Selia would leave a few days later, along with Sigyl's Uncle Brand who decided he would help out as well, as he was gifted at creating and enchanting armor and weapons. Sigyl did extra farmwork to help out in his mother's absence and redoubled his efforts to improve his skills with magic, occasionally making extra trips to town to bring materials to his Uncle's smithy where his cousin was filling in and creating weapons in her father's stead. A few months later, Brand returned, missing an arm.
Sigyl's mother didn't return at all.
Unfortunately, it would turn out the dragon was much more powerful than King Alwyn realized. Of the five adventurers that went to slay the dragon, only Brand survived. Selia had channeled all the energy she had into attacks to hold the dragon back in an attempt to save the others and was ultimately killed. Young Sigyl, in his grief, vowed to slay the dragon...until his grandmother put some sense in his head.
"Your mama couldn't kill that thing, you think you're gonna? Besides...dragon's just doin' what it's gonna do. You'd fight back if someone was tryin' to kill you, wouldn't you?"
For the first time, Sigyl knew what feeling powerless was like. He also realized that strength wasn't absolute; even strong people could be weaker than someone or something else.
Several weeks later in the wee hours of the night, Sigyl awoke hearing a conversation between his grandmother and another unfamiliar voice. He couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but his grandmother sounded angry. Before too long he heard the other person depart, the sound of a horse's hooves fading into the distance. It would only be in the following days that Sigyl and his grandmother would learn that King Alwyn had been assassinated in the dead of night.
Sigyl would never see anyone one from the court ever come to express condolences or to offer an apology for what the king had done. He began to understand why his grandmother had expressed disdain for government and the rich. While the queen declared a day of mourning for Seline, the other adventurers were seemingly forgotten, with neither the Queen nor any other government spokesperson even bothered to refer to anyone else besides Seline by name in official statements.
"They'll make a big show for someone with a big name, but if you ain't no one, they'll step right over ya. N' sometimes, right on ya, too."
Still, in the years that followed, Sigyl would lead a relatively quiet life on his grandparents' farm; making deliveries, running errands for them and caring for the animals. However, he would develop something of a fear of dragons after his mother's death. He would occasionally experience nightmares about the incident and about dragons in general. He eventually decided he was going to seek out the dragon that killed Selia; not to kill it, but just to see exactly what kind of creature it was in an attempt to gain some kind of closure and to try and overcome this fear.
About a month into his travels, he would reunite with his childhood friend Galinda, who had left Silverdyne at 7 years earlier to study in the city of Pearlbarrow. Now using magic through music, she would decide to help him knowing how deeply it affected him. They would later be joined by a hunter of the name of Arthur Wyndelwax. After staying one night in his forest cabin, he unexpectedly insisted on assisting them.
Personality:
Sigyl is pretty easy going, for the most part. Having grown up under his grandmother's relatively strict guidance, he's hard-working and honest. He's open about the way about the way he feels and isn't shy about expressing his thoughts. Following his grandmother's example, he sees no good in keeping his opinions to himself when something important is on the line, even if his opinion is unpopular.
Sigyl is confident in his own abilities and has some measure of pride, but he's not arrogant. He understands himself to be competant and knows he can handle himself but he also understands that strength isn't absolute. No matter how strong one gets, someone or something is always stronger and he knows that compentant as he is, he may not be able to do things alone. However, it's this view that gives him the courage to push a little further against a strong opponent than some others may not following the idea that even the strongest opponent isn't unbeatable. Unless an opponent is overwhelmingly powerful, Sigyl will at least try and isn't afraid to get a little roughed up if he needs to.
He's friendly enough and gets along with the average person, but he usually doesn't immediately trust people who are wealthy or are otherwise in positions of great authority. After the death of his mother, he came to believe that those with wealth or power will step on those with less to obtain more for themselves; he's more likely to trust an authority figure if he feels they're similar to himself, i. e. someone who works hard, an everyman kind of person. This is also why he's willing to stand up for the little guy; every day people ought to stick together against those that would step on them for their own benefit.
Abilities:
Physical Strength
Having grown up on farm, Sigyl spent a good part of his life doing a lot of physical labor and is probably a little stronger than the average person; he won't be single handedly punching out monsters, but he can hold his own in a brawl.
Magic
(cw: mentions of accidental death and self-harm)
Sigyl has magical abilities. Magic in Sigyl's world consists of channeling the ever-present energies of the world through one's body and expelling it back into the world in a different form, though it puts some strain on the body. It's something that pretty much anyone can learn, but it's easier when one has magical lineage, i.e parents/grandparents/other blood ancestors that have learned and can perform magic already.
The more energy one channels into a spell, the stronger it is at the cost of longer casting time and greater strain on the body; it's not unheard of for magic users to accidentally physically harm themselves or die from trying to cast too powerful a spell to the point where they overwhelm themselves or cannot expel the energy fast enough. For example, someone that tries to cast too many fireball spells in a short period may start experiencing heat exhaustion. Pushing the example further someone who tries to pump more energy into a fire spell than they can handle may end up immolating themselves.
There are typically two ways to gain the ability to handle magic: study endlessly and learn how to properly regulate the flow of energy and/or become physically strong enough to handle it. Sigyl primarily used the latter method, though he's still working on the former. Multiple wizards can cast a powerful spell together to alleviate the strain, but they have to maintain some form of physical contact and also they all have to generally know what they're doing.
There are of course, other forms of magic but Sigyl primarily knows what is called "burst" magic wherein the energy expelled from the body takes the form of bursts of energy, ex: fireballs, blasts of cold wind, blasts of lightning, etc. He still can't cast spells that are too powerful without hurting himself, though. For example, He can blast a hole in a wall large enough to walk through, but he's not going to be knocking down a building with a single blow.
Alignment: Thras. Sigyl's journey starts with the intent of facing a fear that's sat within him for many years, but the bravery to face this fear is what pushes him to continue.
Other:
General Sample: General sample
Emotion Sample: Emotion Sample