Amalric Farstrike
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Amalric did not choose the mercenary lifestyle. Instead, it chose him, through years of unfortunate circumstance leaving him with little else to rely on beyond his gifts his blood has given him.
He was born near Ala Mhigo, but most of his memories are of Thanalan with the thousands of other refugees scratching out a meager existence in the arid region. With Ul'dah and its territory flooded with desperate people willing to risk their lives for a pittance, life was hard for him and for his father and elder sister. They had fled from the Garleans, but as time passed, that safety was became a small, diminishing comfort. It was not all terrible times for the young Amalric; there were childhood friends and holidays and other occasions to smile, but it was truly window-dressing for a bleak and uncertain future. Over time, his father slowly drifted from honest work, into less-honest work, into scarcely any work at all as his health failed him. Amalric's sister's fate was, as it is rumored, just as sad. Neither lives; Amalric has been on his own for a long time now, and he has had to fall back on the things that Highlanders are known for to make his way in the world. He is not one to dwell, but this lack of roots - no homeland, no close family, and a line of work that can take him anywhere - has always made for a man alone, adrift at sea. Until now. Through a series of a strange events, he's found himself with the oddest 'job' he's ever had: a host at the Rendezvous Host Club, a strange business in the Goblet that opens to the public only a few times a moon. While his job is to serve tea, he's quickly discovering that the Rendezvous is host to far more than the occasional guest, and his fellow "hosts" - strangers of nearly every race, background, and personality - are tied together with the same mysterious fate.
As Highlanders go, Amalric is a typical example of his people, with darkened skin, a strong build, and a habit of shaving away his eyebrows. His flesh is marred with scars from wounds both old and recent, indicative of the hard life he has lived. Portions of his back are especially scarred from burns, but he isn't keen to talk about the cause of it. He sometimes gets self-conscious when shirtless due to them, but the roughness of clothing against the sensitive, rough scarring is sometimes enough to make him just put up with prying eyes.
Lightly armored but always armed, Amalric is usually dressed in something bland if you're seeing him in daylight. Sometimes it helps to blend in - as much as a Highlander can in some places, anyway. If he's wearing much color at all, expect it to be green. When in social situations, he's likely to wear something that exposes his muscled arms, which he contends is his best feature, though the influence of his fellow Host Club employees is slowly pushing him to be more fashionable. In battle, though, he values function over form, eschewing any sense of fashion if wearing something else would be more practical. This usually means a lot of leather for maximum mobility. As for weapons, he favors a polearm when working, but is also capable enough with hand-to-hand or daggers, if the occasion calls for it. In all cases, the martial weapons lack much ornamentation and the spear in particular looks to be rather old, though cared-for. Recently, he has added a beautiful wand to his personal armory; it was a gift, and while he is hardly a mage of any note yet, he seems fond of it.
He's not without a moral center, and he does feel remorse, guilt, and/or shame when the occasion calls for it, such as when the job he takes means he's going to shaking down someone that might not deserve it or even have the means to fight back. Mercenaries are just as often hired by those with ill intentions as good ones, after all, but a mercenary with too many ethical objections is a mercenary that goes hungry, so in the past, he has tried to set aside his objections and remind himself of the necessity. Despite his insistence that he holds nothing sacred, though, he does hold a few standards: he will not betray a real friend, kill a child, or do any job that would benefit a slave trade, against whom he holds strong grudge. When his basic necessities and life situations are more secure, though, there are other traits that do emerge. His selfishness tends to melt away into a more protective and nurturing personality that is willing to place the needs and happiness of those around him into that place of focus that he would normally hold his own well-being. Also at odds with his basic persona, he harbors a very romantic streak behind the surface-level flirtatious sensuality he displays publicly, and when in love, will love in a deep and reckless manner than can even run counter to his own sense of self-preservation.
Foundations
Legacy of the Foundlings
A Road Untraveled
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