Name: Rayze Freeman

Occupation: Mercenary band leader/swordsman

Age: 28

Gender: male

Sexuality: hetero

Race/Species: Human

Appearance: Rayze is a man built for battle. From the broad shoulders and stocky build to the way a room collectively takes a breath in if he rises too quickly. To the intense green-eyed gaze tracking someone’s movements, assessing more than watching them. Dark hair surrounds the face, the lower part of which is covered by a scraggly goatee style beard more often than not. Usually out of there being more important things to do than worry about facial hair.

While that is the case, his intense gaze combined with just the right smirk has a way of turning women into giggling schoolgirls. He is very well aware of this and has used it a number of times, but never to get a woman into his bed. He has learned that women often know many of the same things men do about what is going on around town, the rumors spreading faster between women than men in many cases. He cajoles them for information, using his charm and more often than not leaving them wanting without even realizing he’d gone quite that far.

Personality: Rayze has spent far too long as a soldier in one form or another, training to be one as a youth, then moving on to other things later on when battle got to be too much. He can come across as gruff and easily irritated. He is the type of man that when he walks into a room, people notice. When he quiets, people step back. Never far from a sword, and often practicing far more than any sane person not actively fighting a war might.

He tends to boast, often looking for a fight, especially when drinking, yet, can back up his statements with action. Usually. Unless he is drunk. Then, he’s prone to bite off more than he can chew, and pick fights with people Sober Rayze might pass over. He has been known to gamble, another cause of many of those fights, often because gambling and drinking tend to go hand in hand.

He is not the type of man to take teasing well, growing frustrated by it if he doesn’t see it as someone poking him for a fight instead. When asked about his past, Rayze will often either deflect the question, or flat out refuse to answer. His past isn’t something to be discussed in polite conversation, and much of it are things he would rather hadn’t happened in the first place, even if their occurrence is the direct cause to why his mercenary group is so successful.

Abilities/Skills:
Swordsman - Rayze practices constantly, keeping his skill as sharp as the edge of his blade, often choosing effectiveness over flair.

Tactics - Rayze can read a battlefield better than most in his position, seeming to see changes before they happen, able to tell when something is worth the fight, or if it's better left alone. He knows a lost cause when he sees one, weighing out the pros and cons quickly while listening to a situation.

History: Once a prince with far too little concern over the throne, and not the son of the right brother for it to matter anyway, Rayze found his way into the army, choosing to fight for the throne rather than concern himself with trying to sit on it, he found his way into many a battlefield in his day, often over matters that didn’t, well...matter.

Eventually, he left the army, after a lengthy battle with many losses on both sides. While those around him celebrated the win, all he could do was stare out over the blood-stained snowy clearing where the battle took place, with far too many bodies left motionless to count from both sides. The loss of so many affected him deeply, dropping his mood and countenance into a very dark place.

He simply turned, walking off the battlefield and away from the army never to return again, not caring if anyone was sent after him for deserting, but somewhere deep inside knowing no one would. After all, he had royal blood, and from a regime known for doing whatever the hell they wanted. Hence so many pointless battles. He changed his name then, not out of any necessity or desire to hide, but more to distance himself from the crown that caused so much pain for so many people.

Far too much time after that was spent in pubs, drinking away what money he had only to turn around and earn more with the only skills he knew. Far too many times, he also found himself kicked out of pubs for that same temperament that caused him to walk away from a kingdom that might have been his, should the stars happen to align properly, as well as cause him to consider burning that whole kingdom to the ground for the waste of lives it had caused.

Beginning of the Story: Rayze found himself on the losing end of yet another card game, the now empty wineskin tossed on the table next to him the only thing left, soon causing him to flee for his life into the alley behind the pub where he runs into Lys, who helps him.

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