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Description
Character retired February 5th, 2021

BASIC INFORMATIONName: Terho Ahuiliztli
User: J-Haskell
Mode: Collector's
Rank/Occupation: icauhtli to Queen Tuonetar
Species: Human
Ethnicity: Padwellan
Height: 5’6 pre-Blessing
Age: 19
Date of Birth: May 10th, 484 A.E.D
Gender: Male (trans)
Sexuality: Bisexual
Magic: Familiar - Water
Runes known [3/4]: Water, Push/Repel, Glitter
Potions known [2/10]: Antitoxin potion, Glitter potion
Location: Heronhall, Padwell

PERSONAL INFORMATIONPersonality:
+ [ Observant ] Terho doesn’t like to be caught off-guard and always keeps a watchful eye on his surroundings when he’s alone or with strangers. He’s good at noticing small details in other people’s appearance and behaviour and forming opinions based on that.
+ [ Determined ] When he sets his mind on something, it takes a lot to get Terho to give up. He doesn’t just expect things to go his way because he wants it to, though, and is willing to put the time and effort into practicing and studying to learn new skills and hone his existing talents to succeed.
+ [ Caretaker ] Enjoys helping those he cares about, especially with things they’ve got a passion for, but not babysitting them. Unless they have an injury or are very young/old, Terho expects others to have at least a passing ability to care for themselves.

= [ Active ] Always likes to be doing something; repairing homes, hunting, exploring, working on honing his abilities with Loch… ‘Spare’ time often feels like wasted time, if you ask Terho.
= [ Principled ] While he knows that the world is far from perfect, Terho also believes that people shouldn’t be cruel to each other. He tries his best to be the kind of person he could be proud of and believes that everyone should strive to do the same. Although he’s well aware that few people actually do.
= [ Independent ] Terho is largely self-sufficient and doesn’t accept help from other people easily.

- [ Guarded ] Terho doesn’t trust strangers and often expects the worst from other people. He’s suspicious and can come off as a bit cynical and pessimistic at times.
- [ Stubborn ] At best Terho’s determined and at worst wildly reckless in his commitment to what he sets his mind to.
- [ Worried ] He’s scared for the future of his family and of Padwell as a whole, and that drew him to return home from studying Ironbrook after only a year. Terho desperately wants the people and places he calls home to be safe, but fears that whatever efforts he makes to try to ensure that will be worthless if another war does happen.

History:
Childhood (484 - 502 A.E.D)
Terho was born on May 10th, 484 A.E.D in the tiny border village of Falsestep. His parents, Atl and Zolin, were both dedicated border guards for the Redwings, and had been fighting knights since they were old enough to use a weapon with any semblance of confidence. Although the war had grown quiet, they didn’t want to leave their post, even to raise their child, and left him in the care of Zolin’s parents.

They feared that without constant vigilance, the knights would renew their efforts to take over Padwell once more; so they returned to their duties. Over the next few months and into the following year, they fought along the border, chasing off squads of knights and soldiers to keep towns like Falsestep and their inhabitants safe. Maybe, if they could keep this up for a few more years, peace would be declared and they could return home and raise their child.

Unfortunately, that never came to be. In August, 485 A.E.D, they and their group of allied Redwings clashed with a group of knights at the border. Atl and Zolin were killed, and all that Terho remembers of them is the death masks hung in the family’s shrine; he feels guilty about that. They were his parents, surely he should feel more than just soft grief at the loss of that potential connection… but he can’t change that, no matter how much he wishes he could.

The war ended in 494 A.E.D when Terho was ten years old. His grandparents, Meztli and Ehecatl, were starting to feel the weight of their years and as a result, began taking him with them on their hunts and training him in the skills he’d need to survive. By thirteen he was the primary provider of food for the family and did most of the heavy lifting around the house. While many others in Falsestep offered - and sometimes did anyway - to help the small family, Terho usually refused. He already took pride in the fact that he could take care of them despite being so young and didn’t want to accept assistance he didn’t need.

It was on one of these trips that he first encountered an odd 'statue' sitting on a rock in the deep marshes. It unsettled him at first, but he quickly grew used to and even fond of the thing as a familiar face in the wilds. He couldn't help but wonder why it was there, and who had created it.

In January 499 A.E.D, something happened that changed things for him. He was yet to celebrate his fifteenth birthday. That morning, on his way to his usual hunting spot, he passed by the statue. Nothing seemed wrong immediately, at least until he felt something push at his canoe from below. It was then that a false serpent emerged from the water, clamped its jaws down on his arm, and dragged him under.

For an instant, all he could process was pain and a red haze in the water, then out of sight, the ‘statue’ revealed itself to be something else. It leaped off of the boulder it had sat on for years, plunging into the water and killing the false serpent. It carried him back to his village while Terho passed in and out of awareness; all he could remember was that his arm hurt, something reassuring reaching towards him, and reaching back.

He woke up a few days later. Though the not-statue had saved him, his arm was a mess and quickly became badly infected; the village healer saw no other course than to amputate it, and Terho did his best to accept this. The not-statue introduced themselves as Loch; they were a Familiar, and the two of them had ‘formed a bond’ when he’d been attacked by that false serpent. They had hoped it would help him remain conscious on the way to get help, and it had worked!

While Terho recovered from his injury and got to know Loch, the rest of the village worked together to feed him and his family. While he knew he’d have done the same for anyone else, he still hated needing help and hated that he couldn’t care for his own grandparents. He threw himself into learning to use his other arm on its own and after a few months had the confidence to begin hunting again. With the help of his grandmother, Meztli, he made himself a rudimentary prosthetic to replace his missing arm.

It was around this time that word of what had happened and the appearance of a Familiar had travelled from Falsestep and even reached the Queen’s court, and he received a summons that filled him with a mix of excitement and confusion. Why would the Queen want to see him - he was a fisherman from the middle of nowhere. But he couldn’t ignore a request from the Queen, and so he and Loch made their way to the city of Maddox.

He’d never left Falsestep before, which was tiny even for a village, and the sheer size of the capital shocked him. Terho spent an hour completely lost before he finally gave up and asked a random guard for help; Loch laughed at him the whole way to the Queen’s meeting hall.

It was a small gathering, he would learn later, compared to what court sessions normally looked like, but standing in the presence of the Queen and the former leader of the Redwings was still nearly too much for him to take. Loch kept him grounded by reminding him that he’d almost gotten eaten by a false serpent - surely he could handle a chat with two old geezers? The answer was yes. Barely.

Queen Tuonetar explained the situation of Padwell in a surprisingly candid manner; they would likely not be able to withstand Xocrium in a future war. He wanted to interrupt then and say that she had to be wrong, but she was the Queen who had led them to victory in the first place; if anyone knew their chances, it would be her. If they wanted to stand a chance, then they needed to learn from other nations in the Realm, and that she wanted to send him to Ironbrook to study their use of magic and technology.

Terho did not understand why she would pick him and asked as much; again, the honest answer was that Ironbrook had nothing but disdain for most outsiders. They would respect someone with magic, like a Familiar at their side, and even more a member of her family.

By the end of the day, dazed, Terho walked out of the Queen’s hall having agreed to become an icauhtli and head to Ironbrook. He would not be the only one sent, she had assured him, but he still felt like he was going to be ill. Loch made fun of him for being so overwhelmed and shoved him into the water ‘to knock him out of it’.

He and Loch left a year later. In the intervening months, Terho brought his grandparents to the capital, and uneasily left them in the care of others, as well as became a bit more familiar with his and Loch’s magic. Finally, not long before leaving, he worked with one of the scientists in the Queen’s court to create a more complex prosthetic.

Study Year in Ironbrook (502 - 503 A.E.D)
The trip wasn’t fun. He arrived in the late fall of 502 and decided that the weather in Ironbrook was really not for him. Still, he wasn’t there to have fun, and he’d promised to stay for at least a year to study.

And study he did. Travelling between cities as a ‘representative of Padwell’ and a ‘young student’, he picked up on a few Runes and Potions. But the longer he lingered in the nation, the stronger his fears of another war grew. What if he was here when it began, and he couldn’t get home? What if they lost and he’d get trapped in faraway Cyr for all his life, never to see his grandparents again or know the Marsh King’s embrace in death?

Loch assured him that none of that would happen and that he was helping his homeland by staying in Ironbrook right now, but he questioned that. He eventually arranged for passage back home in mid-October and returned to Padwell in late November with Loch at his side.

Ongoing Story (503 A.E.D Onwards)
After spending a few weeks with his grandparents in Maddox - where, apparently, they’d been given a house by the queen while he’d been gone - Terho’s fears drove him to seek out a priest of the Marsh King passing through the city. He wanted to do more for Padwell, and the Blessing seemed like the next step, now that he was home and had learned what he could in that year away.

Loch, surprisingly, supported him in this. ‘A nap for a few months? Count me in!’ And so they set off to Heronhall, to undergo a secretive ritual and enter the Marsh King’s realm. Unspoken, of course, was the hope that he might… encounter his parents there, and get to know them on a level that had been denied to him before by their deaths. Or, at the very least, have a memory of their faces.

When they entered the home of the priesthood, Terho paused to stare at an old carving on one wall that looked… like Loch. The Familiar just shrugged; they had no memories of it. Perhaps they’d been here long ago? Who could say for sure?

He didn’t have time to linger on that, though; he needed to speak to the head of the priesthood to receive their approval to undergo the Blessing. They were quiet and… calm, yes, listening carefully as Terho explained his reasons, with Loch occasionally interjecting with their own. After he’d finished, he waited for a few minutes in silence for the decision.

They just nodded, and Terho was led away by the other priests to undergo preparations for what was to come. He allowed himself a small twinge of anxiety as he downed the potion and felt Loch’s reassuring touch on his thoughts and promise to stay with him over the next few months, no matter what happened, as sleep took him and his vision darkened.

That was December 11th, 503 A.E.D. Terho and Loch remain in the Marsh King’s realm even now, exploring the dreamlike swamp in the form of a blue tree-flyer and a vinesnake respectively.

RELATIONSHIPSLoch (Familiar): I owe my life to Loch. If they hadn't jumped in when they did, I'd be dead. They’re a good friend, but sometimes I fear that I don't really give them as much in return as they deserve.

Kazimir Wolpertinger (NPC): he’s… fine. You know, he almost poisoned himself with some flower he’d imported from Padwell; didn’t know that the pollen was deadly and tried to sniff if. Sniff it. Other than that Kazimir seems nice enough, although I don’t really understand the point of most of his experiments. The weird rabbits are cute, I guess.

Queen Tuonetar (NPC): I still can’t believe I met the Queen, let alone became an icauhtli and an ambassador. I know most of it’s thanks to Loch, not my own efforts, but it's still far more than I'd expected.

EXTRARumours/Reputation: one of Queen Tuonetar’s younger icauhtli that recently returned from a year studying magic in Ironbrook… who then almost immediately set out to Heronhall to seek out the Marsh King’s blessing.
Voice claim: TBD
Theme song: TBD
Family:
Meztli (grandmother) and Ehecatl (grandfather): As his parents were busy fighting against Xocrium, he was raised instead by his grandmother and grandfather. Although it was only meant to be a temporary affair, his parents died only a few years after his birth in one of the last border skirmishes of the rebellion. Due to their age, from thirteen onward Terho was the main provider of food for the family.
Atl (mother) and Zolin (father): Terho’s parents were border guards who fought in a number of skirmishes against Xocrium during the war. They lost their lives on August 20th, 485 A.E.D, a year after their child was born, fighting knights at the edges of the Mire. Terho doesn’t remember them at all.Extra notes:
Bonded with Loch on January 8th, 499 A.E.D.
His prosthetic arm is made of lightweight metal, with tiny tubes of water in each section. He can control it using his bond with Loch. The water needs to be refilled every few days, as it evaporates. When he can’t reach something, he usually takes it off and holds it in his other hand to get extra range.
Yes, Loch sometimes hijacks his arm and does stupid stuff with it.
Credit to: Character, design and art belongs J-Haskell

Description
Character retired February 5th, 2021

BASIC INFORMATIONName: Terho Ahuiliztli
User: J-Haskell
Mode: Collector's
Rank/Occupation: icauhtli to Queen Tuonetar
Species: Human
Ethnicity: Padwellan
Height: 5’6 pre-Blessing
Age: 19
Date of Birth: May 10th, 484 A.E.D
Gender: Male (trans)
Sexuality: Bisexual
Magic: Familiar - Water
Runes known [3/4]: Water, Push/Repel, Glitter
Potions known [2/10]: Antitoxin potion, Glitter potion
Location: Heronhall, Padwell

PERSONAL INFORMATIONPersonality:
+ [ Observant ] Terho doesn’t like to be caught off-guard and always keeps a watchful eye on his surroundings when he’s alone or with strangers. He’s good at noticing small details in other people’s appearance and behaviour and forming opinions based on that.
+ [ Determined ] When he sets his mind on something, it takes a lot to get Terho to give up. He doesn’t just expect things to go his way because he wants it to, though, and is willing to put the time and effort into practicing and studying to learn new skills and hone his existing talents to succeed.
+ [ Caretaker ] Enjoys helping those he cares about, especially with things they’ve got a passion for, but not babysitting them. Unless they have an injury or are very young/old, Terho expects others to have at least a passing ability to care for themselves.

= [ Active ] Always likes to be doing something; repairing homes, hunting, exploring, working on honing his abilities with Loch… ‘Spare’ time often feels like wasted time, if you ask Terho.
= [ Principled ] While he knows that the world is far from perfect, Terho also believes that people shouldn’t be cruel to each other. He tries his best to be the kind of person he could be proud of and believes that everyone should strive to do the same. Although he’s well aware that few people actually do.
= [ Independent ] Terho is largely self-sufficient and doesn’t accept help from other people easily.

- [ Guarded ] Terho doesn’t trust strangers and often expects the worst from other people. He’s suspicious and can come off as a bit cynical and pessimistic at times.
- [ Stubborn ] At best Terho’s determined and at worst wildly reckless in his commitment to what he sets his mind to.
- [ Worried ] He’s scared for the future of his family and of Padwell as a whole, and that drew him to return home from studying Ironbrook after only a year. Terho desperately wants the people and places he calls home to be safe, but fears that whatever efforts he makes to try to ensure that will be worthless if another war does happen.

History:
Childhood (484 - 502 A.E.D)
Terho was born on May 10th, 484 A.E.D in the tiny border village of Falsestep. His parents, Atl and Zolin, were both dedicated border guards for the Redwings, and had been fighting knights since they were old enough to use a weapon with any semblance of confidence. Although the war had grown quiet, they didn’t want to leave their post, even to raise their child, and left him in the care of Zolin’s parents.

They feared that without constant vigilance, the knights would renew their efforts to take over Padwell once more; so they returned to their duties. Over the next few months and into the following year, they fought along the border, chasing off squads of knights and soldiers to keep towns like Falsestep and their inhabitants safe. Maybe, if they could keep this up for a few more years, peace would be declared and they could return home and raise their child.

Unfortunately, that never came to be. In August, 485 A.E.D, they and their group of allied Redwings clashed with a group of knights at the border. Atl and Zolin were killed, and all that Terho remembers of them is the death masks hung in the family’s shrine; he feels guilty about that. They were his parents, surely he should feel more than just soft grief at the loss of that potential connection… but he can’t change that, no matter how much he wishes he could.

The war ended in 494 A.E.D when Terho was ten years old. His grandparents, Meztli and Ehecatl, were starting to feel the weight of their years and as a result, began taking him with them on their hunts and training him in the skills he’d need to survive. By thirteen he was the primary provider of food for the family and did most of the heavy lifting around the house. While many others in Falsestep offered - and sometimes did anyway - to help the small family, Terho usually refused. He already took pride in the fact that he could take care of them despite being so young and didn’t want to accept assistance he didn’t need.

It was on one of these trips that he first encountered an odd 'statue' sitting on a rock in the deep marshes. It unsettled him at first, but he quickly grew used to and even fond of the thing as a familiar face in the wilds. He couldn't help but wonder why it was there, and who had created it.

In January 499 A.E.D, something happened that changed things for him. He was yet to celebrate his fifteenth birthday. That morning, on his way to his usual hunting spot, he passed by the statue. Nothing seemed wrong immediately, at least until he felt something push at his canoe from below. It was then that a false serpent emerged from the water, clamped its jaws down on his arm, and dragged him under.

For an instant, all he could process was pain and a red haze in the water, then out of sight, the ‘statue’ revealed itself to be something else. It leaped off of the boulder it had sat on for years, plunging into the water and killing the false serpent. It carried him back to his village while Terho passed in and out of awareness; all he could remember was that his arm hurt, something reassuring reaching towards him, and reaching back.

He woke up a few days later. Though the not-statue had saved him, his arm was a mess and quickly became badly infected; the village healer saw no other course than to amputate it, and Terho did his best to accept this. The not-statue introduced themselves as Loch; they were a Familiar, and the two of them had ‘formed a bond’ when he’d been attacked by that false serpent. They had hoped it would help him remain conscious on the way to get help, and it had worked!

While Terho recovered from his injury and got to know Loch, the rest of the village worked together to feed him and his family. While he knew he’d have done the same for anyone else, he still hated needing help and hated that he couldn’t care for his own grandparents. He threw himself into learning to use his other arm on its own and after a few months had the confidence to begin hunting again. With the help of his grandmother, Meztli, he made himself a rudimentary prosthetic to replace his missing arm.

It was around this time that word of what had happened and the appearance of a Familiar had travelled from Falsestep and even reached the Queen’s court, and he received a summons that filled him with a mix of excitement and confusion. Why would the Queen want to see him - he was a fisherman from the middle of nowhere. But he couldn’t ignore a request from the Queen, and so he and Loch made their way to the city of Maddox.

He’d never left Falsestep before, which was tiny even for a village, and the sheer size of the capital shocked him. Terho spent an hour completely lost before he finally gave up and asked a random guard for help; Loch laughed at him the whole way to the Queen’s meeting hall.

It was a small gathering, he would learn later, compared to what court sessions normally looked like, but standing in the presence of the Queen and the former leader of the Redwings was still nearly too much for him to take. Loch kept him grounded by reminding him that he’d almost gotten eaten by a false serpent - surely he could handle a chat with two old geezers? The answer was yes. Barely.

Queen Tuonetar explained the situation of Padwell in a surprisingly candid manner; they would likely not be able to withstand Xocrium in a future war. He wanted to interrupt then and say that she had to be wrong, but she was the Queen who had led them to victory in the first place; if anyone knew their chances, it would be her. If they wanted to stand a chance, then they needed to learn from other nations in the Realm, and that she wanted to send him to Ironbrook to study their use of magic and technology.

Terho did not understand why she would pick him and asked as much; again, the honest answer was that Ironbrook had nothing but disdain for most outsiders. They would respect someone with magic, like a Familiar at their side, and even more a member of her family.

By the end of the day, dazed, Terho walked out of the Queen’s hall having agreed to become an icauhtli and head to Ironbrook. He would not be the only one sent, she had assured him, but he still felt like he was going to be ill. Loch made fun of him for being so overwhelmed and shoved him into the water ‘to knock him out of it’.

He and Loch left a year later. In the intervening months, Terho brought his grandparents to the capital, and uneasily left them in the care of others, as well as became a bit more familiar with his and Loch’s magic. Finally, not long before leaving, he worked with one of the scientists in the Queen’s court to create a more complex prosthetic.

Study Year in Ironbrook (502 - 503 A.E.D)
The trip wasn’t fun. He arrived in the late fall of 502 and decided that the weather in Ironbrook was really not for him. Still, he wasn’t there to have fun, and he’d promised to stay for at least a year to study.

And study he did. Travelling between cities as a ‘representative of Padwell’ and a ‘young student’, he picked up on a few Runes and Potions. But the longer he lingered in the nation, the stronger his fears of another war grew. What if he was here when it began, and he couldn’t get home? What if they lost and he’d get trapped in faraway Cyr for all his life, never to see his grandparents again or know the Marsh King’s embrace in death?

Loch assured him that none of that would happen and that he was helping his homeland by staying in Ironbrook right now, but he questioned that. He eventually arranged for passage back home in mid-October and returned to Padwell in late November with Loch at his side.

Ongoing Story (503 A.E.D Onwards)
After spending a few weeks with his grandparents in Maddox - where, apparently, they’d been given a house by the queen while he’d been gone - Terho’s fears drove him to seek out a priest of the Marsh King passing through the city. He wanted to do more for Padwell, and the Blessing seemed like the next step, now that he was home and had learned what he could in that year away.

Loch, surprisingly, supported him in this. ‘A nap for a few months? Count me in!’ And so they set off to Heronhall, to undergo a secretive ritual and enter the Marsh King’s realm. Unspoken, of course, was the hope that he might… encounter his parents there, and get to know them on a level that had been denied to him before by their deaths. Or, at the very least, have a memory of their faces.

When they entered the home of the priesthood, Terho paused to stare at an old carving on one wall that looked… like Loch. The Familiar just shrugged; they had no memories of it. Perhaps they’d been here long ago? Who could say for sure?

He didn’t have time to linger on that, though; he needed to speak to the head of the priesthood to receive their approval to undergo the Blessing. They were quiet and… calm, yes, listening carefully as Terho explained his reasons, with Loch occasionally interjecting with their own. After he’d finished, he waited for a few minutes in silence for the decision.

They just nodded, and Terho was led away by the other priests to undergo preparations for what was to come. He allowed himself a small twinge of anxiety as he downed the potion and felt Loch’s reassuring touch on his thoughts and promise to stay with him over the next few months, no matter what happened, as sleep took him and his vision darkened.

That was December 11th, 503 A.E.D. Terho and Loch remain in the Marsh King’s realm even now, exploring the dreamlike swamp in the form of a blue tree-flyer and a vinesnake respectively.

RELATIONSHIPSLoch (Familiar): I owe my life to Loch. If they hadn't jumped in when they did, I'd be dead. They’re a good friend, but sometimes I fear that I don't really give them as much in return as they deserve.

Kazimir Wolpertinger (NPC): he’s… fine. You know, he almost poisoned himself with some flower he’d imported from Padwell; didn’t know that the pollen was deadly and tried to sniff if. Sniff it. Other than that Kazimir seems nice enough, although I don’t really understand the point of most of his experiments. The weird rabbits are cute, I guess.

Queen Tuonetar (NPC): I still can’t believe I met the Queen, let alone became an icauhtli and an ambassador. I know most of it’s thanks to Loch, not my own efforts, but it's still far more than I'd expected.

EXTRARumours/Reputation: one of Queen Tuonetar’s younger icauhtli that recently returned from a year studying magic in Ironbrook… who then almost immediately set out to Heronhall to seek out the Marsh King’s blessing.
Voice claim: TBD
Theme song: TBD
Family:
Meztli (grandmother) and Ehecatl (grandfather): As his parents were busy fighting against Xocrium, he was raised instead by his grandmother and grandfather. Although it was only meant to be a temporary affair, his parents died only a few years after his birth in one of the last border skirmishes of the rebellion. Due to their age, from thirteen onward Terho was the main provider of food for the family.
Atl (mother) and Zolin (father): Terho’s parents were border guards who fought in a number of skirmishes against Xocrium during the war. They lost their lives on August 20th, 485 A.E.D, a year after their child was born, fighting knights at the edges of the Mire. Terho doesn’t remember them at all.Extra notes:
Bonded with Loch on January 8th, 499 A.E.D.
His prosthetic arm is made of lightweight metal, with tiny tubes of water in each section. He can control it using his bond with Loch. The water needs to be refilled every few days, as it evaporates. When he can’t reach something, he usually takes it off and holds it in his other hand to get extra range.
Yes, Loch sometimes hijacks his arm and does stupid stuff with it.
Credit to: Character, design and art belongs J-Haskell