06-08-2014, 08:20 PM
Name: Ion de Cruz, El Sabio in Etruria, The Hornet in Sacae
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Nation/Allegiance: Independent
Appearance/Description:
![[Image: QUCRrhy.png]](http://i.imgur.com/QUCRrhy.png)
Ion (pronounced similar to jon)is a proudly mustachioed man with brown, wavy hair in the process of turning to gray. While nowhere near bald, his hairline has been receding for the last decade such that he prefers a combination of long bangs and a turban to hide the shame. After all, a receding hairline is proof of a receding soul!
Truly, the body is a reflection of the inner spirit. As such, Ion makes it a habit to keep in tip-top shape. Strong body, strong mind, strong spirit, that is his mantra and he’s not about to let the young pups of Sacae surpass him in any of the three.
His favoured colours are black and yellow, as befits his nickname, “The Hornet”, in Sacae. In truth, the nickname came first--back in Etruria he had many cloaks and he even brought several with him, but once the Sacaens praised him as “The Hornet” he was too embarrassed to wear anything but those responsible for the nickname.
Bio/Backstory:
Ion was born to a prominent family in Etruria, but not as the eldest son. As such, he would inherit nothing and saw fit to do as he pleased, applying himself vigorously to the study of magic, ignoring politics entirely.
By twenty, he had steady work as a seated military officer, training Etrurian soldiers in discipline, swordplay and lightning magic. It was largely a position obtained through the sort of family politics he preferred to ignore, but he also preferred to think of his rank as something he “kept through merit”! They’d have surely replaced him if he was doing a poor job of things, right? You might gain work through your connections, but you keep it through merit!
Even after learning more of the sorry state of his fellow seated officers, he still liked to proudly proclaim such things with a laugh, as advice to others who came to him uneasy about the state of things and their own positions. All the while, he secretly hoped things never came to war as, as high quality as he was certain his own training was, one man could only do so much! All the discipline he drilled was just as quickly undone by the others until finally even the recruits saw fit to ignore and skip out on his training as much as possible. They called him such things as “old fashioned”, mocked his philosophy of strong body, strong mind, strong spirit as “overly serious” and feared his training methods as “waaaaaay too dangerous”. A mage must constantly dance with death! The risk inherent in his training was a risk that, once overcome, would fashion any mage into a man! “Some of us aren’t even men to begin with!” they complained, but ha! Even women can have the spirit of a man!
He put up with the teasing and the complaints and fought the good fight trying to train what recruits he could for five years before finally realizing the futility of his actions. While over the years he’d been praised as “El Sabio” for his published research and instructional and/or motivational tomes, he still got no respect from his recruits, who ignored his training and advice, and the majority of his fellow officers.
Academic praise was nothing before what he truly wanted, which was mentees, the respect of those he trained, people who’d personally use and profit from his advice and training! A man of 25, before he died he wanted to be known for those he trained rather than some things he wrote. So, he left the military and went to Sacae to train real men.
He’d heard of “Yul the Steel Wolf” and his drive to unite all of Sacae and endeavored to join him in fending off bandits, uniting tribes and training other men to do so. While an outsider, he was willing to abandon all ties to Etruria to, for a time, fight alongside and train Sacaens.
It didn’t take long for him to earn their respect and trust and, after doing so, he stayed with them for another seven years before deciding that he’d accomplished most of what he’d set out to do. Now, he has left Yul’s side to seek out new battlefields and new men in need of training, trusting that those he left behind are more than capable for accomplishing their goals.
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Nation/Allegiance: Independent
Appearance/Description:
Ion (pronounced similar to jon)is a proudly mustachioed man with brown, wavy hair in the process of turning to gray. While nowhere near bald, his hairline has been receding for the last decade such that he prefers a combination of long bangs and a turban to hide the shame. After all, a receding hairline is proof of a receding soul!
Truly, the body is a reflection of the inner spirit. As such, Ion makes it a habit to keep in tip-top shape. Strong body, strong mind, strong spirit, that is his mantra and he’s not about to let the young pups of Sacae surpass him in any of the three.
His favoured colours are black and yellow, as befits his nickname, “The Hornet”, in Sacae. In truth, the nickname came first--back in Etruria he had many cloaks and he even brought several with him, but once the Sacaens praised him as “The Hornet” he was too embarrassed to wear anything but those responsible for the nickname.
Bio/Backstory:
Ion was born to a prominent family in Etruria, but not as the eldest son. As such, he would inherit nothing and saw fit to do as he pleased, applying himself vigorously to the study of magic, ignoring politics entirely.
By twenty, he had steady work as a seated military officer, training Etrurian soldiers in discipline, swordplay and lightning magic. It was largely a position obtained through the sort of family politics he preferred to ignore, but he also preferred to think of his rank as something he “kept through merit”! They’d have surely replaced him if he was doing a poor job of things, right? You might gain work through your connections, but you keep it through merit!
Even after learning more of the sorry state of his fellow seated officers, he still liked to proudly proclaim such things with a laugh, as advice to others who came to him uneasy about the state of things and their own positions. All the while, he secretly hoped things never came to war as, as high quality as he was certain his own training was, one man could only do so much! All the discipline he drilled was just as quickly undone by the others until finally even the recruits saw fit to ignore and skip out on his training as much as possible. They called him such things as “old fashioned”, mocked his philosophy of strong body, strong mind, strong spirit as “overly serious” and feared his training methods as “waaaaaay too dangerous”. A mage must constantly dance with death! The risk inherent in his training was a risk that, once overcome, would fashion any mage into a man! “Some of us aren’t even men to begin with!” they complained, but ha! Even women can have the spirit of a man!
He put up with the teasing and the complaints and fought the good fight trying to train what recruits he could for five years before finally realizing the futility of his actions. While over the years he’d been praised as “El Sabio” for his published research and instructional and/or motivational tomes, he still got no respect from his recruits, who ignored his training and advice, and the majority of his fellow officers.
Academic praise was nothing before what he truly wanted, which was mentees, the respect of those he trained, people who’d personally use and profit from his advice and training! A man of 25, before he died he wanted to be known for those he trained rather than some things he wrote. So, he left the military and went to Sacae to train real men.
He’d heard of “Yul the Steel Wolf” and his drive to unite all of Sacae and endeavored to join him in fending off bandits, uniting tribes and training other men to do so. While an outsider, he was willing to abandon all ties to Etruria to, for a time, fight alongside and train Sacaens.
It didn’t take long for him to earn their respect and trust and, after doing so, he stayed with them for another seven years before deciding that he’d accomplished most of what he’d set out to do. Now, he has left Yul’s side to seek out new battlefields and new men in need of training, trusting that those he left behind are more than capable for accomplishing their goals.