Auron Dunwalde

Auron's story is one forged by the fires of war, and the pang of loss. The fall of Ala Mhigo to the Garlean Empire took everything important to him in a single night, his home, his family, his future. He was just a boy then, and the following Hyur Exodus across eorzea saw him land in several locations before the outskirts of Ul'dah. He was left alone, and broken. Raw and untempered, and so a great crime saw him thrown to the wolves in the Ul'dahn Colliseum. To fight, perform, and kill for the enjoyment of others. The Coliseum taught him that just survival wasn't enough, that people needed 'presentation', 'entertainment'. Something for people to believe in, and so he became that. He learned to be loud, to be magnetic, to be devastatingly capable in a fight, redeveloped into a tool to make his sponsor rich. It became the formulative experience to who he is today. Even today Auron remains a charismatic, quip-cracking, mercenary that fills the room he inhabits. Though if you're not paying close enough attention, you may miss the grief running underneath like a river beneath ice.Auron has always portrayed himself as strong, a pillar for others to lean on, but whats compelling isn't just his strength alone, its what it cost. He fought for his homeland, buried friends and comrades, walked away from a cause he believed in before it fully consumed him, and still to this day cannot fully outrun the question that burns in the back of his mind. "Was this all worth it?". He is a man perpetually in motion, the 'unstoppable force' in his mind. He hates stillness and idleness, the less time he has to ruminate on the past, the better... or atleast he thinks so. For all the weight on his shoulders, he's not a broken man. He is a stubborn one. He loves fiercely, fights ferociously, and puts his whole being to bare time and time again. He has a frustrating, irresitable habit of becoming exacly what the people around him need, even when he can barely barely hold himself together. While he would never call himself it, he's a hero not by design, but a want to keep people from the same paths he was forced into.

History

WIP, This is more a long summary of his story and only really touches on what happens and does not explain his thoughts, feelings, and general characterization which is much easier to express through actual RP.

PRE-FALL

The Dunwalde Family were what Ala Mhigo could call a 'great family'. Not royalty by any means, but given title and purpose in upper echelon of pre-imperial ala mhigan society. Derron Dunwalde was a name that carried weight. Derron was a decorated veteran of the Autumn War, a real soldier's soldier from the line of Dunwalde's before him, many of which were Fist's of Rhalgr. Derron, however, despised the Fists. He traded the path of a monk for a seat at the table of the common man. His wife Mira was the shrewder of the pair, a merchant woman with a keen instict for politics and people. She was istrumental to what Derron built, and loved each other dearly to their last. They were formidable, and their children were all expected to be the same.Efraim, the eldest, took to that expectation naturally. He is composed, disciplined, and the kind of son that made his father proud without needing to be asked. Auron was the other boy. Loud, stubborn, perpetually picking fights with people twice his size, and almost allergic to doing what he was told. He was not so much a bad child as an untamed one, all fire, no direction. The gap between him and his brothers reputation clung to him like a shadow. Rina, is the third child, and the only daughter. While the youngest, she showed the keenest mind and excelled in her early development. She had the potential to steer the house like her mother had before her, however...The Garlean Invasion ended the Dunwalde story before it could reach a proper conclusion. The Mad King had been disposed of after a revolution that Derron had a role in, but before sovereignty could be re-established the Garleans invaded. The city fractured and not at all prepared after the long revolt. Derron hurriedly sent Mira and the young Auron and Rina away from the fighting, ushering them to escape the city and flee to safe location. An order that auron unfortunately could not bring himself to follow. He was young, angry, and wanted to help even if he was far too young to be on the frontlines of a war. He had the childish faith that his father alone could hold back the empire, to the young boy Derron was like a god. He was wrong on all counts. When the battle reached the streets of the city, Derron found his son in the thick of it, running supplies to soldiers and helping with defenses. Auron had never seen his father so furious, the first time he could ever recall such fury in his eyes let alone towards his kin. He didn't understand the severity, too young to understand much of anything going on around him, but still he fled home to reunite with his mother and sister so they could evacuate together. Auron arrived too late. He found his mother bleeding out on the kitchen floor of the family estate, she had managed to stick the soldier attacking her and they were both soon to bleed out, and the garlean primed a ceruleum explosive. Caught between the soldier and the blast, Mira's last act was one of protection, throwing herself between the blast and her son. The boy who left that house was forever changed from the one who had walked in. His mother dead before his eyes, his sister taken and missing, and the fate of his father and older brother unknown in the fighting.What followed was the exodus. Hundreds of displaced Gyr Abanians pouring out of the fallen nation with nothing but what they could carry. Some looked to Auron with hope that his father was there, that someone could lead them. The dunwalde name still had meaning even in ruin... but he had nothing to give them. He was young, ash-covered, and carrying grief he had no language for yet. The road was long and arduous and he talked very little, turned away in the shroud and forced through the sagoli desert that nearly finished what the Garleans started. By the time survivors reached thanalan, the name of his family was just another piece of a world that didn't exist anymore, and Auron was left to figure out what, if anything, came next.

REFUGE IN ULDAH

Ul'dah offered the Ala Mhigan refugees survival, nothing more. The syndicate's generosity extended precisely as far as it was profitable, and the displaces were a desperate workforce easily leveraged into cheap labor. Many refugees joined the Miner's guild, the markets, or even became mercenaries. Auron came to live in the outskirts around stonesthrow, too miserable with life in 'little ala mhigo' where everything reminded him of his mistakes and grief. He was small then and found work with the Miner's guild. it was grinding, thankless, and exactly what he needed. The camaraderie that slowly formed among the refugee's was the first warmth that he'd felt since the fall. A little makeshift community built from shared misery and a want for survival. It was there he met the Hoffmans. Annika, the grandmother took him in with a matter-of-fact tenderness that came from a woman who'd seen her fair share of suffering to recognize it on others. She took care of him when he was sick, and low spirits alike. Annika's granddaughter, Andrea, became something close to a sister, the first person since Rina that Auron found himself genuinely wanting to protect.That instinct is precisely what got him into trouble later in his early teens. A brass blade had cornered Andrea with intentions that left no room for interpretation. Auron didn't hesitate, he never did. The intervention cost him, he took the worst of the altercation across his face, earning the scar that would define his appearance for the rest of his life. One of the two guards had died, the mining pick too deep to save, the other wanted him hanged for it, or worse. That was until a sharp-eyed Elezen monetarist by the name of Regis Jairmont stepped in, and quietly made the problem dissapear. The price of that 'favor' was straightforward. He witnessed auron kill the guard, witnessed the ferocity, the skills he had honed from Derron's teachings before the fall. Regis wanted Auron to fight for him. In the Bloodsands Coliseum under his management until the 'debt' was settled. It was bondage dressed in polite language, and both of them knew it, however, Auron was in no place to decline.His debut in the Coliseum was not exactly what Regis had hoped for, the boy was a prodigy compared to the other fighters, but there was something lacking. Auron was built for brutal efficiencty, too efficient it turned out. Derron's training stuck, but fights would end before the crowds had time to form an opinion, and a bored crowd was a dangerous one. The thumbs of the monetarist observers turned down more than once, and Auron was forced to deliver deaths he hadn't wanted to give to those who he saw as kinsman. It took a rather withering lecture from Regis, who by comparison was cruel, calculating, and irritatingly correct, to finally get him to change his approach. He reframed how combat was to be, that the arena was a stage and not a battlefield. That if he wanted to 'save' his opponent he'd need to put on a show. Once Auron understood that, everything changed. He learned to perform, to draw a fight out, and to make the crowd fall in love with him before he disarmed his opponent. The Coliseum gave him an audience, and something in him had always craved attention like that. What began as a cage slowly became, against all odds, the place Auron first learned exactly what he was capable of.

THE MASKS

The Coliseum made Auron, and he made the most of it. By the time he'd fought his way out of debt and 'bought' back his freedom from Regis, he had completely flipped their relationship. Regis, was almost like a second father to Auron, albeit not a very good one. The arena, and him, had validated every bad habit Auron ever had. Rewarding his aggression, his cocky showmanship, his relentless need to be the most compelling person in the room. He left Ul'dah a changed man, and not just he amount of gil in his pockets. He gave his goodbye's to the Hoffmans and set out to fulfil a purpose he'd been holding onto since the night his mother died. Revenge. Ala Mhigo was still occupied by the people that shattered his family, and he was finally strong enough to do something about it. He chartered a card east without looking back, carrying with him the absolute certaintly that he was ready... and ran almost immediately into the ONE person guranteed to dismantle that confidence. Efraim Dunwalde. Efraim had survived the fall, but stayed in Gur abania. Rising through the resistance on the strength of his discipline, and the reputation fo their father. He had spent years cultivating the kind of political credibility that he couldn't afford to let Auron touch. The reunion was not warm. Efraim knew about Auron's disobedience and blamed their mothers death, and Rina's capture on him. Every consequence that had followed the fall was pinned on aurons refusal to listen to their father on the night of the invasion. He wasn't entirely wrong either, and that made it worse. A few pointed words in the right ears shut out most of the major resistance faction' doors to Auron well before he had a chance to knock.However, what Efraim's world wouldn't allow, The Grffin's would. The Masks, a group that operated under The Griffin's banner was a radical group fighting for the freedom of their nation, going much further than any other resistance faction dared. A group that followed a faceless ideal rather than any singular leader, designed so that no death could kill their symbol. When they reached out, Auron was desperate and eagerly accepted. He believed he could actually do something here, and rose through their ranks quickly! His training under Derron, and Coliseum-honed skills combined with his fury towards the empire made him exactly the kind of soldier that The Griffin demanded.It was amongst the Masks that Auron found his people. A motley squadron of fighter who, over years, became the closest thing to a family he had since Ala Mhigo fell. Broken Oar's booming laughter, M'naava's sharp tongue, Mikkael's relentless optimism, Jean's rivalry that neither of them would admit was genuine affection and respect, and Vanessa... His equal, and eventually his partner in every sense of the world. She was everything he wasn't: Precise, controlled, capable of seeing three steps ahead while he was still swinging at the first. She was one of the few people who could really read him, and often called him out... which he hated, but definitely needed. They planned a futute together, quietly and against all odds, in the margins of a war that seemed like it may actually be winnable.This wasn't built to last, The Griffin that had founded the masks was subtly replaced. The rouge crystal brave, Ilberd, had usurped the mask and discarded everything underneath it and what it stood for. Where the original Griffin had been ruthless in service of liberation, Ilberd was much the same, but 'no matter the cost' took on a meaning that grew harder to stomach with each operation. Auron followef far longer than he should have, but his hunger for vengeance kept pace with the groups escalating extremism just long enough to implicate him in things he couldn't take back. It wa the plan to masquerade as the Eorzean Alliance soliders and force a war at Baelsar's wall that finally broke his loyalty. Dragging foreign soldiers into an Ala Mhigan war was a line he couldn't cross. Not for The Griffin, not for Vanessa, who chose the cause over him when it came to it. After a confrontation that left him beaten and tossed asside, he walked away from the operation the day of. The Wall assault ended in a slaughter, his entire squadron wiped out in Ilberds effort to summon the primal Shinryu. Every name, every face he had known since arriving in the masks, Gone. Auron had left to keep his conscience intact, and the price of that decision was everyone he had come to love the past few years.

Current Events

Baelsar's Wall broke something in Auron that even the Coliseum, the exile, and the fall of Ala Mhigo hadn't managed to. He'd walked away with his principles intact, but lost the people he loved because of it. No matter how he approached it, the math didn't balance out no matter how many times he ran it. The nightmares that followed him out of Gyr Abania, his suadmates' faces twisting into accusation in the dark, his father's voice telling him he'd failed everyone that mattered. He stopped sleeping properly. He stopped staying anywhere long enough to be found. He accumulated debt across Eorzea with the casual indifference of a man who didn't expect to need the money for long. He borrowed from syndicates, nobles, gangs all with equal disregard. None of them were able to collect. He had nothing to his name, and he fought like someone who didn't care for the outcome, which made him difficult to bear. When he did get caught he would leverage mercenary work to fulfill the debt. Fighting and combat kept his mind busy, and thats what he needed most. Doing work for whoever would pay. Drifting from place to place, and running from his past. What he couldn't outrun though, was the people around him who refused to let him disappear entirely. Slowly, in the margins of a lifestyle of cyclic self-destruction, people stuck. Old aquantances from Stonesthrow, fellow mercenaries who'd seen enough of him to recognize something worth sticking by him for, and other pit fighters from various circles. He didn't understand it, didn't trust it, but it changed him anyway. He found his views changed, quietly, incrementally, like the way that water changes the shape of a stone. By the time Ala Mhigo was liberated, Auron found himself, for the fist time in years, wanting something beyond just survial.He returned home for a while, to Ala Mhigo, but it felt wrong.Sure, he had earned his way back into grudging respect through the war effort, enlisting with the ul'dah free companies and carving out a reputation for himself. Along the way he adopted an Alias he used in underground fight pits, and incognito operations both, as "The Chariot". A name borrowed from a Tarot card he was given by an ally. He wanted to embody the qualities the card represented, or show the traits he already had, depending on who you asked. The distance of an alias proved useful for him, who had a paricularly problematic history. His relationship with his brother eventually healed, Efraim now sitting as a councilman in Ala Mhigo's new republic. They keep each other at arms length professionally, while quietly leaning on each other for the kind of work that needed to be doing outside of 'official channels. Auron was relied on for monster hunts, provincial enforcement from various bandits and others with ill intent, and any other job too rough or too complicated for a politician to acknowledge publicly. It was useful, and it was familiar, but for Auron it wasn't enough. A free Ala Mhigo was something he wanted to share with the people he came to love in the Mask's, but they weren't here to celebrate with him. The city he'd bled for felt like it belonged to someone else's future. A future he couldn't meaningfully contribute to. Peace, as it turned out, was its own kind of problem. One that he had no training for, and no instinct for. He entrusted the future of the nation to his brother, and left to adventure once more.He traveled the world, and what was supposed to be a rest, became much more. Thavnair became entrenched in the Final Days, and Auron gravitated towards the fighting the way he always had, without thinking too hard about the alternatives. It was during the events that he had rescued a young Raen girl from the brink of turning, and then was forced to kill the blasphemies her parents had become. Two acts so close togerher, that they've never really seperated in his mind. He did however, recognize the grief that he'd spent the better part of 20 years trying not to look at directly. He ended up coming back to the orphanage time and time again to visit the girl he dropped off there. He would bring food, gifts, and help the girl whenever he could. When she finally broke the silence spell he learned her name was "Asha". He never formally adopted Asha, but the bond is clearly paternal, and while it wasn't enough to fill everything the years had hollowed out of him, it was real and something he came to value. Ala Mhigo, Ul'dah, Thavnair, Auron moved between all three and beloved fully to none. Now that things have settled, the opportunity to travel abroad presented itself, and he took it less as an adventure but more of an honest admission: the life he was meant to build is still out there, and he was running out of excuses to not go find it, starting a new adventure of self-discovery and what it is he wants to do and be.

Appearance

Height: 6'4"
Weight: 246 lbs.
Build: Athletic and Toned Musculature
Eye Color: Emerald Green
Hair Color: Dark brown
Skin Tone: Olive
Voice: Deep, Cocky tone.
(Voice Claim: Carlos Oliviera)

Auron cuts a striking figure without particularly trying to. At 6'4" and built like a man who's spent the better part of his life either training or fighting, he carries himself with the confidence of someone who has never needed to make himself larger than he is. His features are sharp and expressive, a strong jaw framed by a short scruffy beard, a defined nose, and dark brown hair that falls losely onto his neck and shoulders at their longest. He keeps a gyr abanian styled braid tied back behind the ear opposite of the white gryphon earing. His eyes are a vivid emerald green, quick and observant in a way that contradicts his more casual stance.The scar is the first thing people notice. A deep horizontal line cleaved cleanly across the bridge of his nose, old enough to be a permanent fixture of his face rather than a fresh wound, and worn without ant particular self-consciousness. His style runs toward the practical with a stylish flair. He favors layered coats in either white or dark leathers over padded armor, often with red accents that catch the eye. He most commonly uses a greatsword that is slung across his back, large enough to bring pause how he uses it with lighter armor, and the answer is almost routinely: Faster than expected. Light on his feet, agile, and strong enough to capitalize on mistakes or a lapse in guard. His voice is deep and his tone is almost always drenched in that arrogant view of himself, even when he's saying something of little import.Notable Scars - Head: Horizontal slash across his nose.
Torso: Thin Stab scar just below his left Clavicle, long thin scar along right ribs.
Arms: Right forearm has a grisly scar from a bite of some large animal. The left arm has a deep knife would near the elbow. His hands and wrists are damaged from unarmed fights, and are often covered by wraps due to their appearance.

Basics

Name: Auron Dunwalde
Age: Late 20's
Gender: Male
Race: Highlander Hyur
Nationality: Gyr Abanian/Eorzean
Birthplace: Ala Mhigo
Job: Mercenary, Monster Hunter
Sexuality: Bisexual
Relationship: Single
Aether Aspect: Fire
Jobs: Monk, Warrior (Just uses the DRK greatsword)

Skills

Weapon Training-Unarmed
-2 handed weapons
-Swords
-Guns and crossbows
-Daggers/knives
-Aether Manipulation (Novice)Combat Skills-Training
-Tactics
-Monster Lore & AnatomyAdditional Skills-Minor Alchemy
-Herbalism
-Cooking
-Survival Skills
-Ala Mhigan PoliticsFighting Styles-Muay Thai
-Boxing
-Kick Boxing
-Judo

Likes/Dislikes

Personality

extroverted / introverted / in between
disorganized / organized / in between
close minded / open-minded / in between
calm / anxious / in between
disagreeable / agreeable / in between
cautious / reckless / in between
patient / impatient / in between
outspoken / reserved / in between
leader / follower / in between
empathetic / apathetic / in between
optimistic / pessimistic / in between
traditional / modern / in between
hard-working / lazy / in between
cultured / uncultured / in between
loyal / disloyal / in between
faithful / unfaithful / in betweenhonest | trustworthy | thoughtful | caring | brave
patient | selfless | ambitious | tolerant | lucky
intelligent | confident | focused | humble | generous
merciful | observant | wise | clever | charming
cheerful | optimistic | decisive | adaptive | calm | loyalmoody | short-tempered | emotionally unstable | whiny
controlling | conceited | possessive | paranoid | liar
impatient | cowardly | bitter | selfish | power-hungry
greedy | lazy | judgmental | forgetful | impulsive
spiteful | stubborn | sadistic | petty | unlucky

RELATIONSHIPS

Key

★● - Rinh'a Nhari: Someone he met through a mutual 'friend' named Nio. The two don't have the closest of relations due to their closed off nature, but Auron would consider him a friend. Usually meeting in fight events, or through mutual business at The Crown the two often have a teasing relationship but hold respect for one another. Rin helped Auron with learning Aether Manipulation and how to better control it. Although Rin and Nio's teachings bordered on the Insane, they seemed to have worked out in his favor, Auron's natural endurance allowing him to deal with the drawbacks of brute force techniques.★● - Nio Jiin: A classic take of 'Frienemies'. Much like his other friendships its centered around violence, teasing, and being a general asshole to one another. Nio helped Auron learn to control and manipulate his Aether alongside Rin. Their 'teaching' somehow worked for the better or for the worse as it set Auron on the path to becoming the Monk he is today. He thought Nio was dead after a tragic accident where her home blew up, but it seemed she faked her death and is now back to hound and annoy Auron whenever they happen to occupy the same space.★● - Sa'ran Hotgo: Saran was one of the first contacts Auron made with the Collective, An organization that he was a part of for a while. She quickly gained his respect for her battle prowess and leadership skills. He assisted her with various missions and jobs while he served under her, eventually taking over her division once she was made co-leader of the collective alongside her husband Jebei. While Auron is no longer a part of the collective he still views Sa as a good friend and tries to catch up when he can, most oftenly through spars.★● - Toshi Katsu: While most see Toshi as the 'Crazy Frog Man' Auron got to know the person behind the mask. The two were both division leaders of the collective for a time, and both departed from the organization at the same time and for the same reasons. While always a bit 'nonconventional' the Xaela has always offered good counsel and Auron values his takes on people and groups.

Thanks for reading! I am located in the MST, but my times vary depending on my schedul. My most common time on is the evening hours-Night hours for RP, you may see me around earlier as I work from home but I usually try and devote the daylight hours for content and work.Please be respectful of OOC/IC, some of the knowledge in this Carrd isn't available for everyone to know! If you metagame me I will be upset and likely will ignore it.I prefer Para RP but I am fine with shorter posts back and forth. Generally I mirror others posting patterns. In busier places and events I default to short posts though to not clog up the chat.I love long term plots and stories, while I prefer things to be organic feel free to whisper me in game if you want to start a plot, or involve Auron in one of your plots. I give out discord to people I trust and have RPed with before. If you are one of these people I am fine with discord RP, just know I'm slow to respond on there.All roleplay partners must be over the age of 18 IC & OOC.This character is by nature a bit darker due to his past and the plots I engage in.NO ERP SOLICITATION. Please dont spontaneously ERP at me. Romance RP is fine, RP that leads to ERP is fine. Give me the burn and the build up first. Though dont be surprised if I elect to "fade to black" if its more comfortable.

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