Caen
Race:
Elf
Age:
162
Appearance:
165cm (5'5") tall, slender, but tends to wear baggy clothes. Pale skin, light seafoam-green eyes, and silver hair. Looks perpetually tired and also a little nervous. Has a few old scars, but with how covered he usually is, only the ones on his jaw are typically visible.
Personality:
Quiet, reserved, and largely anti-social, but not in a resentful sort of way; more in a "doesn't really get people" way. He's intelligent, highly inquisitive, and needs to have something to do to keep his mind at ease, but generally keeps to himself and doesn't like to be a bother. He's also got a tendency for being obsessive, fixating on things (or people) to the detriment of all else. He wants to do good, and what's right, but when he finds something that matters to him, what's "good" and "right" may just come down to "whatever keeps it (them?) safe".
Skills:
Illusion and lightning magic are his specialties. He's also well-versed in healing and resurrection, but those are skills he learned later, and resurrections are his least favorite thing to have to do. He's only ever been an offensive spellcaster in an actual party before, but he's more than equipped to also be a healer, now.
Background:
Caen doesn't appear to be from elven nobility, but what he is from is largely unknown. He implies he did grow up with and was raised by his fellow elves, but is generally evasive or dismissive on the topic of his upbringing.
Some several decades ago, he was a member of a dungeon party consisting mostly of tall-men, as well as a dwarf and a half-foot. Caen was extremely fond of the entire group, feeling like he fit in well with them and sharing deep bonds with them all—but none more so than the half-foot, Nilcade. As is typical for half-foots, Nilcade was the party's lockpick and trap-disarmer; he was confident, friendly, and highly skilled, as well as being the object of Caen's affections. Having never been in love before, Caen was unwilling to fully embrace that as being what he felt, along with having a typical elven understanding of the passage of time and assuming the opportunity to figure things out would come along eventually.
Eventually, a dive into the group's dungeon of choice tragically ended in an almost-full-party wipe. The healer was one of the casualties, and at the time, Caen didn't know healing magic. Suffering mostly minor wounds himself, he was only able to find one other survivor—Nilcade, who was badly injured. Knowing they were too deep to wait for help and unable to easily find if any of their other friends had survived, Caen elected to try and get Nilcade to safety and to someone who could heal him.
While the wounds Nilcade had suffered would be survivable for a larger person, Caen failed to consider the realities of half-foot biology in his panic, and—without thinking of the potential consequences—removed Nilcade from the dungeon entirely in his quest for aid. Before they reached the town, Nilcade succumbed to blood loss; there was no longer any way to revive him with his soul not tethered to his body.
The rest of the party ended up surviving—a passing mage was able to revive their healer for a fee, and in turn, the healer revived the others who'd fallen. Despite the overwhelming failure of that particular excursion, in the end, Nilcade was the only casualty.
Caen would remain with that party for some time, but he was never the same after that. As the tall-men of the party aged, he became more and more aware of the fact that seeing more of his friends die would be too difficult, and ultimately he chose to start traveling alone, leaving behind the life he'd known and his memories of Nilcade with it.
In the time since, while he's dedicated tremendous effort to becoming a top-grade healer capable of resurrection, Caen still largely travels by himself. He's forgotten how to interact with other races—or anyone, really—and mostly explores dungeons only a floor to two in, longing for nostalgia but aware that he could just as easily lose his life on his own. Maybe that would be preferable... yet, in spite of it all, he finds himself wanting to continue on. Maybe he'll find a new party to join...
Typical Role in Dungeon Parties:
Spellcaster/healer
Four Key Words About Caen:
- Kintsugi: Caen's staff wasn't always his choice of mana-focusing tool. He obtained it after he went solo, and the shopkeeper who gave it to him told him that the crystal at the top had been mended with gold after shattering in the care of its previous owner. Caen finds something about it all very comforting.
- Fixation: Caen gets very focused on very specific things. It can be useful for information or getting a job done, but when that thing is a person, he can become worryingly dependent upon said person for his emotional stability.
- Isolation: It can be argued that Caen's loneliness is something he inflicted upon himself. He's afraid to make bonds again, suddenly all too aware of how fragile and short-lived the other races are. Anyone can be taken away by tragedy in the blink of an eye—why willingly invite that sort of heartbreak?
- Heritage: With no house or family name, Caen's origins are largely a mystery to everyone but him, and he's not telling. His old party used to joke that he was a convict who escaped the elven kingdom before his ears could be notched; even they had no idea who he'd been before he met them.
