Name: Boyce Farrier
Gender: Male
Hair color: Brown
Eye color: Brown
Height: 5'11“
Weight: 165lbs
Age: 18
Virtue: Fortitude
Vice: Lust
Nationality: Lower Thalian
Birth Place: Traubin, Lower Thalia
Ancestry: 1/2 Upper Thalian (mother), 1/2 Lower Thalian (father)
Favored Weapons: Sabers and other curved swords, parrying daggers
Character Sheet
Brash, young swordsman with an interest in demonology and the occult.
Biography:
The product of a union between a Lower Thalian man named Roth and an Upper Thalian girl, Lyssa, Boyce is unaware of his dual heritage. What he does know is that infernal blood flows through his veins, a “gift” from his mother's ancestry. However, Lyssa had taught her son that angels, devils, and demons were merely creatures from other planes of existence, and that contrary to popular belief, were not inherently “good” or “evil”. Such beings simply promoted certain ways of living, but society's mores labeled them into creatures of light or darkness. As such, she made him promise to keep his heritage a secret, lest people hurt him and hate him because of it. Alas, his mother tragically died before she could teach him more about his bloodline, and his father killed by raiders from Upper Thalia, who kidnapped Boyce and several other village youths for slavery.
After escaping from the slave camps years later and settling in Alestia with the others, Boyce initially started working at the Occluded Rainbow Inn for Bagram Fossil doing various odd jobs. Though he is a shameless skirt-chaser, seemingly hitting on every beautiful girl he comes across, he has a special fondness for Bagram's daughter Liri. They had some sort of secret thing going on at one point, but Liri could never bring herself to trust him.
While his life in Traubin was such a long time ago, he still remembered what Lyssa told him about his heritage. And now that he was in a major city, he could finally do real research into these planar beings that his mother only told him vague stories about. Since Alestia is primarily a city of “goodly” folk, and as such does not look too kindly on the infernal creatures from the lower planes, the amount of information available in the Alestian libraries was quite sparse. The only info he got was about a great war a millenia ago, one between the gods, but manipulated by angels, demons, and devils, the beings even fighting in the Alestian streets at the climax of the war.
He eventually found a wellspring of information in the mercantile district, in a shop specializing in the occult run by a man named Rego Marek. On their first meeting, Rego had an inkling of Boyce's magical nature, though Boyce did not admit the specifics, just as his mother made him promise a long time ago. But with Boyce's interest in demonology, Rego pretty much figured it out. In any case, Rego took a liking to the young man and his seemingly unquenchable thirst for knowledge of the occult. Hiring Boyce part-time as a clerk and stock boy, Rego allows him access to his books on the occult, and his library is quite extensive.
In addition to the occult, Boyce's other main interest lies in swordplay. In his hands, blades had always felt like natural extensions of himself, but it wasn't until meeting the Masayuman sword-master Hideyaki Arima that he learned how good he could be. Following Cassie out of boredom one day as she went to her language lessons in Alestia's Masayuman district, he happened upon Arima's school of swordsmanship as they practiced. Fascinated by the skill and grace of the students, Boyce approached Hideyaki and asked the Masayuman if he could study under him. The master had one of his more advanced students test Boyce's ability, and while Boyce lost the mock combat, his magical abilities (while weak at the time were still noticed by the experienced sensei) allowed him to do way better than expected against a more learned opponent. Hideyaki was a manifest himself, and Boyce was the first prospective student in a while to possess eminence. So, Master Arima accepted him in, knowing the young man had the potential to fully learn all he could teach. Under Arima's tutelage, Boyce has started to learn how to incorporate his clairvoyance into his swordsmanship and better use his magically enhanced speed in combat.
Personality:
Cocky and arrogant, Boyce think he's the gods' gift to women. Somehow, he still manages to do well with the ladies despite acting like he's so great. He also takes great pride in his swordsmanship, feeling combat is a graceful and deadly art. As such, he often tends to show off in battle. Boyce also rarely holds back. If they're not ready to face him in mortal combat, they shouldn't have stepped on the battlefield with him. Never mind that he usually acts quickly enough that they hadn't even yet readied a weapon to face him.
Boyce also tends not to think of the consequences of his actions, particularly when it comes to his dalliances. When he does think ahead, he's literally thinking ahead- peering into the future to see what actually is going to happen. He figures that ability should give him enough headway to keep him out of major trouble, rather than just curbing his behavior like normal people would.
Magical Origins:
Boyce's magical abilities stem from his mother Lyssa's side. Unbeknownst to him, she came from a long line of devil-worshipping cultists based in Upper Thalia. Lyssa's ancestors cavorted with summoned devils in dark orgies, sometimes getting impregnated by their infernal seed. Though diluted through the generations, Boyce's mystical nature stem from these devilish origins. His powers seem to be centered mainly around enhanced movement and foresight, knowing what's going to happen before anyone else does and quickly capitalizing on it.