NSW Band Bio for Calder Berrick (Mat Cauthon)

[Taymist]

Character Name: Calder Berrick

RP Group: Band of the Red Hand

Bio Type: NSW Main Character

Gender: Male

Place of Birth/Raising: Emond's Field in the Two Rivers, Andor

 

Weapons:

-double-bladed quarterstaff, with a black haft and blades inscribed with crows and a message in the Old Tongue on one, and a strange sigil on the other, a depiction of a fox and a snake forming a circle around a vortex of some sort. The blades are Power-wrought, and the shaft seems to have been hardened to steel-like strength. The weapon is a ‘gift’ for which Calder paid an all-too-steep price.

-knives. Lots of knives. Probably at least fifteen at any given time, with the potential for more, depending on clothing.

-Also quite capable with a quarterstaff and bow

 

Physical Description: 6’1”, 205lbs, dark brown hair, brown eyes. Calder Berrick is a trim, yet fit figure, standing taller than the average person, though not as tall as his friends Barin Aydaer and Jarron al’Tanin, both of whom he grew up with. He always has a look of mischief about him, as if he is about to play a prank… or has just done so. He is rather handsome, though the look of boyish mischief makes him more attractive. Calder is never seen without a few items: a wide-brimmed black hat, a black scarf, and a silver medallion in the shape of a fox. The scarf hides a deep, rough scar around his neck, as if somebody had tried to hang him. The medallion was another gift received with his double-bladed quarterstaff, paid with the same price. The ring finger of Calder’s left hand bears a scar that runs all around the base of the finger, as if a ring worn there had left the scar. Calder is a gambler, though and through. This habit is supported by his being ta’veren. His mere presence twists chance in his favor almost all the time, and when his luck is really running for him, he cannot lose. The truly magnificent thing about Calder Berrick is his mind. Once full of holes, Calder remembers lives of other men, most of them generals and commanders of armies. These memories have imparted Calder with an encyclopedic knowledge of the ways of war, probably making him the deadliest general in the world. As another side-effect of this memory implant, Calder has utter fluency in the Old Tongue, complete with proper accents and dialects. When it comes down to it, though, Calder would rather carouse, flirt, gamble, drink, and otherwise enjoy life to the fullest than do what he must. However, Calder is always there in the end, never happy about it, but always doing his part.

 

 

 

Character History

 

It was a rare thing in the Two Rivers, in a single village, as a matter of fact, for three children to be born within such a short time frame as the three boys Jarron al’Tanin, Barin Aydaer, and Calder Berrick. Calder Berrick was born to Alharn and Maora Berrick, and from an early age, he displayed a tendency for mischief. Unfortunately for his friends Jarron and Barin, Calder was a rather charismatic youth, and any trouble that he made was invariably shared by his two friends. This trend continued all throughout the trio’s younger years, and even to the fateful day of Winternight in their eighteenth year. It was on that day that Calder and his friends met a woman, a stranger named Mariana Damar, and her guard Logan Allianin.

 

That night, Calder’s world changed completely. An invading force unlike the Two Rivers had seen in a thousand years. Trollocs, led by Myrddraal. Creatures out of the stories, come to life and devastating everything that Calder had ever known. It was only because of the assistance of Mariana and Logan, who revealed themselves to be Aes Sedai and Warder, that the village survived. Saved from creatures out of stories by beings out of stories. Calder found himself becoming anxious. There was a way out of the dull life that he was going to be forced to live in the Two Rivers in these two people, and when they left in the dead of night a few days later, it was in the company of Jarron, Barin, and Calder.

 

Their travels led the group to the long-dead city of Aridhol, now called Shadar Logoth. A mischievous desire to explore, coupled with lust for buried treasure, drove Calder to explore the dead city, dragging the reluctant duo of Jarron and Barin with him. They found treasure, but they also found something that no one had bargained for, the imprisoned spirit of the man responsible for Aridhol’s downfall. In their haste to flee, no one noticed when Calder’s swift hands snagged a lovely gold ring set with a large ruby from the treasure room.

 

The ring carried a terrible price. Calder began to draw in on himself, distrusting any and all around him. The longer he carried the ring, the worse the distrust became. By the time the group had reunited, Calder was no longer the same man. It took Mariana wielding an angreal to finally sever his connection to the cursed ring, but the damage was done. In the severing, Calder lost a lot of his memory. Aside from a few key events, he remembered little from the journey from Shadar Logoth to Shienar. There were also holes in his early memory, from before he ever met Mariana.

 

The group then ventured into the Blight, seeking to stop a plot by the Shadow to “blind the Eye of the World.” In that venture, they had mixed success. The group discovered the long-lost Horn of Valere there, but a change seemed to come over Jarron, as if he had discovered something that he did not like. No surprise there, considering what they had faced at the Eye: the Forsaken were loose.

 

Six months later found Calder at Bandar Eban, holding the Horn. It had been stolen from Shienar, and the pursuit had led to discovering an invading force, the Seanchan. Jarron had rescued some girl from the Seanchan, but now the army was mobilizing to meet another threat. From their vantage point, Calder could see the strange armor of the Seanchan, the bright white cloaks of the Children of the Light, a mixed array of arms and armor from a separate army that marched under a banner with a large red hand print on it, and a smaller attack force of Aiel, of all things. It was there that Calder made the decision to blow the Horn of Valere. As legend said, it called the dead to battle. Calder found himself riding in the charge as the Hornsounder.

 

The group wintered in Bandar Eban, but spring brought a mad pursuit, as Jarron decided to leave in the middle of the night. The pursuit lead the group to the city of Tear, to the Stone of Tear itself. It was at the Stone where Calder first experimented with the idea of fireworks as a weapon, bundling a large roll of fireworks into an arrow slit, then touching off the fuse. The resulting explosion allowed him to slip into the Stone in pursuit of Jarron. Unbeknownst to him, it also allowed another way for a group of Aiel to enter the Stone, leading to the fall of the Stone and Jarron declaring himself the Dragon Reborn.

 

The month in Tear turned out to be educational. Calder had always dabbled in gambling and drinking, but luck was suddenly running wild for him. There were nights where every toss of the dice was a winning one. As his wealth grew, he began playing for higher and higher stakes. Soon, he was playing cards against the High Lords, and though his luck was not as good with cards, he still won far more than he lost.

 

However, Calder was not content with his lot in life. More than anything, he wanted to leave. However, he was somehow… held in Tear. Jarron had found himself a teacher in the Forsaken Ishamael, so Calder suspected that it was a trick of the Power that kept him there. It was only a chance conversation that led Calder to the Great Hold of the Stone of Tear, and to a twisted doorframe. Three true answers, yet Calder’s persistence taught him more than he should have learned. He learned that he had to go to Rhuidean, or face death. He learned that he would marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons, whoever that was. The words, “Go, son of battles! Go, Hornsounder! Go, trickster!” still rang in his head as the snake-like creatures on the other side of that door flung him out and away.

 

Accompanying Jarron to Rhuidean proved to be a painful task. In the city center, Calder found another twisted doorway. Entering brought him to a different race of creatures, these resembling tall foxes. In his confusion at their refusal to answer his questions, Calder expressed a desire to fill the holes in his memory, as well as a means to be free of the Power and a demand to be released.

 

The creatures extracted a price for these requests.

 

Jarron found Calder, hanging from the branches of Avendesora, the rope tied to a black-hafted spear-looking weapon, and a medallion around his neck. What Calder had asked had been given, and the price had been paid for the gift.

With many of the Aiel behind him, Jarron faced a revolt from one clan, the Shaido. When they left the Aiel Waste and entered Cairhien, Calder found himself as part of an army in pursuit. At Cairhien, he began demonstrating part of what he had gained, showing far more knowledge in the way of battle than he should have known, deducing the battle strategy in minutes that the Clan Chiefs and Jarron had figured out over hours of conversation.

 

Calder then went on to demonstrate this expertise on the field itself, leading a group of a couple hundred Cairhienin and Tairen soldiers to victory after victory, picking up stragglers as he went. He never had the heart to tell them that he was trying to escape the battle all together.

 

Calder soon found himself leading the newly-formed Legion of the Dragon, an army that, despite Calder’s wishes, was led more by prideful lords than by Calder. When Calder could get the Lords to submit to his will, the Legion was successful. More often than not, though, the Lords would simply feign ignorance of the stratagems put to them.

 

It was irritation with the idiocy of the bickering Lords that led Calder to once again flee, taking him all the way to Tanchico, where he remained for reasons he couldn’t say. He refused to even think that his ta’veren influence had anything to do with it. However, the Wheel weaves as it wills, and Calder was about to find out that the Wheel apparently enjoyed a good practical joke as much as Calder did.

 

Maybe more so.

 

Updates

Calder, with the aid of the Band, escapes from Tanchico, kidnapping Ruan, the Daughter of the Nine Moons, in the process. With her come her servant and her Court Bard (Asmodean in disguise). Calder returns to The Citadel, home of the Band (based in the foothills of the Mountains of Mist) bringing with him two Illuminators. Secret, tentative experimentation begins with explosive weapons. Calder himself takes over as Commander of the Band. Under him he places his two most trusted advisors; Talmanes in charge of the Legion of the Dragon and Amon in charge of the Band of the Red Hand. The Band currently remain at The Citadel with two sets of Seanchan forces searching for Ruan; one with the aim of returning her to her rightful place, the other with the aim of assassinating her. In the midst of all this, Calder and Ruan will marry.