Approved BT Bio for Baran Dholwin - CC'd by FL

[Arath Faringal]

DM Handle: Grimm

Contact Info: Mactorins[at]yahoo[dot]com

Character Count: Including this one? One.

 

Character Name: Baran Dholwin

Nationality: Cairhienin

Age: 18

Physical Characteristic:

Height: 5'6

Weight: 150 pounds.

Hair: Black, cut close to his head.

Eyes: Dark, almost as black as his hair.

Skin: The kind of pale that can only be achieved by spending most of one's time underground.

 

Physical Description: He is fairly well-muscled, having spent a significant portion of his life working in the mines of his home village, though not as bulky as men who have done the same work for longer. His hands are misshapen and clumsy, after being broken and improperly set.

 

Personal History: Baran was born into a fairly poor mining village near the hills that make up Cairhien's southern border. His mother died in childbirth, leaving the infant to be raised by his father, a hard man whose long hours in the mines barely put enough food on the table for the two of them. Baran's childhood wasn't that much different than many of the children growing up in the area. His father, unlike many men in his situation, did right by his boy. Baran learned what it meant to be Cairhienin from the man. He was one of the first children in the village to develop a quiet reserve, which reflected well upon his father. He was also one of the first children in the village to be put to work in the mines, not because of any urging from his father, but because he was able to grasp the difficulties that his father was going through just to feed them.

 

 

Time passed, and Baran began to grow into a man. As happens with many young men, he developed rivalries with other boys he had grown up with, and while that sometimes lead to a scuffle or two, he maintained most of the friendships that he had formed as a child. Soon they were all shoulder to shoulder in the mines anyway, so being comfortable with each other was probably for the best.

 

 

It was only a matter of time before the promising young man began to injure himself in the mines, it was an occupational hazard, after all. A minor cave-in left some young men without the use of their legs, so Baran counted himself lucky that he had hurt his hands. The village Wise Woman did her best, but her eyesight was going, and her own hands weren't as nimble as they used to be. Still, when they eventually healed, Baran's hands could still grip a pick and shovel, so he figured he didn't have anything to complain about.

 

 

Baran was spending some of his hard-earned coppers at the local tavern when the first Asha'man came to town. Like many of the other people in his village, he was part of the crowd that gathered to see the Asha'man test the handful of volunteers that wanted to see if they could learn to Channel. Like those tested, he felt a soft compulsion to go and be tested, to see if he could learn. He resisted however, and remained hidden in the crowd until after the testing was over. He watched the group leave, satisfied that he had actually seen someone channel in his lifetime, and that the channeler had been a man! The village was scandalized by the development, of course, but life went on, and Baran went back into the mines with a few less friends at his sides.

 

 

His father died a few months later. It wasn't uncommon for miners to develop breathing problems as they aged, and Baran's father was no exception. With little money to pay for a funeral, the son of the deceased, now a young man, took the body out into the desolate plains surrounding the village and burned it.

 

 

He went back to work in the mines after that, now struggling with the almost certain knowledge that continuing to work in the mines would be the death of him. Still, he had known no other life, had no other skills besides the ability to swing the axe and push the load, so he carried on.

 

 

When the Asha'man came again to the small village, Baran allowed himself to be tested. To him, it seemed like the only way to escape the same fate as his father. He didn't want to die unknown, unmourned by anyone except for his family. True, he would likely go mad and die if he learned to Channel, but at least he would have a chance for his death to mean something, instead of struggling for his entire life to earn a pittance only to die with nothing.

 

 

To his surprise, he passed the test. He nodded his assent when he was asked if he wanted to be taken to Tear for training. Because he was Cairhienin, he smiled when he wanted to jump for joy and thanked the Asha'man for the opportunity when he wanted to hug the man. He was, after all, his father's son.

[Mystica]

nicely written, consider it CC'd :)

[Grimmlocke]

Huzzah!

 

That's it, right? I can go out and play now? *Big eyes*

Edited September 13, 2010 by Grimm

[Mystica]

lol, that's up to your Group Leader, Arath. Check with him if there's something else you need to be doing. But in general, yes, that's it ;)