So in hopes of getting a little more feedback on my concepts, I've decided to flesh them out a little before deciding which one to run with. For now, I've narrowed it down to two. I
could try to build both before the deadline, but that's a tall order to get done by Wednesday.
Armand's mother was once one of the foremost minds behind the development of new weapons for Alkenstar, pushing the limits of hybrid applications of alchemy and Alkenstar's firearm technology. Some within Alkenstar deemed her research too dangerous, too radical, and tried to have her experiments shut down. Determined to pursue her research and unwilling to surrender her progress, she fled Alkenstar, knowing her husband, a shieldmarshal, would never condone such a course of action and would attempt to talk her out of it. She did not flee Alkenstar alone, however, though she did not realize until later that she carried with her their child.
Armand was born in Thuvia, and remembers some of his childhood there, but eventually his mother's past caught up with her, and they were forced to flee. After all, where else would someone looking to push the limits of hybrid alchemical technology go? It was only a matter of time before they were discovered.
Life on the run eventually led to Port Peril (an itinerant lifestyle did not lend itself well to research), where Armand's mother became an apothecary by day, and a dealer in firearms and firearms repair by night. While Armand's training was mostly focused on mastering the skills of an alchemist and apothecary, he did learn to defend himself with a firearm as well.
One night less than a week ago, however, he returned home to find his mother gone, vanished. While some prototypes she had been working were taken, some were hidden in a secret cache only the two of them knew, along with her notes and the blueprints. The fact that these were left behind, more than anything else, tells him that she did not go of her own volition – she would not have left without these.
From his childhood on the docks of Port Peril, Orithyiakles dreamed of flying (literally and figuratively). While it was as distant a dream as the secret dreams some others held in their heart of claiming the position of Hurricane King, in this world of sorcery and wonders, it was not beyond the realm of the possible. And so, from his youngest days, he scurried and hustled to earned every copper and silver he could, cleaning decks and taverns and delivering messages. Finally, once he thought he'd earned enough, he went to a local adept, hoping his coin would be enough to buy the tutelage of a mentor, just the barest of magics, the cantrips, the orisons. All that he'd worked so hard to earn, though, was laughed at as a mere pittance. The other wonderworkers he went to were no more generous, no more kind. One night of bitter tears later, he began to hustle twice as hard as before. Even when he was finally able to muster the lucre to afford lessons in magic, it broke his heart to learn he had no talent whatsoever for spells or spellcasting... though, in that moment of overwhelming emotion, something more primal, more elemental unlocked inside him. It was something raw and unrefined, but it was his only hope to achieve his dream.
It was then, as his powers have blossomed, that Orithyiakles learned that he was but a babe, he was smuggled from the Iblydos archipelago to hide him from the wrathful gaze of his powerful and jealous stepmother, and that the man he has known as his father all his life is not, in fact, his birth father. His father cautioned him against flaunting his power, but deep down, Orithyiakles's instinct tell him that in order to grow this power inside him, he must continue to use it, to challenge himself, to push himself to his limits and beyond.
Suggestions for faceclaims/character images are welcomed, as I've never been very good at that unless the character is inspired by the image.
