Cavus

Appearance

Player: Valkoinen

Character Full Name: Cavus Steelbane

Character In-Game Name: Cavus

Nickname(s): None to speak of

Association(s): Forsaken

Race: Forsaken

Class: Warrior

Skills and Abilities: Self trained in most forms of combat, unarmed as well as with many kinds of weapons. Trained as a blacksmith by his father in life.

Age: 27 (Was 18 at time of Death)

Sex: Male

Hair: Long and black, slicked behind his head

Eyes: Yellow

Weight: 168 lbs (Was 171 before Death)

Height: 6' 1"

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: Custom made black plate armor with chain mail surrounding the joints to maintain mobility covers Cavus.

Other: Cavus ia a mercenary, but while he shows little emotion during his work, he's dying on the inside trying to learn the fate of his father after the scourge invasion of Lordaeron. Cavus is also remarkably well preserved due to the fact that he was killed AND raised within a very short time during the Lordaeron invasion.

Personality

Alignment: True Neutral to Chaotic Neutral could cover Cavus. He does what he needs to do and doesn't give a damn what the law has to say about it, as long as he gets paid and isn't too badly messed up.

Cavus Steelbane would, to a stranger, appear to be a hardened soldier and a sellsword with little to no emotion. Some would say its because he has done what he does so well for so long. Others say that he lost his emotion when he was risen as a Scourge Slave, that serving under Arthas wiped all traces of human feeling from his mind. They are all incorrect. Cavus keeps his work life separate from his personal life entirely, and for good reason. Somewhere on the inside, Cavus feels ashamed of what he does, taking lives for money. He knows what he must do however, and to keep his income active, puts on the mask of an emotionless soldier.

On the inside, and in is personal life, Cavus can be an entirely different person. If one were to befriend and get on Cavus' good side to the point he feels he can trust them, they would see a well meaning, troubled soul. Ever since the Scourge invasion of Lordaeron, Cavus has been worried about what happened to his father. He had fallen himself before he could learn whether his father was struck down or had survived the attack, and was never able to truly learn if his father had survived, even after death. In the back of his mind, Cavus fears that he himself might have slain his father after being risen, though he knows the chances of that are slim.

On a subconscious level, Cavus is ashamed that he left the blacksmithing profession to become a sellsword. He is not aware of this himself, possibly due to the transformation in undeath, or possibly due to self suppression. For eighteen years, Cavus' father trained him as a smith and a merchant, to become friends with people, not to kill them. While Cavus has no conscious qualls with his choices, something inside is alive and telling him this isn't what his father would want him to do.

History

Cavus Steelbane was born to Evyneric and Ariana in the Human city of Lordaeron, as were many others. Evyneric was a blacksmith, as was his father before him and his father before him. He was overjoyed that his wife bore him another fine son to continue his name. Ariana was a merchant and a trader, but was not so happy to bear her son.

Ariana Shieldbloom died at birth. Complications during the birth of her son Cavus caused her to undergo intense, persistent hemorrhaging, and she simply was unable to live to see her own son take his first breaths. The safe delivery of the boy was in itself a miracle.

While devastated, Evyneric did not mourn his wife for long. He loved her and had no wishes for her death of his wife, but he refused to let it inhibit his son. And so Evyneric raised Cavus, who was named for the father of the late Ariana.

For all of Cavus' youth, Evyneric raised him to be a smith, like his family had taught him. Maybe he had started young, but it was his way of coping with having no family left. With nothing else to do with himself, he took his son to work, and showed him the forge, and how to work it.

Soon, Cavus knew how to work the forge, and would himself work around it, though he would never even dream of doing the craftsmanship his father did. In his younger years, Cavus was his father's helper. He would fetch items that needed fetching, keep the bellows alive, menial tasks. But when the day was done, the boy would play with the scraps. When his father was not looking, the boy would take the leftover metal and piece it together, creating small trinkets, tools, and once, a very crude blade.

That day is still imprinted on Cavus, the day he made his first weapon. His father had been working a particularly large order, and had to personally oversee a delivery. At this point, Cavus was older, almost into his teens, and trusted the boy to take care of himself for the half an hour to an hour it would take to assure the local clientele received his shipment. Over the years with his father, Cavus became curious about what he was to do, about what the weapons were used for. He knew in theory what they were used for, but his father had shielded him from the horrors of the world. So while his father was out, Cavus created the most simple of the tools of war his father ever made. A blade. There was no hilt, no distinctive features to make it usable as a weapon, but still. The blade itself was sharp, able to cut and pierce. When his father came and saw the work of his son, he was proud to see that the boy could forge at such an age, yet worried that the boy was already making weapons.

Years passed, and the boy matured into a man. By the age of eighteen, Cavus Steelbane was working with his father, in the fires of the forge, making weapons, armor, tools, and trinkets. They were inseparable, always working together, never fighting. They had the ideal father/son relationship, and they were both skilled at what they did. For the years leading to his manhood, Cavus' father had taught Cavus some minor swordplay and tricks with the tools of war they created, and he learned slowly how to become a fighter. Though he had no intention of becoming a soldier or a warfighter.

Not until the Scourge Invasion.

Arthas was beginning an invasion. The hordes of the damned were rampaging the streets of Lordaeron, Cavus' home. Quickly, things turned to chaos. For the first time in years, Cavus did not know where his father was. They had become separated in the chaos, unable to find one another. Cavus, enraged by this fact and that his home was being threatened by these scourge monsters, made a break for the forge. There were weapons there. And those things still bled as far as Cavus could tell. And if it bleeds, we can kill it.

Cavus took hold of two of the finest blades that he and Evyneric kept in the shop. Lethal, sharpened swords the length of his arm. He charged outside and watched the calamity, searching for his father. Perhaps in the adrenaline rush, he managed to keep himself alive and run through the city. By sheer luck, Cavus happened upon the sight of his father and a small group of the scourge monsters quickly closing on him. Evneric was already wounded, holding himself, and unable to continue a fight. Somehow Cavus managed to sneak up on one, and sever its head from its spine, causing it to fall. The other two turned, no longer unaware of Cavus' presence. Cavus knew he had very little chance against the both of them, but he was not about to let his father fall to them. By luck, and perhaps some skill, the second of the undead creatures fell to Cavus' blades. However, that was the end of his victories.

The strangest of feelings emanated from Cavus' stomach, and he could see the outstretched arm of the Scourge in front of him. Looking down, Cavus could see the piercing in his stomach, where the Scourge had pushed straight through his flesh, muscle, and through him. Amazed at the thought of his own death, never having considered it during the siege of his home, he was confronted with a darkness that frightened him. But he looked past the shoulder of his attacker and saw the terrified face of his father, and he knew it was not yet over. To this day, he remembers the next moments as if they just happened.

"Get the hell away from my father you mindless, soulless undead BASTARDS." Cavus said to the creature attacking him. With the last of his strength, he took one of his swords and held it in both hands, shoving it through the broken, gaping mouth of the Undead attacking him. "You will not take my family." After he uttered these last words, Cavus lost the will to fight it. The darkness was seeping into his mind, the haze of death. He stopped resisting it and succumbed to the blackness.

Your story is not over, Cavus. Not yet. Rise and fight again.

Was this real? Yes. Cavus could see again. He was moving. But how? He had died. He had felt death grip him and pull him into the Nether. But somehow, he was still moving. He couldn't control himself though. He couldn't think straight, couldn't control his own body. Was this some sort of dream? Some form of damnation. No, that voice sounded too real. But what was it? Was that voice his imagination, some subconscious part of his mind trying to wake him back up? Or was it whatever was moving him?

Whatever it was didn't matter to him soon. He saw the monstrosities HE was committing. He saw the killing HIS hands were being forced to create. He was a slave to death and Arthas, as were the monsters that claimed his own life. He knew, he knew that everything he was doing was wrong, was a crime against nature, He was an abomination, both in action and existence.

For a year, Cavus mindlessly did the Lich King's bidding. For a year, Cavus committed monstrosities that he felt should put him to death. But he had no power to stop himself. He could not stop the actions he was forced to do by the Scourge Masters controlling him. Then the weakening of Arthas occurred. Some miracle happened that allowed a portion of the Scourge to break away. Sylvanas broke the Lich King's iron will and set a large number of these undead free. Among these free'd souls was Cavus Steelbane. He felt he did not deserve to live after his monstrosities, but he continued to exist, unable to face himself and take his own life.

For the next eight years, Cavus became accustomed to his new "Life." He continued to forge to keep himself afloat, but he was never truly happy. Unable to learn the fate of his father, Cavus simply was unable to be happy. Over time, he went from smith to mercenary, teaching himself to use the instruments of death he makes. Now he creates his own tools, armor, and weapons for his trade. When the Forsaken joined the Horde, Cavus could not care less. He has no loyalties to the Forsaken group itself, much less the Horde it has aligned itself with. He simply wants to live out his existence and learn the fate of the only family he's ever had.