The Hero

Who he is

The hero is a male human orphan carrying elemental blood. All four elements wake in him, one by one, across the first act. Others in history have held one element. Nobody has held four — until the antagonist, who took his by force.

He has no name yet. His look is a believable, adult stylised human: human ears, a readable cloak silhouette, and no giant armour or exaggerated proportions — he reads at the same level of fantasy as the trees and ruins around him.

Origin

Born in the stone-taken village, the elven settlement beside the great tree in the east, the son of the one human family living there. He was about five years old when the Earth spire's overflow swallowed the village. He carries a grey streak in his hair from that overflow — a mark anyone who knows the stone-taken village can read at a glance.

After the village fell, a travelling trade caravan of mixed peoples took the orphan in and raised him on the road, working the outer villages. He has never seen the city. The caravan's first run to the city — forced by the outer roads closing — was ambushed by bandits. He wakes alone in the wreckage, the only survivor.

See Lore and History for where his blood actually comes from, and why both the people hunting him believe they are right.

An outsider, even in the city

The city's trade compact gives standing through a people's village — and nobody vouches for him. His village is stone, it was never his people's (he is human, raised among elves), and the caravan that raised him is dead. Humans hold the city's watch, but to them he is a drifter with no village. He meets the compact from below, and when it frays, the harsher watch lands on him first.

Hunted from the start

He is hunted immediately, by two sides, for different reasons:

• The claimants want what is in his blood.
• The antagonist (see Lore and History) wants it ended — because he is the only person alive who knows where it leads.

Combat kit

The hero always carries the same kit — there are no classes and nothing is ever equipped or swapped:

Tool	Identity
Sword	Free-cost melee strikes, parry (L1 tap)
Shield	Physical block, costs stamina
Bow	Prepared precision — the only attack that targets a point
Fire Spear	Time — damage delayed into burn
Water Hammer (still in development)	Number — budget spread across a crowd
Rootbind (still in development)	Position — control of where one enemy may go
Gale Tether (still in development)	Displacement — dictates distance
Aegis	Universal anti-magic barrier and magic parry (Square)

Full rules for all of these are on the Spells and Weapons and Gear pages.

Look and gear

• Palette: a muted-blue hooded half-cloak (the only saturated colour on him), a forest-green split tabard, brown leather, olive trousers, slate-blue wraps.
• Cloak: hem at the back of the knee, split at the back. The hood is a toggle, down by default.
• Gear placement: the shield is slung at his left side, over the hip and thigh; the sword hangs at his right hip. Both sit between the body and the cloak — visible from the front, hidden from behind. On his back, outside the cloak, he carries only the quiver and bow.

Front	Three-quarter	Back

In-game:

Idle	Sword swing	Bow aim	Fire Spear charge