Althorin Faelisar

Althorin Faelisar is a 23 year-old Celestial Elf, born in Aurlûnor Velande, who now lives in Port Solanaria, Bardonia.

Appearance
Althorin is quite intimidating in appearance. He does not have substantial muscle but stands at 6'7 with dragon-like red eyes, a shaven head and often has a stern expression on his face. Other features include his pale skin and sliced elven ears, wounds which he gave himself. He most often wears a white cloth around his head to conceal his eyes and ears, and a long dark green cloak with golden trim around its edges. The cloak's length means his hands are typically not visible and it entirely covers his shoes unless he is walking. It could be said that his choice of attire further exaggerates his height.

Biography
Althorin was born into a wealthy noble family in Aurlûnor. He was the firstborn to his father Thalion and mother Nalithra.

Young Althorin’s mother Nalithra was always loving to him, but it was discovered that after a trip to a town in Bardonia, she had had an affair with a dwarf. This led her to be expelled from the family and Althorin’s life. Additionally, after Thalion remarried, Althorin wasn’t seen as the true first heir to the family’s wealth. He was now Thalion’s bastard son.

The Faelisar estate would be inherited by Althorin’s half-brother Sylvanrin when Thalion moved to the capital for his work. A 23-year-old Althorin was made to move too and go and live with his father in Lhûmar, but he couldn’t think of anything worse than to go and be stuck with the man who had hated him since Nalithra left. He instead planned to escape his bitter father and the family that rejected him by riding away the night before their trip.

After packing all his belongings on his horse, in the middle of the night, Althorin set off for Port Solanaria, in Bardonia. Where his mother went last, and where he could reunite with her once again.

Arrival in Solanaria
2 days later, he arrived at the town. He rode over the bridge on his horse, with his cloak hood up, and through the open portcullis and the main entrance. The town was bustling, with families roaming through the square around the well, vendors wheeling barrels of fresh produce to the market, and drunkard dwarfs downing pints of beer in the streets at midday. He could see why his mother loved to visit this farming town so much. Though he did feel some strange glares from the shorter human and dwarf locals as he rode past on his horse, it felt homely nonetheless.

Only one letter from his mother had reached Althorin as Thalion burnt the rest. The letter mostly discussed how greatly sorry she was about what she had done and how she blamed herself for having left Althorin, but it also mentioned a man, Hipps Rykuh, who she had had the affair with, and Althorin’s other half-brother Jorgel, who Nalithra had given birth to in the town. Perhaps she would be living with these two or they would have a clue as to where she was. He planned to ride through the town checking the signs on doors for the name Rykuh.

It did not take long for him to find a house just around the corner from the main square signed Jorgel Rykuh. Inside the disheveled house was a man, sorting through belongings, who informed him both Hipps and Jorgel were dead, Jorgel having only died a few days prior. He left Althorin the house keys, Althorin being Jorgel’s last known relative, and left.

Now alone in Bardonia, with a house and some gold taken from his father, but not much, Althorin would have to try and survive. Though he had few more clues to find his mother, if she were still alive, he still felt he had to try.

The Hundred Pyres
Althorin's poor arrival timing after the death of his half-brother was realised to be even worse when the notoriety of a criminal organisation began rising in the city. Dark Shadow Vacy's crime group, nicknamed the 'Demonic Elf Mafia', had been causing rampant chaos, and many of the locals had made associations between the group's name and the elf population. With the dwarven and masetzu'an town already having a distaste for their pointed-ear neighbours, this only worsened the situation. The Admiral of the city's fleet, Navarkos Salle Di Italian't, took the opportunity to blame the group's actions on the city's elves.

As outrage grew following the death of an elderly woman in her house, burnt down by the mafia, Salle gathered the people against the elven population. She gave a public speech commencing the genocide of the city's elves:"'We have allowed Elves to terrorize our home for too long, this is the time to fight and take back Port Solanaria from the knife ears! Brother Garf has spoken with the Potatoes, they gave him this message: Let a hundred plumes of great holy fire burn the Elven scum from Port Solanaria! Raise a thousand scythes to cut the knife ears off! Ten thousand Potatoes must crush the aliens! Go forth my children into the light of the fires, burn them all! Fellow Tuberists, let us eradicate the scum once and for all!'"Pyres were erected, ready to burn elves, and with the overwhelming support from the town's citizens, the city guard backed down from protecting them. Soon after the hunting of the elves began, Althorin witnessed the plumes of smoke rising from pyres across the city as the killings commenced. Hoards of people would rush through the street after the guards had captured another elf to be taken to their death.

Althorin, of course, feared it would only be time before he was tied to a pyre. He took a knife and sliced the tips off his ears. To conceal his eyes, which were clearly that of a celestial elf's, he tied layers of bandages around his head, covering his eyes and sliced ears also. He planned to act as a blind man and hoped suspicions wouldn't rise about his appearance. Unfamiliar with the layout of the town, having only recently settled in, he went about in this disguise trying to make a mental map of it, only lifting the bandage to see his surroundings when necessary.

Unspoken Sacrilege
In his struggles to find an escape, he went through the journals of Jorgel, who would've known much more about the town. Initially, he read a lot about the town, townsfolk, and their religion, but with time the writing descended to be more and more demented. The teachings of Tuberism (the town's religion) became scriptures on massacres, deities from cauldrons, and the horned god in the sea. Most notably, there was a focus on beetroots, which Jorgel previously mentioned were cursed and heretical, but he seemingly became obsessed with them. In what appeared to be a descent into madness, it was clear that Jorgel had dramatically shifted from intense devotion to Tuberism to despising the religion to its core.

Althorin had no time however to decipher the writings of a madman. He went back to his prior plan, and upon reaching the south-eastern port of the town, he realized the trade ships may be his best method of escape. He returned home to gather some necessary belongings so that he had what he needed to survive after leaving. Lowering the bandage back down over his eyes, he left the house again, crossing the main square.

But as he walked across the square, the crowd of people became more and more dense, all pushing towards one side. He heard screaming, a woman. Another elderly woman, the admiral, began to address the crowd. Althorin stopped and turned towards the speech, realising as Salle Di Italian't continued talking, that this was an execution. She commanded the guards to tie the elven woman to the pyre, who continued screaming. Althorin could make out the glow of a lit torch that was passed to the admiral, and the crowd cheered. She placed the blazing torch at the base of the pyre, as the elf's screams became more piercing. Althorin raised the bandage off his eyes.

Though he was so young when he last saw that face, it was unmistakable. His mother tilted her head back and cried, agonisingly as the fire crept upwards. Althorin couldn't move. She struggled and writhed as the blaze consumed her, her eyes scouring the crowd at the cheering faces below. Until her eyes met his. Her painful wince turned to a blank, terrified stare. The inferno crept up around her head as she realised it was him.