Merko Polo

Merko Polo, also known as just_merko, his full name Mercury Amon Giardiniere-Polo is a Sea Elf sailor, fisherman, builder and pirate born in Rathnir, who later moved to much more calm and less tragedy-reminding Eldham. There, he joined the coastal town of New-Leyden in A.W.E.

He always wears pirate clothes, no matter where he is, or what is he doing there. He has glowing yellow eyes

, light blue skin and for an elf pretty short, silver hair.

He has a pretty bad accent as when he speaks in Traveler´s Tongue, and he often uses words and phrases like "amigo", "por favor", or "señor", even though he cannot speak the language the words are from.

Early Life
Merko was born in the Rough Sea on a pirate ship called "Black Dolphin", whose captain was also Merko´s father, Niccolo Polo. The Polo family had a huge history of piracy and Merko was being raised to later become the new captain of Black Dolphin. But he never wanted to. He always wanted to sail across the High Seas, explore, find new lands and trade with locals. But as Niccolo´s only son, he had no other choice than to once become captain of this wicked crew.

Teenage Years
Merko started to help plunder with his father at the age of 12. Until now, he didn´t like it. Now, he hated it. He never understood, why do money exist, why does the crew have to kill innocent people. Why?

Also at this age, Merko became a "wine enthusiast". In other words, he became an alcoholic, with his favourite drink - wine. However, it was nothing weird in this pirate community. You were served different alcohol from the age of 6 here when there was not enough water on the ship. Or sometimes just for fun.

Two years later, Merko finally convinced his father he cannot fight and that he would rather be a navigator or the helmsman. He became both.

The Tragedy
Two years before his arrival to Eldham, at the age of 18, Merko experienced a trauma. While everyone was asleep, another pirate ship appeared on the horizon. The ship started firing all their cannons immediately at the surprised Black Dolphin.

The fight was fast and the treasure was more worthy. And Merko was the only survivor. While they were fighting, Merko accidentally, fell unconscious and a boat that was tied to the ship and sailed away.

After waking up, he realised what has happened. He lost everything. Everyone who loved him, they were lost. Forever.

Long he was lost too. He wandered around Rathnir and nowhere he stayed longer than a day. Finally, he decided to go somewhere... else... somewhere..... to Eldham. Place he only heard stories of, where nothing will remind him of his past. He jumped in his boat that saved his life and sailed to the other side of the ocean.

New life in New-Leyden
After his arrival to Eldham, the first person he met was a mayor of a coastal town in A.W.E called New-Leyden. He was accepted there and finally fulfilled his dream of living in peace and harmony with other people, wine and where he could write books about his adventures and collections of stories, songs etc. Also his business is simple and he can be drunk at it as much as he wants to be - a fish shop and a place called "Bodega".

Personality
Merko is an extrovert and enjoys drinking both alone and with his small circle of friends, especially wine and anything with more than 50% of alcohol. Love doesn´t mean anything much for him anymore, he enjoys spending time with ladies, of course, but no affairs or long-term relationships (except for friendship of course). He is a pretty wise man too, probably he got so wise about staying alone for years. Also he is really pessimistic, but not by nature, he just found out that it is the best way you can look at things possible.

Wine is for him the most sacred thing in the universe, barrels in his "bodega" literally overflowing with it and the fact he would prefer to drink wine somewhere completly alone, while the rest of town is in some huge event or just chilling without anything. But he doesn´t want to lose them as he lost his family, so he would do anything in his power to protect them.

His philosophy is simple: "Everyone gets to have a second chance", "A bread always falls on the greased side" and that karma, Murphy's Law and wine are the most powerful things in the universe (maybe I should start a religion out of this).

The Verdants: An Unknown Race
This was the first book he wrote after his great loss. Back then, he met in Rathnir a Verdant named Cervus Hedera. The Verdants are a mysterious race, most of the time reffered to as "Necro-Nymphs", who hides in the forests of Eldham and Rathnir. These were most of the time Nymph sacrifices, who were not "properly" sacrificed (burned in fire or torn apart) or got infected by some mysterious virus.

This book talks most of the time about their shared journey around Rathnir and Cervus´ talking about his race, explaining most of the mysteries. The Verdants are luckily pretty rare, so don´t you worry about one of them brutally massacring you. Just don´t go in dark, twisted forests.... there is probably one of them, waiting for the right moment to get you...