Merko Polo

Merko Polo, also known as just_merko 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. 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 he started a shop there with not only fish.

Personality
Merko is most of the time an extrovert, who cares at first glance only about wine and money. The truth is, he is kinda shy and wants to protect everyone in the town and put his life in danger, just for them to not die. One of his main personality traits is quoting. He quotes a lot and very often.

He still thinks about wine a lot, though. His "bodega" is overall just barrels overflowing with wine.

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).

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.

Songs of dolphins
His first book is a collection of different pirate songs, including songs like Wellerman, Three Crosses, Fool´s Lullaby or Whaler Expedition. The book includes the region it comes from or even the authors, if at least their names are known. It is written in Traveler´s Tongue and Merko himself translated all of them (excluding Box of Whiskey and Nightingales from Tortuga). The book also includes chords for the traditional instrument they all can be played on - "guitarra".