Name: Tarlok Mhirva[TAR-Lock]
Race: Yaeli
Gender: Male
Base Traits:
Supportive
Tarlok likes to get behind other people's causes, and to believe what they believe. When he is loyal to someone, he takes that seriously, following and helping their cause even when it leads them into darkness. No matter what, and barring serious betrayals or breaches of trust, he is there for them.
Devious
Tarlok's strength is his mind, and he uses it to come out one step ahead wherever he can. He is a smooth talker, a fast liar, and a trickster at heart. He does well with strategy, plotting, and planning, and one of his favorite things is seeing a plan go well... second only to coming up with a new one on the spot.
Remorseless
When Tarlok does something, he does it whole heartedly, and beneath his warm, cheerful, and ingratiating exterior is a cold and resolved interior. No matter what the consequences are, or what morals it ascribes to, Tarlok has no regrets for his actions, and feels no guilt.
Class: Noncombat: Merchant
Personality:
Tarlok is not an especially superstitious Yaeli. Sure, he believes in curses and talismans, but his family also makes and sells them. Much like sausages, when one knows how protective charms are actually made, one tends to be more pragmatic about their effectiveness and their ails. Still, he does use them here and there, and figures that there is some reason beyond his family's skills at persuasion for why they sell so well.
That said, Tarlok is not the most honest merchant. Lying comes easily to him, though it is certainly not all he does with himself and he is very willing to trick or cheat customers where he sees fit. He is aware, however, of right and wrong, and likes to solidly fall onto the side of right. Lying and cheating others is not right, and Yaeli customers will find that he and his family are... mostly... fair and usually have good quality goods. He is, also, willing to deal with Non-Yaeli who don't appear to be about to kill him. Their access to special, spiritual, sacred, and new materials is important for any merchant. However, he has no qualms with trying to cheat them. After all, they are monsters, invaders on his land. He'll squeeze them dry if he can. Or even kill them, if he needs to.
When he slips into wrongdoing, however, no matter how wrong that may be, Tarlok does not feel guilt. It does not plague him, or change his opinions about others, or anything at all, really. Tarlok takes credit for his actions and stands behind them matter what they are, and rejects any attempt to force him into repentance of any sort.
Tarlok also stands solidly behind a select few people. For these people, he is willing to follow them wherever they may go and offer his support as needed. His smooth smile and charming words are at their disposal, and his goods are at their service for a discount. For these select few, he is willing to go the extra mile for them if he has to. Even if it means to fight or to kill.
Tarlok, though willing to do these things, is not naturally a fighter. He would rather solve a confrontation with words and a smile than blood and violence. He simply prefers to leave that mess to others, and is better at nonviolent confrontation. Rarely, if ever, will he instigate a physical altercation, though he has been known to stand his ground and argue.
However, if pushed into a situation where he must be violent, he will not go meekly into the night. He carries a dagger and he knows how to use it well enough to hold his own in a fight. However, being with a partner of some nature who can protect him is preferable to being alone. Actually, anything is preferable to isolation for him. A cheerful, tricky person, Tarlok will go to great lengths – including tricking, cheating, or making a deal with an outsider – to remain protected and accompanied. Of course, outsiders being monsters and potential avenues for half-believed in curses, they are low on his list, but they are on the list, and he would be willing to deal with them if it meant that he – and his friends – survived.
In all, Tarlok is tricky and cunning, and even cruel if it comes to it, but you always know that, in the thick of it, he is on your side.
Good:
Supportive
Charming
Loyal
Neutral:
Peaceful
Devious
Cheery
Bad:
Argumentative
Dishonest
Remorseless
Supportive
Charming
Loyal
Neutral:
Peaceful
Devious
Cheery
Bad:
Argumentative
Dishonest
Remorseless
History:
Tarlok's family has been in the business of trading talismans and medicinal (spiritual and otherwise) materials for as long as anyone can remember. As the only surviving child of his parents, and as a symbol of their renewed luck, Tarlok was expected to follow in their footsteps. Some children might chafe under such an expectation forced upon them, but it suited Tarlok perfectly.
Promising him off to a suitable person was also a matter of tradition and, though he apparently preferred males over females (to an extent), the most suitable one was Taillte, the daughter of a friend of his father's who sold dyes to the family for a discount. The engagement was to forge a deeper connection between the families and their businesses, and this, too, he was fine with. After all, he knew he was valuable to his family, and he didn't have a lover or anything to conflict with the marriage, he was not adverse to females, and he was not opposed to a partnership of this nature. Plus,he happened to like her the few times he had met her, and she was pretty. At the very least, she made for a good friend, and that was enough for him.
So, despite weighty expectations and the heavy responsibility of taking on the family business, Tarlok lived a carefree life even as he met those expectations more or less dead on. Life was looking to be comfortable and profitable and generally pleasant for him... And then the outsiders came.
Tarlok was anxious when he heard rumors of attacks and raids and tar-black monsters and relieved to find that his fiance was safe (the others of her settlement, he could more or less not care about). His family took her in and he's been keeping an eye on her ever since, and is pretty sure she's about to do something very stupid on her own...
Appearance:
Hair: Hair is tied up in a sort of ragged crest – see ref or This inspiration pic – by a black, laquered beret.
Skin: Yaeli typical
Crystal Placement: Large crystals on sides of stomach and on arms. Possibly on face and forehead as well.
Eyes: Yaeli typical.
Clothes:
He wears a long dark blue-grey vest that leaves his chest and stomach exposed.
He wears short grey pants that are belted with a thin rope. From this rope dangles a long piece of green-grey fabric that reaches his feet, but only on one side
His feet are bare (unless this is highly abnormal for a Yaeli) and he wears small, clothen, light grey bands around his ankles.
- Probably also a bunch of talismans or symbols of significance on his person, too.
Expression: He is smiling or smirking, very smug.
Notes: The funny thing is that Tarlok's siblings (2 before and 4 after him) died primarily in early childhood or infancy of mysterious illnesses and miscarriages, a run of bad luck that was darkly ironic for a family of talisman merchants. They spun it to their customers as many curses directed at them by witches frustrated by the effectiveness of their talismans, and they were very good at spin. Still, they prayed and did as many public devotions as possible and when Tarlok actually reached prenticehood successfully and healthily, they immediately touted him as evidence that they were free of their curse and their talismans worked. He actually has a baby brother now, born long after, and that child is touted, also, as proof of luck.
Tarlok thinks of himself as lucky, and the fact that he, alone, out of his siblings survived this long, makes him a little arrogant and self centered. While he isn't exactly spiritual, this contributes to his impression that clearly there is something to the talismans, even if they really are just beads and knots and wood.
He and his baby brother are not close. No particular reason for it – they just are not.
The loss of the siblings, the luck of his survival, and his little brother's good fortune are more or less just whispered rumors about his family, despite their attempts to advertise it – or perhaps because of their attempts to spin it. Either way, business is good.
At this point in time, though his personality allows him to be open to outsiders as customers, he has never met one and is wary of them. After all, they are monsters.
In theory, though, Taillte will bring him into contact with them, and his feelings on them will evolve from there.
