Tristan Swift

[Swift]

Full Name: Tristan Swift
Age: 24
Classes: Ranger/Rogue (14/6)
Race: Half-Elf
Alignment: Chaotic-Good
Deity: Katia

Bio:

Tristan was born deep in the woods in the foothills of the White Mountains. His father was a ranger who had grown weary of watching the senseless desecration of nature by mankind and so retreated into the wilderness to live in peace. His mother was a wood elf who grew to love Tristan's father for his deep sensitivity to nature. Being an only child, Tristan was raised with loving attention by his parents; the wild creatures of the wood his friends and playmates. From his father Tristan learned all he needed to know in order to survive comfortably and invisibly in nature: hunting, stalking, hiding, fishing, weapon-crafting, shelter, tracking, and awareness. His mother taught him to know the plants as though they were his brothers and sisters and showed him the connections among all things.

Of all the woodland creatures, Tristan was most drawn to the cougar. He felt a special kinship with this solitary hunter that moved silently in the shadows and could appear and disappear like an apparition, a creature that was the embodiment of grace and power. He took to tracking cougars with an almost fervent passion, taking every opportunity to see or be close to these elusive animals. As he grew older, Tristan wandered farther and longer while tracking and exploring from the brushy lowlands to snow-covered peaks. It was during one such expedition that orcs came to Tristan's home and slaughtered his parents. When he returned Tristan found his home ransacked, several dead orcs nearby, and his parents' battered and bloody corpses. Tristan was shattered and absolutely consumed with grief. Feeling as if his whole world had been torn from him, Tristan stumbled blindly off into the forest. He continued walking for uncounted days without food, without rest, without thought, just raw grief, numbing pain, a bottomless sadness that completely enveloped him. Finally his weakened body slipped into a black oblivion. Tristan awoke next to a stream slightly after dawn, the golden light filtering down through the leaves of the trees. Everything was crystal clear to his senses, the world seemed to glow with an almost magical radiance, he could feel -almost see even- the flow of universal energy through everything around him, through himself. He felt completely a part of the world in a way he never had before, as though everything was an inseperable whole. He still felt a deep, almost distant, sadness over the loss of his parents, but somehow in this moment he felt that everything was in balance, that he was being taken care of. Tristan always knew that the wild places had a special power to heal and make one whole, but this experience gave him a new and powerful faith in the ability of nature to bring peace to the troubled minds of mankind.

Tristan spent several more years wandering the wilderness, testing his survival skills in new environments and connecting with nature. Eventually Tristan began to come in contact with civilization and witness firsthand the things that his father had always avoided talking about. Tristan saw people who did not understand nature, who were almost blind to it -even afraid of it. This was almost incomprehensible to him; saddening, but at the same time almost fascinating. Tristan began to apply and adapt his skills at moving unseen in the wilderness to the towns and cities that he came across in order to observe and learn about their inhabitants. Time and again he saw people wantonly destroying the earth that supported them, being cruel to others, and rushing about, utterly wrapped up in their own miserable existence. This caused Tristan immense pain and he could not understand how people lived like this. But he also saw that not everyone was like this. There were some people who cared for nature, some people who were kind and good, and some who slowed down enough to notice the world. This gave Tristan hope that nature -that people- are not lost, that perhaps he could lead people back to their connection with nature. Thus he could show them the peace that he knew to be found in nature. Tristan believes that in helping people reconnect with the earth he can help restore balance in the world and among mankind and protect the wild places that he calls home.

Although he is still reserved and rather uncomfortable around people, especially in large cities, Tristan is happy to reach out to good people and help them if he can. He has patience and compassion for those he sees as ignorant and believes that with time and guidance they can be brought back to a closer relationship with nature. However, Tristan has no tolerance for those who desecrate nature with malicious or evil intent. He will employ any number of conventional or unconventional tactics in order to thwart their harmful deeds and perhaps make them think twice about their actions. In any situation, Tristan values all life and will try his best never to harm anything unless it is in the defense of himself or his "family" (which in Tristan's mind is any good person or any part of nature).

-Tristan Swift
I have love for the footless, for the bipeds too I have love;
I have love for those with four feet, for the many-footed I have love.

[Reventage]

The bio justifies the ranger class well but I would like to hear the reason why he chose to multiclass as a rogue.

[Swift]

The rogue multiclass comes about from him adapting his wilderness survival techniques to places of civilization and his interest in being able to get in and out of places to observe others without being seen himself. With these motives, a skill such as lockpicking becomes very useful. The rogue simply reflects how he has learned how to live in the shadows within a city, just as a ranger knows how to live in the shadows in the wilderness. Remaining unseen even among a crowd of people truly requires a different set of skills than camouflaging oneself into a natural background.

[Reventage]

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