Nezan

The village of Yemisa has long been known for its monster part trade--but not its hunters. Rather, the little village built into an elder dragon's skeleton is the "largest" port in its remote region, where its covered market welcomes dealers from across the sea to bark and barter. This, in fact, was how Nezan found his way to Yemisa in the first place.

Born to a pair of veteran hunters, Nezan (pronounced neigh-zan) grew up around weapons and gear of every stripe, hearing tales both tall and true of their various exploits. The two came as a matched set, working together to flush out threats from the surrounding shores, lending their aid to the tiny villages dotting the region in exchange for a little zenny. It was this reputation that got them the job defending a merchant vessel as it crossed dangerous waters to Yemisa, laden with a small fortune of monster parts ready to hit the market. The offer was accepted and the contract signed, under one extra condition: they were allowed to bring their only son, Nezan, as there was no one back home to care for the boy as his parents did their grim work.

The voyage was uneventful; rather, it was the destination that would end in disaster. Yemisa had been plagued by a stray nargacuga, venturing far out of the deep jungle it usually called home, ambushing homesteads in uncharacteristically bold attacks in broad daylight. The creature's unusual behaviour was brushed off by the traveling hunters, however, who were keen for a good fight and a great payday. Leaving their son with a promise of a new nargacuga coat, they set off with some of the village's lower-ranked hunters to see what all the commotion was about.

As it turned out, the rumours about the nargacuga's bizarre behaviour were true. It put up a ferocious fight, charging immediately and giving no quarter, taking no time to try and prowl about for a better angle. The unrelenting ferocity overwhelmed the hunting party nearly to the last man, with only a last ditch effort and an ingenious trap to finally kill the beast once and for all. The last hunter able to walk rushed back to the village; by the time a crowd of locals could find the scene, the last survivors had already slipped away into the next life.

Uninterested in having to cart around an unattended child, the merchant vessel that had brought Nezan and his family to Yemisa was quick to pawn the boy off to a local family. There was a new hole to fill in the lives of a Yemisa household, after all--one of the fallen hunters, barely a man, had left his mother with a fortune in grief and one less mouth to feed. She was generous on a material level to Nezan, but emotionally saw him as the replacement for a son she hadn't wanted to trade away; but if Nezan cared about not receiving the same love his new "siblings" did, he didn't show it, so lost was he in the hazy wake of being stripped of both parents at once. At barely the age of seven he was a stranger in a foreign land, everything from his appearance to his accent marking him as an outsider dropped carelessly into the fold.

One last brush with his family would reach through the waves of time. The promise of a new coat would be fulfilled--a local craftsman turned the fallen nargacuga's pelt into a shoulder cape in a gesture of kindness, handing it off to Nezan as a memento that would become a part of the fabric of his identity. He grew not only into a man but a hunter, with a stern determination to keep the mosnters of the wilds at bay; if not for a village he could claim he loved, then at least so no one else would have to be hurt the way he was. This makes him dedicated and methodical as he moves about the shoreline, the river, the jungle--always in search of the truth, studying patterns and movement with meticulous detail, filling his notebook to the edge of the page. He also refuses to give into local superstition. He's sure that there must be a rational explanation for the rumours of human-shaped wyvern spirits among the trees, or the increasing reports of monsters going berserk and acting completely out of character .... and if no one else is going to address these questions, he will.

• He keeps his armour and weapons fastidiously clean. His preferred weapon is a straightforward sword and shield, and he makes great use of his slinger for its grappling hook/harpoon applications.
• Although he associates with the Hunter's Guild out of necessity, he finds their need for paperwork and official business annoying.
• Initially his foster parents dressed him in mourning black after his parents passed; it just sort of stuck as a colour, and although he attaches no meaning to it now, he naturally leans towards black clothing and equipment.
• He really does not like nargacuga, for obvious reasons.
• He enjoys swimming in his free time, but finds it hard to let his guard down enough to ditch his equipment to do so when afield.

MOON☽

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Seemingly two sides of a hostile coin, they actually have more in common than first glance suggests. Nezan didn't expect to find understanding in a superstition, but ....