“YOU’RE MY UNIVERSE, DUDE”

Personality

Shaw doesn’t exactly stand out if you put him in a line of other soldiers.

He’s loyal to a fault, often to his own detriment, as he never questions the actions of a friend, or of his betters. He is complicit in much because of this, though he never questions it for very long before his inherent loyalty takes him back over. He’s also incredibly cheerful and has never met a stranger in his life. His attitude is always pleasant, and he is not often upset by others, though perhaps that’s his inherent naivety coming back to bite him. Shaw’s small town farmboy views have kept him naive and confused of most of big city politics. He honestly cannot tell you a single thing that has happened politically in the past 10 years, besides Miriam’s ascension. He can’t tell you the King’s name either.

For all that Shaw is sweet, however, he can lose his temper, very fast sometimes. Pointing out his strangeness is one way to get him upset quickly, especially if it’s more than once, or multiple people. Shaw’s temper is a dangerous thing, flaring fast and fading faster, but he keeps himself stable with his friends. His inherent prejudice against mages hangs around like a bad smell through every interaction he may have with them, and a mage pointing out his abilities is one way to get a broken nose, especially if they’re using it to jeer at him. In reality, though, that anger is rooted in his deep seated fears, and to learn that he is a mage would break him into something he cannot say he would recognize. He also has little in the way of formal social skills, often bumbling his way through conversation through sheer force of will. Double entendres and passive aggression fly off him, and despite this being endearing to some, others may see it as a weakness to exploit. Shaw’s naive nature lends itself to an easy trust, which he hands out to everyone who so much as smiles at him.

All in all,  perhaps, he is a man with the heart of a canine, though he acts domestic, even friendly.

(361)

History

For Shaw, living has always been a survival instinct, pressed into his very bones from the moment he dragged in breath.

Shaw was born on the Mulligan farm in the harvest season, to a house already full up on siblings and such. His overworked ma and pa tried their best, but they really weren’t great parents, and only had their mass hordes of kids to tend to the farm work they weren’t able to get to. By the time Shaw could talk, he could sow a field. By the time he lost his first tooth, he’d been hooked up to a wagon and sent off to market. Everyone had a job on the Mulligan farm, so no hand that wanted food would stay idle. An unfortunate side effect to the isolated location of their home was a large prejudice towards mages and the unknown, especially those the village deemed as “witches”, who were often just mages who didn’t understand their powers. Instead of calling for Witchfinders, the villagers took it upon themselves to rid their lands of what they perceived as the largest threat to their livelihoods. Thus, Shaw learned early that to be a mage was to be something unnatural, something to be hated and despised. He picked up the concept faster than he’d picked up anything else in his lifetime.

He met Cambrie at market one year, and the two got along like a house on fire. However, that was Shaw’s only friend, the other children having noticed something Shaw had not. As a boy, he was larger than any of the others, and somehow, better than them at their games of hide and seek and tag. In reality, Shaw had just learned how to run and hide from elder siblings, who noticed something else entirely. They noticed Shaw’s fluff, the way his eyes glowed in low light, like that of a wolf. It was a constant back and forth of mind games and prodding as they tried their hardest to make Shaw manifest some sort of unholy power, so they could bring down the hammer upon him if they so chose. Shaw learned fast what they wanted, and how to hide from them to escape it. This back and forth between them lasted until Shaw’s adult teeth grew in, and that’s where the issue came. His canines were sharp, sharper than normal. Then, his world became hell.

He was a young lad when he finally escaped it, so certain that come morning he would be drawn and quartered for the crime of existence as an oddity. He was not a mage, and he would prove it to his family. His mother and father still have no idea where their youngest went, but they have no means to search for a boy like him. So, off Shaw went, picking up Cambrie on the way, and taking them with him as he sought out an apprenticeship as a Witchfinder.

It was a grueling few years, but eventually, the boy was up to standard, and was set out into the world with Cambrie and a few others at his back, ready to take on the world, especially as Miriam rose to power.

(532)

WOLFSKIN