About

Warning, this is going to be very long and very messy.

Youth 0-17

Ain was born in the Cumberland alienage, a harbourcity in Nevarra. The love-child of a pair of travelling merchants, Cliff Tabris and Alleante Cosmos-Tabris. He spent the first three years of his life crossing up and down the Free Marches and over the border of Nevarra. Then, his mother got pregnant with twins, and they finally settled down back into the City he was born in.

Fear wasn't something on Ain's mind as he was a young boy.
Scraped knees from jumping riding carts. Fighting kids that picked on the twins. Climbing in the highest tree of the orchard to dive into the river. Things simply just went his way. Scabs healed, sickness got better, wars ended, hunger was sated, money was plenty and life was good. Fear was non-existent in a world where consequences were the last thing you worried about.

Perhaps it made him overzealous, too much luck coming his way from such a young age.
"The maker has granted us three lucky stars." His father used to say. "It's so easy to take for granted, but we are so much more blessed than you realise, son."
'Yadda yadda', Ain thought, taking it for granted, and not noticing as around them, elves got sick and food was scarce.

Then, at ten years old, Ain's mother fell down at the flight of stairs entering the alienage. She got carried up by two of their neighbours, put to bed and hoped for the best. The best didn't come overnight, and it didn't show for the rest of the week either. In the struggle of three young children, a business and a sick wife, Ain's father called for the best medical help an elf could ask for.

Cardiac arrhythmia.
Irregular heartbeat. The doctor's sullen advice was just 'to keep calm'. A great advice to give, to anyone who wasn't Alleante Cosmos, rights activist, traveling merchant with a mouth, and mother of three... of four.
'Surely she'll get better.' Ten year old Ain thought. 'Surely in a few weeks she'll be back to screaming me out of my swim in the sea from up the hill."

A few weeks passed.
A few months too.
Then Ally started to show and grow and screamed for the last time in her life in labour as she brought her fourth child into the world. Pleione was so small, born two months early and nothing like Ain remembered the twins being at birth. Wisps of hair that matched his own, eyes big and brown and wide, too wide for a newborn. She curled up in his arms as his father gave him her to hold, and as she looked at Ain in wonder, he worried for the first time in his life.

There was a difference between Ain and Plei from the beginning. Ain had spent the first three years of his life being carried, either by his parents or the cart they rode. Pleione spent her life on her feet as soon as she was able.
As soon as she could walk, which was early, she waddled everywhere. As soon as she was able to run, all hell got loose. Mum couldn't run after her, nor carry her, and had the hands of the twins to hold. Dad couldn't keep an eye on her, working his arse off to keep his family supported.
Ain was twelve years old, sturdy and capable of both running and carrying. As soon as Pleione started to run, Ain ran after her. She was fast and attracted danger as much as Ain had at that age. And she didn't like to be carried by Ain. At all.

Alleante Cosmos-Tabris died at the age of 32. Her children; Ain, the twins and Pleione were 12, 8 and 2 years old respectively. The strangest thing about it was that it didn't turn their lives around.
Father was still always working, Ain and the twins still did their schoolwork, and Pleione still waddled around making conversation with everyone, scrapping her knees as she toppled over while running through the alienage and being Ain's biggest worry.

Early adulthood 17-20

When Ain turned Seventeen, everything even felt completely normal again. Father cracked jokes again, the twins were old enough to help out more, and Ain was engaged to the prettiest, smartest Elven girl in the alienage.
They had been neighbours for a long while. Saw each other almost daily- Hard not to for two young elves in the Cumberland alienage. Still, it took Ain no less than fifteen summers of knowing her to realise how great Davina Odtra actually was.
She was peculiar. Probably Ain's favourite thing about her. She was obsessed with ghosts and spirits, talked to herself more often than not, and had absolutely no filter. She didn't need a filter, with her heart of gold.

She had black wavy hair that reached just over her shoulders, large, blue eyes framed with dark lashes. Straight white teeth and full pink lips and long legs. Long enough to be just a little taller than Ain himself.
She also loved Pleione, and that was probably her best feature.

Most people Ain called his friends got tired quickly of Ain dragging around his seven year old sister, not understanding that these two were a package deal. When they went swimming, Plei sat on his back. When they went fishing, Plei was on the boat, pooling her little feet in the water and scaring the fish away.

Davina never cared about any of that, she always asked about her, brought her things and told her about all the girly things that gave Ain pause. Growing up with the two of them, Davina had seen the importance of their relationship, and how much protecting his sister had become Ain’s constant priority. It had become somewhat of an obsession. Ain couldn’t do much with his sister constantly in his care, and besides a few of his studies, had never truly learned a craft. As his future wife, this worried Davina intensely. She goaded Ain into putting Plei into her care for three days a week, so Ain could go into a proper apprenticeship under his father.

However, whenever he worked there, or tried to, he was mostly walking in front of everybodies feet. The shop wasn’t big enough to have four people working there, and Aldebaran and Maia were already much more familiar with the workings. Ain did a bit of manual labour, but they mostly sent him out of their way. Ain wasn’t fit for customer service- even though he had previously thought that he was rather patient- and caused a lot of fights and angry customers. Without having Plei to use as an excuse for not being at his full ability, it was the first time that Ain felt utterly and completely useless.

In desperation to learn a trade, Ain made a deal with a towns guard to take him under his wing. Ain was good at picking fights as a rule, but he was also charming and forward enough for people to like him. And Ain liked people in return.The towns guard Dayan was amused and sort of by Ains willingness and enthusiasm, and promised he could join some of the practices, build some skill and join the force.

It went pretty alright. Ain wasn’t very tall, but he was rather built; unlike most of the elves in the alienage, he had never been hungry or wronged a day in his life. He focussed on two handed weaponry to the amusement of the other guards. It had been to prove a point at the start, but he showed a remarkable affinity with the damn thing.

The guard captain was however, not at all impressed. To him there was a reason there were no elves in their unit yet. With those ears, they would never be able to fit into the helmets. Young and dumb, Ain was crestfallen, but at the time he didn’t sense the racism in the matter. After all, the man had a point, right? The helmets had never fit Ain properly and they did hurt his ears.

Plei sensed his disappointment as soon as he got home, and told him that she had to show him something exciting, but he had to wait until everyone was asleep. When they were alone, Pleione sat him down in front of the burning fireplace, and told him to watch. And Ain watched how she made the fire dance in the hearth and the charcoal twist and turn like they were dancing people on a ball. She told him how she and Davina had practiced together, and Davina had told her that if she kept up, they could perhaps even talk to the spirits. To their mother! And Ain felt the tears well up in his eyes as he watched her because he knew then that it would only be a matter of time before he would lose her.

Almost a year later it came true, as Davina, Plei and he were ready for an afternoon of fishing. Plei was eight years old and had her hair in two braids falling over her shoulders like Davina had taught her. The bottom of the hill branched out in the alienage’s own small dock. In the morning, the fishermen would leave from there, and left a perfectly empty dockside for a bunch of young elves to play. I had been their favourite spot since forever. They were happily chattering and catching barely any fish until Davina froze in the middle of her sentence and told the two of them sternly not to turn around.

Both of the siblings turned anyway, their curiosity winning out. Plei didn’t get it, but Ain did. The two men walking up the hill were no ordinary soldiers, they were wearing Templar armour.
Davina and Ain took it upon them to keep Plei as calm as possible until the men were out of sight, and then discussed in hushed whispers about what to do. They sort of figured that they would be trapped in an open space if they didn’t go back up the hill, and thus decided to pack up and return home so they could hide.

What they hadn’t expected was to see the men returning so soon, and they crossed them again at the near top of the hill. They were obviously badly informed and annoyed to walk up the slope in full armour in the hot cumberland summer sun, judging by their conversation. Davina and Ain did their best to smile politely and cross them without trouble.

Plei was rather captified with them, however, and turned her little head around to watch their clunky armour. She tripped, and dropped her little fishing bucket. The three of them watched in horror as it tumbled down the hill and sent the water flying, fishes and all. The bucket hit the boot of one of the templars, who stopped in his tracks and picked the thing up. He offered it back with a raised hand and Plei ran over to take it from him.

“Shame about your fish, kid” the templar said. Plei shook her head and smiled and told him that she knew a little trick for that. She put the bucket on the ground and raised the spilled water with her magic, catching the fish and filling the bucket.
The templar crossed his arms and nodded. “You better give that bucket back to your parents.” He said, nodding towards Ain and Davina. Ain stalked towards them, grabbing Plei and backing away. The templars wouldnt have that, of course, and pulled their swords, demanding Ain to release her as Pleione crawled up into his arms in her instinctive panic.
Davina blocked their way, spreading out in front of them. But the second, less patient, Templar, backhanded her and she dropped to the ground, slamming her head onto the rocky hill. “Fuck, I think you’ve killed her!” The first Templar said, shocked as he kept his sword centered on the terrified siblings. “Elves in alienages die every day.” The second one defended himself. “More of them die when they hide magic amongst them.” He threatened.

Plei clinged to her brother as the good cop templar tried to mollify his shield-brother’s statement. They would take her to a magic school where she could learn to control her magic. But Plei was angry at him for hitting Davina, and spat at him like she had seen her brother do before. The patience of the templars ran thin and resulted in an heart wrenchingly unfair tug of war between the two men and Ain. Pleione kicked and screamed and neighbours came running out. Her father and the twins were just in time to see Ain’s townguard friend Dayan interfering before the two of them would kill Ain next.

Plei was taken away and Ain and the rest of their family could only watch how she was dragged off the hill, past the lifeless body of Davina. Nothing was right anymore, and Ain swore something atop of that hill. He wasn’t sure what, but it was something against Templars- something against self righteous bastards that kicked down and spoiled everything for other people. Something inherently against himself.
The loss of Davina and Plei on the same day broke something in him. In a way, these two had always been his future. His home. Now every time he walked off the hill he felt like vomiting.

He spent more time at the guards. Though they would never let him join the force, Ain could out his emotions in sparring. He started drinking, lots and lots of it because it gave a pause to his self-loathing. He fucked around with Dayan because the other man was still charmed enough and Ain desperately needed to be looked at with adoration instead of worry and disappointment.

At home Ain was a menace, he was often drunk and it only got worse after their father died. Cliff had always been sort of there to make excuses for his behavior or to calm him down. He had always told the twins that it was his way of grieving. The grieving only got worse with Cliff’s death, because Ain’s heart had hardly healed a bit in the 3 years of loss. The drinking got even worse. There were few moments on a day where Ain was sober. He was unreasonable, angry and the twins couldn’t deal with it on their own.

They loved their brother dearly, but their relationship was breaking at the edges. The twins were ready to move on, but Ain’s heart was still in the past. He wouldn’t shut up about Plei, how they could save her if they had the power, and butted heads with the rational Aldebaran constantly and aggressively.
The twins decided to take the business back on the road, like their parents. They pleaded Ain to make something out of his life and stop holding himself back. All Ain knew was swords and drink, and when he left the alienage with nothing but the clothes on his back and his trusty greatsword. He turned mercenary, searching desperately for someone to need him again.

Adulthood 20-current

coming soon

Relationships

Pleione Youngest sister

For a long time, Pleione had been Ain's reason to wake up in the morning. With her gone, he has lost a piece of himself that he tries desperately to get back.

Maia Younger sister

Maia and Ain have a somewhat strained relationship. They're often at odds with eachother on moral questions, and get along best without talking. (something Ain isn't particularly good at) Maia has often felt like the head of the family after their mother died, and grieves in her own way; by being practical.

Aldebaran Younger brother

Aldebaran, grumpy as he might seem, has always looked out for his older brother. He was often the one to pick him up when he passed out drunk somewhere, and kept sure he fed himself. While Ain is rather sure his younger brother never wants to see him again, Aldebaran thinks of him often.