Valkaren Telenna

If you're daring enough to step out into the plains or deserts, you'll likely hear rumors of "The Phantom Gunslinger". People will tell you all sorts of stories- they never see him coming, he's got snake eyes, someone killed him out there and now he haunts it, looking for vengeance. Don't trust what the people say, that's what others will tell you. "I've seen him with my own two eyes. Man shoots faster than I've seen before," they'll say.

Valkaren, a lone gunslinger, originally wandered deadlands and towns for bounty hunting- a man with a pistol can shoot faster than a man with a bow. He was born in a medium sized, middle class type town that he frequently got in trouble in. His parents disappeared at an early age- though people rumored that his father went mad and killed his mother, then himself.

He stands at 6'2", long and slender due to his yuan- ti and drow heritage. Lavender skin, white hair, dark grey eyes with snake slit pupils, and light scars cover most of his body. He'll tell you a different story for how he got them every time you ask- he's a mystery at best.

Between 20 and 35, not long after his parents deaths, he was swept up in a gang. Bunch of older gunslingers like him with stories of all kinds and promises that if he stayed with them, he'd make all sorts of money and family like he'd never had before. They liked him for the fact of him being sort of a misfit, and because he picked up on drawing a gun real quick. It was as if his hand was meant to pull a trigger, they'd say. He was a classic thief as well, and damn good at it too. His thieving skills are what got him his two pistols- both were too expensive for him to buy, so during one of his missions out with a bigger, older man for the gang, he killed him and stole his. When he returned to them, he acted panicked about them getting "too caught up" and how the man he was with (a wood elf named Sanchez) put up a good fight against the people they were supposed to be not fighting with, but ended up dying to them. Somehow, they believed him- giving him a hearty pat on the back and a glass of whiskey by the fire.

(One pistol is made of deep black metal with a silver snake curling down the barrel, [Envy], and the other is a dark brown with a black handle and silver trim [Harmony].)

When he was 35, Valkaren came to realize that he'd much prefer taking on the open land alone- so he set out to leave one night, gathering up what he could from his own belongings and a bit of the gang's. As he was putting a foot in the stirrups of the horse the gang had given him, a cold metal barrel came in contact with the back of his head. A tall, burly human man nicknamed 'Bulldog' for his looks was holding his pistol to his skull, growling out how he "knew he shouldn't be trusted" and "would kill him right now" for stealing from them. He continued to shit talk him like that as he turned to face him, calling him all sorts of things (mainly pertaining to his mixed race). Valkaren didn't take kindly to this, so he acted like he was 'so sorry' until the man relaxed, then snatched the pistol out of his hand and shot him right between the eyes. Of course, this alerted some of the other members, so he scrambled to get the man's other pistol from his hip, hopped on his horse, and took off into the night.

After that, he wandered along, going from town to town and crossing wide stretches of land that he quickly found a fondness for. Whatever town he came across, he picked up the most expensive bounty he could find and always came back with a few injuries and a body to show for it. He sort of became a heart-stealer, with people of all kinds wanting to be his or even just get with him, and he only ever took them up on it a few times.

As he came to be 73, (finally reaching the older age for his race), he was crossing one of these plains he loved when a group of men came along his path. They too had guns of all sorts, and told him they demanded justice for Bulldog (who he had killed over 40 somethin years ago at this point)- and they wanted to duel with him, essentially. The men must have been what was left of the gang, he assumed. They were real glad to have finally found him, they were saying.. but he wasn't really one for talk when someone was about to duel with him. The fight started and last nearly half an hour, almost shorter because of how quick he was. He killed three of their group of five, but the final two paired their musket shots together and managed to kill him after.

Of course, Valkaren was too angry about it to stay dead, so he forced his way out of that limbo plane and became a gheist- taking his guns back from his body and continuing on his way. It was a shame they killed his horse, too… he could see the damn thing's skeleton half out of the ground when he finally got back to himself. He had been honestly surprised that the men didn't loot him, but that was just all the better for him, in the end.

Now, he does the same things as before- though people fear him more with his ethereal, ghostly presence. They all know who he is from his damn eyes, and warn people when they go out into the plains that he might be there, and he doesn't hesitate to pull his trigger. He has even more of a reputation now, not that he cares.