Tell Us About Yourself
Name: My mercenary name is Flank Hawk, but my actual name is Krish, son of Thurmund
Age: I was eighteen summers when my first adventure began, when Road Toad, a veteran mercenary, took me under his wing after the Necromancer King’s forces overran my militia company.
Please tell us a little about yourself: I grew up on Pine Ridge and worked as a farmhand before joining Lord Hingroar’s militia to fend off the Necromancer King’s incursions.
I now serve King Tobias of Keesee as a mercenary. I am also a healer, a secret I keep so that I won’t be taken by the followers of Fendra Jolain, the goddess of healing. My neophyte healing ability weakens my ability with a sword, but has some advantages as well.
Do you have a moral code? If so what is it?
I don’t know if I have a moral code. Rather, I believe deeply in loyalty and adherence to duty. Through steadfastness in the face of the enemy, and my association with Road Toad, I came to be noticed by Prince Reveron. Serving the prince opened the path to my first great adventure—seeking out the fabled Colonel of the West.
Would you die for those you love?
Yes, I would. Just as I would sacrifice myself while protecting those I am assigned to guard and serve.
Can you remember something from your childhood which influences your behaviour? How do you think it influences you?
Back when I was seven summers old a carnival travelled through Pine Ridge. What haunted my dreams through that summer and following winter was the caged manticore.
My father was very careful with his hard-earned coin, but spent a few of them and took me and my older sister into the big gray tent to see the rare legendary beast. Lying stretched out, it filled the wagon lined with steel bars that were thick as my forearm, watching us gawking townsfolk with its fierce blue eyes.
The maneless female made a fierce wolf seem like a young pup. The carnival barker explained how they’d chopped off its scorpion tail to keep us spectators safe from deadly poison. I wondered why they hadn’t pulled its three rows of pointed teeth. It had the body of a lion with leathery wings that were too big to spread wide in the cage. Its face was like a woman’s but twice as big, with a jutting jaw and malicious sneer.
Even as a child I recognized the monster’s intelligence, but not a human’s. More feral. It watched people. It watched me and my sister as we walked past, half hidden behind my father. The deep blue eyes, they followed us like a barn cat watching a baby mouse, waiting for it to wander just close enough to pounce upon. Eager to tear the mouse apart while devouring it.
What scared me the most was looking up at my father and seeing him look away from the manticore’s fierce gaze. Nobody could endure it. Not one grown man or woman in the tent met the manticore’s predatory stare for long, even though it was caged behind thick steel bars.
That experience revealed to me the wider world beyond Pine Ridge and that the rare marauding ogre, or mobs of mindless zombies the Necromancer King sent to disrupt crop planting were only weak shadows of the cruel dangers outside my familiar home. Dangers that were real, ones that could slay my father and my family without thinking twice.
It was one reason I joined Lord Hingroar’s militia and stood to defend Pine Ridge from the Necromancer King’s invasion. To protect my family and our home from at least one of those dangers.
Please give us an interesting and unusual fact about yourself.
After Jotey, I am the best shot with a crossbow in and around Pine Ridge.
Tell Us About Your World
Please give us a little information about the world in which you live.
I live in what would be called a post-apocalyptic world, nearly 3,000 years after First Civilization’s fall. After visiting the Colonel of the West, I have a better understanding of First Civilization, but even that I find difficult to explain. While remnants of its lore, machines and technology exist, much of the world was remade in the cataclysm, giving rise to beasts and monsters, and magic.
In addition to people, or humans, like me, giants, goblins, trolls, ogres, centaurs and more walk the lands. Dragons and wyverns have been bred and trained as mounts, while sea serpents, dire wolves and griffins hunt the oceans, lands and air.
Do you travel in the course of your adventures? If so where?
Yes, I’ve travelled far in my adventures, farther than all but a score of men or women in the Kingdom of Keesee, or possibly even the Mainland Continent might claim.
I’ve journeyed across much of the Mainland Continent, and twice crossed the Western Ocean, and then far across the Western Continent to return to Keesee. I’ve crossed the Mediterranean Sea and to the heart of the Southern Continent, to Lake Chaad and returned, and ventured far north to a Mountain Hold of the Svartálfar.
Along the way I’ve encountered creatures and beasts out of legend, and people and cultures—those that are both good and hospitable, and some that are quite sinister and foul.
Name and describe a food from your world.
Rather than a single food I’ll describe a favourite tavern of Road Toad and Lilly located in lower Keesee, near the docks. The One-Eyed Pelican, a series of four ancient wooden shacks, each one extending the size of the establishment from the original is a rundown place that serves mainly sailors, unsavory merchants, mercenaries, bounty men, thugs and cutthroats.
Beyond the thick-armed bouncer, and his pot-bellied partner, I’m not sure what Road Toad sees in the place. The chime and drum musicians play loud and repetitive music, smoke of cheap herbs and tobacco fill the air, and rats boldly roam the overhead rafters.
The ale is bitter, the bread is stale and the meats, stews and soups are greasy and overcooked.
One advantage is that nobody at the One-Eyed Pelican listens in on your conversations.
Does your world have magic? If so how is it viewed in your world?
Yes, and there is a variety of spellcasters, with different powers and capabilities. Even so, each pays a price for their abilities.
As a spellcaster becomes more accomplished in their area or discipline, it affects them, depending upon their specialty.
Wizards take on coloration aspects of their discipline, which has less of an impact, possibly due to the elemental nature of their magic:
- Air Wizards become pale, their hair turning first white and then translucent.
- Earth Wizards become darker of complexion until all matches the soil of the earth, including their eyes, hair, and other features.
- Water Wizards become blue of skin and eyes, with their hair and nails sometimes taking on tints of green.
- Fire Wizards become ruddier, with more fiery red hair and red eyes.
Of other types of spellcasters:
- Seers lose more and more of their physical sight as they become more accomplished.
- Healers become increasingly unable to harm others, even in self-defence.
- Sorcerers become more twisted and crippled.
- Enchanters become more susceptible to the magic of others.
- Necromancers…well, it isn’t pretty.
Does your world have any supernatural/mystical beings? Please tell us about some.
Of some of the more ominous I’ve encountered, I’d name the Kraken, and the Colonel of the West as those that stand out.
The Kraken, a beast so immense it can crush a dragon in its claw the same as a gauntleted knight would a snake. It’s the most fearsome attack beast of Uplersh, goddess of the oceans and seas.
The fabled Colonel of the West, some who name a greater elf, an immortal blood, or even a god. He names himself Colonel Ibrahim, who was once mortal, until the cataclysm that brought about First Civilization’s fall.
Name one person of influence/renown within your society and tell why he or she is influential.
One person of supreme influence is Imperial Seer Lochelle, Prime Counselor to the King of Keesee.
From beneath the King’s Palace, in her dark, octagonal and rune-scribed chamber, the blind seer delves into the minds and intentions of others while seeking to divine the future, or possible futures to advise King Tobias of Keesee and thwart his enemies.
Author notes:
Book(s) in which this character appears plus links
Flank Hawk (Krish) appears in the First Civilization’s Legacy Series, (link: http://www.ervin-author.com/fantasy.htm ) which is currently comprised of the novels:
Flank Hawk
Blood Sword
Soul Forge
(Each is written as a standalone novel, and can be read in any order—although most readers prefer chronological order, which is also the order of publication)
Author name: Terry W. Ervin II
Website/Blog/Author pages etc.
Author Website: http://www.ervin-author.com/
Blog: Up Around the Corner http://uparoundthecorner.blogspot.com/
Flankers: the unofficial fan page for the First Civilization’s Legacy Series https://www.facebook.com/groups/253111838083047/
Library of Erana 
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