The Devout
“Yeah, I heard there was a kid that used to sit on top of that old warehouse, down by the old gem mine. I remember his eyes the most, eyes like that should never belong to a kid; they were eyes that saw far too much.”
“Yeah, I heard there was a kid that used to sit on top of that old warehouse, down by the old gem mine. I remember his eyes the most, eyes like that should never belong to a kid; they were eyes that saw far too much.”
“I taught them to watch for me, taught them to read...”
Basic information
Name: Davion Harlared
Alias: The Devout
Age: In his 20's, though his exact date of birth is unknown due to lack of proper recording.
Occupation: Spy
Affiliations: The Daggerhead Faction [Sunberth]
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Birthday: Unknown, see age.
“...to watch like shadows, to find the secrets of my enemy...”
Physical description
Not the most impressive of fellows physically speaking, Davion stands at a meagre 5'7'', his wiry frame composed mainly of skin and bones with the occasional muscle on it, resulting in a less-than-impressive weight of around 145 lbs. Still, despite his scrawny state, he possess a wiry sort of strength which seems almost unnatural when one first notices it. Besides, it's not his strength that has earned him a slight renowned in the large mass of chaos and anarchy that is Sunberth.
Rather, it was Davion's unnaturally good eyesight and his incredible agility and climbing speed that led to his fame, prompting people to call him all sorts of names both complimentary and derogatory (ranging from “The Praying Spider” and “Akajia's Silent Fart” to “The Devout Deviant” and “The Shadowless Eye”). The famous eyes were an eerie green colour and appeared to almost glow in the dark, glinting out from the shadows to note anything that his current master wanted recorded. If he was one with the shadows during the night, one could say he almost turned into a shadow himself during the day. Pale and bleak of both appearance and demeanour, the boy was hard to find if one did not know whom one was looking for. His clothes hung of his body like sacks nailed to sticks, making many wonder how he managed to infiltrate even the quarters of the honoured (and feared) Robert Dalagner, even if it was only to acquire a piece of his laundry due to some ridiculous bet made days earlier between him and a boy named Pypett.
As for his face, even as he grew into his more masculine features it remained pale and bony history, looking more pathetic than dashing and inspiring pity rather than awe from his peers, though if that bothered the infiltrator then he hardly allowed it to show. Besides from being thin, his body had gained some well-needed muscles and he was more lean than he was skinny, his body moving with the practised grace of an acrobat. Silent and graceful, he dressed in dark colours and usually wore a thin black cloak that covered his entire body, wide enough that it could be wrapped around him completely and with a big hood that could be pulled up so far that the shadow from it would conceal his face. On the chest of his worn linen tunic was embroidered a dark blue triangle, the only distinguishing feature his clothes had. Otherwise he was just as anonymous as the shadows on which he relied, a dark blur on the outskirts of an observer's vision.
“...to tell me stories of my competitors, to claim that which rightfully belonged to our Goddess...”
Personality
Devout
Davion is fiercely devoted to religious worship of the Goddess Akajia, The Night's Mistress, whispering prayers to her during his preparations for a job as well as thanking her with even more prayers whenever he completes them. Being an aspirant to join The Irst, he has devoted his life to secrecy, information gathering, infiltration and espionage, training his abilities to both enter hostile territory unseen, uncover secret documents and dispatching of any evidence of ever being there. As any follower of Akajia would know, even shadows have eyes, and as such there is little reason not to look over your shoulder at any given time; this has caused Davion do develop a slight form of paranoia, especially when in open areas with lots of places to hide.
Spartan
Growing up without money makes one accustomed to living sparely, and Davion believes that the less you need the less can be taken from you by a moment of ill fortune, or used against you by potential enemies.
Questionable morals
In the “civilized” parts of Sylira people would probably consider Davion callous and unscrupulous, seeing as how he is ready to take on almost any job as long as the reward is enough. In Sunberth, however, this is considered a strong trait as it shows your will and ambition to further your own goals. Furthermore, there are lines that even Davion won't step across. He is reluctant to kill, mainly due to his own ineptitude at combat, and will not take jobs that would target members of The Irst or any of their close associates, showing remarkable loyalty to the group for being a non-member. He also rarely targets brothels, since he himself grew up in one and have a sort of sympathy for the plights of the prostitutes.
Slight Agoraphobia
Davion suffers from a slight form of agoraphobia, a heightened fear or anxiousness when in open spaces. In his case it manifests as a twitch in his hands, a sudden urge to conceal himself and heightened nervousness. He also gets a dry mouth and, if exposed for too long, might start rambling in a most uncharacteristic manner while heading for an alley or some other place where he feels more at ease. Luckily for him, there are few places in Sunberth with really large plazas, making this fear easily remedied.
Dislikes authority
Like most inhabitants of Sunberth, Davion has a problem with authority. While not as severe as some, he still does not approve of people trying to order or manipulate other people into doing something against their own free will. Laws and such he deems as unnecessary and plain stupid, as he reasons that free men should do what they wish and suffer the consequences of their actions, and that trying to impose order upon the unwilling will merely result in further chaos, thus being contradictory to its original purpose.
Organized
Though not trained in the art of organization, Davion possesses an intuitive ability for keeping things plain, simple and easy to manage. His home is a perfect example of this, where each of his (admittedly few) belongings have their own place decided by their use, size and how often he has to bring them out. Likewise, it is this innate ability that has made him such a valuable asset as an information gatherer, given that most of the cheaper spies in Sunberth usually brings their “goods” to their customers in a large heap which has been quickly scavenged as the infiltrator was under pressure to make a quick get-away.
Speaks out of necessity
Having trained as long as he has to be like a shadow, Davion has a hard time communicating his feelings at times. He is usually a voice of reason and logic, and if he deems that there is need for his opinion he will voice it, but he is not one for idle banter; he simply does not know how to go about trivial chit-chat.
Compassionate
While his logic and silence might make him appear cold in the eyes of an outsider, Davion is far from it. He feels for the less fortunate, but unfortunately (for them and himself alike) his faith prevents him from taking any action that could jeopardize the threads of Fate, mainly since he is sworn to not Interfere but to Observe, a rather obscure tenet that can be twisted a bit if he should feel like it, though he usually tries to avoid doing it since he feels that any alteration to the original Faith is a perversion to all that the Shadow stands for.
“...and as birds chirp in the morning of the new day, so would my little bird chirp in the morning of the new deeds...”
Ethics
Three things guide Davion in his life at all times: his faith, his chosen profession and his self-presumed debt to his former master, a man whom he never learned the name of yet who taught him everything he would later put to use as a spy – how to hide in the shadows like they were part of your body, how to read and write, how to make a hole in the wall disappear once you'd exited through it. Due to this “debt”, he has vowed to live his life in accordance to the Principle of the Shadow:
“In the Shadow, Violence is not, nor is Retribution, nor is Hate. To be like the Shadow is not to prey upon the foe, nor is to strike at those who did you or your kin harm the way of the Shadow, nor is it in the Shadow's nature to wish for harm to befall those it watches. There is but two things to the way of the Shadow, that is the Secret and the Watch. We Watch, for we are always present. We See, as our brothers and sisters before us, since the days of the first light. We learn the Secrets, and we pass them along, so that one day all shall be known to those unfortunate enough to be among the Shadowless.”
“...thus I learned, thus I watched, thus I shared the secrets. Through me, the boy became the Shadow. Through him, the Shadow came to me.”
History
[Pre-Creation]
Born in the slums of Sunberth, something which isn't really all too telling of the general location due to the state of the aforementioned city, Davion was the accidental third son of a harlot and regarded by his mother as little more than another mouth to feed and another nuisance to scare of potential customers. It was not a good sign for a harlot to be fertile, it was said, since bastards oft came in the way of proper wed family business. This particular little half-blood spawn turned out to be a scrawny, silent mass of thin bones and pale skin, kept together by sinews more than muscles at first glance. It wasn't that Davion was unwanted though, he merely was too much for the mother who'd already suffered through two childbirths and wasn't getting any younger any time soon, a clear liability in her trade of choise.
Without any other options, it fell to the streets to raise the young lad, as much as the streets of the old mining city could raise anyone to be anything other than a two-copper cut-purse or a common thug. Still, it would seem that somewhere in all his misfortune Ovek must've taken pity on him, for one day he stumbled into an alley to find an old man lying on his side, blood pooling out of his mouth at an alarming rate. Grabbing the man by his arm and dragging him, surprised at how heavy the old coot was, he managed to get him a bit further into the network of alleys and gateways that made up the underbelly of Sunberth. As the elder came to, he seemed lost for a moment before turning his eyes towards the boy. After some talking between the two of them, he revealed that he was suffering from a terrible affliction. When the boy asked what that affliction might be, the elder simply answered him with one word.
“Time.”
The old man was dying, but he didn't want to leave this life before passing on his skills, something which he hoped he could do to the boy. After producing a weird talisman, a circle that was but an arc at one glance, then a circle at second inspection, then once more just an arc, he turned it and revealed that it was indeed a flat circle-shaped talisman, the size of a gold rimmed miza. On the backside was another queer marking, a blackish blue triangle. The boy was made to hold it and to swear a solemn oath, dubbed by the elder “The Principle of the Shadow”. After that, he was made to learn.
Having a lot to teach and a preciously short time to do it on, the old man had the boy follow him home. Day and night he studied words and letters, practising to read and write until his handwriting was as good as a perfect copy of the old man's. As soon as he was accustomed to this, he was made to stand perfectly still, a task which should by no means be considered easy as the human body is prone to small, unintentional movement to relieve itself of physical stress accumulated by keeping it locked in a certain position for a lengthy amount of time. He learned to crawl into small spaces unseen and unheard, to be the eyes of the fly on a wall, to climb walls as if they were ladders. This and more, the old man taught him, his voice struggling to hold on as he wheezed his way through the instructions.
One day, however, the old man found that Dira might be patient, but that's only because in the end everyone has to wonder down that certain path. Left alone once more, Davion found himself missing the old man's company and decided to do the right thing by living like his master taught him to; he reasoned that he had the old man to thank for not being another of the myriad of little boys destined for a rough life and an early grave. Taking on simple jobs at first, he soon proved his worth and came into contact with the Daggerheads, one of the major syndicates ruling both the underbelly and the “public” parts of Sunberth.
“The Devout” earned his nickname after successfully stealing away with the papers from a captain of the Sun's Birth on an assignment for the Daggerheads. The impressive feat in all of this was not to steal away with the papers, seeing as how they were poorly guarded in the first place, but rather the fashion in which he accomplished it. Situated in a small crack in the ceiling of the captain's floor, which he'd entered through the outer roof after carefully making his way over the rooftops, the youngster copied down the entire letter, word by word, and delivered the finished copy to the Daggerhead officer who'd hired him. Not expecting an attack during routine patrol, the Sun's Birth knight were completely overwhelmed and pushed back form that particular sector. From that night and onwards, every petty criminal knew to ask for the boy with the strange green eyes and frail appearance who always praised Akajia before his jobs.
After that particular achievement Davion lived the life of a trusted asset to the Daggerheads, and though it made him content to be able to provide for his mother and siblings in at least a small way he felt as if something was missing in his life. That was when he heard of The Irst, a group of intelligence gatherers like him who devoted their lives to his patron deity, the Goddess of Secrets, Akajia. From that point onwards his every effort was focused towards finding out more about the group and try to get into contact with it, and though he's yet to succeed he has begun to feel that he is getting close as lately there have been movements outside his vision on the darkest of nights, and he can never shake the feeling of being watched from the shadows himself, as were he a Shadowless. Knowing that compared to The Irst, he is probably only a green boy with a penance for hiding, it makes him slightly nervous to know their presence is out there somewhere, keeping tabs on his secrets, but he does not let it affect him any more than it would any other follower of the Shadow.
It is known, after all, that the duty of the Shadow is to Watch for Secrets, and pass these on to the Shadowless.
