Rayko Ranakev

Birth Name: Rayko Ranakev

Meaning of name: A variant of "Rymr," from his mother's side, altered in honor of his father's.

Birth date: ~Sulime

Age: Mid 30s (~mid 90s)

Appears: Mid-twenties

Race: Dark-Elf

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Anger Homeland: Manadh Calad

Occupation: Mercenary, Architect/Mason, Glassblower

source: harliskudo

Basics

Height: 5’4”

Weight: ~ 140lbs

Complexion: Light-gray

Distinguishing Features: Sharp eyebrows, uneven hair.

Overall Attractiveness: Angry

Description: Stern features littered with softer details contradict but align themselves well on his face, which bears an overall sharp complexion. His face is made for the irritated furrowed brows that it so often bears, the Dark-Elf’s disposition usually resting in casual indifference when he isn't especially irritated. He plays to the strengths of his appearance, simply put. His body has been strengthened and empowered through decades spent at the highest peak of its condition thanks to life under Behmos' curse, and bears no scars. It retains its strength through a daily life filled with arduous labor. His ears are sharp but somewhat short, like the rest of him, curving close to the sides of his head and fitting well with his angular face. Though often tangled, dirty-white hair is kept uneven and short on one side in honor of his brother, the rest of its length bound in a braid and torn cloth. Like most Dark-Elves, this accentuates his eyes rather well with their common murky-red hue. They glare just below sharp eyebrows practically made for an irritated glance. All manner of charms and talisman hang from his neck and belts, always: he is a mercenary by trade, and thus knows the worth and need for certain equipment to always be within reach. Besides earthy colours he tends to prefer practicality in his clothing, barring the addition of some few rings, bangles, and other such jewelry and trade goods.

Long-term Goals:

• The complete annihilation of the Cult and death/subjugation of all its members, affiliates, allies, whatever else.

• Living to see the first one. Arguably more difficult.

• Happiness. Or satisfaction? Or a quiet end. He’s not completely sure.

Short-term Goals:

• The re-legalization of vampirism.

• Finding/Killing his grandfather.

• More power.

• Mourning.

Dream: Dining with his brother and sister, feasting and making merry within their ancestral home. Affiliation: Elvenkind, The Kingdom, The Alliance, Vampirism

Current Home: Falkvard

Personal Information

Character Personality: Rayko Ranakev is a stubborn Dark-Elf with great ambition, as common as they come. Decades of solitude and interaction with vampires has made him rather quiet, paranoid, not always expecting the worst from most people but knowing what fear and desire can morph into within the wrong person. Thus, he keeps his expectations of others low. He still pursues the best in people, in his own Dark-Elven way.

Once a Godless man, he has made peace with his conflicts against divinity to a great extent. He no longer blames the Gods for the death of his brother, his mother, his sister. Rather he has found a view of destiny that has allowed him to accept their death as their choice: that, all of fate and destiny is, much like the frog and the scorpion, the sum of action and the self's nature. He now only wishes he could have fought with them to the bitter end rather than guide and defend a retreat, and above this, retains that same deep-seated rage against the Cult that has kept him willing to live beyond instinct. Rayko desperately wishes to be a Ranakev, to live up to his name. After recent events however, he has come to better terms with his survival, believing himself to have earned it from his elder sibling properly with the damage he has inflicted upon the Cult. He is no longer (completely) bound by that deep desire to appease his brother, and thus finds himself now upon a new trail for the fulfillment of his oaths.

Rayko looks upon the state of Dark-Elven culture and society with the belief that the many who survived the Pact War are either weak or foolish, Dark-Elves who have either too willingly given up their connection with their people or are mimicries of their ancestors and a bygone age. He believes that the generations past need no firm grip upon those of the future, and with the fall of Manadh Calad and the disarray of his people and culture, he blames the Dark-Elves who seem desperate to imitate their elders: the Dark-Elven culture has maladapted and is weak to change, and that is his greatest concern for his kin.

Should ever his barriers be breached, a rather snarky Dark-Elf with generally terrible humor can be found beneath. He bears a certain love for good song and story, and very often savors his memories over the present. Though barely an adult, technically, he has lived to Dark-Elven mid-life, and it shows in his nostalgia trips and memories of family and heritage. Throughout more recent decades especially, he has become more empathetic, more tolerant of others. Be it due to the company he has surrounded himself with or an amalgam of retrospection and other factors, his temper has cooled and his intentions have grown more thoughtful. Either that or he's started to enjoy actually speaking full sentences sometimes. He's still awfully wary of others regardless. Rayko has a soft spot for children. Being that they are the future of their families and world, he is discomforted by the thought of more generations growing up stuck in the cycle of combat against darker forces that has plagued the world for a century.

Character’s greatest joy in life: No clue. Character’s greatest fear: Meeting his grandfather.

Character is most at ease when: Sculpting.

Most ill at ease when: Being social.

Enraged when: Yes.

Depressed or sad when: Yes.

Priorities: Living.

Life Philosophy: Secret.

If granted one wish, it would be: The eternal, infinite, unending punishment of every Cult member and affiliate.

Why?: I dUnNo WhY wOuLd SoMeOnE wAnT tHaT

Character’s soft spot: The truly innocent and untainted. Those who’ve played no role in shedding blood or indulging in great sin. The unreasonably kind. The unreasonably selfless, or the incurably weak.

Is this soft spot obvious to others?: Nope. So very few people fit that bill, anyway.

Biggest regret: Leaving Manadh Calad.

Minor regret: Keeping those once close to him at a distance.

Biggest accomplishment: Retaking the Crossroads.

Minor accomplishment: Retrieving Falkvard’s first ring.

Past Embarassments: None.

Why?: They’ll never know about it.

Character’s darkest secret: He was a Vampire, woah.

Does anyone else know?: Never.

Relationships

Grandfather: Ivanovich Ranakev Relationship with him: He knew him only from stories told by his eldest brother. He was the head of their clan, the greatest Ranakev in a line of great Ranakevs, who had orchestrated marriage with the Voluspa blood in the belief that it was destined to feed the knowledge and power bound in the family's ancestral home. He was infatuated with knowledge, so much so that he would one day disappear from Manadh Calad and travel north-east, which chain-reacted and resulted in the downfall of his family and child. A truly despicable man, in Rayko's eyes. Either he must kill him, or he must understand him. Mother: Embla (Voluspa) Ranakev

Relationship with her: A terrifyingly regal woman, whose anger was said to shiver the roots below. He’d been told once of her great charisma before his birth, but following the death of his father, she was always faded in her energy and attention. She was a Volva, and perhaps due to the prophecies and future she had seen, as he grew up Rayko would perceive more and more hate in her eyes when she looked at him. Or was it horror?

Father: Vladimir Ranakev

Relationship with him: An absent father. A dead one mind you, assassinated and unmourned by their greater Dark-Elven community. Rayko can never respect the man, but as per his brother’s wishes, he still honors his name.

Siblings: Skadi Ranakev, Olgr Ioge Ranakev Relationship with them: Love/hate. They had set the bar so high for him that even now he struggles to reach it. Where his elder siblings were practically prodigies in their respective fields, he was born with neither their great charisma nor strategic genius. In almost every part of his life, he does not believe, but knows they could have done it better. This makes the pain of their choice to refuse his sacrifice that much more annoying.