#aboutavad

Bio: Born under an eclipse, Avad is the second child of thirteenth sun-king, Jiran, and is hardly favored for the throne. The boy leans more toward the arts, history, and culture, than combat or strategy, though he is, of course, trained in both. As he grew alongside his beloved brother, Kadaman, the boys were forced to watch their father become a mad tyrant, initiating the Red Raids, taking innocent people from nearby tribes to sacrifice in the Sun-Ring. Kadaman pledged that he would confront his father when he came of age, sure he could talk Jiran into cessation of the senseless bloodshed. Jiran’s response is to throw Kadaman, his own flesh and blood, into the Sun-Ring as a heretic and a holy sacrifice, being also of the Radiant Line. Seeing the writing on the wall, Avad took his honor guard and fled Meridian. Young though he is, he commands great respect and adoration among his men. He uses this charisma over the next few months, gathering support among the Oseram of The Claim, aided by his friend Ersa (a woman who had survived the Sun-Ring had befriended him in the palace) and her brother, Erend. The attack on Meridian does not last long, as the Oseram’s grasp of ancient technology allows them to quickly breach the walls and take the city. Confronted with his father, Avad is loathe to kill the mad king. He has no other choice, however, because without the authority of the Sundom’s seat, he has no hope of securing the safety of Nasadi, Jiran’s second wife, and Itamen, Avad’s innocent, young half-brother. A devout Carja, Avad fears the eternal setting of the sun, should a sun-king be slain. When the sky remains bright, blue, and cloudless, he is proclaimed Sun-King beyond a shadow of a doubt and Jiran is denounced as a false king in the face of the true heir, Avad. Over the next few years, Avad’s right to rule and his skill thereat is tested regularly by raids from the newly established Shadow Carja, and many other horrors just now arising in the land. A beacon of hope arrives in the form of a red-haired Nora warrior, Aloy…

Appearance: a handsome, olive-skinned man of slightly above average height, Avad isn’t, by any standards, unique among his people. His charisma is inexplicable.

Personality: thoughtful, gentle, soft-spoken with a rod of steel in his spine, Avad is an unassuming young man unless provoked or convinced of the necessity of force.