As the release date for the Runed Age Corebook draws nearer, here’s another character for you to use!

All the character’s skills and backstories were created just by using the Runed Age’s Character Generation.

Our character this week is Jakob van Dyk, an explorer from Alfresia’s neighbour and rival Wesfresia.

Jakob did not have the most peculiar childhood, but it wasn’t altogether normal either, because his family lived near a small monastery of the Starchild. This seemed altogether normal for the young Jakob because he was born into the cult. He enjoyed the cult’s teachings on individuality and objectivism and was never sad about being friendless. The only thing that bothered the young cultist was his older brother, who never took a liking to the poor lad.

This normality of the cult all changed when the young Jakob ventured into the nearby town and saw first-hand the revulsion and loathing the people had for the Starchild Cult and its ways. This had a profound effect on Jakob and he was always fearful of strangers since that day.

As Jakob got older, his family stayed near the cult and so the only source of knowledge of the outside world came from the cult’s tutors. While the teachings were clearly biased, Jakob took to it like a duck to water, absorbing the knowledge like a sponge. His best friend was also a bookworm like he, but they had scarce become friends when the bookworm left for a journey to another Starchild monastery and Jakob never saw him again. His first love similarly disappeared one night and all Jakob had left of her was a handwritten note saying she had to leave because the secrets she carried would be the end of him. Needless to say, Jakob’s teenage years were not the happiest.

Worst was yet to come however, an act that would force him out into world and away from the only home he ever knew. One night at the local town a group of men cornered him and gave him an ultimatum: either do what they want or they will let some information slip. What this information was, Jakob had never told anyone, but he said he had no choice. He would also never talk about the vile things he did for the criminals, only that it took weeks to wash all the blood off.

With no home to return to, Jakob decided to see as much of the world as he could, and make some money on the way. So he decided to become a grave robber, a tomb raider, a thief of relics and artifacts. For 12 years this did him well and he saw many things unknown to the rest of humanity. Some times he would spend months away from civilisation and at other times he would meet isolated tribes who had never seen a white man before. He had his fill of the wild world when an incorrectly drawn map had him out in swamps and marshlands for the better part of year. He decided, for the sake of what little sanity he had left to return to civilisation, and what better city to return to after years in the wilderness than Middelburg.

It’s no surprise that Jakob never settled down with his years wandering about the world but he has left a couple of bastards in different countries that he hopes won’t inconvenience him. Another matter that will never inconvenience him is the death of his brother that he heard about through the Middelburgian Starchild cult. He feels conflicted about this. While there was never any love lost between him and his brother, it is still his brother.

While he may be away from his childhood home, the Starchild Cult of Middelburg have accepted him with open arms, eager to hear his tales of the wider world.

In his free time, Jakob enjoys exploring the stone jungle that is Middelburg and hunting for any source of knowledge about the Starchild. That is not all he does, however. He has always empathised far more with the poor than the rich and could never really control his temper. This means there are plenty of opportunities for fights to break out when he is out in the city and he rarely comes back to the cult without a scrape and a bruise.

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