Only 11 days till the release of The Runed Age corebook, so here’s another character to get you started in the city of Middelburg.

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

This week’s character is a husky soldier from the Grand Principality of Drussalia called Radoslaw Astrauckas.

Most of Radoslaw’s life was written for him before he was even born. Born the middle child of eight children of a Prince of the mighty Drussalia, there was much expected of Radoslaw throughout his life, which explains why he is currently enjoying a bit of freedom in Middelburg.

Radoslaw’s childhood was a complicated one. Born in a fabulous manor, with servants at his beck and call, Radoslaw wanted for nothing other than attention and approval. He was not the eldest, not the youngest, he merely was. When his mothered abandoned the family and his father remarried, all hopes of getting a minute or two from his father was dashed. His stepmother gave his father his four youngest children and they were suddenly the great favourites in the manor and the infighting between the two sets of children was never ending.

Radoslaw’s only escape was the outside world, but even that was a “complicated” place. His family was of the western Neoist religion in nation of the dominant Prodigalist faith of the strict southern August sect. The Astrauckas family were social lepers, only given the treatment their rank deserved because of their wealth. The only person to show Radoslaw any kindness in his scary childhood years was a old fisherman who would let the young noblechild set his fishing lines and keep him company.

There was much trouble in his house about inheritance, and his stepmother so dearly wished her children to come before Radoslaw and his three older siblings. Radoslaw was far from his father’s title as the fourth oldest, but his stepmother didn’t want to take any chance and sent him off to a temple in the far western nation of Tanfakech.

So Radoslaw spent his teenage year among other Neoists, finally, but was still an outsider due to his foreign origins. He found a friend in a travelling bard and even fell in love. His love, however, hid something important from him: like him she was an outsider, she may have been a Tanfa, but she was a Prodigalist. The irony was not lost on Radoslaw, who was forced to protect her and her family from an angry mob. He nearly died in the process, but she escaped to who knows where and he returned home after he received a letter from his father.

It was the Astrauckas family tradition that all sons not inheriting the Prince-hood to become soldiers. It was not the family reunion Radoslaw had hoped for after nearly seven years abroad but he did his duty as was expected. He defied tradition, however, by refusing to become an officer and enlisted instead.

Radoslaw would give his next thirty years to the Drussalian army. It were the best and worst years of his life. He finally found camaraderie, structure, order, and most of all: recognition for his accomplishments. The army was his second family and he did all he could to make it proud.

He excelled at being a cavalry man, something his privileged background prepared him for, and rode in the vanguard of many fierce battles. His rich background had also ensured he was fluent in several languages and, combined with his marksmanship skills, his superiors routinely picked him for guerilla operations behind enemy lines. Sometimes months would go by before he and his squads would see a friendly face, but he would always yearn to get back to his fellow cavalrymen. Radoslaw was born to ride a horse.

By the time he retired from the army, he was Colonel in command of his own regiment: the 9th Drussalian Cavalry Regiment. It was time for a change however, and he wasn’t the strapping young lad he once was, so when the army offered to promote him to General after his friend, mentor, and commanding officer passed away, he quit while he was ahead and looked to greener pastures in Alfresia.

The army wasn’t his whole life, though, and he did find himself a wife to worry for him on his months away, but unfortunately they never had children. With seven siblings and countless nieces, nephews and their children, Radoslaw had more than enough loved ones around him that he cared for.

Now as a man on his way to his golden years, Radoslaw has seen enough to make him a cynical man. He is too old for most ruckus around him and cares little for the troubles of the world. Few things tugs his interest these days, other than his wife of course, and those are his nation, his god and a good spot of fishing when he can.

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