Kla Verun

[Kla Verun]

Kla Verun

Age  22

Gender  Male

Origin  Devahni

Occupation  Apprentice Shroudweaver

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Kla Verun should have been a shining example of Devahni potential, a testament to his kind even in their dwindling numbers. Born to Kerros and Yl'vene Verun, Kla's mother perished during his birth, leaving him alone with his father, a member of a travelling troupe of disillusioned and disgruntled Deva who made their living performing paltry tricks for spare coin in every town they passed and liberating the locals of a few treasured possessions on their way out. Even among those in their troupe, Kla's father was the only one with any true talent for manipulating the Shroud. It was no surprise to Kerros or any of the other Deva thieves when young Kla began to show signs of an incredible connection to the Shroud.

By that time, hard times had befallen the troupe. Most of the major cities had long since taken note of their antics and had banned their entry, and now even the smaller communities had begun to realize the travelling performers were more than they seemed. Coin was short, and bickering amongst the members seemed soon to shatter their small community entirely.

Kla was too young to understand this, but his father struggled with the reality of it. First he would lose his beloved, and now his entire family? Kerros took action, fleeing the troupe in the middle of the night, and proclaiming himself to be the Mentor whom would help his son to shape and sharpen his Shroud-given talents, as was the tradition of the Deva. Unwittingly, though, the boy had just become a vessel for another person's raw bitterness and contempt for the world around him. Rather than hone his abilities in any traditional sense, Kerros employed the blossoming powers of his son to become little more than a brigand, attacking unaware travelers on the road and overpowering them with Kla's growing might. They would live off of the suffering and belongings of others for a time, before Kerros was confident enough in Kla's ability to shift their focus to the always fruitful world of bounty hunting and mercenary work. So successful were they in this line of work that Kla has earned some renown in the world of hired muscle, nicknamed 'The Man In Red' for his consistent choice of outfit and facepaint.

Kla knew that his actions were morally wrong. Even the scheming Troupe he'd been born to abhorred blatant violence and the abuse of shroud-weaving. Yet more than that, he knew that his father, the only family that he had left, was in a deep pain. Without Kerros, he would have nobody. Despite his flaws, his father had always been there for him, had he not? He had earned Kla's loyalty, and Kla would follow him and his words to the very end, no matter what.

After all, was not family one of the most cherished things to the Devahni?

So when the two Devahni were rewarded for a particularly high-profile bounty with a pair of Shroud-Stones, Kla did not resist when his father insisted upon sewing the stones into the flesh of his back to bolster his connection to the Shroud by an incredible margin. Now, Kla is little more than a glorified homunculus, an abomination made from a promising young Devahni at the hands of his own father, used as a weapon to earn money and fortune, and to spit in the face of world that had wronged his family.

Will the madness of his father bring him his end first? Or will the stones in his back drive him just as insane as his father before that chance comes?