Thnktfthbx/Kern

Name: Kernunnos Takai, Kern to his friends
Caste: Dawn
Nature: Leader
Anima: Rearing King-Stag, ready to protect its herd from any threat, even unto death.
Concept: Honorable Solder

Physical Details

• Round honest face, large blunt nose, & very dark/almost black eyes
• Heavy, Dark Bronzed & weatherworn skin
• Straight shiny black hair, long to waist, tied in tight braid.
• Very large (wide) frame, shoulder to shoulder, with ample muscles in evidence from wearing armor & doing heavy lifting
• About 6 foot even
• Dawn Caste mark permanently bleached milk-white into forehead, even without essence expenditure, normally covered by a headband or his helm
• Several small sword-scars on limbs & back, one large clawed scar running down left arm, tattoo of broken skull on sholderblade

Pre-Exaltation History

Kern was the third son of the Harbourhead Takai’s, a well-to-do family involved in Tapestries (particularly depictions of famous battles, by consignment only, made by the most talented weaver-slaves in all of Harbourhead…)

As a child born in Harborhead, he learned the use of weapons very early, as all children in Harborhead do, right along with any other education they might receive regardless of background. He was pushed towards the more mercantile aspect of life, but his ears burned with the grand tales of martial adventure and military victory that his grandmother told whenever showing a client their halls of tapestries. As he grew, he quickly developed into a very strong young boy, and with both his older brothers & younger sister showing much more skill in bookkeeping as well as slave management, he was finally allowed to pursue a career in the nation’s guard. Showing great strength & fair potential, & was accepted into standing army after his second time through the recruitment tryouts, around the age of 17.

He was trained for Cavalry and Heavy Infantry fighting for several years, and then upon completion of his 4-year basic instruction, he was placed with one of the 5 standing companies that Harbourhead loans out to their close contacts in the Blessed Isle, part of their treaties with the Realm, in particular with House Sesus.

The first campaign he was involved in was fairly simple & straightforward suppression of an uprising in one of House Sesus’s holdings, a lumber & logging region that felt it was being unfairly taxed. There was only minor fighting, as the locals weren’t at all as adamant in their position when facing down the 5th Wing of the 27th Legion backed by the Harbourhead Infantry. The following year they were temporarily recalled to Harbourhead to assist in an ongoing campaign against the Jackal Tribes to the south, part of Harbourhead’s continuing attempts to expand it’s boarders, as well as keep it’s slave markets full of new meat. During this operation Kern displayed to his superiors a commendable ability to think on his feet and to deal swiftly with the sudden changes in strategy that became necessary when opposing varied tactics of the tribes. They earmarked his file as a potential officer in training. It was at this point that he began to wear his hair long along with several of his compatriots, as a sign of skill (long hair can be a serious difficulty in battle), as well as a personal symbol of time spent in the military. After two years fighting through the Jungles south of Harbourhead, Kern’s company was again requested by house Sesus, and sent to a Satrapy on the North-West coast of the Inland Sea that was in danger of being swallowed by a newly developing Shadowland. His company was one of several non-Imperial regiments supporting a full Legion of Imperial troops engaging in full-out war with the forces of a Deathlord aggressor. Casualties were high, and the non-Imperial units tended to be used in the tighter spots, since the Dragonblooded generals in charge wanted to keep their own citizens as intact as possible. During this conflict, Kern was given a battlefield promotion to Stotora (like a Sergeant), in charge of a squad of 20 men, when their previous commander was killed in action. He also received a long claw-mark scar down his left forearm from the bony hand of a corpse-soldier. At the end of the conflict (which resolved after a year and a half in an uneasy truce, the deathlord holding a quarter of the disputed land, the Satrap holding half, and the remaining quarter remaining as a sort of buffer between the two sides), all of Kern’s company (those that survived, about 2/3rds) got tattoos on their right shoulder-blade of a skull broken in half.

Kern’s company was refreshed with new troops from Harbourhead (his squad increased to 25 men), and was assigned to a five-year round-trip through a series of House Sesus’s holdings & garrisons with a contingent of Dragonblooded & Imperials, with the intent to reaffirm Sesus’s hold on it’s tax-donating lands as well as to assess the accuracy of prosperity reports. Most of this time was spent breaking in the new recruits, training in maneuvers, and fighting with the occasional desperate bandit groups or hostile locals of the in-between lands. Kern also took the opportunity to learn as much as he could from the Equietus (equivalent of a Major) of his company’s mounted units, who was a veteran leader and well respected by the entire company. He wanted to make sure that those under his command got the sort of commander they deserved.

At the end of this tour of duty, Kern’s company was sent to the Nation of Colborn in the Eastern Scavenger Lands. South of the Meander River