Caleb is Lewellyn Bryse's father.
Vital Statistics[]
Name: Caleb Bryse
Race: Human
Class: Unknown
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Alignment: Unknown
Deity: Unknown
Height: 5'3
Weight: 130 lbs.
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Violet
Appearance: Caleb, despite standing slightly shorter than the average female human, proves to have a rather intimidating presence. He walks with a purposeful grace and a glare that makes him difficult to approach. His hair is unkempt and his eyes are a deep, clear violet - something of a rarity even on Eyrion.
Personality: On first inspection, it's not difficult to call Caleb a cold man. He speaks with a sharp, condescending tone and makes a deliberate attempt to dissuade anyone who might consider speaking with him. Crude language spills from his lips like water down a waterfall, and he seems to have no care whatsoever for the feelings or interest of anyone other than his own adventuring partners.
However, much of this is a front. His clumsy words are partly caused by his upbringing, wherein he was forced to act hard and crude just to survive. Beneath it, his devotion is plainly his driving force - and once he sets a path, he stubbornly follows it to the bitter end. Not one to give up, he'll often fight until unconsciousness just out of pride.
Religious Ideals: Unknown as of current.
History[]
The bastard son of a nobleman and a chambermaid, Caleb was quickly thrown out onto the streets to fend for himself. His father couldn't care less about him and his mother couldn't afford to keep him, and leaving children in the streets was nothing unusual. He remembers nothing about either of them, and begrudges both for their actions, even now.
He learned early that the best way to live on was to be stronger, faster or smarter (or all three) than the others around his age. Having never been anywhere near their size, he usually settled for hiding and setting traps to hinder or hurt them. One particularly bright young man saw his gift for trapsmithing and lockpicking and approached him with a proposition - in exchange for protection from all of the other boys, Caleb would be his designated thief. It didn't take much for the youth to agree to the option - he didn't see much of another choice.
In the end, he became that young man's fall-guy. When something went wrong, he was usually at the heart of it, and thus the one who got punished. Before he was eight, he learned to fight back - soon thereafter, the guards themselves began to treat him with contempt and scorn. They would gather into mobs just to win fights, and act innocently when someone accused them. After all, who would believe a street rat over the guardsmen?
Jaded by his experiences, Caleb grew up without much remorse for his actions - thievery became a retaliation or a comfort, depending on the situation. The only ones spared from his rage were the weak poor, those too defenseless to harm - it was some parting kindness, or perhaps a refusal to become the same as those whom had wronged him.
It was a robbery gone wrong that brought him to officially meet Irene. She was the daughter of one of the prominent nobles, and known to be quite a tomboy. Taken to swordfighting and sport, he'd seen her practicing on many occasions. She was good, but he was better. Well, he thought he was, anyway. He made it a point to scar her reputation, choosing to steal something from her home while she was unable to protect it.
Her father, however, had his own guards, and these guards didn't play by the same rules as the town's guards did. These were ruthless mercenaries, men who did their work for money and nothing more. They caught him outright, before he'd even stolen the useless trinket he intended to, and proceeded to beat him to near unconsciousness.
Just before his vision faded, he remembered hearing something - the sounds of a commotion, and blows landing. He assumed they were on him, and he just didn't feel them because he was too bruised and battered to.
When he woke, he didn't recognize where he was. It wasn't a cell, and it certainly wasn't his home. The scent of flowers assaulted his nose, and he wrinkled it and tried to get up. A hand stopped him - smaller than his own, even - and he let it just because it hurt ten times worse to move. When he could finally see again, he found himself staring up at the very girl he'd intended to rob. Irene explained what had happened - apparently, she gave two of the mercenaries black eyes, all for fighting near her room, or so she said.
After that, Caleb wasn't unlike a puppy around Irene. He followed her around, watching from the shadows as she trained and acted, and found himself somewhat guilty for his hateful inclinations when facing her own, plainly purer ones. By the time she was old enough to leave the city alone, Caleb sort of appointed himself her guardian. As it turned out, it was much the opposite - Irene wasn't terribly fast, but she was stronger than he could ever hope to be.
The plights of others had never meant much to Caleb, but he agreed to help them for her sake. Years passed like that, more than he even really thought about, and they met Bones on one of their jobs. She'd been an assassin, a killer for hire who happened to be on their side. Irene immediately won her over, similarly to how she had won Caleb himself over, and they became friends (albeit grudgingly for Bones and Caleb). A few years into their adventures, Caleb finally got up the courage to ask Irene to marry him.
The three worked together as mercenaries, with Irene's personality kept them on the track of defeating evil and saving others. Before Lyn's birth, they were known as heroes - though not by their real names. Mystery surrounded them and danger seemed to follow; anyone who chose to spend time around them either wound up leaving prematurely or meeting a gruesome end. Recently, he was confronted by his own son - or more precisely, Lyn came forward to try to reach out to his mother, Irene. This caused quite a stir, and Caleb hastily explained that if she were forced to remember the past, then it might kill her.
Apparently, after they broke off their adventuring with Bones and Lyn was born, the couple had every intention of settling down. However, they had become quite a pair of names in their pursuit of the Black Hand cult, and eventually Siltiel captured Irene. According to Caleb, she had been weak after Lyn's birth, for unknown reasons, and there was little that could be done. By the time he managed to get her back, the cult had taken much of her memories and inclinations - she was much like an empty ragdoll. They demanded Caleb's help, and at first he refused - it was then that he learned that the very memories removed from Irene were also able to cause her severe pain. The cult delighted in using this particular fact against Caleb, essentially ensuring his obedience.
Once he realized all this, Caleb went alone to take Lyn, packing him up in the night with a small note and slinking off to get him to a safer place. His own past drove him to choose a church, as he knew he wanted his son to have a father, as he never did... little did he know in his haste what kind of man he was sending Lyn to.
After long years of following Siltiel's command and committing acts that Irene would never have allowed normally, Caleb finally found the break he was looking for. The cult was looking for some kind of power source, some tool they could use to manipulate the world beyond the depths of normal magic, and they were finally getting close. As far as he himself knew, the cult didn't know what it was looking for, just that the thing existed. Finally, one of the high-level wizards found something on it, and that was where they met the PCs.
Relationships[]
The Party[]
LEWELLYN BRYSE: He has a lot of mixed feelings about Lyn. Of course, his love (as grudgingly as Caleb gives love) hasn't diminished over the years, but that in itself worries him. Lyn is far too much like he himself, he thinks, and that's a risk he's not sure he wants to take until Siltiel has been stopped and Irene's memory is returned.
KRAVEN DIAMONDSHIELD: He has no idea who this is.
AKNIER: He has no idea who this is.
NAIYA: He has no idea who this is.
THEROIAN: He has no idea who this is.
ASCHA: He doesn't quite have an opinion on her just yet...
NPCs[]
IRENE BRYSE: She's his wife, and the most important thing in his life aside from Lyn. He feels a lot of guilt and remorse for what he's made her do, but convinces himself that it's for the greater good.
BONES: He worked with her. The two had a strained relationship, at best, but they got along for Irene's sake. Though neither ever admitted it to Irene, the cause of most of their arguments was the woman herself - Bones wasn't one to pull punches, and she admitted early on to Caleb that she had feelings for the woman. It was further straining when Caleb married Irene, and he still believes she hates him for that.
Family[]
His parents may be alive, but he couldn't care less if they are. They abandoned him, and for that they earned his eternal contempt.