Varrick Dale
| Varrick Dale | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Macca |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Soldier |
| Affiliation | The Grey Tower |
| Nationality | Amadician |
| Attributes | |
| Weapon Skills |
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Varrick Dale is an Amadician Soldier of the Grey Tower.
Description
Varrick stands just under six feet tall with light brown hair and the reasonably athletic build one might expect of a man who enjoys an active lifestyle.
When focused and of a mind to do so he moves and carries himself with the military precision of a trained soldier. More often, however, Varrick seems to consumed by a restless energy and his inquisitive green eyes are alight with curiosity. Young and naive, Varrick has a grand sense of adventure and wants to see the world and all the places he heard about in stories growing up.
Seemingly well-mannered and with an open and honest looking face, Varrick doesn’t look like the sort to hold prejudices. Alas, the Children of the Light come in all shapes and sizes and this born-and-raised Amadician is no different. Varrick grew up in a society where anything to do with the One Power was strictly outlawed and those who used it, hunted down and brought to justice.
Varrick does not believe that all those who use the One Power are strictly Darkfriends, only that using the One Power does the Dark One’s work for him. He fears the One Power because he has been taught to, hates Darkfriends because he was trained to and yet all the same he can’t help but be curious. His mother always did say it would be the death of him...
In truth, it is Varrick’s love for dice and cards that has proved more dangerous than anything else thus far. While he doesn’t admit it, the young man has a serious problem walking away and seems to lose all perspective and control once he gets going.
Biography
Growing up in Amadicia, it seemed natural to join the ranks of the Children of the Light. That's what younger sons from minor noble houses did. So when a young Varrick Dale signed up to serve with the Legions in service to the Light, nobody was surprised. After all - he'd always been full of curiosity, that boy, and keen to see the world. Amador’s Court hardly held much to excite the curious and ambitious - everyone knew the real power in the land resided in the Fortress of the Light, not Serenda Palace.
Varrick’s parents had wished him well, worried yet proud when he left with a Legion of Children to march north to fight the Seanchan Darkfriends. They had every reason to be worried...but not for the reasons they though.
The Legion was encamped somewhere on the Almoth Plain when it all went wrong. Varrick was invited to play a game of dice with some of his fellow soldiers. He played and lost. A lot. Varrick had gambled with more coin than he actually owned and was unable to pay. His debtors were furious and the next morning he awoke to find the Dragon’s Fang carved into the dirt beside him. The Dragon’s Fang reappeared in one form or another three more times over the next two days.
On the third night since Varrick’s loss with the dice, he was woken in the middle of the night. Not gently.
Hands grabbed him roughly and hauled him upright. Terrified as he had been over the last few days, Varrick had been sleeping only lightly and instantly started struggling. He opened his mouth to scream and then bit down on the hand that was in his face, muffling him. In the flickering light of torches, he thought he could make out four of them.
If he was terrified then, it was nothing to what he felt when he looked up after being thrown face first onto the floor of a warm, brightly lit tent. The man who was frowning down at him wore the same armour and uniform as he did...save that his white cloak bore an embroidered red crook behind the sunburst.
A Questioner. The Legion’s Inquisitor.
“You have no business being dressed like that, Darkfriend.” The Inquisitor spat. “Will you confess to your crime?”
Varrick was only too eagre. “I’ll pay them back - I swear it! It was an honest misunderstanding!”
The Inquisitor’s lips curled upward in disgust. “You were in debt, then. Is that why you did it? For a reward?”
Varrick blinked, confused, trying to master the terror as it rose within him. What were they talking about?
He never did find out.
At that moment there came a shout from outside followed by a blinding flash of light and a rush of heat. The explosion was like nothing Varrick had ever experienced. When he came to, it was all he could do to crawl to his feet and half stagger, half crawl away from the fighting, away from the danger. Looking back later, it seemed like a dream. An awful, burning nightmare. It was only later that he connected the dots in his head. The strange armour on some of the corpses. The alien-sounding language from a man running past.
The Seanchan had caught the Legion completely unawares.
What began as stumbling turned into running. Running turned into survival and survival turned into a journey to the only place he could think of where neither the Children or the Seanchan would dare to follow him. The Grey Tower.
Career History
- Soldier (8 June 2018)
