Jas Wolverton



Jas Ivarian Wolverton was born around 20 years before the Dracolich Quest. He was born in a small home on the outskirts of Hobston. As far as he knows - as really, anything is possible with regards to his biological father - he has one younger half-brother, Gralian Bright, and one younger half-sister, Alexandria Bright, both born to his mother, Rhianna, and her husband Arthas Bright.

Appearance
Height: 6'11"

Weight: 260

Jas is always almost completely shrouded in clothing. He wears a long cloak with a hood that is up at all times, mostly concealing his face in shadow. This cloak is "color-shifting", providing an almost chameleonic camouflage to Jas, which would make him extremely difficult to spot. He has a very dark navy blue shirt and pants and black leather boots; below this shirt he wears chainmail over a thinner shirt of the same color as his other clothing. All of his clothes are somewhat loose and flowing to facilitate spellcasting. He uses a warhammer and crossbow to fight. He is very solidly built, standing at 6'11.5" and weighing around 260-270 pounds.

If one could see his face clearly, it would be obvious that Jas is a half-orc - his skin is tinted greenish-gray and he possesses features common to half-orcs: sloping forehead, jutting jaw, prominent teeth. He has moderately long black hair, generally tied back, and a full beard to help further mask his heritage. His lower left canine slightly juts out over his upper lip; he knocked the right one out as a child in an attempt to appear more "human" and would've knocked the other one out as well had his mother and stepfather not found him and stopped him.

Personality
Extremely intelligent. He is a polyglot, speaking the Common, Orc, Giant, Abyssal, Draconic, Goblin, and Gnoll languages. He also has an extensive knowledge of arcana. However, he can be hot-headed and impulsive - some examples including using a powerful Lightning Bolt spell on a lone orc scout, using a fireball to destroy an enemy pirate ship, and using a fireball to incinerate a house containing around twenty women; the house also happened to contain much of the party's belongings. He hates Orcs and more or less anything to do with them. He is cautious around half-orcs and subscribes to the general stereotype of half-orcs being dumb, inferior beings - quite a hypocritical viewpoint, as he hates people in general for their prejudiced treatment of him. He does anything and everything to hide or downplay his Orc heritage.

Background
Ivarian Wolverton and his wife, Rhianna, were 20 and 19 years old respectively. Despite his young age, Ivarian was a very successful merchant, from a very long line of successful merchants. He both had inheritance money and money he made through his business ventures. Therefore, he and his newlywed wife, daughter of a wizard and a rogue, lived very comfortably (though not overly extravagantly) in a large mansion in the Heredon countryside. They were starting their life together and trying to begin a family.

One day, however, the group of Orc marauders led by Vulgnash happened to pass through the area. They saw the mansion and figured it would be ripe for pillaging, so they decided to invade. Some Orcs ransacked the house. Vulgnash himself and two of his higher-ranked henchmen happened upon the Wolvertons in their room upstairs. The henchman held down Ivarian and forced him to watch as Vulgnash raped Rhianna. Afterwards, Vulgnash brutally murdered Ivarian and the band of orcs left.

While the orcs managed to get nearly everything inside the mansion itself, most of the fortune was wisely hidden away in a secret cellar behind the house. Rhianna took the fortune and retreated to her aunt Nicola D'Argent's small house just outside of Hobston to hide and recover, and seek support. Soon enough, the traumatized Rhianna found out that she was carrying a child. All that she could do was to hope that this child was the son of Ivarian Wolverton.

In a few months, Nicola introduced Rhianna to a young paladin named Arthas Bright, hoping that by giving Rhianna some measure of contact with the outside world, her recovery could be sped up. The two soon grew quite close, and Arthas definitely aided Rhianna's recovery. By her third trimester, Rhianna was able to venture out into public, and soon Rhianna and Arthas were married, living in a slightly larger house next to Nicola's.

Soon, the child was born. Unfortunately, it was half-orc.

Childhood
Despite the unfortunate circumstances by which this child was concieved, Rhianna loved him unconditionally and could not bear to give him up. Arthas had slight worries, but was committed to doing the right thing and would help his wife raise this child as well as they could. They named the child Jas Ivarian Wolverton Bright. Around a year after Jas's birth, the couple had twins, Gralian and Alessia Bright. Young Jas lived a very good life, albeit somewhat sheltered, rarely going out until several years later, due to his parents' apprehension about the stigma that Jas would have to face as a half-orc. Surprisingly, Jas was extremely bright, intelligent and mature for his age. One day at age 6, Jas ventured out of the house for the first time. He attempted to play with some local children. The children made fun of him, and he ran home, extremely distraught. Because of this, Rhianna and Arthas told Jas of his true parentage, of both his biological father and his mother's first husband.

Due to the reaction from the other children of the town, and the story of his origin, Jas grew to despise his Orc heritage and devoted himself to becoming the antithesis of his father. Jas worked with a tutor, learning how to read and write several languages and various other skills. His intelligence grew rapidly due to his devotion to study. At seven years old, Arthas showed Jas how to fight with a warhammer, and Arthas himself forged an astoundingly powerful warhammer for his adoptive son to wield once he was old enough. Arthas tried his hardest to instill a devotion to the Light and respect for authority into Jas, with mixed results.

On one of his ventures outside, Jas, who had taken to wearing a hooded robe to hide his orclike features, was talking with some friends. A bully ran up behind him and pulled down the hood. This infuriated Jas, who out of nowhere conjured a ray of frost, giving the bully frostbite. The bully ran off, Jas's friends stared in shock and awe, and a shadowy figure approached Jas from an alley. He introduced himself as Damian Ravenholm, a battle sorcerer, and could see that Jas was destined to be a battle sorcerer as well. Jas, unbeknownst to his parents, snuck off to train with Damian often. He taught Jas how to use his talent as a sorcerer, to worship Vecna, the Whispered One, and to value power and do anything to get that power. A few years later, after Jas's sorcery training was complete, Damian mysteriously disappeared.

Jas's mind had been corrupted by Damian's ideas and Jas's experiences. He would do anything he could to gain personal power - though, being intelligent, he did act with some caution, trying whenever he could to think of the potential consequences of his actions. Sometimes he could be hot-headed and impulsive, though, which usually doesn't work out in his favor - for example, incinerating the house on the island which contained much of the party's belongings. He refused to acknowledge the fact that he had any Orc blood within him. He continued to wear a hood out in public, and a few children around Jas's age ended up with various injuries, though Jas was never identified as the culprit. Usually, the children had "fallen" while playing outside.

Adulthood
Jas hungered for power, using deception and intimidation (which, at his fully grown height of 6'11" came fairly easy to him) to get whatever he wanted.

Since they were children, one bully in particular wouldn't let Jas forget his Orcish blood. At 14, when most half-orcs come of age, Jas decided to take matters into his own hands and get revenge on this bully, a young man named Stalvan van Cleef. Jas led Stalvan into the woods, far enough to where Jas judged was "beyond the long arm of the law" and challenged Stalvan to a "gentleman's duel", which Jas won, killing Stalvan. Jas was correct; he was beyond sight of the law. However, a suspicious Arthas Bright followed his stepson to the woods. Arthas didn't like the changes he had seen in Jas, and the sight of Jas killing Stalvan was terrible to the paladin. Arthas decided that Jas could not live with the Brights anymore. Rhianna protested, but Arthas would not budge. The home would be open if Jas was passing through, but he could not stay there permanently from then on. Arthas gave Jas the "Brighthammer" he had forged, then sent Jas off on his own.

Jas dropped the "Bright" from his name, introducing himself as simply Jas Ivarian Wolverton. He acts as though he is full-blooded human, wearing his hood to mask his features and denying any Orc blood within him. He hates orcs and half-orcs, as they remind him of the half of him he would like to forget. He considers his strength the only good thing any Orc has ever done for him.

Jas has wandered around since the day he killed Stalvan, in search of two things:

POWER: Jas wants to gain power and eventually rise to the top, ruling the world (or as much of it as he possibly can) with an iron fist. When that happens, nobody will look down on him anymore. They will either look up to him with respect, or cower down in fear.

REVENGE: Jas wants to find the Orc that is his biological father, Vulgnash. He wants to punish Vulgnash. He blames Vulgnash for all of his misfortunes. If it weren't for his Orc blood, he wouldn't have been discriminated against and looked down upon by many people. He wouldn't have had to face the hardships that he has faced for much of his life. His true father, Ivarian Wolverton, would be alive. Some might say killing Vulgnash would make Jas as bad as Vulgnash himself. Not true, says Jas: Vulgnash had no reason to harm Ivarian and Rhianna Wolverton. Jas Wolverton has all the reason in the world to destroy Vulgnash. On that fateful day, Vulgnash sealed his own fate, doomed himself to fall to the bastard child he sired.

Currently Jas has joined up with the party - he wandered into the party's village, found the leaders and offered his services to them. Soon after they came into contact with some of Vulgnash's followers, cementing Jas's place in the party - at least in his mind.

Relationship/Views
Rhianna Wolverton Bright - Jas truly loves his mother; she has always provided him with unconditional love despite the unfortunate circumstances of his conception and birth. Some minor tension exists between them when it comes to Arthas, as Jas disagrees with Arthas on many points. However, this tension is generally resolved quickly. Rhianna is one of the few people Jas shows any love or affection for. She tends to ignore his evil tendencies and positions, as they rarely come up in her company anyways. He does not currently know where she is or if she survived the attack on Hobston. He would be truly sad if she did not survive.

Arthas Bright - Jas respects Arthas as a fighter, for his influence, and for the skills that Arthas passed down to him. Personally, he disagrees majorly with him. He is angry for Arthas' more or less banning Jas from the household. Arthas is angry with Jas over what Jas has become - a power-hungry, vengeful, hateful, evil person... Very much against the ways that Arthas tried to instill into Jas. Although Arthas is very inclined to agree with Jas' position regarding Vulgnash, When they are together, they talk as little as possible and when they do talk, it generally ends up in an argument of some sort, whether limited to spiteful words or escalated into a shouting match. He does not currently know where Arthas is or if he survived the attack on Hobston. It would not faze Jas in any way if he found Arthas to be dead.

Gralian Bright - Gralian followed in his father's footsteps as a paladin and may even be more devout, getting even more on Jas' nerves. Gralian tended to side more with Jas' antagonists, though in front of his parents he acted like the perfect child. The only thing that kept Jas from hurting Gralian was Rhianna, and to a lesser extent Arthas. As Gralian matured, he wasn't quite so malicious to Jas. They weren't exactly friendly, however - when they talked, it was pretty much on an informational basis only and ranged from awkward conversations to minor arguments. After Jas' incident with Van Cleef, Gralian completely ignored Jas. Jas currently does not know where Gralian is or if he survived the attack on Hobston. It would not faze Jas in any way if he found Gralian to be dead.

Alexandria Bright - Possibly even higher up on Jas' list than Rhianna. Alexandria played with Jas as children and even defended her older brother from his antagonists - she was always feisty and wouldn't hesitate to smack another child across the face if they gave her any trouble. As they grew older, she rebelled a bit from Arthas' teachings and shared a similar magical aptitude to Jas, becoming a chaotic neutral sorcerer devoted to Boccob. So she shows Jas the most sympathy of the family and there is never any real tension between them. He is extremely proud to have her as a sister and truly misses her. He remembers her speaking of going adventuring before he left, so he hopes that she left before the attack on Hobston. Right now, however, he has no idea where she is or if she did, in fact, survive the attack on Hobston. He would be extremely sad if she were not alive.

Vulgnash - Pure, unadulterated, maniacal hatred. Vulgnash raped his mother and killed her first husband, therefore clearly wreaking havoc on her life. Vulgnash made Jas the monster that he is. And Vulgnash brought Arthas into Jas' life - Jas is extremely sure that he would've greatly preferred Ivarian Wolverton as a father. If Vulgnash had never entered the equation, Jas believes his life would've been infinitely better. It is highly likely that Jas has other half-siblings, both Orc and part-Orc, from Vulgnash as clearly if he raped one woman, he's raped many others - and who knows if he has procreated with fellow Orcs? He could have a wife or wives. Jas doesn't particularly care to meet any of Vulgnash's children - if they are Orcs they are certainly barbaric wretches whom he would gladly kill, and if they are part-Orcs he figures they probably have become self-fulfilling prophecies, being your stereotypical dumb part-Orcs (he'll give part-Orcs a chance, but if they prove to be stupid or barbaric or have Orc-like personalities in any way, he will react negatively ranging from shunning them to killing them). Although it certainly would be interesting if he met one of Vulgnash's children. Anyways, back to Vulgnash - Jas will do anything in his power to find, preferably torture, and kill Vulgnash for wrecking his life and Rhianna's.

Orcs - Complete hatred. Refuses to loot Orc corpses (though he generally believes "to the victor go the spoils"), loves to kill Orcs, and wants nothing to do with them, thinking them to be barbaric monsters.

Half-Orcs - Though he hates most sentient beings for discriminating against half-orcs, he shares this prejudice. He's very cautious of other half-orcs; if they grew up among Orcs he will react to them as he will the other Orcs, but if they grew up with humans he will give them a chance and not instantly condemn them. If they prove to be intelligent and fairly "civilized", he will be able to deal with them but obviously it's difficult for him.