Victim and Criminal

Brute of a man must have been some sort of brawler; broad shoulders looked as though they'd seen and endured the weight of armor, eyes steely and hardened from battles untold. The expanse of his chest looked as though it should've been clad in plate and was instead shabbily covered by a thin layer of cloth that surely only provided scant protection against any pending attack. Waist, though not willowy by anyone's standards, tapered into something more narrow than those burdensome shoulders, and drew the line to long legs that accounted for most of his height

As heroic as his posture and countenance may have been, a simple glimpse into his seething eyes told of other stories, tales of malice, vice, and cruelty. While he may not have been on the flyweight caliber of many in his field, his attitude was incredibly fit for it.

His voice was low and gravely; the type of tone that one might expect to hear spoken quietly and cruelly in the gallows whilst awaiting his execution. Parasitic companions almost always followed him about, ignored for the most part unless addressed for the specific purpose of being sent away.

He was most often found in darkened alleyways and quiet corners of some seedy establishment participating in rigged gambling games in which he most generally cheated by using weighted dice and cards that lingered up his sleeves, waiting to be called upon to fulfill his greed. That leering, prying, smoldering gaze turned to those who looked as though they could be easily overtaken, dark intentions evident.

Gilneas City was not without its shady character. In the back alleys near the waterfront, or in the establishments lesser-frequented by the working people who lived in their domestic "paradise", there lied a completely diff...

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...ng his palms to his face and falling in a crumpled heap on the ground.

"That's enough." The stranger said, calmly just before Balwinter faded into unconsciousness. The burning stopped, but he could hardly notice as the world spun and all went dark. The arcane had attached itself to Balwinter like a parasite. In the days following, he came to understand that he was no longer a simple criminal, and he began to thirst for power that accompanied such a realization. What had at first drained him slowly came to enhance him as he learned how to wield it. Never again did he encounter the peculiar man against which he'd lost a bet that changed his life and earned him a scar that never ceased to cause him pain. Seething and black as his intentions, the arcane manifested and followed him in its various forms, his reality forever distorted. A victim and a criminal all at once.