Jason “Juhnta” Liverly
Life is not always kind. The story of the unkindness in Jason Liverly’s life begins before his conception, as is the case in the world, the sins of the father often curse the son. His father went by the name Absolum, a powerful mage, and a charismatic figure. He had goals of power and strength, and was not above using his magic to manipulate anyone he needed to obtain his goals. It was during his masterstroke, a convoluted plan involving layers and layers of spells to be cast upon the king himself, that he was discovered.
A member of royal investigations had been suspicious of him, and upon uncovering his machinations, brought the hammer of justice down upon him. In the resulting struggle, three royal investigators clashed magically with Jason’s father. Absolum fought with the passion of a cornered animal, holding nothing back and lashing out with fury and wrath. In the end, he left the investigators no choice. They burned him out. With their combined power, they reached inside his mind, and tore away his connection with magic.
He was sent to prison, but was no longer considered a threat to society without his magic. He was a shattered man, and grew apathetic towards the world. He was a shell of what he once was, his once vibrant blue eyes had turned grey, and depression took him. He was released ten years later.
Absolum had considered suicide the entire time he was imprisoned. He had no rage, no passion, nothing left to drive him in life. The only thing that kept him alive was his weakness, and the fact that going on and living in his shattered state was easier than overcoming his own weakness and killing himself.
It was after he was released from prison, that he met a shattered soul compatible with his own. He had changed his name and found work in the local stables when he met her. A woman named Marta, with no family name. She had been exiled from her homeland, and had traveled to Neustria alone, with no resources. She was a bitter and angry woman. Her life revolved around the thought that mankind was cruel and evil, and beyond redemption. In her own way she had come to accept this fact, by embracing the sadness and despair within herself as the only thing that was true and real.
She was very physically attractive and lustful, finding fleeting moments of pleasure working in the cities red light district. Absolum wanted her, and for the first time had a passion within himself. He promised her a life better than the scraps and indignities that she possessed now, and for a shining moment, the charismatic and passionate Absolum resurfaced. They married in a small ceremony, with no family or friends in attendance. He promised her a life that she had never dreamt of, and in that moment, he truly meant what he said. He intended to change himself, to change her, to make something better for themselves.
Such promises however, are bound to failure, when the one making the promise is incapable of changing their fate. Absolum did try, to be truthful, but the world can be cruel. It hadn’t completely forgotten or forgiven his history. Though he had paid his debt to society, society had no interest in giving him a new start. He was hired for many positions, to be fired a week later when they realized who he was. After a time, he simply couldn’t find dignified work at all. So he mucked stables.
His wife was pregnant now, and soon there would be three hungry mouths. He worked all the hours he was allowed. Did everything he could, but gradually he wore himself down. He fell ill, and with no money to pay for healing, he grew sicker and sicker. He was bedridden by the time that Jason was born. He died when Jason was half a year old.
Jason’s mother took up her old profession, and had completely hardened her heart to hope with the loss of Absolum. She knew now that anyone offering her promises of a better life offered only bitter lies. She was nowhere near as successful in her profession as she had been before she had born Jason. Another thing that Absolum had stolen from her. When Jason was four years old, his mother gave him the last of their food, and put him outside the room in the brothel they stayed in together. That was the last Jason ever saw of his mother. There was no sadness, no emotion, just emptiness in her eyes. He started crying when he saw the river of blood running under the door, then with tears in his eyes, he walked out of the building. By the time he was on the street, the tears were dry.
He learned to survive, beggar children tended to not go hungry, most people could find a penny for a four year old as handsome as Jason. He learned to be sly, to steal, to rob, to eat, to live. He found himself with a street gang at the age of seven. Being taught by the best how to manipulate the haves for the survival of the have-nots.
When he was eight, a very bad man had set his eyes upon Jason. A string of rape-murders of young street urchins was beginning to be noticed across the city. If it were persons of import, the local guard would have been scouring the city after the first victim was found. At this point, five bodies had been found, and the guard had been given a minor note of it in their pre-shift report.
In the winter of his eighth year, Jason was starving, and though he was wary of this strange man offering him food and a place to sleep, he felt he had little choice but to go with him. In that first night, after the first food he had eaten in three days, the man crept upon him as he slept. He woke screaming as the man held a knife to his flesh, cutting ribbons in his chest. He struggled, but a child has no power compared to a grown man. Or at least, most children don’t.
Jason tried to gouge out his attackers eyes, but was swatted away with an evil giggle, leaving more cuts on his arms from the attempts. He managed to get one arm free, and desperately slammed his tiny fist into the side of the giggling head, as his attacker freed himself for his more vile assault. In his terror, Jason suddenly felt a calm, and his fear subsided. He built a strange, yet comforting energy in the palm of his free hand. And with one more strike, reached out with the mystical energies he never knew were his birthright. His attacker froze in place, and was left with no power to act beyond a terrified whimper. Jason pushed outwards with his newfound magic. He turn the rapists mind to jelly, he dripped blood as his eyes liquified, and his ears began to leak a mushy fluid, chunks of grey squishing through the tight passage.
Jason stood, bloody and battered, and with a surge of rage began liquefying the entire corpse of the man that would have killed him.
With his new power Jason began to turn his life around. He had always been a pawn in the ploys and plots of desperate and maleficent men. Now, as a nine year old, he learned that he didn’t need to fear the strong. He began organically growing in his magic. He had no teacher besides necessity. He learned to hide his magic, he decided very early on that only when people saw him as a simple beggar child could he strike and control in the ways that he wanted.
He created a new name for himself. In the gang that he was building, he came to be known as “Juhnta”, which he had been told was dwarfish for “one who holds great power”, though he had never before met a dwarf in person and couldn’t actually prove the veracity of it’s meaning. He learned to ensure loyalty, to control his peers, and to destroy his enemies. His goals were myopic though, as one would expect from an eleven year old. He was more than content to struggle in conflicts with rival gangs, to build minor rackets stealing trinkets and selling them for pennies.
He continued to grow in his magic, and rose and fell and rose and fell in the tiny pool of power that he swam in. When he was fifteen he tried to steal from a young boy, perhaps a year older than himself. In an instant he caught a fist in the nose, and with a speed that he never expected found himself on his back. He groaned, and flung out a spell instinctively. The spell fizzled, and the boy he would later come to know as “Folly” gave him a wide-eyed look when he realized what he had done, then extended a hand to help him off his back.
Gradually, they became close friends. Juhnta considered trying to recruit this effective, smart, and magically gifted young man into his gang, but after getting to know him, realized it could never happen. Folly was rigid, disciplined, and completely naive about the world. He was completely open to listening and hearing what people had to say, but seemingly unable to be dissuaded in his optimism, positivity, and hopefulness.
The first and only time he was around for a fight, he was fantastic, Juhnta couldn’t believe the brutality and carnage this humble youth was capable of inflicting. After the fight was over, it was all he could do to calm his friend, as he shook and wept and swore never to fight again. Juhnta had never met anyone like him before. He considered him a rich, overfed idiot at first, but after getting to know him, he began to almost believe the ridiculous notions that Folly was taken with.
It was through this friendship, and the example by which Folly lived his life, that Juhnta began to change. He realized that squabbling over scraps and blocks of territory was pointless. That maybe the world could be made better, if someone was willing to try. He gave a speech to his gang, now a wild band of over twenty youths. Gone were the days of filching change and breaking into houses for trinkets. His gang was going to be different. His gang was going to bring in the lost and the broken, and give them a home. He was certainly not above stealing to survive, but robbing from the haves to give to the have-nots was something noble, and worth trying in Juhnta’s mind.
He began to coalesce his goals, and gradually built up a powerful organization. His primary goal was to give young orphans and those with nothing a safe place, free from the risk of starvation or murder or rape. Secondary to that, he saw himself as an agent of balance, robbing from the truly rich, to give to the truly poor. He began to use his magic for impressive grand larcenies, stealing massive paintings and pieces of art from the powerful noblemen who had stolen them as spoils of war. Juhnta sold the pieces back to the neighboring countries to whom he felt they belonged, and used the funds to build his organization.
Jason believes the world to be intrinsically unfair, and mankind to be intrinsically sick and evil. He has convinced himself that only by sheer force and coercion can balance be brought. He has had many long talks with Folly, and gradually they have had some influence one another’s viewpoints on the world, though they are still in fundamental disagreement.
After Folly began his career with the guard, Folly and Juhnta established what Juhnta refers to as their “working relationship”. No one suspected their friendship, and when the investigations department began to get too close to Juhnta, Folly would give him a warning. In return, Juhnta would feed Folly information on his more evil, maleficent, destructive peers. Folly wants to destroy corruption and help people, and believes Juhnta when he claims to have the same noble goals in mind, though he remains blissfully ignorant of most of Juhnta’s activities.
Life is not always kind. The story of the unkindness in Jason Liverly’s life begins before his conception, as is the case in the world, the sins of the father often curse the son. His father went by the name Absolum, a powerful mage, and a charismatic figure. He had goals of power and strength, and was not above using his magic to manipulate anyone he needed to obtain his goals. It was during his masterstroke, a convoluted plan involving layers and layers of spells to be cast upon the king himself, that he was discovered.
A member of royal investigations had been suspicious of him, and upon uncovering his machinations, brought the hammer of justice down upon him. In the resulting struggle, three royal investigators clashed magically with Jason’s father. Absolum fought with the passion of a cornered animal, holding nothing back and lashing out with fury and wrath. In the end, he left the investigators no choice. They burned him out. With their combined power, they reached inside his mind, and tore away his connection with magic.
He was sent to prison, but was no longer considered a threat to society without his magic. He was a shattered man, and grew apathetic towards the world. He was a shell of what he once was, his once vibrant blue eyes had turned grey, and depression took him. He was released ten years later.
Absolum had considered suicide the entire time he was imprisoned. He had no rage, no passion, nothing left to drive him in life. The only thing that kept him alive was his weakness, and the fact that going on and living in his shattered state was easier than overcoming his own weakness and killing himself.
It was after he was released from prison, that he met a shattered soul compatible with his own. He had changed his name and found work in the local stables when he met her. A woman named Marta, with no family name. She had been exiled from her homeland, and had traveled to Neustria alone, with no resources. She was a bitter and angry woman. Her life revolved around the thought that mankind was cruel and evil, and beyond redemption. In her own way she had come to accept this fact, by embracing the sadness and despair within herself as the only thing that was true and real.
She was very physically attractive and lustful, finding fleeting moments of pleasure working in the cities red light district. Absolum wanted her, and for the first time had a passion within himself. He promised her a life better than the scraps and indignities that she possessed now, and for a shining moment, the charismatic and passionate Absolum resurfaced. They married in a small ceremony, with no family or friends in attendance. He promised her a life that she had never dreamt of, and in that moment, he truly meant what he said. He intended to change himself, to change her, to make something better for themselves.
Such promises however, are bound to failure, when the one making the promise is incapable of changing their fate. Absolum did try, to be truthful, but the world can be cruel. It hadn’t completely forgotten or forgiven his history. Though he had paid his debt to society, society had no interest in giving him a new start. He was hired for many positions, to be fired a week later when they realized who he was. After a time, he simply couldn’t find dignified work at all. So he mucked stables.
His wife was pregnant now, and soon there would be three hungry mouths. He worked all the hours he was allowed. Did everything he could, but gradually he wore himself down. He fell ill, and with no money to pay for healing, he grew sicker and sicker. He was bedridden by the time that Jason was born. He died when Jason was half a year old.
Jason’s mother took up her old profession, and had completely hardened her heart to hope with the loss of Absolum. She knew now that anyone offering her promises of a better life offered only bitter lies. She was nowhere near as successful in her profession as she had been before she had born Jason. Another thing that Absolum had stolen from her. When Jason was four years old, his mother gave him the last of their food, and put him outside the room in the brothel they stayed in together. That was the last Jason ever saw of his mother. There was no sadness, no emotion, just emptiness in her eyes. He started crying when he saw the river of blood running under the door, then with tears in his eyes, he walked out of the building. By the time he was on the street, the tears were dry.
He learned to survive, beggar children tended to not go hungry, most people could find a penny for a four year old as handsome as Jason. He learned to be sly, to steal, to rob, to eat, to live. He found himself with a street gang at the age of seven. Being taught by the best how to manipulate the haves for the survival of the have-nots.
When he was eight, a very bad man had set his eyes upon Jason. A string of rape-murders of young street urchins was beginning to be noticed across the city. If it were persons of import, the local guard would have been scouring the city after the first victim was found. At this point, five bodies had been found, and the guard had been given a minor note of it in their pre-shift report.
In the winter of his eighth year, Jason was starving, and though he was wary of this strange man offering him food and a place to sleep, he felt he had little choice but to go with him. In that first night, after the first food he had eaten in three days, the man crept upon him as he slept. He woke screaming as the man held a knife to his flesh, cutting ribbons in his chest. He struggled, but a child has no power compared to a grown man. Or at least, most children don’t.
Jason tried to gouge out his attackers eyes, but was swatted away with an evil giggle, leaving more cuts on his arms from the attempts. He managed to get one arm free, and desperately slammed his tiny fist into the side of the giggling head, as his attacker freed himself for his more vile assault. In his terror, Jason suddenly felt a calm, and his fear subsided. He built a strange, yet comforting energy in the palm of his free hand. And with one more strike, reached out with the mystical energies he never knew were his birthright. His attacker froze in place, and was left with no power to act beyond a terrified whimper. Jason pushed outwards with his newfound magic. He turn the rapists mind to jelly, he dripped blood as his eyes liquified, and his ears began to leak a mushy fluid, chunks of grey squishing through the tight passage.
Jason stood, bloody and battered, and with a surge of rage began liquefying the entire corpse of the man that would have killed him.
With his new power Jason began to turn his life around. He had always been a pawn in the ploys and plots of desperate and maleficent men. Now, as a nine year old, he learned that he didn’t need to fear the strong. He began organically growing in his magic. He had no teacher besides necessity. He learned to hide his magic, he decided very early on that only when people saw him as a simple beggar child could he strike and control in the ways that he wanted.
He created a new name for himself. In the gang that he was building, he came to be known as “Juhnta”, which he had been told was dwarfish for “one who holds great power”, though he had never before met a dwarf in person and couldn’t actually prove the veracity of it’s meaning. He learned to ensure loyalty, to control his peers, and to destroy his enemies. His goals were myopic though, as one would expect from an eleven year old. He was more than content to struggle in conflicts with rival gangs, to build minor rackets stealing trinkets and selling them for pennies.
He continued to grow in his magic, and rose and fell and rose and fell in the tiny pool of power that he swam in. When he was fifteen he tried to steal from a young boy, perhaps a year older than himself. In an instant he caught a fist in the nose, and with a speed that he never expected found himself on his back. He groaned, and flung out a spell instinctively. The spell fizzled, and the boy he would later come to know as “Folly” gave him a wide-eyed look when he realized what he had done, then extended a hand to help him off his back.
Gradually, they became close friends. Juhnta considered trying to recruit this effective, smart, and magically gifted young man into his gang, but after getting to know him, realized it could never happen. Folly was rigid, disciplined, and completely naive about the world. He was completely open to listening and hearing what people had to say, but seemingly unable to be dissuaded in his optimism, positivity, and hopefulness.
The first and only time he was around for a fight, he was fantastic, Juhnta couldn’t believe the brutality and carnage this humble youth was capable of inflicting. After the fight was over, it was all he could do to calm his friend, as he shook and wept and swore never to fight again. Juhnta had never met anyone like him before. He considered him a rich, overfed idiot at first, but after getting to know him, he began to almost believe the ridiculous notions that Folly was taken with.
It was through this friendship, and the example by which Folly lived his life, that Juhnta began to change. He realized that squabbling over scraps and blocks of territory was pointless. That maybe the world could be made better, if someone was willing to try. He gave a speech to his gang, now a wild band of over twenty youths. Gone were the days of filching change and breaking into houses for trinkets. His gang was going to be different. His gang was going to bring in the lost and the broken, and give them a home. He was certainly not above stealing to survive, but robbing from the haves to give to the have-nots was something noble, and worth trying in Juhnta’s mind.
He began to coalesce his goals, and gradually built up a powerful organization. His primary goal was to give young orphans and those with nothing a safe place, free from the risk of starvation or murder or rape. Secondary to that, he saw himself as an agent of balance, robbing from the truly rich, to give to the truly poor. He began to use his magic for impressive grand larcenies, stealing massive paintings and pieces of art from the powerful noblemen who had stolen them as spoils of war. Juhnta sold the pieces back to the neighboring countries to whom he felt they belonged, and used the funds to build his organization.
Jason believes the world to be intrinsically unfair, and mankind to be intrinsically sick and evil. He has convinced himself that only by sheer force and coercion can balance be brought. He has had many long talks with Folly, and gradually they have had some influence one another’s viewpoints on the world, though they are still in fundamental disagreement.
After Folly began his career with the guard, Folly and Juhnta established what Juhnta refers to as their “working relationship”. No one suspected their friendship, and when the investigations department began to get too close to Juhnta, Folly would give him a warning. In return, Juhnta would feed Folly information on his more evil, maleficent, destructive peers. Folly wants to destroy corruption and help people, and believes Juhnta when he claims to have the same noble goals in mind, though he remains blissfully ignorant of most of Juhnta’s activities.
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