Durant

Age
Twenties

Gender
Male

Height
7'2''

Build
Athletic

Species
Viashino

Background

In the world-spanning city of Ravnica, the Guilds are king. Or at least, that's what each guild tells their respective members. The truth is that a magically-enforced geas known as the 'Guildpact' orders them to cooperate with one another instead of kill each other, something that is to a degree followed. Each guild has its role within Ravnican society, and each guild has its opinions involving the others.

One guild, the Gruul, was once responsible for keeping civilization in check and maintaining the wilderness upon the first Guildpact. Other guilds didn't take long in pushing themselves into Gruul turf: The Selesnya Conclave, preaching of the unity one can have with nature, began plowing fields and groves on what was not meant to be their land. The Simic Combine, with their biomancers and their ever-expanding curiosity into shaping nature and its creatures into a more advanced and beneficial (in their opinion) image, began to claim vast acres of land for their experiments. This began to rip the Gruul's responsibilities from their hands bit by bit, to the point where the Gruul were being written out of Ravnican law itself. The law-keeping Boros Legion saw little need to protect them any longer, while the pseudo-religious power-and-profit guild of the Orzhov Syndicate saw the Gruul as a resource of, ahem, "unpaid laborers". Exploited, abused and ignored, the Gruul shattered into a smattering of loose clans, and in turn began a campaign of the destruction of any civilization they could raid. Their core turned to that of chaos and contempt: Destroy all settlements, ruin what the "cobble roaches" of the other guilds have taken from them, and let true wilderness thrive in their destructive wake. As far as the Gruul Clans were concerned, all other guilds were their enemy, and all trespassers need not live to tell the tale of their visit to the ever-growing wasteland known as the Rubblebelt.

Dragon-descended dinosaurian folk known as the Viashino live among the Gruul. Born into the Clan long after the usurping, Durant the viashino emphatically lived for the creed: Crush civilization, let the old world thrive.

While on a hunt, he was prey to a trap laid by the Simic Combine, a Guild who regularly took animals and "improved" them with magic or experimental parts. His hunting party abandoned him to his fate, feeling they'd wiped their claws clean of him, but that was the night Durant met an unusual woman, Dr. Adelais Roussette, who released him. Words were brief, but Durant set off back into the woods to regroup with his hunting party.

He was met with further ridicule. What fool falls into a trap meant for deer? For rabbits? Yet as Durant's anger grew, overtaking his pride, something new bloomed within him: He couldn't stop thinking of that woman. For what reason did she treat him so kindly?

Without warning, Durant set off at sundown. He would find this woman and learn more, see if she saw him as weak, or if she'd cast some sort of sorcery upon him to make him think so many things at once. That night, Durant became a "trog", or a lone wanderer among the Gruul that belonged to no tribe.

His "tribe mates" saw this as opportunity to be rid of him once and for all. They set out to hunt him, to slay him and present some part of him to their leaders as proof that the Gruul Clans would accept no fools. They set upon him with a ferocity he knew quite well, attacking as a wild group in an ambush to overwhelm him. As Durant was pinned, one of his old friends setting up to remove his head clean from his shoulders, Durant had a plan only a Gruul would concoct:

He'd free himself. Forcibly. He entered a barbarian rage and set his jaws into his own left shoulder. He chewed until the last of the bone and flesh were torn free from his body, and with a burst of renewed fury, Durant fled for his own life.

Yet it ebbed from his body as he ran. He was bleeding heavily. Durant hardly remembered how he managed to track Doctor Roussette, that strange woman who was a blend of humanoid female and sea creature, but he somehow wound up a nearly bloodless heap at her doorstep.

When he awoke, he was whole again. Somehow. His left arm had been replaced by a strange symbiotic mollusk known as 'No. 31', and is able to shape itself into weapons or a claw at his command. In return, it takes nutrients from his blood to keep itself alive.

Ever grateful for the second chance, and vengeful from his treatment via the Gruul, Durant opted to accept Dr. Roussette's offer to become her lab assistant, aiding her in what heavy lifting, bodyguarding, and (should he learn how to read/write) medical procedures she feels needs another pair of hands. Joining them are the two eccentric gremlins of the Izzet League Guild, Dirzzi and Desta, the mysterious and shadowy Lufein of the House Dimir Guild and the greatest enigma of all: A goblin named Mon with his hand in every existing guild, with no memory of how he'd made such bonds.

Now, if only a blockheaded barbarian could surmise he was in love as quickly as he could find himself a way out of an ambush or make such strange, small friends...

Personality

To be Gruul, one must have a reckless, violent streak a mile wide. Durant is a sort that would rather act first than question why everything is happening. He's more the type to ask after, when he stands on a pile of rubble or a corpse. While appropriate among his original guild, it's a slight cause for trouble among the Simic. Yet however much they turn their nose at his methods, he's tremendously effective: He singlehandedly demolished a Gruul hunting party targeting the city at large, telling of the fact that Durant doesn't care if his targets were once old friends; they all bleed the same under the hammer and the axe.

He is, however, loyal to a degree. Should he see wisdom in the words of someone who has earned his respect, he may stay his hand and see things through. Disrespect earns swift disrespect right back. To some it may actually come off as sensitivity, but in the world of the Gruul, shit-talk runs like water, and he doesn't take it all that seriously. He isn't ignorant to actual acts of malice, however: He's swift to put an end to all of it if it means keeping those he respects safe.

Safety can sometimes come at a cost. As a barbarian, Durant's temper can lean toward wire-thin. The ability to fly into a rage, his class specialty, is the primary reason behind his survival. Because of the ease in which he can rage, it's not an easy on-off switch: He sees a fight through, and he moves on to the next. Provide a wide berth.

In between battles, Durant's demeanor on your average day is what one can expect of barbarians: Coarse, to put it kindly. Having lived in the wilds his whole life, he doesn't have table manners, social skills (hell, he only recently began learning to read and write), and in the beginning, he lacked a polite bone in his body. It was Doctor Roussette's influence that lends him to actually thank someone, or welcome someone, or ask for something. It's a strange mannerism to him, one he struggles with at times, but he sees the merit in acting like a good boy when the time calls for it. He'll complain that it's still "cobble roach" crap, and functions as best as he can to be himself. Unless he's being watched.

At the end of the day, he's the guy with experience you take to a war, a hunt or a party. But if you plan to haul him over to a fancy dinner party, luck be with you. Tip the servers generously.

Abilities & Inventory

Barbarian: Durant's a barbarian. He bears supernatural strength, constitution and stamina, capable of handling a multitude of foes with gusto.

Barbarian Rage (Storm Herald): A product of his class, Durant can easily fly into an anger-fueled state that enhances his physical capabilities further. He hits harder, swings faster, and even alters the world around him. The Storm Herald barbarian creates a field of an element around him while he rages:
Desert: Added fire resistance. The desert aura greatly increases his body heat to the point of burning what he touches. He can also superheat the air around him to inflict fire damage to foes directly around him (Range: 10 feet).
Sea: Underwater breathing. The sea aura allows him to move swiftly underwater, and like an eel, he can inflict lightning damage on single targets (Range: 10 feet).
Tundra: Cold resistance. Provides small healing to allies around him, and allows him to freeze liquids with a touch (Range: 10 feet, and can freeze only a 5 feet cube of water).

Love Potion #31: Dr. Roussette's greatest creation! Durant's missing left arm has been replaced by some sort of mollusk, an ever-shifting creature that binds to his shoulder and feeds on his blood. In exchange, the non-sentient creature shapes to Durant's whims, whether he needs a working arm or a giant hammer, or a massive axe. #31 is his primary weapon, removing the need to ever wield wood and steel of his own.

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