Finn Sardock
Banestorm: Book II
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Second-born son of Lord Dane Sardock, Finn has lived all his life in Caithness. At an early age, Magister Gestlin the Unpredictable identified in him a fairly substantial magical talent - which further set him apart from his otherwise mageblind family - and quickly stepped into the role of instructor with Lord Sardock's approval.
When he was 12, Finn was involved in an unusual magical accident - neither he nor Gestlin have ever said who exactly was to blame, which hints at both of them being at least partially responsible and Finn's rampant curiosity certainly played a part. While not life-threatening, this ... incident did leave Finn permanently marked with inhumanly blue eyes, an unnatural feature that has since caused him no small amount of grief, and has started a string of bad luck that he simply cannot seem to shake. His many years with Master Gestlin has also affected him in other ways: Finn is positively terrible at telling lies and for the most part, he comes across as very socially awkward.
Around this age, Finn first met Thorondil for the first time and the two became fast friends.
Never quite satisfied with simply being a wizard, Finn studied more martial pursuits as well, especially once his eyes turned bright blue. He read every treatise on the art of war that he could find, drilled often with many of his father's men, and dreamed of becoming as great a warrior as those that Lord Sardock had marched with in his youth, like Gabriel, the Dragon-Marked Hooded Man; or Merasiel, the Elven Mistress of Blades who was, according to Magnifico's stories, so lovely that she dared not smile lest she kill all those around her with Beauty; or the mysterious Radskyrta, of whom Magnifico once said that Death took him in his sleep for had he been awake, there surely would have been a fight. Young Finn soon adopted a curious fighting style with an unusual polearm he discovered in his Gestlin's wagon - Gestlin called it an ashandarei (likely because he did not know what the real name was and simply made something up) but others would later claim it was more properly a naginata.
Because of his magical schooling, Finn found it increasingly difficult to fit in with his more martial-minded family. His elder brother, Russ, was so like their father that everyone jokingly referred to him as Dane the Younger. Nora, his sister, was the spitting image of their mother (though she was more like Lord Dane in personality). Being young and inexperienced, Finn grew to believe that he was (and is) an embarrassment to the family.
Never a very religious lad (just like his father in that regard), Finn had a number of ... let us call them turf clashes between some young priest acolytes. It was just mostly random nonsense - the occasional fist fight between idiot kids - but it has led to lingering bad feelings between Finn and Brother Pontley (who has then spoken ill of him to his superiors, thus ensuring a Bad reaction with the local clergy).
When the Expedition was announced, Finn sought permission from his father to join it, halfway expecting to be rejected outright. He is still unsure whether to be delighted or terrified that his father has granted permission.
But the truly important thing is that finally, he is staring adventure squarely in the face.
