Ashen Lands

Daylen has a young, sharp-featured face, made harsher by the empty, scarred socket where his right eye once was, its lid permanently closed. His messy black hair falls in a fringe that partly covers the wound, while his remaining hazel eye watches the world with cold focus. Draped in a worn black hooded cape, he carries the quiet presence of someone who has seen too much and trusts too little.

Daylen is a cold, stoic figure, hardened by grief and betrayal. He keeps others at a distance, driven by a bloodlust that helps him cope with the weight of his sorrow. Beneath the mercenary's exterior, a fractured soul quietly struggles with guilt he cannot escape.

Daylen was once engaged to Nanaya, a healer who gave him a reason to stay. Her younger sister, Ayen, was a bright soul he’d come to cherish as family. When a rift to the Abyss opened in their land, only Nanaya or Ayen could close it. The blood rite required one of them to die, and there was no time to waste. Ayen begged Daylen to find another way, but Nanaya insisted he spare her sister and do what was necessary. Honoring Nanaya’s last wish, Daylen sealed the portal with the rite and took Ayen with him to protect her. But during their travels, grief overwhelmed Ayen. One night, she turned on Daylen, blinding him in one eye with his own blade, screaming curses at the man who had killed her sister. Days later, barely alive, Daylen found her dead by the roadside. The man he once was died with them, losing everything. Now, he wanders the Ashen Lands as the infamous One-Eyed Man—a mercenary of grim purpose, hunting marks to feed the bloodlust that numbs his sorrow.