Essential Details
◆Name: Kallias Onopatrid, Kallias Eight-Fingers, Kallias the Rake, Kallias Lambrakis
◆Appearance: Kallias◆Age: 38
◆Gender: Male
◆Sexuality: Hetero
◆Build: Tall, well-muscled. Not quite stocky.
Legacy
◆Allegiance: Nominally to the Tyrant of Nekhur, Sadyhattes IV, but in reality, no one at all.
◆Profession: Privateer, warlord, what have you
◆Background: Kallias, despite living much of his life half a world away from Nekhur, is the adopted younger brother of Mnesus, the Ati (Regent) of the vast realm.
How this came to be is primarily a matter of sheer chance. Kallias' biological father, Onesios Lambrakis, was a prominent Captain of the Nekhuran Navy and a pillar of social life in the Khloraean city of Eionia. When he perished in combat against the Koinon, his young wife and son were left destitute. The House of Lambrakis, promising though it had been, fell into oblivion. Kallias resorted to thieving and begging on the streets of Eionia from the age of four, just to put food on the table for his increasingly ailing mother.
Fate intertwined him with the House of Onopater at the age of six, when Kriton, father of Mnesus (and also Ati of Nekhur), paid a call to Eionia. Sensing a great opportunity, and too young to really see the danger, Kallias snuck up to the Ati's slow-moving column in the streets and had the temerity to
pickpocket the actual Regent himself, making off with several jewels (but not without being immediately seen). Momentarily stunned by the idiotic brazenness of the act, the guards failed to actually apprehend the boy until that evening, when they dragged him before the Ati for his throat to be slit.
But rather than be enraged, Kriton felt more amused by the whole sequence, and had to admire the boy's boldness and propensity for staying hidden. Kriton spared his life, merely striking off the pinkie and ring fingers of Kallias' left hand, as a reminder of his place. Upon learning of Kallias' origins, the Ati adopted him, at first informally, into his household, and made sure that his mother was provided for until her death.
Kallias had his beginning as a mere spy, reporting the whispered words of courtiers to the Ati. But wherever Kriton went, Kallias went as well. After a few years he developed a strong bond with Mnesus, the Ati's son, who was several years older and regarded him as something of a little brother. It was around the age of nine or ten that the adoption was made formal, and Kallias first called Kriton, 'Father.'
While Mnesus was absorbing a rigorous education designed to help him take Kriton's place as an administrator, Kallias' tutelage was more immediate, more physical, and more militant. He learned how to fight with blade and bow, how to lie, and, most importantly for his future, how to sail. Kriton ensured that Kallias was never far from captains willing to teach him the art of naval warfare, once the boy's fascination with it became apparent. From as young as thirteen, he was shadowing naval officers on expeditions west along the Aean coast, and east into the Peneran Ocean. His brilliance on the waves was first demonstrated at fourteen, when Koinon raiders attacked the Nekhuran galley
God's Wounds, and, after an arrow slew the captain, Kallias found himself directing sailors before the first mate could even open his mouth. Needless to say, the raiders were driven off.
Though he took to the sea with relish, he also chafed at his father's increasing control while back in Nekhur. Kallias was almost indefatigably charming, and developed a propensity to cavort with women, so much so that his father had to forcibly put a stop to it. Kallias resented this and other controls that he felt were arbitrarily set on him, and not his brother, Mnesus.
At the age of seventeen, his patience finally wore thin. Never acclimated to court life, Kallias resolved to make a new life at sea that was his own and no other's. He signed on with an Arcan merchantman as a deck hand and disappeared overnight.
After this, Kallias' career becomes shrouded in myth, rumor, and perhaps even a bit of embellishment on his part. Only the rogue himself knows for sure. Suffice it to say, a number of events have stood out as generally accepted truth: He became captain of his first ship at nineteen, after slaying a Padavian corsair in a duel. He served for a year or two as a mercenary in that city's navy, until the salary payments became delayed, after which he made off with as much as half of the city's treasury, with a good portion of Padavia's other mercenary captains defecting to him. He bedded the sister of Cranaus of Pharnae, and then returned several years later and bedded the man's younger wife Poletia, after Cranaus had been made Archon. At twenty-seven, his growing fleet sacked the city of Richten in Argonvost, an act which is still notorious in that part of the world. The very next year, off the port of Uppgrebo, he smashed a Nordligean fleet that outnumbered his 3 to 1. The year after, the Nordligeans came right back and defeated him, but within a year Kallias had recovered his strength and simply pirated elsewhere.
Such has been the life of Kallias Eight-Fingers, as he is more widely known across the seas. His men are of a heavily multinational nature, bound together by common interest in making money and their immense loyalty to, and faith in, their sea-lord. Although the Eight-Finger Fleet has been responsible for several acts of wanton brutality, Kallias has never developed a reputation as a personally cruel man (except in, perhaps, Richten), and has demonstrated the ability to keep his men under control when he so chooses. Crews that surrender quickly are offered generous terms, female prisoners are provided with separate chambers where possible, slaving is forbidden, etc. Kallias enforces his law through a slew of dependable lieutenants, who command sections of the fleet.
His visits to Nekhur are few and far between - and usually to his home city of Eionia, where it is rumored he has a pair of twins. Although his last visit was almost three years prior, so the sea-lord is due to set foot on his homeland soon.
Beliefs
◆Religion: Kallias was raised worshipping the Ten Thousand of Talassa and the foremost among them, the storm-king Tiwass. As a young man, he was neither particularly religious nor particularly neglectful. No one is quite sure what he believes now.
◆Motivation: Motivation used to have an easy answer for Kallias. He wanted fame, fortune and adventure as a young man. But now, going on forty, he already has all that . . . so the question has become more difficult. Now he seeks something deeper; a cause he can believe in, a woman he won't leave, or perhaps even a big brother that he won't abandon.
Inventory
Items: Shamshir: The enchanted saber of Kallias' father Onesios Lambrakis, and the heirloom of that now-defunct house. It was forged in Kishar centuries ago, though beyond that its origin story is unknown.
Shamshir seems to never run dry of a debilitating poison that gives the wicked blade a permanent green tinge.
Skills: Nautical skill/sea navigation and sea tactics/strategy, swordsmanship, leadership, martial skills
Magical Ability: The Lambrakis line has some very modest magical ability. Kallias is a Novice in Illusion, having picked up some formal instruction during his adoptive upbringing in Eatar, and less formal experience at the many hundreds of ports he's visited in twenty years at sea.