Zeke Lionhart

Zeke Lionhart is young renegade martial arts student from the Dragon Fist Monastery; he was expelled when confronting the master due to ideological diversions, though he rather say he's left by his own will.

Back to the road as before he joined the monastery, his goal is to find his sister and take back that artifact that carries the shadows from his past.

Lionharts
The Lionhart family had been important to the kingdom of Archana since nearly its beginning, but their bloodline was nearly destroyed defending their homeland during the wars. Zeke’s parents, the last of the Lionharts, had received a mission to protect a powerful artifact, found deep in the Vilennor Mines. It was a single gauntlet, made of dark metal, decorated with grim patterns. In order to safeguard it, they moved to a village far away from Archana, where no one would dare imagine finding the gauntlet. There they settled, and with time, they decided to raise a family.

The first son, Alderic, had always been energetic. He could gather all the kids around him to go out in small “adventures”, and also separated fights among them. He was the parents’ pride and, naturally, the example and inspiration of the second son, Zeke. This one lived under the shadow of his older brother, trying to copy him in everything to show he was also capable of Alderic's deeds – but that would always put him in trouble. He soon came to be known as troublemaker in the village, which brought him to his parents’ bad side, but that never pushed him down – Alderic often helped him, sometimes even taking the blame on himself to clear his brother’s name. This selflessness and sense of responsibility gave Zeke strength, and would again try even more to be like Alderic.

They had their ups and downs, but they were happy, like any normal family would be. With time, their objective, protect the gauntlet, became but a forgotten secret in the family’s past. Life there was as perfect as it could be, they would never imagine what was to come.

Darkness
Zeke was 11 when his destiny struck their lives. It was sunset and he was enjoying his last minutes outside climbing on a tree, alone. Suddenly, the dark of the night was struck with a flash. The silence, with a boom. The boy saw an explosion coming from the village, and thinking on what his brother would do, he quickly jumped down and ran to see what was going on.

The explosion had hit a house not far from his. A bit more relieved, but still worried about his family, he went into the house, running, searching for them. As no one was to be found, he saw an open trapdoor on the corner that seemed to have been hidden under the furniture. A passing feeling of happiness took over him, as he climbed down the stair and saw his parents, his brother and his 1 year old sister, all safe, down deep in the room. His parents seemed to argue about a magical artifact, one that was being held inside a bell jar beside them, while trying to stop Aleric from going outside to search for Zeke and the father claiming to go himself. When Zeke reacted and stepped forward to tell his family he was fine, another explosion came, this one hitting the house in full.

And then there were Darkness.

As Zeke regained his senses, he found himself under the ruins of what used to be his home. Still dizzy, he stood on his feet, he needed to show he could be as impressive as his brother, he needed to prove himself he was worthy, even if he had no clue of what was going on. He needed to protect his family.

A few steps forward and he stumbled upon the artifact his parents seemed to protect, fallen on the ground. It was a gauntlet with an old and evil-looking design. As he wondered what it was and why it was so important to his parents to protect it, a noise picked his attention – someone, a man, was coming in from the opening the explosion had caused. If the gauntlet was so important… If that’s what his parents needed to protect, he had only one thing to do: take it, and hide it. Before the man could notice his presence, Zeke jumped and took the artifact. That was his regret.

When he touched it, his body ceased moving, his mind cleared. A moment of complete silence took over the place, in his mind, as time itself had stopped. Then, it came. Screams of pain and agony, scenes of gore and slaughter, wishes of revenge, of death, hatred, regret. It was as all the suffering, the hatred and terror in the world were invading his mind and body in a single violent blow with no mercy. When he came back to himself, he was having the gauntlet taken from him by force, with a kick on his face by the man who entered the ruins of the house.

As he came back to his senses, Zeke could see the man turning his back and going away with the gauntlet in his hand. He knew what he had to do. He knew the right thing was to stop the man, still, he couldn't move. He was in shock, paralyzed in fear. As he fought himself to react, he watched his brother rising up from the rubble, washed in blood and with a sword in his hand, who then charged furiously at the stranger. And with a curved sword, the man parried Alderic's attack and stroke back at him, leaving a deadly wound on the boy’s chest.

The hooded man left. Minutes later, when he regained his self-control, Zeke crawled to his family, desperate for their shelter, though he found none. His brother, with a diagonal cut on his chest, was bleeding to death. His father had been pierced by one of the house’s wooden pillars. His mother had her legs crushed under rubble, sheltering the baby against the floor. Not believing in the nightmare before his eyes, Zeke frail mind didn't take it and collapsed.

Nightmare
He woke up with the sunlight on his face. Lying on a bed with his wounds treated, Zeke soon hear voices coming from the next room and, stumbling, got up to see what was going on. The survivors from the havoc were tending to the wounded, trying to save whoever they could. Zeke, adrift, was approached by a neighbor who explained to him, calmly, that his sister and he were the only survivors. A void took over his chest as he heard those words, remembering what happened the night before. He spend the rest of his day alone, trying to believe in and accept what had happened, but the only thing he could accomplish was building up hatred over the man who caused all that. He slept with that thought in his mind.

Scream of terror, shouts for help… A nightmare. He saw the same scenes he did when he touched the gauntlet. He woke up in the middle of the night in despair. Although it used to be common, the silence of the night was upsetting him. He jumped from bed, eager to see someone. As he put his hand on the wall to peak through the door, he felt something on his hand and his heart froze – Blood. They were all dead. He stepped back and saw the mark his hand left on the wall; it was soaked with the red liquid.

He ran. He ran despairingly throughout the village. He was looking for someone, anyone. But they were all dead. All of them. With a bitter taste in his mouth, he came back running to his room, where his sister, the only breathing thing in the whole village but himself, was sleeping peacefully. He needed to escape and take the baby to safety. Protecting her from whatever had caused that carnage was the only reason he had to move one. It was the only thing he could do after failing with his family. Amidst an indescribable mental chaos, he took everything he could need for a trip, wrapped the baby in a blanket and set out adrift into the plains.

Three days passed. He was mentally and physically destroyed. His sense of responsibility demanded that he prioritized his sister with the supplies left in his backpack, but the few he had were almost over. A bit of luck passed his way though, as he spotted a village far away. There he found shelter; the friendly villagers could not turn away two kids who survived a massacre.

Zeke spent a few weeks there. Little by little he blocked away his memories, to protect himself and get over everything that happened. He had to be strong, for his sister and himself. He thought it as all over, that there he would find peace. They lived with a widow who had a daughter of Zeke’s age, a kind girl who spent he time trying to cheer him up. After all the horror he had been through, it was as all that have never happened when he was with her. The void in his chest was being filled. The memories seemed just like bad dreams. He fell in love.

He was enjoying his days once again, but his destiny was another. Zeke had gathered all the courage he needed to ask the girl out, when a bully decided to finish out the outsider who was getting too close to “his” girl. Zeke was ambushed, and his physical conditions left him in even bigger disadvantage. Long minutes of corporal punished passed as the kids kicked him on the ground. This relit a feeling Zeke wanted to forget, that he had forgotten.

Coming back home, with wounds all over his body, he swore revenge as his caretaker tended to his bruises. But he needed to rest. He needed to be recovered for the next day.

Scream. Again. Distorted voices of suffering in the darkness. The nightmare was back.

Once again, Zeke woke up during the night terrified, but was immediately swallowed by a worse feeling. He found himself on the ground, leaning against a wall between two houses. On the opposite wall another vision of hell. The girl he loved… With whom he enjoyed spending his time with… She was nailed to the wall with knives on her hands. No sign of life.

He was going to look for refuge somewhere, crawling away from there, but as the got out of the alley, he freaked out. There were dead bodies everywhere. Again, no one had survived. Once again that had happened. He gather all he could, found his sister unharmed and left.

That happened again once or twice. Or was it three times? Maybe he didn't even find any village and it was all a bad joke his mind played on him since the beginning. He could not tell anymore. Absolute exhaustion was upon him. He was broken. Zeke fell to the floor, unwilling to live. If everything ended there, he would not care anymore.