| Full Name: Deren Keizaal |
|---|
| Height: 6'3" |
| Species: Ultimarian |
| Age: 32 |
| Occupation: Formerly a slave and gladiator. Currently an Imperial Guard |
Deren's Character Sheet.
Personality
Because of his years of slavery and forced gladiatorial combat, he tends to have a fierce personality and can be impulsive at times.
However, he is also gentle, helpful and honest towards those who treat him with kindness.
These are traits that he had before his capture that never left him during slavery. However, he is overwhelmed with remorse for being forced to kill others in the name of his former masters.
As a slave, he had a chip installed in his brain that supressed most of his rage so that he wouldn't attack his captors. This chip's signal could be overrided via an iPhone-like device carried his masters. When this happened, all of Deren's suppressed rage would come flooding back to him at once, usually resulting in Deren violently releasing it, which his masters saw as a valuable asset to use in the arena. Deren constantly lived in fear that the chip could be potentially used to turn him into a killing machine, which completely went against his base instincts as a good man who wanted to save lives. This chip was removed after Deren was freed. He described its removal as "I'm feeling like every ache and pain just left my body! I can breathe again!"
He also has a slightly looser outlook on mortality and pain than most other people. This is due to the fact that he was constantly injured in the arena, sometimes even losing fingers or limbs... but his masters would always make sure that he was fully healed by his next battle so that a gladiator in pristine condition could be sent out.
After being freed, Deren tries to return to being the moral man that he was before his capture, and for the most part he does. However, his past actions always eat away at his soul.
Backstory
Deren was born and raised in the Alderia sector, which was one of the sectors of Ultimare destroyed during the initial
attacks during the war. He was a firefighter on a search and rescue response team that helped find victims of the
bombings. Unfortunately, this was the same time that criminal gangs started moving into the sector. Memebers of the
Gemini Myriad, one of the newly formed gangs saw Deren at work and knew that he would make a fine sentient trophy
and would earn a pretty penny on the black market. After weeks of stlaking him, the Myriad paid a waitress at a local
bar that Deren frequented to aid them in capturing him. She drugged him and brought him to the Myriad, hooded
and bound. The Faceless, a gang specializing in slaves and trafficking of sentients had their eye on Deren and bribed
the doctor that determines the health of the slaves going up for auction to give him a poor bill of health to lower
his price on the market. At auction, the Faceless were able to purchase Deren for nearly a third of what the Gemini
Myriad were expecting him to be sold for (plus a little extra to bribe the doctor).
The Faceless immediately started training him to be a fighter in the underground arenas, a brutal sport popular
among the gang members of the Alderia sector where slaves are pitted against each other in savage combat.
For ten years, Deren was forced to fight for (and kill for) the Faceless, earning them mountains of money in the
process. The only thing that kept Deren from losing his humanity was a simple braided black leather bracelet that
was given to him by the girlfriend that he had before his capture. It was a continuous reminder of who he really
is, which was a blessing... but also a curse since he felt guilt for every opponent that he defeated in battle. He has tried
to suppress the guilt, but it still surfaces up at times.
There was a large arena event that served as a political event for all of the local gang leaders. Cylor saw how similar
Deren looked to Aredon, one of his hated enemies. Weeks later, members of Cylor’s gang, dressed as authority figures
stormed the Faceless base. Deren believed that he had finally been “rescued”, but little did he know that Cylor
had other plans for him.
Deren was conned into believing that Aredon was a dangerous criminal, and because the two looked so much alike,
the authorities needed his help to “bring Aredon to justice”. Unfortunately for Deren, he was never given the full
details of what he was doing and he committed several acts of treason in Aredon’s name.
It didn’t take Aredon long to figure out what was going on and Deren was arrested by Imperial Forces. He was facing
charges on treason, which would have meant either life in prison or execution. Curious about who this man was,
Aredon visited him in prison, where he heard Deren’s story. Moved by pity, Aredon begged the Emperor to release
him and Deren was cleared of all charges.
Not knowing what to do with his life, Deren joined the Imperial Guard. This job makes him feel like ha has a purpose
and he is proud to serve the Emperor as a guardsman.
Relationships With Other Characters
- When he was purchased as a slave, a 16 year old girl named Dayara was purchased at the same time and forced into working the brothels. Deren took pity on her and began to see himself as her protector. When the faceless would ofer him women as a reward for fighting well, he would always take her into his cell. Not for anything sexual, but instead to make sure that she wouldn’t be mistreated by anyone that night. She was sold to another gang a year before Deren earned his freedom. His entire life as a free man, he’s been looking for her.
- He saw the other gladiators in the Faceless House as being brothers, even though they all knew that they may be one day forced to face each other (and maybe kill each other) in the arena. After he was freed, Deren has been trying to track down and free some of the other gladiators.
- As a free man, he is a proud servant of Emperor Himnare. He knows the Emperor well.
- He is under the command of Cereus Ghar, the Emperor’s captain of the guard. Like the rest of his men, he looks up to him with great respect. However, he does tend to butt heads with his superiors quite a bit when he doesn’t agree with their methods.
- Deren feels remorse towards Aredon for being duped into posing as him. In the days since then, he feels like he hasn’t quite made amends with Aredon for doing so and tries to make it up to him whenever he can. The are two on good terms and would likely be friends if not for the fact that Aredon keeps him on file as a body double and needs to keep his distance so that nobody knows about it. Deren still looks at Aredon with a large amount of respect.
- He highly respescts the rest of the Imperial Suns.
- He doesn’t currently have a girlfriend and isn’t really actively looking. However, he may find the love of his life when he least expects it.