Tork

Bio
Tork is a young human mage from a small village in the Shadow Marches. He spent the first 15 years of his life in his home village until one day when everyone in the village but him mysteriously disappeared. Having no more reason to stick around, Tork set out with his trusty weasel companion Venga to explore the world and find something to do and hopefully learn more about the mysterious disappearance of his village.

Appearance
Tork has dark skin, dark tight-curled hair, and brown eyes. He wears his hair in loose, thick cornrows so it stays neat under his hat and gives Venga something to grab onto and nest in. He wears a collection of clothes he's found interesting, normally mismatching in color, pattern, aesthetic, and weather-purpose. The one consistency in his garb is a hat with openings out of which Venga can see and breath comfortably.

Personality
Tork really only ever interacted with a small handful of local people until he left his village, most of whom were his parents, some of his parents' acquaintances, and one friend his own age, a goblin named Oren. The rest of the time, Tork played by himself, with various animals that lived near his house, or with an invisible friend he later realized was a manifestation of his latent magical ability. These limited interactions with others and the outside world have left Tork with a bit of a quirky personality often talking to himself, coming up with elaborate schemes to achieve a relatively trivial goal, playing games of make-believe with himself and including others without explaining the game, under the assumption they already know. He's naturally charismatically gifted, however doesn't have much experience holding the thread of an interaction or keeping on topic.

Background
Tork grew up in a small village far off the beaten path a few days journey north of Dhavin's Port in the Shadow Marches. Tork's parents were young and loving and caring, and he had a meager but comfortable childhood. His parents would often get together with their friends to go on retreats and practice meditation and interesting rituals. His parents would tell him to stay behind in the house, but he would sometimes watch from afar and play a make believe version of whatever was going on, mimicking his parents and their friends. These all seemed like fun games to Tork.

Over time Tork's parents grew more and more weary and stressed, something was weighing on them and they couldn't get it off their minds. Things had been changing for Tork as well. Things around him would sometimes moved on their own; animals seemed to respond to his thoughts or emotions and would approach him, friendly and without caution; sometimes, when there was a startling noise in the night, he would hide under his blanket and a light would appear underneath. Curiously, these strange things never seemed to happen when his parents were around. To Tork, these happenings just added more fun to his games. An invisible friend moving and hiding things for him to find; animals friends to play with; a secret fort that only appeared when it was dark and scary.

His parents' meetings and rituals continued, and so did Tork's play versions. Tork's versions had become more exciting, often with more fun unexpected happenings. Obviously, to young Tork, these effects were a result of his play rituals (or at least his imagination). On the other hand, his parents no longer returned from their activities as enthusiastic and chatty and full of energy as they once had. They gradually grew more distant and hollow. They didn't smile or speak much anymore. They didn't play with Tork anymore. One day, they didn't return at all. Tork waited for his parents to come home, sometimes they went away with their friends for a few days and left him to care for the house but they had always told him beforehand and, of course, always made sure he had plenty to eat and do. This time seemed different however. They had left that evening to meet up with their friends, a grim but almost hopeful sort of look on their faces.

As he waited, Tork did normal house chores and played with his various animal friends, some of the smaller ones joining him to live in the house. In particular he became close with a weasel, whom he named Venga, who took to roosting in Tork's nest of of dark tight curly hair. Eventually, the food in the house started to run out. His parents would find him when they got back, he thought, but he needed to head out and look for something to do, some food, some work, anything. So he packed his things and headed off on his own adventure.

Over time, Tork learned that the strange things that happened around him sometimes were actually real. Better yet, he could control when and where they happened as well! His favorite trick was to manifest a floating, glowing hand that helped him move and carry things around, usually toys, food, or something to help with work. After helping out with whatever he needed to do, they would give each other a thumbs up on a job well done.

It wasn't until a many years later that Tork heard any news about what may have been his hometown. Many years ago, apparently, there had been a cult living near that area; the descriptions of which sounded eerily familiar. Did his parents sometimes wear the garb ascribed to this cult? Did he see these symbols around the house and town? He had been young and it was entirely possible he was imagining these connections, but one thing was for certain: his parents had left and never returned, that date had been etched into his memory ever since. From what he read, on that same night, the entire cult had disappeared without a trace.

Unsure of many things at this point: where his parents had gone, where his magical abilities came from, who or what the cult was and whether his parents were a part of it; Tork set out on a quest to learn as much as he could about the various cults of the world and any relation they might have to the one that was once possibly in his home town.

Eventually his travels brought him to an observatory in the cold mountains outside of a town. No one seemed to be home but the observatory seemed to be teeming with occult energy and so Tork let himself in. Due to an unfortunate combination of distraction and general lack of physical strength, Tork managed to jam himself in a room and was unable to get out. Luckily he and Venga had discovered a chest in the homey cell, what seemed to be a boarding room at the observatory, that had an endless supply of salmon jerky. And so they waited and chatted and planned and played and eventually, the door opened.

Home Town
Tork is from a tiny ~100 person village in the Shadow Marches without a name, the closest named settlement is Dhavin's Port. The Shadow Marches are a desolate land of cold swamps and moors, about 50% orcs, 25% humans, and 10% goblins plus others. At the edge of the continent, the Shadow Marches are isolated and have one main economic resource: vast fields of Eberron Dragonshards that are mined by House Tharashk. The only city in the Marches is called Zarash'ak, but Tork had never been there until he was looking for work and making his way out of the country.

Related Materials

 * Letter from Fola - Letter from Fola Rin to Tork, describing a book that referenced the town Tork is interested in (Dhevin's Port).