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Azarion


Chevi

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AZARION

16 | 2 April 58CE | Slave | Stable boy | Bisexual | Wanted | Aidan Gallagher

 

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Personality.

Azarion is a defiant little shit. Pride has been beaten out of him, but he earned the concept of sarcasm and angst in exchange. His dry wit is mostly lost on other people due to his inability to speak, but his glares and grunts are self-explanatory. The boy is clever, and not entirely broken, but he has learned to expect the worst from people, and has not much faith in his own future anymore. He fears humiliation more than pain, although he had his fair share of both. He finds the Roman lifestyle strange, and still retains the beliefs and values of his own people, but he has learned to keep that to himself. He keeps most things to himself, really - thoughts, feelings, hopes - as a mechanism for survival. When he slips, he usually slips by wordlessly sassing off at the wrong people. He is a tough nut to crack, even for people with the best intentions. Especially for people with the best intentions. Those are inherently suspect.

The only time Azarion shows another side of him is when he is tending to horses. He understands the animals well, and can care for them in surprisingly adept and gentle ways. Unlike Romans, he sees them as more than riding or pack animals, and in his own way, he even talks to them sometimes. He has a talent for calming them and getting them to do what he wants. The easiest way to find a connection with him is if the other person shares his passion for horses.

Azarion has been mute since his tongue was cut out. He can make sounds, but he prefers to communicate through hand signs. He learned Latin while he was a hostage, but he has to re-learn the signs every time he has a new master, to be able to commuicate, and be understood. The signs are mostly made up on the fly, until some of them stick. Not being understood frustrates the boy, so he doesn't go into elaborate communication unless he has to. 

 

Appearance

Scrawny doesn't even begin to describe it. Azarion is short for his age (5'2"), has been malnourished for six years, and even before that, he had the lean build of his tribe. His dark brown hair was cropped short when he went from hostage to slave, and it has been short ever since, usually in the worst possible ways. His eyes are green and his skin tans easily. His body carries the memories of his history; besides the obvious (missing a tongue), he has a deer tattoo on his left calf, a FVG brand is his right forearm, as well as various scars from cuts, lashes, and beatings. As stable boy, all he wears is a tunic his master provides for him, and is usually covered in dirt and reeks strongly of horses. It is not unusual to see him with straw in his hair. 

 

Family

Father: Zarandos (deceased)

Mother: Saruke (unknown)

Siblings: 2 younger brothers (unknown)

Spouse: none

Children: none

Extended family: none

Other: Owned by Alucio Valens Lurio

 

History

58CE: Azarion is born in Sarmatia, on the endless plains between the Danuvius and the Parthissus rivers. The Sarmatian tribes moved in from the East a generation earlier. Azarion belongs to the small tribe of the Saii, the People of Horses of Many Colors. His father, Zarandos, is the chief of his tribe. 

58-66CE: Azarion is raised according to his station and the nomadic culture of his people. The tribes migrate for pasture along the rivers, keeping between the frontiers of the two provinces. The boy learns to ride as soon as he learns to walk, and learns to shoot arrows with the rest of the children. He receives his first horse when he is 6, one of the small, sturdy horses of the Eastern plains, and goes on his first hunt when he is 8. To commemorate his first successful hunt (he wounds and tracks down a roe deer), he receives his first tattoo, the pattern of a deer on his left calf. He is the oldest of three sons, his two brothers 3 and 5 years younger than him.

66CE: Pinned between two provinces, and having to move through the territories of other barbarian peoples to trade with the East, th Sarmatians are forced to make treaties with the Romans. Horse-riding nomads are a pain on the frontier troops when they raid, and their limited resources force the Saii and others to periodically cross the rivers, or attack Roman outposts on their side. To stop the raids and reinforce the frontier, the Romans make treaties with the Sarmatians. As part of one such treaty, the Sarmatians have to provide hostages to the Romans, in exchange for peaceful trading relations. Azarion is selected, as a minor chief's first son, and is moved to Carnuntum. He is 8 years old, but carries himself with all the pride and defiance of a warrior. He is a pain in the ass of his Roman supervisors. As hostage, he is treated fairly, but his comfort is kept to a bare minimum, and his movement is limited.

68CE: Azarion is 10 years old when the Sarmatians break the treaty, and go raiding into Pannonia. Zarandos opposes the plan, he is challenged for leadership of the Saii, and killed in a duel. His wife and children go into hiding, their fate is unknown. Once the raid is beaten back, orders are given on the Roman side to make an example of the hostages. Since Azarion has been mouthing off at the Romans, they take the opportunity to punish him by cutting his tongue out, in plain sight of the tribes across the river. Older hostages are executed at the same time. Azarion is kept alive for further torture, but one of his Roman captors takes pity on him, and as a form of saving his life, he hands the half-dead boy over to a slave trader. Azarion is taken to Aquileia before he has the chance to recover from his injuries. There, he is sold again to a Roman merchant. He puts the boy to work at the stables, and discovers that he has a talent for caring for horses. He also soon discovers that he has a talent for making trouble, when he tries to run away on one of said horses. He is branded on his arm with FVG (runaway), and sold off at a low price.

68-74CE: Azarion is passed from owner to owner. Most of them are cruel, and even the ones that are not soon lose their patience with the tattooed wildling who manages to piss them off even while mute. Most of them buy him because he is exotic, young, or because he works well with horses. None of that buys him much kindness on the long run. He is repeatedly beaten, starved, whipped, and abused. From the Aquileia merchant he goes to a villa outside Alba Fucens, then a rich veteran's house in the same town, then eventually to the stables of an inn and cursus publicus way station along the Via Flaminia. By this time, he is passedd off as a nuisance, and treated accordingly. He hates most people, but still cares very much for horses.

74CE: Good luck shines on Azarion, although he doesn't realize it yet, when after a severe beating by his owner he is purchased by Alucio Valens Lurio, mostly out of pity. He is taken into the household as a stable boy. It seems like he is finally in a decent place, but he is not brave enough to get his hopes up yet.

Chevi | Central European | Discord

 

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