Character Name; Alastair Stara

Age; 23, but he's been in Asgard long enough that he's closer to 24.

Appearance; PB: Gaspard Ulliel. Alastair is 5'8", with black hair and very dark eyes. He doesn't smile much, and when he does, they're superficial and generally perfunctory. He's a young man who always seems to have an awful lot on his mind.



House; Sigyn

Power; Healing



World Info; There is a Balance. The Balance keeps the world stable, safe, and prosperous. It’s a delicate thing, and is governed and guarded by three Keepers: The Keeper of Life and Death; the Keeper of Creation and Destruction; and the Keeper of the Past, Present, and Future, also known as the Keeper of Time. Each Keeper is gifted with powers appropriate to their part of the Balance. The Keeper of Life and Death can kill and heal, the Keeper of Time can see into all aspects of time, and the Keeper of Creation and Destruction can, of course, create and destroy. They are also gifted with many more subtle powers based on their part of the Balance, and are tasked with using them to safeguard the Balance both individually and together as a group. They are also traditionally the rulers of three different countries, named after their families. House Stara Keeps the Balance of Life and Death, House Karonis Keeps the Balance of Creation and Destruction, and House Innis Keeps the Balance of Time. Within each House’s lands, there are many who are Gifted with part of the Balance governed by that territory. For instance, in Stara lands, there are some Gifted with Life, called Life-Givers, and some Gifted with Death, called Death-Dealers.



The Karonis lands are the most technologically advanced with their many Creators encouraged, sometimes harshly, to constantly innovate. For a long time, they shared their discoveries and technologies with the other lands, though they began to share less and less as time goes on. The events of the story occur at a time when trade between Stara lands and the other lands has been almost completely cut off, so they are a couple decades behind Karonis lands technologically. So while Karonis lands are in the equivalent of near the end of America’s Industrial Revolution, Stara lands are lagging behind just before that. Alastair would be familiar with a pretty low level of technology: he’d have experience with guns and some forms of gas power and electricity, but not much beyond that.



Background; Alastair grew up, for the first years of his life, as a prince. The second son of the head of House Stara, who was the Keeper of the Balance between Life and Death, Alastair was surrounded by his loving parents, older sister (heir of the House and Keepership), and a very large extended family. He had an excellent education, and wanted for nothing. That is, until he turned ten.



When Alastair was ten and his sister was twelve, House Karonis (Keepers of the Balance between Creation and Destruction), for mostly unknown reasons, attacked House Stara and slaughtered nearly all of them, leaving only Alastair and Danaya to escape. This completely destroyed the Balance, creating an Imbalance between Life and Death that began to spread. Danaya became the Keeper with the death of her father, and received all the powers of the Keeper. She was completely overwhelmed by the sudden power, so it was basically up to Alastair to get them to safety. They eventually found it with a caravan of traders.



As the Imbalance spread, the symptoms of it did as well: a plague that turned the living into lifeless shells; famine which ravaged the fields; the recently deceased rising from their graves to walk again in a shallow mockery of their former lives; and livestock going mad and wild before collapsing where they stood. Once Danaya recovered, it was discovered that she could heal the symptoms of the Imbalance, temporarily at least, and so the caravan traveled. It traveled to trade and provide goods to the people of the Stara lands, now cut off from the rest of the world; it traveled to avoid the roaming bands of Karonis troops; and it traveled so that Danaya could heal the wounds caused by the Imbalance as best she could. And Alastair traveled with them, never straying far from Danaya, and helping as best he could with what little tools he believed he had.



And that’s what Alastair Stara is up to when he gets taken to Asgard.

...Actually he got canon updated back in May(ish) 2013. He and his sister had to leave the caravan, met up with a Death-Dealer who trained Alastair in hand-to-hand combat as they journeyed north to the Innis lands to speak with the Keeper of Time, and then on their journey back south, Danaya was kidnapped by Karonis troops and taken to Karonis lands. It's right after her abduction that Alastair's brought back to Asgard, after six or seven months have passed.



Personality; Alastair will do absolutely anything for his sister, partly because she’s all he has left for family and partly because he honestly believes she’s the best hope for the world, but mostly because he loves her. He doesn’t consider himself particularly optimistic or idealistic, not after everything that’s happened to him and everything he sees on a daily basis, and he isn’t, not really. He does his best to be encouraging for other people, for his sister, for everyone in the caravan, for the people they meet in towns and villages. But it’s hard to be encouraging when you feel broken, disconnected from the world, and useless. Alastair is a Life-Giver, but he can’t heal or do any of the things most other Life-Givers can do, so he thinks he’s a failure somehow. In reality, his gift is much more subtle. His presence brings comfort. Wherever he goes, no matter what has happened, with him around people feel more relaxed and hopeful. His presence helps those gifted with Life to focus, and helps Danaya when she is particularly affected by the Imbalance. But it’s not a gift that can be seen or immediately recognized, and Alastair has doubts that it actually exists, so he believes he’s a broken Life-Giver.



To combat his depression and feelings of uselessness, he throws himself into helping as many people as he can in the towns and villages the caravan visits. Everyone was affected by the Imbalance, some more strongly than others. Danaya heals the symptoms of the Imbalance they encounter, and Alastair does his best to help the people themselves however he can. He believes that people need to help each other, look out for each other, and work together as a community, especially in times of crisis. So he does what he can.



Alastair tends to get angry quickly. He’s got a lot to be angry about. He’s angry that his sister has to live with so much pain and so much pressure, he’s angry when people are selfish and don’t help each other, he’s angry that so many people’s lives are so miserably, but mostly he’s furious that a man could slaughter Alastair’s family and send the world down a path that leads to destruction and show no remorse. Alastair doesn’t hate easily, but he hates Raben Karonis utterly and completely. When he was younger, Alastair swore to himself that he would kill Raben himself one day, and he has not forgotten this promise nor regretted it. However, it would be hard to call him hell-bent on revenge, since he has come to realize how unlikely it is that he’ll ever get the chance. He and his sister are hundreds of miles away from Karonis lands, and Raben is very safely tucked away in his capitol city. Alastair has resigned himself to the fact that he may never be able to actually see his revenge fulfilled. That doesn’t stop him from doing his best to prepare himself. Alastair trains daily with the man who leads the protection of the caravan, and though doesn’t really have the opportunity to become a real master of combat, Alastair’s determination has driven him to become reasonably skilled with basic weapons. He doesn’t have any disillusions about his skill though. He’s not about to go challenging the Karonis troops that patrol Stara lands without good reason.



Danaya doesn’t approve of his quiet dream of vengeance, so he doesn’t talk about it with her. Not that they talk much. They don’t have to. They know they can talk about anything with each other, but for twelve years they’ve experienced everything together and know each other completely. This makes it a little hard for Alastair to really completely open up to other people, since he and his sister know each other so instinctively. However, he tries. He’s spent twelve years with the trader’s caravan, and they’ve become a second family to him, despite his instinct to hold them at arm’s length after what happened to his actual family. But twelve years is a long time, and spending so much time with the same people means you get to know them and they get to know you despite whatever you might want. When it comes to the strangers in the towns they visit, Alastair is friendly enough, but he’s not there to make lasting relationships and he doesn’t try to. The caravan always moves on, and so he’s never had to deal with strangers for longer than a week. He doesn’t try to make fleeting friendships, he just does his best to be kind and helpful. He’s never really open, because he doesn’t have to be. His friends and family are in the caravan. Everyone else is important, but not relationally. Despite this, he feels incredibly protective of everyone in Stara lands. They’re his people, and they are all suffering together. He will go very far to protect and help someone he’s only known for a moment, but he won’t stay and get to know them more. He’s also smart enough not to risk his life needlessly. If a large troop of soldiers threatened a small village, he wouldn’t recklessly challenge the captain, he’d step back and quietly help organize a resistance, though he wouldn’t lead it unless there wasn’t anyone more qualified. He can lead, but he’d rather leave that kind of thing to others and be the loyal support.



So to a person who has never met Alastair before, here’s what they’d see: a pretty smart, nice, friendly guy, but one who doesn’t really let people in. It’s pretty clear he’s got issues, but what they are and how deep they go isn’t obvious. He’s quick to anger, a fierce protector, but also a dedicated helper.