Kaelric Thorne — The Hunter Forsworn

He pierced the beast,
but the Codex pierced him.
Blade and vow alike,
both drink blood.

Kaelric Thorne was born from vengeance. His village lost its children to Drovak’s hunger, their cradles emptied, their mothers left in silence. He swore an oath not to gods but to ash: to hunt the predator until his stake was black with blood.
 
Kaelric found Drovak in a ruined chapel and struck true, timber through skull, severing head from body. For a moment, the world breathed. But the Codex does not suffer endings. The beast rose again, wood lodged in his brow, thirsting louder than before.
 
The Codex marked Kaelric as Forsworn. Every vow he swears bends back upon him, every victory curdles into ruin. He still hunts, driven not by triumph but by obsession, chasing beasts that cannot die. His face is scarred, his eyes blackened by blood’s reflection. Those who meet his gaze say he looks like the very things he slays.
 
The Codex names him the Hunter Forsworn — not savior, not slayer, but a man already buried in the graves of his enemies.