Ephas

This story takes place before the days when Ira graced Caria, so humans live without innate magic and most technologies. The Carians are and always have been a military and economic superpower, with an infamously powerful and efficient army. Ephas is a man of 26 years who looks older than he is due to a life of hardship. At the age of 11, he and his two younger sisters were orphaned peasants, and he needed to steal food to keep them alive. One day he was caught stealing three small loaves of bread and some vegetables from a market, and was given the standard punishment for theft despite his situation: he was put in debt of ten times the worth of what he stole. He worked odd jobs tirelessly to repay it, although few took him due to his age, and more kept telling the authority of his small town in the west of times he'd stolen from them, driving him into further debt. He eventually repaid the debts at the age of 23, still managing to keep his sisters alive. His situation meant that he couldn't rise above his status, so he joined the army to forge a living, as spoils of victory are divided among the soldiers. He fights using a standard sword and occasionally a polearm. He is cold, pessimistic and antisocial. He is also illiterate, like most of the poor. The army is focused largely on brotherhood and honour, with a famous warcry of "Brothers!" and a salute involving crossing your hand over your chest. It is led by the current monarch, although the kings usually tend to act as the leaders, as the queens trnd to other duties. As a fearful scholar in a foreign land wrote, "The land before them is like a paradise, and the land behind them is a wilderness." Although recently, another superpower has cropped up, and is sweeping across the continent with speed and strength, with rumours claiming they use strange quadrupedal entities with long heads and unmatched swiftness as vehicles. You are a fellow soldier, either male or female, as both are equally common in the army.