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I'd like to take a moment of your time to talk about Loki.

Here, would you like a pamphlet? No? It's okay, I've got a ton of them. No one else ever takes them. Still no? You're sure? All right, that's fine I guess.

Anyway... Well, to tell you the truth I just don't know where to start with Loki. There's so many strange things to him that I am at a loss as to where to start explaining it all. I suppose I could start by explaining his childhood and all of that "dark, tragic past" nonsense, you know to maybe explain the origins of the weird stuff I'll have to try and explain after that. All right, sounds like a plan.
Newborn Loki, then named Lyathri Rae'lafernal by his parents, was taken to the Keepers of the Past to have his patron ancestor named before his lineage. Yes, he did cry when he came out of his mother's womb incase you were wondering where he was as icy and cold during his infancy as much as he is now, although this did bring to attention a certain birht defect, but I'm going to get into that after explaining that his parents were werewolves. Did I forget to mention that? Because the whole "ancestor" thing is a lot more integral to his character than him being a natural-born werewolf. Seriously. I'm not kidding.
So back to the substory, baby Lyathri was taken before a Keeper of the Past who divined the ancestoral spirit who his soul sang in harmony with. The elf cleric declared the name of Lyessema, a fierce elf warrior who had rebelled against the giants of Xen'drik back when elvenkind still straddled the racial lines between savage and civilized, who had skinned a white wolf-beast and wore its pelt from her shoulders like a cloak, and who headed a group of rebellious elves who all wore masked fashioned after lupine beasts. Young Lyathri was the first to carry such a name, and from that day forth his future had been decided, and it was one of greatness. He would be molded after the image of a fearsome freedom-fighter and libertarian leader, and would undoubtably be placed in a commanding officer position when he so proved himself capable. However, there were a few problems with that.
No, again, I'm not talking about his lycanthropy, though that does play into it and I'll go into that right after this. Oh, don't worry, this one is just as interesting if not moreso--it's why he doesn't talk. Yeah, getting pretty interested now, ain't ya? Well all right then.
Remember when I mentioned him crying when he was born? Well, that was more than just to point out that even Loki was something akin to human (elf) when he was younger, it also drew attention to his little birth-defect--his voice. You see, his larynx developed strangely [or was just undeveloped] so any vocals he emitted would rasp out horribly. When he cried, he made a sound that was akin to a mixture of gasping for breath and dragging a rock across another, larger rock. The cleric who had played wetnurse to his birthing had examined him and tried to do something about it, but it wasn't something a bit of healing would fix. But he would live and he could breathe well enough, his vocal chords were just out of whack. Later when he learn start learning how to speak, he discovered his voice to be an unpleasant, airy thing that sounded like a choking victim's last words combined with a hint of a rasp. He quickly learned to never talk again, so he never learned much more than contemporary Elven.
Singing praise to one's ancestors was a common and encouraged form of both celebration and challenge among the Valaes Tairn (and later with the Valenar), but that was just right out for Loki, a fact that shamed him to no end. Loki grew up to be a real hardass, so any form of failure hit him really hard. Honestly, at times his sense of self- and ancestoral-honor seem to be the only things he has to live for. Loki is deadly serious and a little simple in that respect, so he forces himself to become a mute to never shame his people with his mockery of the Elven tongue. [[I suppose now I can see where the whole "needs a hug" thing is coming from.]]
But his people did not revile him. Loki was introduced to the sword when he reached the age of seven and would train himself non-stop in sword fighting until he was old enough to join an active warclan twenthy-four years later. He was also trained in archery and mounted combat, but it was the falchion that he most excelled at. In the stories of Lyessema, the feral warrior had employed a heavy falchion with deadly effect, so Loki would work himself to the brink of exhaustion swinging such a blade that was clearly too big for his young body to use (this was when he was only eleven; young elves learned to use lighter weaponry when they start training, working their way up to falchions in about eight or ten years when their bodies have been properly molded) so that he could emulate his ancestor's glorified battle prowess. To say it succeeded would be quite the understatement, as he became well respected by both his peers and his superiors for his combative abilities, so when he became of-age he was almost instantly given a rank and a small warband to command. An elf of his ancestoral pedigree was born to lead, afterall.
[Incomplete]

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