Sylon Goill

the immense Sylon Goill frightening small children

Sylon Goill is one of the lucky few who benefited from the Border Wars: always larger and brawnier than those around him (by adulthood sporting a size 42 waistline, most of which was muscle) and always a more brutal and vicious fighter than his peers. Goill isthe type of man who would be performing the same actions regardless of context and just happened to find one that encouraged his aggressive and bloodthristy nature. In more peaceful times, he likely would have become a criminal.

Goill was born to a fisherman and his wife in a small village on the coast of the Great Land Sea, the last of seven children. His father was a rather cold and unemotional man, very reserved and gone for days at a time on the water. Though the elder Goill was more affectionate with his octopodes than he was with his children, there's no evidence to suggest that the fisherman had violent tendencies or was even much of a disciplinarian.

Sylon Goill outgrew his brothers and sisters at a young age, as all of the rest of his siblings possessed his father's lankier build. He took to ambushing and attacking his older siblings around age 10, leaving them with bruises and bloody noses. His scuffles with neighborhood children generally had more dire results - broken bones, lost teeth, and in one particularly vicious case, a permanent blinding in one eye. He was feared by all the children of the village, human and Ogrish alike. At 12, Sylon could not be contained through conventional means. He had been expelled from school and stories of his brutality were pervasive enough that the big, muscular lad could not find employment anywhere in the village.

By the age of thirteen, Goill had been deposited at a garrison with stirct instructions from his parents to lie about his age and volunteer for the Imperial Army. These were virtually the only parental orders Goill ever followed. The commanding officer of the garrison never questioned the boy's age and sent him straight through to basic training. It became quickly clear to his drill sergeant, however, that Goill already possessed refined fighting techniques, and consequently recommended that Goill join the so-called Black Diamonds - a squadron of elite soldiers used for the most brutal and dangerous tasks.

As a Black Diamond, Goill proved he has other qualities, too. His commanding officer noted his fearlessness and single-minded dedication to improving his fighting technique. He also noted that Goill possessed a sly, crafty mind that, though uneducated and not what one would call particularly bright, was coldly unemotional and capable of quickly discerning the weaknesses of his opponents. Memorandums sent by the commanding officer suggest that he had ambivalent feelings towards Goill - someone so young with such martial potential and skill, but with virtually no empathy or loyatly can be a very hard soldier to control.

The commanding officer's predictions bore some truth over the years. Goill became known as a deadly and reliable soldier, but also began disappearing with no notice when he became bored. He began skipping out on his battalion to join other, more interesting campaigns. Stories of his survival of such campaigns (such as fending off four elves and a centaur simultaneously and torturing a gnome in order to force it to lead him out of the forest again) only adds to Goill's mystique. After 20 odd years in the army, he has become a sort of folk figure to rank-and-file infantrymen, but was regarded with a mix of awe and suspicion by his fellow Black Diamonds.

Despite the unease he causes among others, it is undeniable that he is one of the more....talented...members of the Black Diamonds, and it cam to no one's surprise when he was promoted to oversee their operations. Goill himself has greatly relished the freedom such a position offers him, and has taken to giving his orders and disappearing to pursue his own grisly end unfettered.