Talon

I'm better than you all! I can out-learn you. I can out-read you. I can out-think you. And I can out-philosophize you. And I'm gonna outlast you. You think a couple whacks to my guts is gonna get me down?

Conceived in resentment, stumbled down a spiralling path of malevolence and hedonistic excess. Seeking vengeance against no one in particular and everyone at once.

Not even a Mother

The exact, actual circumstances of Talon's birth were lost along the many contradicting claims his mother made over the years. The only thing all the tales have in common is that his father wasn't the husband of his mother, and that meant that her husband left soon after realizing that the child wasn't his. It didn't take long after that for the mother to convince herself that this child wasn't hers either, that some sort of devil or changeling had taken away her real son.
Instead of disposing of the child (which is not that unusual for parents who think their offspring might be "cursed"), she kept raising him but quickly developed an extremely troubled and ambivalent bond where she'd resent him, be hostile and derogative half of the time, while fiercely sheltering him against family and friends who would insistently tell her to abandon him after all. She would argue and fight with her son, accusing him of being the worst thing that had ever happened to her for hours... and soon after be needy, guilt him for not loving her, and expect him to act like a substitute for her husband because she was unable to maintain any stable relationship with someone new anymore.

Taking a Turn...

As the years passed this way and Talon was approaching the age of 18, he started giving up on trying to change his mother's mind. While he had tried his best to please her and help her getting by, he was starting to understand that it was an impossible task and would only lead to him doing something drastic if things didn't change. The fights with his mother were getting more severe to the point of becoming physical; he was easily able to overpower her by now.
To get away from the insanity at home, he had started trying to spend as much time as possible outside their house. Hanging out with whoever would not chase him off, he even managed to make some friends at around his age. They were telling him about plans to unite and organize a resistance movement against the increasingly oppressive presence of the Legion in their area. Even though there had always been a military/militia around these towns, they had recently pledged their allegiance to the upcoming new clan called the Legion, which aimed to establish itself in the North and beyond.
Talon wasn't particularly about any noble cause like stopping a recently founded military organization, but he quickly grew attached to feeling accepted and wanted with his new peers. Not only that, he also became romantically involved with someone from the group. At that point, he was seriously considering leaving home. During arguments with his mother, when she'd threaten to kick him out (even though she would never actually do it), he started using this as leverage and told her if she did it he'd be gone and never return. The only thing that achieved was that she became more frantic in her clinging and started emotionally blackmailing him, claiming she'd report him to the authorities for raping/beating/threatening her if he tried to leave for real.

...For the worse.

With his mother's attempts to keep him close to her, she started monitoring him and interrogating him about where he had been and what he had been doing everytime he got home. Soon enough, she found out about his friends and boyfriend. She dragged him to the authorities indeed, which by now was the resident Legion division. At their base, upon being told that her son was collaborating with the enemy and a degenerate, they promised her they'd "fix" him, and turn him into a "proper man and soldier" in no time.

What doesn't kill you...

That was obviously a lie, and instead they fed Talon with enough drugs and booze to make him forget that he was anything except their plaything while they abused him until they got bored of it. With the conclusion drawn that he was "ruined and twisted beyond help" they threw him out and left him to die - he would have died indeed if it hadn't been for his friend group who had already been frantically looking for him when he suddenly disappeared previously.
They picked him up and tried to nurse him back to health, but permanent damage was done. For the rest of his life, he would find it hard to sleep or function without some amount of self-medication. Not only that, he also felt no more inhibition about turning to drastic measures to soothe his impulsive and violent urges.

...makes you more wicked.

Following his strong insistence to finally go through with the group's efforts of resistance against the Legion, they didn't hesitate any longer. Instead of trying to subtly inform the locals about the wrongdoings of the occupiers, they quickly gathered a radical following and armed themselves. But they didn't stop at sabotaging and interfering with the local Legion troops. Very rapidly, their righteous crusade turned into an indiscriminate killing spree that was only stopped years later when they trespassed onto the territory of someone who wasn't just going to sit back and watch such debauchery.

Age

late 30s

Pronouns

he/him

Height

6'2'' (189 cm)

Languages

French (on purpose), English