Callen Raulston
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Callen is diminutive and oddly shaped, his upper body disproportionately smaller than his lower body. He was born with a twisted left leg that has given him a pronounced limp throughout his life and caused him varying degrees of chronic pain since he was a small child. Callen can often be seen chewing or sucking on willow bark to ease the pain in his leg.
Body Features
Callen keeps his nails very long, about 2-3 inches most of the time, giving him the appearance of having claws at first glance. His body proportions seem a little odd, with a short torso and arms and very long legs on a frame that doesn't even reach five feet tall.
Facial Features
Callen's features might almost be described as pretty. His facial features are sharp, yet quite feminine, with a narrow facial structure, a pointed chin, a narrow nose and small lips. His eyes are almost triangular and his naturally thin eyebrows serve to emphasize this unusual shape.
His most prominent feature, however, is a facial tattoo which looks like it has been done in watercolors - an honor bestowed upon him by an Eaqalaan king to seal a lucrative trade deal.
Identifying Characteristics
He has a small burn mark on his left thigh, which he never talks about, even if asked. It marks the spot where his mother held his leg to the side of cooking pot as a child when he complained of the pain his twisted leg was causing him and his father did nothing to stop it. While not the only incident that mars his idolization of his father, it is the most stark, and so he does not talk about it, the memory being far too painful.
Apparel & Accessories
Callen wears mismatched clothes most of the time. He mostly sticks to white or light colors, and they can be inappropriately revealing for the situation.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Younger son of a prominent Port Swinford family, Callen was essentially driven out of the area by a jealous brother and a vindictive, bitter mother. He took a modestly successful business in crafting lenses to make spectacles, spyglasses and the like and moved to the neighboring duchy to continue his work. Unfortunately, his journey was interrupted when he was captured by a band of orc slavers from the Iegleanian Peninsula raiding the Mithlerien coast. Callen spent several months chained to an oar as a galley slave before the slavers were run down by the Mithlerien navy and he was liberated and able to continue his plan to relocate to the Duchy of Cunningham.
Despite his prior trauma or perhaps, in part, because of it, Raulston's Cure for the Obscure netted Callen a small fortune over time. The contacts he developed in Irvine landed him a lucrative contract for spyglasses with a large merchant fleet which spun into more and larger deals with other companies. Though he still keeps a hand in the business, Callen's attentions have turned to the development of an estate on the outskirts of the village of Beith which he wishes to turn into the greatest estate in the Duchy of Cunningham - a tall task since the already long established Eglingtonne is the de facto county seat and residence of Duchess Joana Cunningiir, for whose family the duchy is named.
About three years ago, Callen became embroiled in a scheme to create a workforce of AOGs which he wanted to employ on the estate. An ill-thought out plan, the details of which Callen did not take the time to fully understand, the instigators fell victim to The Accord's enforcers and Callen was warned that The Accord have him under close watch as a result of his involvement. The incident slowed down his development of Ralstoun Grange for a lengthy period.
Sexuality
Straight
Education
Callen apprenticed with a glassblower and became a serviceable craftsman himself, but it was his head for business and trade that allowed him to strike out on his own and grow his business to the point where he could sell the majority stakehold in it and go into semi-retirement to concentrate on his passion project at Ralstoun Grange.
Employment
A full apprenticeship as a glassblower and a short period as an artisan was all the career Callen had before he accidentally developed the techniques which allowed his Ralstoun Spyglass to become the product he needed to launch a successful business. Only a fair glassblower himself, Callen was a better business owner who built a modest idea into a small fortune and a business with a presence across Mithlerien and beyond.
Accomplishments & Achievements
A failure can, ultimately, be a success and such a failure led to Callen's greatest accomplishment when his inattention to a key piece of the glassblowing technique led to him creating a glass lens with improved focal range, making a modest, but significant, improvement to the distance that his spyglasses could focus clearly upon and the clarity of his spectacles and magnifying glasses.
Failures & Embarrassments
His father arranged his marriage when Callen was barely an adult and, though still married, he refuses to live with the wife who sided with his brother and mother in their vendetta against him. Aliyah Ralstoun not only kept the original iteration of their married name when Callen was forced to change it, she became his brother's lover, much to Callen's chagrin and shame, choosing the scandalous lifestyle of an open mistress to her brother-in-law over the pretense of her continued marriage to Callen meaning anything. Nonetheless, they remain married by law. Callen is unwilling to sue for divorce in honor of the arrangement his father made, Aliyah Ralstoun unwilling to divorce him as the marriage gives her right to much of Callen's fortune when he dies.
Mental Trauma
Morality & Philosophy
Callen is an optimist who views people as inherently trustworthy until they prove otherwise. A betrayal of his trust, however, means he wants nothing to do with you again. He prizes civility, thus won't be openly rude to people who have crossed him if he encounters them again, however he will remove himself or, in the right circumstances, have the object of his scorn removed so as to avoid them having to occupy the same space for longer than is necessary.
He hates bullies, and will refuse to fight anyone smaller than himself (halflings, gnomes, many dwarves, goblins and kobolds , amongst others) even if they are the aggressor, viewing such a situation as being unfairly in his advantage and committing violence against a smaller creature as the act of a coward.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Two things drive Callen Raulston, an internalized and unspoken need to prove his worth to his family, by leaving an estate worthy of the idolized memory of his father; and his ongoing wish to remain busy, because quiet leaves him alone with his thoughts. Such ongoing silence for too long leads to self-reflection that he never wants to face, because the road that leads down takes him back to Port Swinford and the life from which he was driven.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Callen is very good at reading people. He has claimed that he can see people's auras, and this helps him read their moods and intentions.
Likes & Dislikes
Callen wears his heart on his sleeve much of the time. He will observe the courtesies of any social situation, but people are left in little doubt as to whether he likes or dislikes them. He is very excitable and enthusiastic to a fault about the things that delight him.
Callen strongly dislikes the taste of wine, but claims to be a wine connoisseur, avoiding more than an occasional sip by decrying how the wine does not meet his standard for a good vintage.
Personality Quirks
His natural enthusiasm leads him to use the word "terrific" far too much in conversation. He wears glasses, although he doesn't need them, primarily as an aid to marketing his business, but also believing that they make him appear to be both more intellectual than he actually is, and more trustworthy. He draws attention to his glasses by constantly playing with them and taking them off to clean the lenses. He often removes them and chews on the tip of the temples.
Social
Family Ties
Callen idolized his father, but the feeling was not mutual. His father openly preferred his older brother Ronnie Ralstoun who always scorned his younger sibling for his diminutive size and, truthfully, superior intellect. Callen's father put more stock, however, in the physical attributes of the elder sibling and, when he died, left very little to Callen in his will. Ronnie Ralstoun essentially forced his brother away upon their father's death. Callen had a weak relationship with his mother who was openly hostile to her younger child, viewing his stature and twisted left leg as a constant reminder of what she viewed as her failure to provide a second healthy child to her husband.
Callen took the meager sum left to him by his father and started a business selling glasses, spyglasses, magnifying glasses and the like which he called Ralstoun's Cure for the Obscure . His spiteful mother and brother took umbrage at him using the family name for his business and took him to court to stop him from associating what they viewed as a frivolous and unnecessary business with their family name.
He was able to keep the name of his business after the court decided that a slight alteration is spelling would suffice to disassociate Callen's business from his family. Thus Callen changed his business name, and his own, to Raulston. The whole episode, however, had been the last straw for Callen who left his family behind in Port Swinford and moved to the neighboring Duchy of Bute along with his business, eventually settling in the village of Beith.
After making his fortune from the business, Callen purchased a large parcel of land outside of his adopted home of Beith and renamed it Ralstoun Grange, honoring, as he thought, his late father, who he still idolized, with use of the original family name. He himself kept the new spelling by which he had become known in his business dealings.
Back in Port Swinford, his mother and brother have fared substantially less well and remain openly hostile to Callen, adding jealousy at his success to the litany of imagined slights that they feel Callen has inflicted upon them.
His arranged marriage to Aliyah Ralstoun remains in effect, though the marriage is little more than a sham. with his estranged wife having an open affair with his equally estranged brother.
Despite all of this, however, Callen still sent a substantial sum to his family to rescue them from ruin after a scandal in which they were caught cutting timber from a protected druid grove on the Island of Bute - actions that offended Callen's favored deity Jopha the Verdant. Soon after, a fire damaged a portion of Ralstoun Grange, something that Callen attributed to Jopha's displeasure. He makes prayers of penance to Jopha each day, but maintains that helping his family is what his father would have wanted.
Religious Views
Callen is a follower of Jopha the Verdant, and part of what drew him to his current residence of Beith and his long-term passion project to build Ralstoun Grange into the preeminent estate in the Duchy of Cunningham is the beauty of the woodlands and the rich ecosystem provided by the flood plain it lies in. Callen wants to venerate the goddess of nature by building an estate where the unusual flora that can be cultivated in the rich peat soil is able to flourish.
He seems to be constantly mumbling to himself when alone or, at least, not engaged in conversation with those around him. Though he is often sorting through plans for the estate in his head, he is equally likely to be murmuring a prayer or a religious veneration to Jopha.
Mannerisms
Jovial and excitable, fueled by the astonishing amount of coffee that he drinks, Callen is a rather hyperactive individual who is abundantly friendly and talks with enthusiasm about the topics that excite him. The merchants of Beith appreciate the exuberance with which he lauds the town to visitors and business associates. They are somewhat less enthusiastic with his endless and detailed treatises on Ralstoun Grange and his plans for the estate.
Hobbies & Pets
He has a pet dog, a fox terrier, who he calls Mister Man.
Speech
Callen's voice has a wistful, one might almost say artistic, quality to it. He speaks very quietly most of the time, but also very clearly and intensely. His voice makes people pay attention both because they listen a little harder to catch his soft tones and because it suggests that not only what he says matters, but that the way he phrases things and uses language is worth listening too for its natural poetry.
When Callen gets going on a topic that interests or excites him, however, his volume and verbosity increases. He can wax lyrical on an idea to the point that his audience becomes weary or even disinterested, a trait he has always struggled to suppress. Thankfully, it never hurt his business dealings - the very same trait that has proved off-putting to some in a lengthy spiel about the development of Ralstoun Grange was useful in sales when persuading a potential buyer of the usefulness of his lenses.
Wealth & Financial state
Callen maintains the modest estate at Ralstoun Grange and an income more than sufficient to maintain a fairly lavish lifestyle.
Current Location
Species
Ethnicity
Year of Birth
932
70 Years old
Children
Current Residence
Beith
Pronouns
He/Him
Gender
Male
Eyes
Green
Hair
Bald
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Rough, red skin
Height
4'11"
Quotes & Catchphrases
This wine is terrible.
Power comes to those brave enough to seize it.
Belief/Deity
Aligned Organization
Callen Raulston Figure by Rob Taylor
Comments