It'd be super rad if you gave the original artist a watch/fave/all that good stuff as well, given they were the one to create this fine piece, not me~

Art by  oct0bre

This is Baldric Yulen. Baldric is one in a line of supposed mythical group of 'dark' knights known as the Umbral Blades. A semi-secretive group composed of your typical rank-and-file soldiers. Nobodies. People that could go missing without people asking too much questions. Baldric was an average knight. Nothing special. No big hero. Therefore, he could go missing after a large battle. Also I don't know what to call him as a species.

His commander begrudingly permitted and encouraged him to join them, even though he was a slight troubled by it. The Umbral Blades were rather oddly secretive, yet people knew of them enough. They were not popular. Seen as disgraced, corrupted knights that have no honor and have betrayed their orders. Baldric joined them under the idea that if he would have a safer life for his family, it would be totally fine. In fact, it was.

Umbral Blades, in Baldric's homeland of Dyzenza, are typical to standard Final Fantasy Dark Knights (his armor being inspired by it, even) and have an affinity for darkness. They are 'corrupt' in a sense, in that they are more willing to forego the sense of battle honor, and use their emotions for strength to empower their shadow manipulation. Baldric used his willpower, the strong belief he could keep his home safe. It worked, as stated previously. The only real 'secretive' aspect of them were that they were the ones sent to CAUSE the wars and battles.

Baldric was a fine member of the Umbral Blades. Nothing special, nothing bad. The fellow just wanted to help his family feel safe in a war-struck nation. However, Umbral Blades are sent to do rather cold, ruthless things...but he was able to deal with it, it seemed. On an outward assignment to another nation, Baldric had been assigned two other standard Knights who were somewhat distrusting of him. After all, he was outside of any Knight authority, and was trained in rather cruel combat methods if they had to. But they had to obey the 'evil, corrupt, bloodthirsty maniac'.

It kind of all went wrong from there. Something happened on that assignment, back home. They were a long ways away, across at least two countries, it would take years to get back, even by boat or other transport methods. But they did. Baldric headed home with the knights after their assignment. Dude was concerned for his family, naturally.

Ten years later, losing his companions to various perils, Baldric finally made it home. During the trip, he had used what evidence he knew to piece the puzzle together when he heard of what happened. It was his old commander that fucked everything up, clearly. First blaming him for sending him to the Umbral Blades, but something along the way caused him to start blaming him for the whole incident.

Baldric only noticed he'd kind of snapped mentally at the end of the adventure, when he learned that the clues and evidence he worked on for so long was completely wrong...it broke him. The man needed someone to blame, so he cast it on a dead person he once considered his friend and commander. In fact, the mental exertion coupled with the intense physical exhaustion from ten years of adventuring, it had taken a toll on him, hallucinations set in long before he ever realised. The fellow wasn't even sure what he knew and what he had experienced was even what actually happened. Did his knights really die or did he leave them for dead? Did Baldric really fight his way into the castle he sought? The halls were a lot more clean and pristine compared to what he saw coming in, after all.

Baldric went mad, and wandered for years...eventually using anger and sass as a self-defence against everyone and anything that would talk to him. He's upset, but it's buried down there by a layer of incredibly disgruntled anger and passive-aggression. Baldric isn't mentally okay, he doesn't know anything any more, what is real and what isn't? The guy doesn't know. All he knows is he was a survivor. One survivor too many. For you see, Umbral Blades are very, very hard to kill. They don't even age normally. Tied to the shadows and whatnot. A ritual performed on them even grants immortality beyond all scopes of belief, even if you were to reduce Baldric to bloody paste, he could come back.

'Course, his family wasn't...It takes a strong man to deny what happened, and Baldric denied all of it, fabricating the truth just to give himself some sort of closure. Which he can never have.

Baldric isn't well. Don't hug him, he'll probably punch you in the nose and call you rude words.

The art is again by  oct0bre who I would sorely recommend you go commission

I own Baldric! He's my sassy little angry fuck.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He won't understand the truth, nor does he want to. Baldric is all that's left, and he can't live that lie forever. Does he even remember why he's here? He didn't mean to hurt anyone...but no one ever does. Was it all in his mind? Or was it real? Those talents of his, they brought misery from day one. How many people do you think died in his delusions? One? A dozen? Five dozen? Who knows.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

^{Perhaps the greatest irony of all: fighting for the people's heritage, the once-great empire and for his family's sake...}
_{...but he can't remember anything about it any more.}