Clever Title

The Great Pied Man – Born a peasant and sickly pale in the domain of the House of the Wyrm, a dragon attack devastated his village. Through sheer luck, he survived, but with burn scars down his entire right side, leaving a sharp red contrast to the pale white of his left side. The Wyrm-King took him in, as those touched by dragonfire are hallowed by his House, and gave him the job of court fool. He dressed him in piebald to match his skin. As a fool, he is legendarily good at taking a mocking, and has a special talent for retaliating while sounding like he's agreeing. His counsel was valued by the Wym-King's youngest nephew before he was disgraced.

The Knave of Wyrms – The youngest nephew of the Wyrm-King, his father and brothers were away at war for much of his youth. This is what many attribute his lack of skill with the blade or mind for tactics to, as the boy grew more a poet and thinker than a true man of the Wyrm House. When his family returned from a successful campaign with the spoils of war, he fell deeply in love with a captured virgin his eldest brother had taken as a slave from the enemy. He attempted to court her in secret, but his brother soon found him out. The Knave challenged his brother to a duel for her hand, and was beaten handily, leaving a scar across his noble features and proceeding to execute the girl to spite him. The Knave was cast out of his House in shame, and now wanders the land with hopes of becoming a bard.

The Lobster of the Quartered Sea – One of the most notorious pirates in the world, The Lobster is a mountain of a man, and earned his name for his vicelike grip. He has travelled between every kingdom, republic, and empire, and is said to have pillaged, killed, and whored in each one. He has travelled with samurai and body guards, with bards and inventors, and not once been captured by the authorities. He is known for being surprisingly sober for a pirate, and economical with his use of strength. He is a surprisingly proficient tactician and strategist, and takes particular pride in his ability with knots, wearing a loop of rope around his neck, knotted at the back, with the boast that any man strong enough to tighten the knot deserves to kill him. He often uses people's attempts as an opening to hoof them in the privates.

The Dancing Samurai – A traveller from the East, carrying the sigil of the ferret, the Dancing Samurai is all but legendary. He appears when a noble cause needs a leader, and vanishes once justice is done. Some say he is an Eastern spirit of Justice unleashed on Western lands. Some say he seeks to redeem himself for some past misdeed. A wise minority think he just enjoys leading the righteous to victory. He takes his name from his style of battle, aping the war dance of his sigil animal, leaping and twirling to confuse and disorient his enemies.

The Technician of Hy'Pur – Raised a religious boy in the Kingdom of the Phoenix, he followed the sun god Hy'Pur. His parents hoped he might be accepted into the Cloister of the Sun, and become a high priest. However, while his heart was full of faith, his mind was full of ideas, ideas he could not deny. His tinkering got in the way of his religious study, and he became more of a hermit while he perfected his machines. Chief among his revolutionary breakthroughs is the repeating crossbow, though it has the awkward tendency to fire the last few bolts in whatever direction it desires, which led to him inventing some very effective armour. Denied a place in the priesthood, but determined to serve his god, he set out into the world to spread the word of Hy'Pur and develop his inventions further with foreign knowledge.

The Alternative – A proficient swordsman, archer, trapper, rider, knife-thrower, acrobat, brawler, tracker, and businessman. He is never seen without a mask of some sort, and may in fact not be a he. When a man is faced with death, as long as he has something to offer, he can choose the Alternative. A hunter of bounty hunters, a trapper of assassins, a wrecker of mercenaries, and a murderer of coinpurses. The Alternative, though, is said to have moments of generosity, saving the lives of the rich for as little payment as a night's shelter. One of the few things known about The Alternative is that when a price is put on a man's head, they are always there to offer their services.

The Adamantine Man – In the halls of The Mine, a young man practised alchemy. He was of the Deep Caste, living in adamantine halls,  experimenting by the moonless night and mining in the sunless day. He sought the key to immortality, and when he thought he had found it, he drank it. He fell to his knees in pain, and the polished metal floor stuck to his skin. The walls stripped themselves to wrap adamantine around his frame, and by the time he had climbed up above the adamantine mines, his body was covered head to toe in inch-thick metal. He could barely speak, and could not eat. He became little more than a beast to his own people, and left to live in the wild on his own. To his own horror, he found he'd been successful. He had found the key to immortality.