Physical Data:

5'10" tall, 200 lbs. Straight raven-black hair, knee-length unless braided. Grey eyes. Well-weathered skin.

Background history:

Lachlan's earliest memory is of his mother, a beautiful, dark-haired woman, bending over his cradle with a warm smile. That was also the last he saw of his true parentage. He has no knowledge at all of his patrimony, and only that small glimpse of his mother, for shortly after that, he was given to a childless couple to raise. The couple cared for him, even if not as plainly warm as his one memory of his mother, but did tell him that he was adopted.

Whether on his own or due to instructions from Lachlan's real parents, his adoptive father put him into tutoring as soon as possible. Some of the schooling was fun - Lachlan enjoyed learning about the outdoors, how to track what animals were like - and some of it was deadly dull. While never a dullard, Lachlan much preferred to spend his time outdoors, climbing, swimming, hunting and running. Eventually, in return for an agreement from Lachlan to study harder, his adoptive father promised to let him learn warcraft and the like.

The agreement was fulfilled on both sides. Lachlan had the discipline to study hard when he wanted to, and he learned much. On his adoptive father's side, the agreement led to Lachlan learning history and strategy, then moving to weapons work and tactics. The study wasn't onerous, though he had little free time, and he tends even now to view that as the best time in his life. His strength and stamina were incredible, and combined with his innate speed to give him a skill none could match by the time he was 15.

But warcraft wasn't his life. It was just the closest study he could get to the physical pursuits he enjoyed. More than once he frightened his tutors by swimming in the rapids of a nearby river, climbing cliffs, hunting boar, or racing horses.

At seventeen, he found another interest. Melise, the daughter of a local merchant, and easily the most beautiful girl in the region. She had many suitors, but Lachlan had the inside track - mostly because he'd wandered every path he could find, and knew where to find the sweetest fruits and the best flowers. Disaster for their relationship came in the form of a High Noble, who took interest in Melise for his son. She wanted nothing to do with it, having come to love Lachlan as he loved her, but her parents forbade her to see any other suitors, and began planning for their wedding.

Melise feared the young noble, and asked Lachlan to keep an eye on her when he was around. Lachlan readily agreed, and so was able to intervene when the noble sought more from Melise than she wished to give.

Until that day, Lachlan had held back his true strength out of courtesy and honour. In striking the noble, he did not. The boy's head caved in, and Lachlan knew that his father would not appreciate the circumstances. He and Melise ran away, trusting in Lachlan's skills to keep them safe and warm. They never married, due mainly to priests who refused to perform the rites without the permission of the girl's parents, but they loved each other to distraction, and lived there for many years, well away from the demesne of the noble's father.

They could not evade his reach, however, and one day Lachlan returned home to find their hut a burnt out wreck, and Melise dead inside. The bounty hunter who had tracked them - and who had slain Melise - had waited, intent on fulfilling his enttire mission. He died. Because Melise's death had been quick and painless - and happened before the fire was set - Lachlan gave the professional a quick death as well. Then he gathered what he could from the house, buried Melise, and headed home.

Once there, he walked right to the noble's castle, easily disarming every soldier who attempted to stop him, incapacitating them when they sought to overwhelm him with numbers. He stalked into the noble's main hall and came before the noble and his wife. Lachlan's sword struck twice. The noble's wife now sat half-bald, the rest of her hair on the floor. The noble himself was in far worse shape, Lachlan's sword having taken his manhood. To the wife - as the noble was in no shape to pay heed - Lachlan spoke.

"I strike at your vanity only, your part in this secondary. But your husband will nevermore father any such monsters as the one I slew. His line dies here."

He stalked back out, ignoring the guards' frantic attempts to stop him, and left the region once more. This time, though, he had no happiness within him. He wandered the land trying many ways to fill the emptiness within him. He sought to drown his troubles in drink, but found that he could not drink enough for forgetfulness before he could drink no more. He sought to dull the pain in bawdy houses, but found no relief there. Finally, he turned to the arenas, fighting against all odds, caring little if he won or lost, only that the intensity of the battle drove the pain away for a time.

He began filling most of his time with fighting of one sort or another after that. But in time, even that began to pale. The memory of Melise was too strong. Finally, he returned to the place they'd lived, and found - to his shock - that an oak tree had grown tall and strong beside her grave. He thought at first that he'd lost the way, but the markings of the grave were as he'd left them. His mind clearing of the fog, he realised that he had been alive a very long time. Not less than eighty years past her death.

Now he found release from the pain, for in facing it, he recognised that it had lessened with the years. He would always remember her, but he had begun to heal. And with that healing came curiousity. None others lived that long, he was sure of it. He wandered the land again, but this time to find answers, though he kept to the arenas to keep himself fed and sheltered.

No answers came, though, until the day he lost his first arena bout. His opponent, a tall, sandy-haired man, disarmed him handily, then spoke tersely about Amber, and told Lachlan that he was a relative, though it was unclear through whom.

Lachlan went with the man to Amber, genuinely curious about this new-found family of his. Once there, the man instructed him in the need to essay the maze-like construction he was taken to. Only afterwards was he told that walking it could have killed him had his blood not been true. Lachlan served the Prince - Benedict - for a time, as he learned more of Amber. Only when Benedict felt him ready to defend himself properly in all things did he release Lachlan from service.

Psychological Profile: Lachlan is a fairly sober man, but by no means as terse as Benedict. He's come to understand that pain is fleeting, so doesn't dwell on it. Instead, he looks at the bright side of life now - though he still couldn't be called an optimist - and takes pleasure in what he can.