Sol

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(Not to be confused with SOL)

Sol or Sal was the first of The Ten to join Eieber's Cause. Half berserker, Sol stood over 8 feet high and was very thin with long arms and legs. He was muscular and fought with two great-swords (two-handed weapons, of which he carried one in each hand). Sol had the strength of a berserker but the mental clarity of a normal man, and rose through the ranks to command a sizable slave army.

Early Life

Sol was the product of a Berserker (sired in berserker-mode), and a human mother. The exact nature of his conception is best not imagined, but suffice it to say berserkers possess neither clarity of thought nor gentleness of touch.

Little is know about Sol's formative years. In his own dictated biographies he says very little, only that he was born a slave and that his childhood was very hard. He was undoubtedly forced to work from an early age. He alludes to having worked in both mines and farms, saying only that the work was "hard and back-breaking".

Military "Service"

Being a large and strong slave, Sol was drafted into the slave army where he rose quickly through the ranks, owing almost entirely to his ability to survive battles that killed the rest of his unit.

Defection

As a slave himself, he was not educated and could not read or write when he first encountered Eieber. Sol had no formal fighting training and relied entirely on sheer brute-force (of which he carried a considerable amount) to best his opponents. He listened to Eieber's words, then challenged him to single combat. When Eieber bested him, but chose to show mercy, Sol pledged his life to follow Eieber, and the lives of his 30,000 soldiers.

Sol joined Eieber's Long March and was the first of his Ten.

Slayer Dragon

Sol was a forceful and effective military leader and brutal combatant, but ill-equipped to deal with the political role of a Slayer Dragon. Following the war, he was often absent from Eieber's round table and attempted to limit his contact with the politicians and heads of state in the newly forming Alliance government.

In his biography, Sol admitted that this was a very frightening time for him. He was used to leading by fear, to making people see his way by intimidation or force. But he could not harm the important dignitaries who visited Valley Gale Keep, and they knew it. Moreover, at the time, Sol could still barely read and could not write at all, and when this was discovered he felt it made him--and the Slayer Dragons by association--appear weak and foolish.

He focused his time at first on the armies, improving their training and equipment. At Eieber's request, he also devoted significant time to his studies, learning to read and write to a better degree.

Later Life and Death

Sol's unique physical characteristics also made him short-lived. By A.Y. 120, he was beginning to show signs of aging. The doctors who examined him stated that he had the constitution of an (extremly healthy) sixty-year-old man. Though Sol did not know his own age for certain, he believed himself to be no more than forty.

At this time, Sol retired unofficially, saying that 'he felt he had already given enough of his life to the cause, and that he would like to have some of it to live for himself before it all ran out'. He continued helping Eieber train the next generation of Slayer Dragons and establishing the Rangers, but spent most of his time reading extensively and gardening.

By A.Y. 135 (when he should have been only 55), Sol's health had declined so severely that he became bedridden. During this time he dictated his memoirs (though he had learned to read well, he had never quite mastered writing, and felt the task of recording and editing his life's story should be better left to someone more qualified).

Finally, in A.Y. 137, Sol passed on his power to another Slayer Dragon. He died roughly one week later, surrounded by friends and well-wishers, and his body was conveyed to the Valley of Sleeping Dragons.