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Description
- Changed file, updated armor. Scaeden was tired of the heavy chain mail.

And the Lost Boy asked,
Do we ever need to grow up?
Hook cut his throat and said,
You grew up years ago.

General
Name- Scaeden (SKAY-den)
Scaeden’s birth name is Drop. He was named by his mother after the rain-drop-like spots on his sides.

Gender Male

Age 7 years, 5 months (September 15th, 54 BC)
[Starting Age; 2 Years]

Species Eurasian Lynx

Rank Bounty Hunter Leader

Physical Description Long, lean legs; Thin and tall; Lean-muscled; Fluffy neck/cheeks, short head fur; Pink scars on face and flanks; Long stripes on flanks

Song Playlist

Voice Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt

About
Personality

Snarky and Sarcastic
Scaeden takes a lot of pride in his words. The way he speaks and presents himself to others is very carefully thought out. He believes that, at times, words can have more impact than actions. Scaeden likes to present himself as a brilliant and sarcastic cat who is affected by nothing.

Motivated and Determined
Scaeden will stop at nothing to get what he wants. If he fails, he takes it very hard on himself and tends to blame others for his own mistakes. Examples of this are when he first tried to help capture Valon, he blamed Caelina for not planning well enough. When Caelina was killed, he accused Soren and Fire Empire for not caring.

Annoying and Rude
Scaeden loves to get into other cats’ business for no reason other than to just annoy them. He’s very blunt and tends to like to make other cats feel dumb. He mostly just likes the attention. Once he gets more fond of someone, though, he teases them lightly.

Loyal and Accepting
Seeming out of place with the rest of his personality, Scaeden would do anything to help cats that he is close to. He would do anything to save them or keep a secret. He also tends to not dislike very many cats, unless they are downright disrespectful and don’t listen to what he has to say.

Independent
Scaeden thinks he doesn’t need anybody else’s help. He can do it all on his own and can figure everything out himself.

Smart and Strategic
Planning strategies and plans of attack is Scaeden’s specialty. He can come up with extremely creative ways to train apprentices, hunt for Empire cats, or even catch their next meal. He thinks of everything, puts everything into perspective in a way that he can see the whole picture. He is also easily able to manipulate his plans on the spot until they are perfected, which makes him an excellent leader.

Hypocritical
Scaeden hates everything in others that he amplifies in himself. He preaches that you should always treat others with respect, never do anything you'll regret, and keep your family close, no matter how poorly they may have treated you. He would be a big believer in the saying, "Do as I say, not as I do."

Selfish
For those he is closest to, he would do anything to protect them. He is protective over his family, friends, and loved ones. However, he would probably never put his own life up to save someone else; he usually just does whatever is in his own best interest. He typically feels guilty for it though, and beats himself up because he's not willing to do more for those that he cares about.

Background
Before Bounty Hunter Life
Scaeden's mother was a breeder. She mated with the strongest lynxes and produced the healthiest kits. He barely has any memory of his mother. The only thing he can remember from the short time when she was around is bright blue eyes on a bold-colored lynx, which he has always assumed was his mother’s. Scaeden wasn’t always called Scaeden. His birth name was Drop, named after the rain-drop markings on his sides. His mother named his whole litter after things she had only ever seen that were able to leave the confinements of the city. Drops of rain were one of them, and his sibling’s names were Bolt (after lightning), Sparrow, and Breeze.

There is a specific memory that Scaeden has that is mostly shrouded in mystery because of a particular event that happened shortly after his encounter with a strange, yet familiar lynx. There was an arena cat owner that liked to work with the breeders that Drop’s mother belonged to. When Drop’s litter of four was born, the breeders took him, his siblings, and his mother to see the owner. The owner took particular interest in Drop and another of one his siblings. However, as the owner and the breeder were talking, Drop noticed a pair of bright, icy blue eyes peering at his mother through the bars of a cage. Drop snuck off to the curious cat, not bound to a chain like his mother was. His sister, Bolt, called him back, but he ignored her. This older cat was covered in intricate armor and scars. Drop was fascinated. He smiled, but the moment didn’t last long. The owner saw Drop and, angry because the breeder let his litter wander around so freely, denied any possible sales and sent them away. That was Drop’s last chance to ever get to grow up alongside his half-brother, Soren.

Disappointed in the unfortunate event, the breeder looked for anybody to sell the cubs to. There was a rich, insane owner who wanted to take all four cubs off the breeder’s hands for reasons the breeder was unaware of. Selling the litter and leaving, the owner took the cubs immediately into a cage with two tigers, crazed with bloodlust and delusional beyond saving. He meant to use the cubs as ‘play things’, just a treat for his two prized champion fighters. He tossed them into the cage, and the tigers lunged.

Two of the cubs were dead within minutes. Sparrow and Breeze laid in bloody heaps in front of the two surviving cubs, paralyzed with fear. The tigers went after Drop and Bolt, but Bolt, much smaller but more brave than Drop, leaped in front of her brother and got smacked down, a sickening crunch echoing when her small body hit the hard ground. She fell limp and bloody, and Drop suddenly became furious, but still terrified. When one of the tigers lashed with his fangs at the remaining cub, Drop let his claws out and bloodied the tiger’s eyes. By this time, the crazy owner had taken an extreme liking to Drop’s enthusiasm, and when the lynx cub ran by the cage door, the human scooped him up and threw him into a nearby empty cage, making a promise to turn him into a real killer. The owner then gave him the name he would keep for the rest of his life; Scaeden.

The newly named arena Gladiator didn’t watch when the owner raked his sibling’s bodies out of the tigers’ cage and threw them out into the street to rot. The trauma from the horrifying experience wiped Scaeden’s memory of his older brother, and ever since then, he always associated the icy blue eyes with his mother.

For the first year of his life, Scaeden was trained to be a Gladiator in the coliseum. At first, he hated his training, but as soon as he made his first kill, a young ocelot cub, he realized how powerful he could be. As he began winning more and more, his owners began to put him in the arena with big cats. Every fight he entered ended in a kill. His owner raked in tons of money from him, but went bankrupt after betting on a small cub while drunk one night. The cub lost, obviously, and Scaeden's owner handed over all their money. When he came to the next morning, he realized what he had done. When he realized what he had lost, he began training Scaeden as hard as he could, so the Emperor would choose him to be a Hunter and he would get the large amount of money for it. Scaeden's battles became quicker and easier, his kills more efficient. When the Emperor noticed this, he immediately chose Scaeden to be a Hunter, and his owner was paid a great deal.

Scaeden liked the life of a Hunter significantly more than the life of a Coliseum fighting cat. There was the perfect amount of freedom, and instead of his fights being for show and money, they were real. The fights meant something. Scaeden felt a sense of importance and meaning when he Hunts for Empire cats. Because of this, he loves his job and is a better fighter now than he ever was before.

As A Bounty Hunter
When Scaeden was 3, he got himself into a series of Hunts for the Air Empire leader, Valon. It was an accident, really. He happened to hear the cry of a fellow Hunter fighting an Empire cat. He ran to the cry to see it was Selineen. He had known there was a small party of cats in Air Empire trying to retrieve Valon; and he suspected they were going to need help because of a thunderstorm that was raging through the night. One thing led to another, and he found himself in the middle of a tussle between an Air Empire patrol and a few of his fellow Bounty Hunters, Caelina and Kleio. In the Air Empire patrol was the Air Empire leader, Valon. During the battle, he and Valon grew a deep hatred for each other. Scaeden didn't realize that his hatred for Valon would get him mixed up in some very odd situations.

The Bounty Hunters lost that battle, and Scaeden was furious. He hated Valon, absolutely hated him. He came up with another plan to capture the serval, and soon, he and Selineen were off in Air Empire again. They tricked Valon into trusting them, and Valon led them straight into Fire Empire to confront the Fire Empire Gladiator Nimbus and her leader, Soren, who is also Scaeden's half-brother (neither one of them know this yet). Little did Valon or Soren know, Scaeden had a patrol of five more Bounty Hunters waiting for them in Fire Empire. Just as the meeting with the two Empires was coming to a close, Scaeden launched the attack. Again, the Bounty Hunters were forced to retreat, but Scaeden did accomplish something that no Bounty Hunter had ever tried before; he got two Empires to mistrust each other greatly. He also managed to get himself and Caelina, who was in the patrol, captured by Fire Empire. When they were taken to the camp, they noticed they weren't alone. Two Bounty Hunter apprentices, Furie and Juno, were also being held captive after a failed attempt to raid Fire Empire's camp and capture the healer.

It was in Fire Empire that Scaeden met Alynnia, the small, delicate margay whose beauty and kindness had been a complete shock for the dark and twisted lynx. He fell for her from the first night they had spoken; but it couldn’t last long. After living in Fire Empire for a while, he realized that Empire life wasn’t for him. He couldn’t understand their way of life, and he began to think like a Bounty Hunter again. He began to think that Alynnia was trying to make him sway and make him fall in love with her so he would stay in Fire Empire and he would no longer be a threat to any Empire cat. When Soren asked the Hunters if they were going to stay in Fire Empire, Scaeden, furious and feeling foolish, turned the offer down.

Scaeden, Caelina, Furie, and Juno were knocked out, gagged, and taken out into the far wild in the east, beyond the Empires and beyond the impacts of human life. Scaeden’s wounds from the battle had healed into scars and aches; however, Caelina’s story was different. She was sick, and every day they searched for some way back home was another day that she came closer to collapsing on the spot. They helped her as much as they could; however, their efforts were useless. Caelina soon became too sick to travel, and it was very clear that she was near death. She told them to leave her behind. Scaeden realized in that moment that he had grown close to the jaguar, and he didn’t want to lose her. He felt guilty for leading her into that battle, for trying to get her to carry Valon back to Massilia, for refusing Soren’s offer and getting all of them stuck out in the wild that was likely to kill all of them eventually. After a lot of debate and Caelina’s multiple threats, Scaeden, Furie, and Juno realized it was no use to try to convince her. They were all too weak to carry her, and she was too weak to carry herself. Even if they did manage to lift her and start to carry her, she was nearly dead, and the effort would be pointless. Infected, sick, and dying, Caelina stayed in the forest, while three cats left her in the dust to die on her own.

But they did make it back. The three cats found the sea and followed the sunset back to the Empires, along the shoreline. They landed in Shadow Empire, where they hunted and regained their strength enough to capture three unsuspecting cats on a border patrol as a prize to prove their loyalty to the Bounty Hunters and to the Roman Empire.

Scaeden was furious. He hated Soren for leaving them out in the middle of nowhere to die on their own, and he hated Scaeden for causing Caelina’s death. He hated Alynnia for almost tricking him. He hated himself for leading the raid that led to one of his best friend’s – and possibly something more – death.

When the cats got back to Massilia, they were put into intensive training to ensure that they were still loyal. Scaeden took the training as a blessing; he would be that much stronger when he faced up against Soren or Valon again. When they released the trio, the Bounty Hunters were leaderless; Scaeden, freshly trained and previously experienced, took up the spot with ease.

It did not take long for some Hunters by the names of Kallen and Pallis to propose a plan of attack on Lightning Empire. After some discussion and improvement, the plan was to go into motion. The night came, and the raid was a huge success. In one night, the Bounty Hunters had destroyed Lightning Empire, killed their leader, and made a spectacle of their weak. The overwhelming success solidified Scaeden’s position as leader and erased any doubt of his authority.

When the patrol of Hunter returned to Massilia, they had taken a few days off to celebrate and rest. During one of those days, Scaeden had agreed to have a fighting tournament with any cat that challenged him; little did he know, one of his challengers was going to stump him before it even began. Caelina, the dead friend that Scaeden had long since tried to bury into the back of his memory, had reappeared. The shock that the lynx felt was almost overwhelming, and the guilt that came after was nearly crippling. Stubborn as both of them were, they mostly fought instead of spoke in the short time they would have together again.

A few nights after the raid on Lightning Empire, Scaeden made another lone trip to Fire Empire. He hated the place with a burning passion. Everything about it made him sick, and he could smell their scent markers wherever he went. That night, he found Alynnia again. At first, their conversation was all about Scaeden finding more information about Fire Empire, but at one point, Scaeden snapped, and he found himself leaping at her. But...something was off. There was something wrong with the shape of her body, and –

It didn’t take long for the lynx to realize she was pregnant. Alynnia quickly explained that the cubs were his own, and in a panicked rage, Scaeden left. He couldn’t escape Fire Empire. It kept coming back to him, and now his first bloodline was going to survive in that damned Empire. He told no one of this new discovery.

A few weeks later, Scaeden took a small band of cats out to some old Coliseum ruins to see if some rumors of a monthly Gathering of the Empires was true. Sure enough, there were cats everywhere. Scaeden did not believe the Hunters were yet strong enough to attack a Gathering with every Empire and every leader in one spot; no, they would have to build up to that. Instead, Scaeden decided to strike as much fear into the Empire’s hearts as he possibly could. He interrupted their meeting and dumped the leader of Lightning Empire’s ripped and mangled pelt into the center of the clearing. Barely waiting for a reaction, Scaeden took off, back for Massilia, feeling successful in his show of the dead leader.

And finally, finally, Scaeden would have his second chance. Some of his Hunters and he had caught Soren out alone on Fire’s border. After a short fight, Soren was overwhelmed, and Scaeden took him back to the city as the most prized capture he had ever gotten. Soren, the great leader of Fire Empire, was dead. And Scaeden had killed him.

However, his hazy memories began to taunt him. Soren’s eyes, that bright fiery blue, began to plague his dreams. Words rang in his ears constantly in the voice of his mother, words he had long since forgotten and long since chosen to ignore. She had spoken it to he and his three siblings, before they all died, and as she was taken away from them. As they were being dragged away, he remembered his mother saying something to his sister, Bolt.

”If you ever find yourselves in need of being free, find him. Those blue eyes will save you.”

Those blue eyes he had always associated with his mother were never hers. They belonged to someone else entirely, someone he had only briefly met. Although their interaction had been short-winded, the young lynx had let those blue eyes stick in the back of his mind for his entire life. And his mother was talking about the owner of those blue eyes. The bold-colored lynx, the leader of Fire Empire, Soren, was Scaeden’s half-brother. Scaeden’s savior. And Scaeden’s victim.

Distraught and shocked, Scaeden barely noticed when the humans began talking about cats escaping from the distant city of Rome. He didn’t notice that many people came and offered large amounts of money to his owner, who kept declining. At least, until there was a message from the Emperor of Rome himself, requesting Scaeden’s repositioning into Rome as the leader of a fresh batch of Bounty Hunters. Scaeden didn’t notice any of this until the day they took him away from everything he had ever known.

The Roman Expedition
Newly appointed as Bounty Hunter leader in Rome, Scaeden tried to accept his new home. He tried to adapt and cope with the change. But it was hard. Scaeden missed his closest friends, Thanatos, Juno, Furie, Shadow, and even Torex sometimes, along with many others. In particular, though, he missed Caelina. Even though their relationship had not been left off very well when he left, he was devastated. He wondered how many times he would have to lose her before he realized exactly why exactly she had put up with him, and why he had tortured himself with her.

In Rome, Scaeden met new cats. He thought maybe this was the start of a brand new life, one where he could start all over and forget about all those awful things that plagued him from Massilia. He gave himself a new age, trying to convince himself and his new comrades assurance that he was more experienced than he really was. His goal at a new life, however, was in vain. He began saying the names of his previous Hunters without thinking about it, and he would oftentimes wake up in a terrified confusion, unsure where he was. He was only willing to talk to one cat, his Silver Hunter, about his life in Massilia. The Silver, Benedictus, a cross between a leopard and mountain lion, was like a mash of all his previous friends. He was quiet and attentive like Thanatos. He was eager to learn like Shadow. He could let loose and have a good laugh which reminded him of Juno and Furie. He was straightforward and snappish like Caelina. There were so many other traits that occasionally came up in him that would shock his mind back to Massilia.

Most of all, though, Benedictus realized things. He was intuitive and careful, and he always seemed to understand exactly what was going on in other’s heads. He was smart and intelligent and strategic. And that reminded Scaeden of himself. Scaeden oftentimes thought they were both trying to figure out what each other was thinking at the same time, while both interpreting each other’s actions carefully.

Scaeden feared that this would be Ben’s downfall. Scaeden’s intuitiveness and strategy was what left him with a chest filled with guilt and a head plagued with demons. He had to warn Ben somehow that he couldn’t let himself slip away like Scaeden had. He couldn’t make decisions he would later regret.

His chance came months after arriving in Rome. They set out to make the first Roman attack on their Empires, called Defectors. They set out with a large number of cats, and a few of them were taken in, the Defectors thinking they were just escapees from the city. When they got there, Scaeden was shocked to discover that two cats from Massilia had also recently arrived. Two Shadow Empire leopards, Cassandra and Laertes, had found the Roman Defectors. Scared that they would blow the Hunters’ cover and get them killed, Ben and Scaeden spoke to them. They both promised to keep their mouths shut so they could find a cat they were looking for, Laertes’s mother, quietly.

Then, one night, without Ben knowing, Scaeden asked Laertes to come speak with him. Scaeden had seen something in Laertes’s eyes that he felt in himself; a desire to return to Massilia. Scaeden asked Laertes something simple. He asked if the young leopard would show him the way back to Massilia. At first, Laertes had refused, as expected. Scaeden said he would do anything for him. Laertes hesitated. He proposed something to him; if the leopard showed the Bounty Hunter the way back to Massilia, Scaeden had to promise to watch over one of Laertes’s loved ones, Thalia, and protect her as much as he possibly could. Scaeden, desperate, agreed immediately.

Since Laertes had yet to find his mother, Scaeden waited with the Defectors. Laertes told him after a few days, though, that his mother had passed through here, ill and dying. She probably hadn’t made it much past the Defectors’ territory. Scaeden knew what this meant. They were going back to Massilia, and soon.

Scaeden devised a plan to get them out with no one noticing. The lynx, however, was well aware that Ben would figure something out. While all of the Defectors were gathered together, the Bounty Hunters attacked. Scaeden grabbed Laertes as a supposed hostage and dragged him out into the woods. They had been spotted, though. One of Scaeden’s Hunters, a huge lion named Hercules, had chased them into the forests. Just as Hercules was attacking the leader, Laertes leaped up and quickly killed Hercules. Unfortunately for all of them, they had been watched. Ben, shocked and standing in the woods, had seen it all.

The lynx began to explain himself, but just then, the leader of the Defectors, and Ben’s adopted brother, Venator, jumped out and attacked Ben. Laertes dragged Scaeden away before he even had time to consider helping his friend.

They hadn’t made it far, though, before Ben caught up with them. Scaeden didn’t know what had happened to Venator, but he didn’t care. He was just relieved that he could finally tell Ben everything. So he did. He told him that he was going back, and all he had to do was protect Thalia. Ben didn’t understand, but just then, Cassandra emerged from the forest, with Venator’s throat between her jaws. Cassandra wanted Laertes to get back to Massilia as badly as Scaeden did.

Scaeden told Ben that he had let his brother die, and that he had been the one to do it. Scaeden had killed Soren, and he felt so guilty. Scaeden didn’t want Ben to feel that same guilt for letting Cassandra kill Venator. He was the only family Ben had left; the Silver couldn’t lose that. And, bless Ben’s intuitiveness, he let Scaeden leave. He saved his brother.

The Walk
It took three months for Scaeden and Laertes to get back to Massilia. Over the time, Scaeden grew fond of Laertes, and he hoped that Laertes had grown fond of him, as well, though he knew that was unrealistic. To Laertes, Scaeden was a murderer. There was no getting past that.

Scaeden had considered many times betraying Laertes when they got back to Massilia. He shamefully thought about snatching the young leopard and dragging him back to the city as a prize. But he knew he couldn’t. He owed the leopard too much, including his sanity. Scaeden wasn’t prepared for more guilt.

It was on the way back to Massilia that Scaeden realized he wasn’t completely sane anymore, however. Those thoughts of betraying Laertes came instinctively, without warning, and Scaeden oftentimes didn’t even think much of them. A few times, he would feel his claws itching on the ground, waiting to fight something. Sometimes, it took every ounce of self-control he had to not jump after the leopard just to feel his claws rip into flesh again. He always volunteered to do the hunting just so he could get his aching needs under control.

Scaeden knew what was happening. He was becoming a Bounty Hunter. The power that he had felt in Rome and Massilia was beginning to get to his head, and he was incurable. He was slipping away into that dark place he had seen so many Bounty Hunters stuck in. It was a pit inside their minds and there was no grip to get out.

He thought about Alynnia sometimes, and about his cubs. He wondered if the other cats in Fire Empire knew who they were, and what evil blood ran through their veins. He was still furious, of course, that he had let it happen. He was furious, but he swore that he would do something about it when he got back.

When he did finally get back, he had changed. He was quieter, stayed in the back of the crowds instead of forcing himself to the front and center, and silently followed orders with little to no complaint. Scaeden had changed, and no amount of rehabilitation in his old life was going to bring him back.

Second Chances
As the lynx continued his life in Massilia, he was still a fine Bounty Hunter. It came naturally, almost as a second thought rather than something he enjoyed. He hardly had to focus while he was out on Hunts anymore. He helped capture Air's leader, Avita, caught a few other Empire felines here and there, tormented some others. He had six children. And, honestly, those children became his life. But he was scared for them. Caelina had plans for them to become great and powerful Hunters, and Scaeden helped train and prepare them, but he still worried for their safety. Being a Bounty Hunter wasn't exactly a safe job, not with so many cats always at your throat to kill you. If you were trained well enough, however, sometimes you could escape death longer than others. So Scaeden trained them well, amplifying their strengths and exposing their weaknesses...he wanted them to be able to protect themselves in the event of a fight, but not become such notorious Hunters that the Empires would be looking for any chance to rip their throats out.

Unfortunately, simply knowing who their parents were might already have put them on a dangerous path. But there was nothing Scaeden could do about that.

When Scaeden finally decided to go and visit the captured felines for the first time since he'd returned from Rome, he found something quite shocking. Thalia, the snow leopard he was supposed to protect, stuck in a cage along with five cubs. Laertes's family. Scaeden panicked. He knew he had to help them. He had made a deal with Laertes, and even though he was a Hunter and could likely get killed for what he would do, he couldn't break his promise. But he couldn't bring himself to start planning Thalia's escape, so he simply pushed the whole ordeal to the back of his mind, promising that he'd think of a solution later.

He didn't have much time to brainstorm. Soon after, one of Thanatos's spies in Fire Empire delivered news of the Empire cats' plans...plans to attack the city themselves and kill the Bounty Hunter leadership, and to also break out all the currently captured felines. Plans to train Bounty Hunters of their own who will specialize in killing and fighting. Plans to assert themselves as the dominant feline group in the Massilian area.

Some of the Hunters laughed. Some of them rolled their eyes. Some of them were angry. Some were annoyed that they were going to have to start patrolling the city more often, start doing more work than they were already putting in. But in almost every Hunter, Scaeden could see in the back of their minds that they were worried that the Empires would succeed. Not quite afraid, but...they were worried.

Scaeden, though...Scaeden was afraid. He masked it with a projection of duty, of expectance. Why should the Hunters be surprised that this was happening? Honestly, they should be surprised that it hadn't happened earlier. Their actions were bound to have consequences eventually. But Scaeden was afraid because of who had announced the plan at the Gathering and who had initiated the attack on Massilia. Laertes. And Laertes was looking to kill Scaeden specifically.

Really, the idea that Laertes might kill Scaeden didn't frighten him. He'd lived through so much. One headstrong Empire cat with a goal to rip the lynx's throat out wasn't anything new. But...this was Laertes. The cat that had apparently trusted Scaeden, and Scaeden had trusted him. And now even he hated the old Hunter.

With news of the upcoming war, the issue of Thalia was pushed to the back of Scaeden's mind, though he frequently went back to check on her. He knew, for instance, when the humans moved her to a private room. He knew that she was a spitfire. He knew that those cubs were going to be seen as beneficial to the human Coliseum. He kept an eye on her, whether she knew it or not.

Scaeden continued to train his children, bursting with pride as they were, one by one, promoted to apprentices. But another was added. Dezz. One of his cubs with Alynnia. Scaeden had captured him while on a solo run out in Fire's territory, and the young cat had told him who he was and asked to be part of the Hunters. Even though Scaeden wanted nothing to do with his 'family' in Fire Empire, he accepted the cat's request, but was never kind to him, even when Dezz renamed himself Orcus and started to grow into a cunning Bounty Hunter. Only when Maia, Orcus's friend, accidentally died when Scaeden had tried to save her, and Orcus finally asserted himself as a powerful cat did Scaeden start to respect his outcast son a little more.

Extra Facts
Scaeden's scars are all from Bounty Hunting, except his ear. The scars on his side he got from Andromeda, the Fire Empire Silver Gladiator. The ones on his face are from Soren, Fire Empire Leader. His paws are also scarred underneath the bandages from Vayea (Air Empire Silver Gladiator) and Andromeda. The scars on his left shoulder was from a lion in Rome, where he also got his tattoo.

Scaeden gets very bad migraines and backaches from when Valon (Air Empire Leader) smashed his back and dislocated a part of it.

Relationships

Relations
Family
Mother
Genieva

Father
Caius

Siblings
Soren : Scaeden does not remember Soren, nor vice versa. They only have a brief memory of each other, and it's not significant enough that they recall it easily.
Aiolos : Scaeden believes that his sister is dead, but Aiolos (previously named Bolt), knows her brother is the leader of the Bounty Hunters and secretly plans to eventually take him down.
Elaine : Scaeden just recently found out about his relationship to Elaine, his half-sister on his father's side. He makes an effort to keep her around, seeing as she is the only sibling he knows about that is accessible to him.

Mates
Alynnia : Ex-mate, residing in Fire Empire
Caelina : Current mate, Elite Bounty Hunter

Offspring
With Alynnia
Dezz/Orcus ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Myles ; Alive; Fire Empire Cub; Son
Lyra ; Alive; Fire Empire Cub; Daughter
Aurora ; Alive; Fire Emprie Cub; Daughter

With Caelina
Icarus ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Helios ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Libero ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Manes ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Apprentice; Son
Regillus ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Cosette ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Daughter

Other Family
Garen ; Alive; Gladiator of Fire Empire; Nephew
Anura ; Alive; Gladiator of Ice Empire; Niece
Kaien ; Deceased; -- of Ice Empire; Nephew

Relationships

hate
dislike
annoyed
indifference
like (not romantically)
friend/close friend
love/mate
crush
respect

//Caelina - “She’s...yeah, well. We’ll see how this turns out, I suppose. We have some talking to do. I have to say, I’m relieved to see she’s alive, and even more relieved to finally be back in Massilia when she’s alive.”

/ Thanatos - "My closest friend and Silver Hunter. I wouldn’t trade him in for anyone else in the Roman Empire. I trust him with my life and I know I made no mistake when choosing him to be my second in command. I like the way he thinks and can keep a level head about things. We need that."

“If anything good came from leaving Massilia, which wasn’t much, it was that Thanatos took up my position as leader. He’ll be better than I ever was going to turn out to be. I’m not worried about leaving my friends in his paws...but, gods, I missed him. My Silver in Rome reminded me a lot of him, but it wasn’t the same. I’m excited to be side-by-side with my best friend again.”

/ /Shadow - "Shadow! I wish I had more time to spend sparring with her like we used to. But new responsibilities make that difficult, and I feel bad, but there’s not much I can do about it. She’s almost a full Hunter. I can’t wait to have her on our squad. I consider her another one of my close friends."

“So, she took up Silver? Good for her. She’ll do great there. I’m glad to see that she’s grown to be a nice-looking Hunter.”

/Juno - “I have a lot of respect for this cat. I’m glad she’s a Hunter now. Maybe one day she’ll be saving my ass, not the other way around. She’s a good friend and a good Hunter.”

/Furie - “Another cat I’m glad to have around, another friend. Although as far as I know, he needs to make a move on Juno. Like, quickly. I’ll have to start getting on his case about that.”

Selineen - "She walked into two different Empire's territories based on my word. I trust her. I don't care what anyone else says. She's proven herself to me."

Kleio - "Haven't talked to her much. She died? Well, that's unfortunate. However, a sand cat in a group of vicious killers...didn't seem likely that she would have survived long anyways."

/ Milla - "She abandoned us in a hunt! We needed all the cats we could get! And she just ran back to the city to...I don't know! Play with her cub or something! If she would have followed through and come to help...Caelina may not be dead, I would never have been captured...ugh! I just can't stand her. She's lost my respect. Next time I see her...you can guarantee it won't be pretty."

/ Torex - "I love his size. He's a huge asset to the Bounty Hunters. It comforts me to have him around, despite what I've heard about him."

“Aha, I missed that brute. I’ll be glad to see his hideous face again.”

Shadie - "She joined me in a hunt once, but she didn't really talk. She knows how to follow orders and such, so I have no reason to dislike her. Yet."

/ Ariyn - "She doesn't like me? Alright, then, I don't have to like her, either. She's too cold and standoffish anyways. However she came on the Lightning Empire raid and proved herself. She’s a good asset."

/ Iota - “…Hmph. Yeah, well. As much as I don’t like him and he disrespects me, we are exactly the same in different ways. Nonetheless, he doesn’t listen very well. Annoying as hell.”

/ Aella - "I like her. She listens well and seems like she has excellent potential to be a worthy Hunter."

Empire Cats

Valon - "Ah, Valon...this cat...I don't know what to say about him anymore. He's foolish. He's obsessed with keeping his Empire safe, even at the cost of his own life. He trusted me. That was a mistake, and he knew it, but he helped me anyways. Now, he's going to pay the price."

Avita - "Ah, she's the leaders mate? She shouldn't have tagged along on that meeting...it almost cost her her cubs. And Valon's life. She was foolish."

// Soren - "He offered us a new life...a life to serve him. That's a sick offer. Why would I want to leave my life as a Bounty Hunter...a free, unbounded Bounty Hunter...to live under his rules and his eyes? No thank you. Then, to add to that fact, he threw us out in the middle of nowhere to fend for ourselves! Caelina almost died because of him. He better watch his back, because once we're ready, the Bounty Hunters are coming for him."

“He’s...dead. I should be happy, right? I killed him. I watched his lifeless corpse get dragged into the arena and my owner was dumped with the spoils of his capture. But...he was my brother. I mean, it’s not my fault, I didn’t know he was my brother at the time. But after his death, I remembered well enough. I suppose I shouldn’t care. But I do, unfortunately. It bothers me that I ended his life; I might be the only one with my bloodline left alive. I’ve watched every single one of my siblings die, and I’ve been responsible for all of their deaths. How am I supposed to deal with that?”

Nimbus - "This cat..is huge. She's a brute and protects cats from other Empires. She, along with Valon, ruined our hunt. She is definitely not one of my favorite cats ever."

/ Brutus - "He's huge, he's strong, he's respectable, he's dangerous. It disappoints me that he's not a Bounty Hunter. He would be nice to have around. He’s as big as Troy!"

/ Andromeda - "I still hate everyone from Fire Empire. Nothing else to say about that."

/ Alynnia - "She doesn't know what she's getting herself into. If she wants to keep her head and dignity, she'll stay away. She should know better. I'm dangerous and would just end up hurting her. Which, I mean...as a Bounty Hunter, I really shouldn't mind, right? But...not in this way. This seems...petty. I need another excuse. Another way to get to her. I'm not sure what that is yet, but I'll figure it out eventually."

“Right now, I want nothing to do with her and those cubs. As far as I’m concerned, they’re not mine. They’ve never been mine. I just want to be back in Massilia and not worry about anything anymore, and least of all a bunch of offspring that no one knows about!”

Abiola - “Ha! This silly little scrap of fur thought he and his Empire could actually win. That’s far too…optimistic. You shouldn’t give your Empire false hope like that, Abiola. Now you’re dead, and your Empire is in ruins. Congratulations.”

Accalia - “She’s the reason most of her Empire is torn apart. She’s the reason we attacked. She should have known that betraying the Bounty Hunters was going to end well for no one. And now she’s paid the price. At least we have her in our paws again.”

Mako - “I think I can change him. I think he can be useful to me someday. I just have to earn his trust, first.”

Laertes - “He’s a good kid. Not just because he helped me, but just because he’s a good damn kid. I was skeptical, and I don’t think he really trusts me. But, to be honest, I wouldn’t trust me, either, if I was in his position.”

Thalia - “I’m sworn to protect her, and I will, even if it’s just for Laertes. That kid deserves everything good thing in this world, and if I can give him something even as simple as watching out for his loved ones, the by gods, I’m going to do it.”

Roleplay Example
Taken from a real roleplay

The surprise in Soren's eyes was plain. He wasn't trying to hide it. A wash of emotion flooded over Scaeden, but he didn't know exactly what it was. It wasn't quite satisfaction, but he wasn't disappointed either. He realized he had actually been expecting Soren to believe him. A part of him knew Soren was much more intuitive than the Air Empire leader. The fiery leader based his decisions off his mind, but his emotions were intertwined as well. Scaeden respected him for that, at a sort of hate-based level.

When Soren told Scaeden to call off the fight, Scaeden just nodded solemnly and turned his head to the green eyes in the bushes, which still watched him intensely. "Caelina. Go home. Shadie, go with her. Call a retreat." He caught a glimpse of Caelina's wounds through the dark trees, her fur soaked in her own blood. He didn't want her to die, he didn't want anyone to die. As much as he knew the others were crazy and half insane, they were still part of their own kind of "Empire". To enforce his orders and make sure Caelina followed them, he snarled, "Now."

He looked back to Soren, trusting Caelina to honor his words. Even pinned under the enemy with half his blood in a pool around him, he was still the leader of the ragtag group of Hunters, and they had to follow what he said. He said to Soren, "They'll be gone within a few minutes." He paused and thought, I'm sorry for any harm that may have come to your Empire. All we wanted was Valon. But he said nothing else out loud, for fear of upsetting Soren any more than he already had.

The moon shone bright as if it was attempting to fill in the darkness and empty spaces of the world. But Scaeden knew better than anyone else that there were some places in the deepest depths of the mind light would never touch.

This reference in under constant construction. It will keep changing as the character keeps developing.

For

Scaeden c) me

Description
- Changed file, updated armor. Scaeden was tired of the heavy chain mail.

And the Lost Boy asked,
Do we ever need to grow up?
Hook cut his throat and said,
You grew up years ago.

General
Name- Scaeden (SKAY-den)
Scaeden’s birth name is Drop. He was named by his mother after the rain-drop-like spots on his sides.

Gender Male

Age 7 years, 5 months (September 15th, 54 BC)
[Starting Age; 2 Years]

Species Eurasian Lynx

Rank Bounty Hunter Leader

Physical Description Long, lean legs; Thin and tall; Lean-muscled; Fluffy neck/cheeks, short head fur; Pink scars on face and flanks; Long stripes on flanks

Song Playlist

Voice Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt

About
Personality

Snarky and Sarcastic
Scaeden takes a lot of pride in his words. The way he speaks and presents himself to others is very carefully thought out. He believes that, at times, words can have more impact than actions. Scaeden likes to present himself as a brilliant and sarcastic cat who is affected by nothing.

Motivated and Determined
Scaeden will stop at nothing to get what he wants. If he fails, he takes it very hard on himself and tends to blame others for his own mistakes. Examples of this are when he first tried to help capture Valon, he blamed Caelina for not planning well enough. When Caelina was killed, he accused Soren and Fire Empire for not caring.

Annoying and Rude
Scaeden loves to get into other cats’ business for no reason other than to just annoy them. He’s very blunt and tends to like to make other cats feel dumb. He mostly just likes the attention. Once he gets more fond of someone, though, he teases them lightly.

Loyal and Accepting
Seeming out of place with the rest of his personality, Scaeden would do anything to help cats that he is close to. He would do anything to save them or keep a secret. He also tends to not dislike very many cats, unless they are downright disrespectful and don’t listen to what he has to say.

Independent
Scaeden thinks he doesn’t need anybody else’s help. He can do it all on his own and can figure everything out himself.

Smart and Strategic
Planning strategies and plans of attack is Scaeden’s specialty. He can come up with extremely creative ways to train apprentices, hunt for Empire cats, or even catch their next meal. He thinks of everything, puts everything into perspective in a way that he can see the whole picture. He is also easily able to manipulate his plans on the spot until they are perfected, which makes him an excellent leader.

Hypocritical
Scaeden hates everything in others that he amplifies in himself. He preaches that you should always treat others with respect, never do anything you'll regret, and keep your family close, no matter how poorly they may have treated you. He would be a big believer in the saying, "Do as I say, not as I do."

Selfish
For those he is closest to, he would do anything to protect them. He is protective over his family, friends, and loved ones. However, he would probably never put his own life up to save someone else; he usually just does whatever is in his own best interest. He typically feels guilty for it though, and beats himself up because he's not willing to do more for those that he cares about.

Background
Before Bounty Hunter Life
Scaeden's mother was a breeder. She mated with the strongest lynxes and produced the healthiest kits. He barely has any memory of his mother. The only thing he can remember from the short time when she was around is bright blue eyes on a bold-colored lynx, which he has always assumed was his mother’s. Scaeden wasn’t always called Scaeden. His birth name was Drop, named after the rain-drop markings on his sides. His mother named his whole litter after things she had only ever seen that were able to leave the confinements of the city. Drops of rain were one of them, and his sibling’s names were Bolt (after lightning), Sparrow, and Breeze.

There is a specific memory that Scaeden has that is mostly shrouded in mystery because of a particular event that happened shortly after his encounter with a strange, yet familiar lynx. There was an arena cat owner that liked to work with the breeders that Drop’s mother belonged to. When Drop’s litter of four was born, the breeders took him, his siblings, and his mother to see the owner. The owner took particular interest in Drop and another of one his siblings. However, as the owner and the breeder were talking, Drop noticed a pair of bright, icy blue eyes peering at his mother through the bars of a cage. Drop snuck off to the curious cat, not bound to a chain like his mother was. His sister, Bolt, called him back, but he ignored her. This older cat was covered in intricate armor and scars. Drop was fascinated. He smiled, but the moment didn’t last long. The owner saw Drop and, angry because the breeder let his litter wander around so freely, denied any possible sales and sent them away. That was Drop’s last chance to ever get to grow up alongside his half-brother, Soren.

Disappointed in the unfortunate event, the breeder looked for anybody to sell the cubs to. There was a rich, insane owner who wanted to take all four cubs off the breeder’s hands for reasons the breeder was unaware of. Selling the litter and leaving, the owner took the cubs immediately into a cage with two tigers, crazed with bloodlust and delusional beyond saving. He meant to use the cubs as ‘play things’, just a treat for his two prized champion fighters. He tossed them into the cage, and the tigers lunged.

Two of the cubs were dead within minutes. Sparrow and Breeze laid in bloody heaps in front of the two surviving cubs, paralyzed with fear. The tigers went after Drop and Bolt, but Bolt, much smaller but more brave than Drop, leaped in front of her brother and got smacked down, a sickening crunch echoing when her small body hit the hard ground. She fell limp and bloody, and Drop suddenly became furious, but still terrified. When one of the tigers lashed with his fangs at the remaining cub, Drop let his claws out and bloodied the tiger’s eyes. By this time, the crazy owner had taken an extreme liking to Drop’s enthusiasm, and when the lynx cub ran by the cage door, the human scooped him up and threw him into a nearby empty cage, making a promise to turn him into a real killer. The owner then gave him the name he would keep for the rest of his life; Scaeden.

The newly named arena Gladiator didn’t watch when the owner raked his sibling’s bodies out of the tigers’ cage and threw them out into the street to rot. The trauma from the horrifying experience wiped Scaeden’s memory of his older brother, and ever since then, he always associated the icy blue eyes with his mother.

For the first year of his life, Scaeden was trained to be a Gladiator in the coliseum. At first, he hated his training, but as soon as he made his first kill, a young ocelot cub, he realized how powerful he could be. As he began winning more and more, his owners began to put him in the arena with big cats. Every fight he entered ended in a kill. His owner raked in tons of money from him, but went bankrupt after betting on a small cub while drunk one night. The cub lost, obviously, and Scaeden's owner handed over all their money. When he came to the next morning, he realized what he had done. When he realized what he had lost, he began training Scaeden as hard as he could, so the Emperor would choose him to be a Hunter and he would get the large amount of money for it. Scaeden's battles became quicker and easier, his kills more efficient. When the Emperor noticed this, he immediately chose Scaeden to be a Hunter, and his owner was paid a great deal.

Scaeden liked the life of a Hunter significantly more than the life of a Coliseum fighting cat. There was the perfect amount of freedom, and instead of his fights being for show and money, they were real. The fights meant something. Scaeden felt a sense of importance and meaning when he Hunts for Empire cats. Because of this, he loves his job and is a better fighter now than he ever was before.

As A Bounty Hunter
When Scaeden was 3, he got himself into a series of Hunts for the Air Empire leader, Valon. It was an accident, really. He happened to hear the cry of a fellow Hunter fighting an Empire cat. He ran to the cry to see it was Selineen. He had known there was a small party of cats in Air Empire trying to retrieve Valon; and he suspected they were going to need help because of a thunderstorm that was raging through the night. One thing led to another, and he found himself in the middle of a tussle between an Air Empire patrol and a few of his fellow Bounty Hunters, Caelina and Kleio. In the Air Empire patrol was the Air Empire leader, Valon. During the battle, he and Valon grew a deep hatred for each other. Scaeden didn't realize that his hatred for Valon would get him mixed up in some very odd situations.

The Bounty Hunters lost that battle, and Scaeden was furious. He hated Valon, absolutely hated him. He came up with another plan to capture the serval, and soon, he and Selineen were off in Air Empire again. They tricked Valon into trusting them, and Valon led them straight into Fire Empire to confront the Fire Empire Gladiator Nimbus and her leader, Soren, who is also Scaeden's half-brother (neither one of them know this yet). Little did Valon or Soren know, Scaeden had a patrol of five more Bounty Hunters waiting for them in Fire Empire. Just as the meeting with the two Empires was coming to a close, Scaeden launched the attack. Again, the Bounty Hunters were forced to retreat, but Scaeden did accomplish something that no Bounty Hunter had ever tried before; he got two Empires to mistrust each other greatly. He also managed to get himself and Caelina, who was in the patrol, captured by Fire Empire. When they were taken to the camp, they noticed they weren't alone. Two Bounty Hunter apprentices, Furie and Juno, were also being held captive after a failed attempt to raid Fire Empire's camp and capture the healer.

It was in Fire Empire that Scaeden met Alynnia, the small, delicate margay whose beauty and kindness had been a complete shock for the dark and twisted lynx. He fell for her from the first night they had spoken; but it couldn’t last long. After living in Fire Empire for a while, he realized that Empire life wasn’t for him. He couldn’t understand their way of life, and he began to think like a Bounty Hunter again. He began to think that Alynnia was trying to make him sway and make him fall in love with her so he would stay in Fire Empire and he would no longer be a threat to any Empire cat. When Soren asked the Hunters if they were going to stay in Fire Empire, Scaeden, furious and feeling foolish, turned the offer down.

Scaeden, Caelina, Furie, and Juno were knocked out, gagged, and taken out into the far wild in the east, beyond the Empires and beyond the impacts of human life. Scaeden’s wounds from the battle had healed into scars and aches; however, Caelina’s story was different. She was sick, and every day they searched for some way back home was another day that she came closer to collapsing on the spot. They helped her as much as they could; however, their efforts were useless. Caelina soon became too sick to travel, and it was very clear that she was near death. She told them to leave her behind. Scaeden realized in that moment that he had grown close to the jaguar, and he didn’t want to lose her. He felt guilty for leading her into that battle, for trying to get her to carry Valon back to Massilia, for refusing Soren’s offer and getting all of them stuck out in the wild that was likely to kill all of them eventually. After a lot of debate and Caelina’s multiple threats, Scaeden, Furie, and Juno realized it was no use to try to convince her. They were all too weak to carry her, and she was too weak to carry herself. Even if they did manage to lift her and start to carry her, she was nearly dead, and the effort would be pointless. Infected, sick, and dying, Caelina stayed in the forest, while three cats left her in the dust to die on her own.

But they did make it back. The three cats found the sea and followed the sunset back to the Empires, along the shoreline. They landed in Shadow Empire, where they hunted and regained their strength enough to capture three unsuspecting cats on a border patrol as a prize to prove their loyalty to the Bounty Hunters and to the Roman Empire.

Scaeden was furious. He hated Soren for leaving them out in the middle of nowhere to die on their own, and he hated Scaeden for causing Caelina’s death. He hated Alynnia for almost tricking him. He hated himself for leading the raid that led to one of his best friend’s – and possibly something more – death.

When the cats got back to Massilia, they were put into intensive training to ensure that they were still loyal. Scaeden took the training as a blessing; he would be that much stronger when he faced up against Soren or Valon again. When they released the trio, the Bounty Hunters were leaderless; Scaeden, freshly trained and previously experienced, took up the spot with ease.

It did not take long for some Hunters by the names of Kallen and Pallis to propose a plan of attack on Lightning Empire. After some discussion and improvement, the plan was to go into motion. The night came, and the raid was a huge success. In one night, the Bounty Hunters had destroyed Lightning Empire, killed their leader, and made a spectacle of their weak. The overwhelming success solidified Scaeden’s position as leader and erased any doubt of his authority.

When the patrol of Hunter returned to Massilia, they had taken a few days off to celebrate and rest. During one of those days, Scaeden had agreed to have a fighting tournament with any cat that challenged him; little did he know, one of his challengers was going to stump him before it even began. Caelina, the dead friend that Scaeden had long since tried to bury into the back of his memory, had reappeared. The shock that the lynx felt was almost overwhelming, and the guilt that came after was nearly crippling. Stubborn as both of them were, they mostly fought instead of spoke in the short time they would have together again.

A few nights after the raid on Lightning Empire, Scaeden made another lone trip to Fire Empire. He hated the place with a burning passion. Everything about it made him sick, and he could smell their scent markers wherever he went. That night, he found Alynnia again. At first, their conversation was all about Scaeden finding more information about Fire Empire, but at one point, Scaeden snapped, and he found himself leaping at her. But...something was off. There was something wrong with the shape of her body, and –

It didn’t take long for the lynx to realize she was pregnant. Alynnia quickly explained that the cubs were his own, and in a panicked rage, Scaeden left. He couldn’t escape Fire Empire. It kept coming back to him, and now his first bloodline was going to survive in that damned Empire. He told no one of this new discovery.

A few weeks later, Scaeden took a small band of cats out to some old Coliseum ruins to see if some rumors of a monthly Gathering of the Empires was true. Sure enough, there were cats everywhere. Scaeden did not believe the Hunters were yet strong enough to attack a Gathering with every Empire and every leader in one spot; no, they would have to build up to that. Instead, Scaeden decided to strike as much fear into the Empire’s hearts as he possibly could. He interrupted their meeting and dumped the leader of Lightning Empire’s ripped and mangled pelt into the center of the clearing. Barely waiting for a reaction, Scaeden took off, back for Massilia, feeling successful in his show of the dead leader.

And finally, finally, Scaeden would have his second chance. Some of his Hunters and he had caught Soren out alone on Fire’s border. After a short fight, Soren was overwhelmed, and Scaeden took him back to the city as the most prized capture he had ever gotten. Soren, the great leader of Fire Empire, was dead. And Scaeden had killed him.

However, his hazy memories began to taunt him. Soren’s eyes, that bright fiery blue, began to plague his dreams. Words rang in his ears constantly in the voice of his mother, words he had long since forgotten and long since chosen to ignore. She had spoken it to he and his three siblings, before they all died, and as she was taken away from them. As they were being dragged away, he remembered his mother saying something to his sister, Bolt.

”If you ever find yourselves in need of being free, find him. Those blue eyes will save you.”

Those blue eyes he had always associated with his mother were never hers. They belonged to someone else entirely, someone he had only briefly met. Although their interaction had been short-winded, the young lynx had let those blue eyes stick in the back of his mind for his entire life. And his mother was talking about the owner of those blue eyes. The bold-colored lynx, the leader of Fire Empire, Soren, was Scaeden’s half-brother. Scaeden’s savior. And Scaeden’s victim.

Distraught and shocked, Scaeden barely noticed when the humans began talking about cats escaping from the distant city of Rome. He didn’t notice that many people came and offered large amounts of money to his owner, who kept declining. At least, until there was a message from the Emperor of Rome himself, requesting Scaeden’s repositioning into Rome as the leader of a fresh batch of Bounty Hunters. Scaeden didn’t notice any of this until the day they took him away from everything he had ever known.

The Roman Expedition
Newly appointed as Bounty Hunter leader in Rome, Scaeden tried to accept his new home. He tried to adapt and cope with the change. But it was hard. Scaeden missed his closest friends, Thanatos, Juno, Furie, Shadow, and even Torex sometimes, along with many others. In particular, though, he missed Caelina. Even though their relationship had not been left off very well when he left, he was devastated. He wondered how many times he would have to lose her before he realized exactly why exactly she had put up with him, and why he had tortured himself with her.

In Rome, Scaeden met new cats. He thought maybe this was the start of a brand new life, one where he could start all over and forget about all those awful things that plagued him from Massilia. He gave himself a new age, trying to convince himself and his new comrades assurance that he was more experienced than he really was. His goal at a new life, however, was in vain. He began saying the names of his previous Hunters without thinking about it, and he would oftentimes wake up in a terrified confusion, unsure where he was. He was only willing to talk to one cat, his Silver Hunter, about his life in Massilia. The Silver, Benedictus, a cross between a leopard and mountain lion, was like a mash of all his previous friends. He was quiet and attentive like Thanatos. He was eager to learn like Shadow. He could let loose and have a good laugh which reminded him of Juno and Furie. He was straightforward and snappish like Caelina. There were so many other traits that occasionally came up in him that would shock his mind back to Massilia.

Most of all, though, Benedictus realized things. He was intuitive and careful, and he always seemed to understand exactly what was going on in other’s heads. He was smart and intelligent and strategic. And that reminded Scaeden of himself. Scaeden oftentimes thought they were both trying to figure out what each other was thinking at the same time, while both interpreting each other’s actions carefully.

Scaeden feared that this would be Ben’s downfall. Scaeden’s intuitiveness and strategy was what left him with a chest filled with guilt and a head plagued with demons. He had to warn Ben somehow that he couldn’t let himself slip away like Scaeden had. He couldn’t make decisions he would later regret.

His chance came months after arriving in Rome. They set out to make the first Roman attack on their Empires, called Defectors. They set out with a large number of cats, and a few of them were taken in, the Defectors thinking they were just escapees from the city. When they got there, Scaeden was shocked to discover that two cats from Massilia had also recently arrived. Two Shadow Empire leopards, Cassandra and Laertes, had found the Roman Defectors. Scared that they would blow the Hunters’ cover and get them killed, Ben and Scaeden spoke to them. They both promised to keep their mouths shut so they could find a cat they were looking for, Laertes’s mother, quietly.

Then, one night, without Ben knowing, Scaeden asked Laertes to come speak with him. Scaeden had seen something in Laertes’s eyes that he felt in himself; a desire to return to Massilia. Scaeden asked Laertes something simple. He asked if the young leopard would show him the way back to Massilia. At first, Laertes had refused, as expected. Scaeden said he would do anything for him. Laertes hesitated. He proposed something to him; if the leopard showed the Bounty Hunter the way back to Massilia, Scaeden had to promise to watch over one of Laertes’s loved ones, Thalia, and protect her as much as he possibly could. Scaeden, desperate, agreed immediately.

Since Laertes had yet to find his mother, Scaeden waited with the Defectors. Laertes told him after a few days, though, that his mother had passed through here, ill and dying. She probably hadn’t made it much past the Defectors’ territory. Scaeden knew what this meant. They were going back to Massilia, and soon.

Scaeden devised a plan to get them out with no one noticing. The lynx, however, was well aware that Ben would figure something out. While all of the Defectors were gathered together, the Bounty Hunters attacked. Scaeden grabbed Laertes as a supposed hostage and dragged him out into the woods. They had been spotted, though. One of Scaeden’s Hunters, a huge lion named Hercules, had chased them into the forests. Just as Hercules was attacking the leader, Laertes leaped up and quickly killed Hercules. Unfortunately for all of them, they had been watched. Ben, shocked and standing in the woods, had seen it all.

The lynx began to explain himself, but just then, the leader of the Defectors, and Ben’s adopted brother, Venator, jumped out and attacked Ben. Laertes dragged Scaeden away before he even had time to consider helping his friend.

They hadn’t made it far, though, before Ben caught up with them. Scaeden didn’t know what had happened to Venator, but he didn’t care. He was just relieved that he could finally tell Ben everything. So he did. He told him that he was going back, and all he had to do was protect Thalia. Ben didn’t understand, but just then, Cassandra emerged from the forest, with Venator’s throat between her jaws. Cassandra wanted Laertes to get back to Massilia as badly as Scaeden did.

Scaeden told Ben that he had let his brother die, and that he had been the one to do it. Scaeden had killed Soren, and he felt so guilty. Scaeden didn’t want Ben to feel that same guilt for letting Cassandra kill Venator. He was the only family Ben had left; the Silver couldn’t lose that. And, bless Ben’s intuitiveness, he let Scaeden leave. He saved his brother.

The Walk
It took three months for Scaeden and Laertes to get back to Massilia. Over the time, Scaeden grew fond of Laertes, and he hoped that Laertes had grown fond of him, as well, though he knew that was unrealistic. To Laertes, Scaeden was a murderer. There was no getting past that.

Scaeden had considered many times betraying Laertes when they got back to Massilia. He shamefully thought about snatching the young leopard and dragging him back to the city as a prize. But he knew he couldn’t. He owed the leopard too much, including his sanity. Scaeden wasn’t prepared for more guilt.

It was on the way back to Massilia that Scaeden realized he wasn’t completely sane anymore, however. Those thoughts of betraying Laertes came instinctively, without warning, and Scaeden oftentimes didn’t even think much of them. A few times, he would feel his claws itching on the ground, waiting to fight something. Sometimes, it took every ounce of self-control he had to not jump after the leopard just to feel his claws rip into flesh again. He always volunteered to do the hunting just so he could get his aching needs under control.

Scaeden knew what was happening. He was becoming a Bounty Hunter. The power that he had felt in Rome and Massilia was beginning to get to his head, and he was incurable. He was slipping away into that dark place he had seen so many Bounty Hunters stuck in. It was a pit inside their minds and there was no grip to get out.

He thought about Alynnia sometimes, and about his cubs. He wondered if the other cats in Fire Empire knew who they were, and what evil blood ran through their veins. He was still furious, of course, that he had let it happen. He was furious, but he swore that he would do something about it when he got back.

When he did finally get back, he had changed. He was quieter, stayed in the back of the crowds instead of forcing himself to the front and center, and silently followed orders with little to no complaint. Scaeden had changed, and no amount of rehabilitation in his old life was going to bring him back.

Second Chances
As the lynx continued his life in Massilia, he was still a fine Bounty Hunter. It came naturally, almost as a second thought rather than something he enjoyed. He hardly had to focus while he was out on Hunts anymore. He helped capture Air's leader, Avita, caught a few other Empire felines here and there, tormented some others. He had six children. And, honestly, those children became his life. But he was scared for them. Caelina had plans for them to become great and powerful Hunters, and Scaeden helped train and prepare them, but he still worried for their safety. Being a Bounty Hunter wasn't exactly a safe job, not with so many cats always at your throat to kill you. If you were trained well enough, however, sometimes you could escape death longer than others. So Scaeden trained them well, amplifying their strengths and exposing their weaknesses...he wanted them to be able to protect themselves in the event of a fight, but not become such notorious Hunters that the Empires would be looking for any chance to rip their throats out.

Unfortunately, simply knowing who their parents were might already have put them on a dangerous path. But there was nothing Scaeden could do about that.

When Scaeden finally decided to go and visit the captured felines for the first time since he'd returned from Rome, he found something quite shocking. Thalia, the snow leopard he was supposed to protect, stuck in a cage along with five cubs. Laertes's family. Scaeden panicked. He knew he had to help them. He had made a deal with Laertes, and even though he was a Hunter and could likely get killed for what he would do, he couldn't break his promise. But he couldn't bring himself to start planning Thalia's escape, so he simply pushed the whole ordeal to the back of his mind, promising that he'd think of a solution later.

He didn't have much time to brainstorm. Soon after, one of Thanatos's spies in Fire Empire delivered news of the Empire cats' plans...plans to attack the city themselves and kill the Bounty Hunter leadership, and to also break out all the currently captured felines. Plans to train Bounty Hunters of their own who will specialize in killing and fighting. Plans to assert themselves as the dominant feline group in the Massilian area.

Some of the Hunters laughed. Some of them rolled their eyes. Some of them were angry. Some were annoyed that they were going to have to start patrolling the city more often, start doing more work than they were already putting in. But in almost every Hunter, Scaeden could see in the back of their minds that they were worried that the Empires would succeed. Not quite afraid, but...they were worried.

Scaeden, though...Scaeden was afraid. He masked it with a projection of duty, of expectance. Why should the Hunters be surprised that this was happening? Honestly, they should be surprised that it hadn't happened earlier. Their actions were bound to have consequences eventually. But Scaeden was afraid because of who had announced the plan at the Gathering and who had initiated the attack on Massilia. Laertes. And Laertes was looking to kill Scaeden specifically.

Really, the idea that Laertes might kill Scaeden didn't frighten him. He'd lived through so much. One headstrong Empire cat with a goal to rip the lynx's throat out wasn't anything new. But...this was Laertes. The cat that had apparently trusted Scaeden, and Scaeden had trusted him. And now even he hated the old Hunter.

With news of the upcoming war, the issue of Thalia was pushed to the back of Scaeden's mind, though he frequently went back to check on her. He knew, for instance, when the humans moved her to a private room. He knew that she was a spitfire. He knew that those cubs were going to be seen as beneficial to the human Coliseum. He kept an eye on her, whether she knew it or not.

Scaeden continued to train his children, bursting with pride as they were, one by one, promoted to apprentices. But another was added. Dezz. One of his cubs with Alynnia. Scaeden had captured him while on a solo run out in Fire's territory, and the young cat had told him who he was and asked to be part of the Hunters. Even though Scaeden wanted nothing to do with his 'family' in Fire Empire, he accepted the cat's request, but was never kind to him, even when Dezz renamed himself Orcus and started to grow into a cunning Bounty Hunter. Only when Maia, Orcus's friend, accidentally died when Scaeden had tried to save her, and Orcus finally asserted himself as a powerful cat did Scaeden start to respect his outcast son a little more.

Extra Facts
Scaeden's scars are all from Bounty Hunting, except his ear. The scars on his side he got from Andromeda, the Fire Empire Silver Gladiator. The ones on his face are from Soren, Fire Empire Leader. His paws are also scarred underneath the bandages from Vayea (Air Empire Silver Gladiator) and Andromeda. The scars on his left shoulder was from a lion in Rome, where he also got his tattoo.

Scaeden gets very bad migraines and backaches from when Valon (Air Empire Leader) smashed his back and dislocated a part of it.

Relationships

Relations
Family
Mother
Genieva

Father
Caius

Siblings
Soren : Scaeden does not remember Soren, nor vice versa. They only have a brief memory of each other, and it's not significant enough that they recall it easily.
Aiolos : Scaeden believes that his sister is dead, but Aiolos (previously named Bolt), knows her brother is the leader of the Bounty Hunters and secretly plans to eventually take him down.
Elaine : Scaeden just recently found out about his relationship to Elaine, his half-sister on his father's side. He makes an effort to keep her around, seeing as she is the only sibling he knows about that is accessible to him.

Mates
Alynnia : Ex-mate, residing in Fire Empire
Caelina : Current mate, Elite Bounty Hunter

Offspring
With Alynnia
Dezz/Orcus ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Myles ; Alive; Fire Empire Cub; Son
Lyra ; Alive; Fire Empire Cub; Daughter
Aurora ; Alive; Fire Emprie Cub; Daughter

With Caelina
Icarus ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Helios ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Libero ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Manes ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Apprentice; Son
Regillus ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Son
Cosette ; Alive; Bounty Hunter Tribune; Daughter

Other Family
Garen ; Alive; Gladiator of Fire Empire; Nephew
Anura ; Alive; Gladiator of Ice Empire; Niece
Kaien ; Deceased; -- of Ice Empire; Nephew

Relationships

hate
dislike
annoyed
indifference
like (not romantically)
friend/close friend
love/mate
crush
respect

//Caelina - “She’s...yeah, well. We’ll see how this turns out, I suppose. We have some talking to do. I have to say, I’m relieved to see she’s alive, and even more relieved to finally be back in Massilia when she’s alive.”

/ Thanatos - "My closest friend and Silver Hunter. I wouldn’t trade him in for anyone else in the Roman Empire. I trust him with my life and I know I made no mistake when choosing him to be my second in command. I like the way he thinks and can keep a level head about things. We need that."

“If anything good came from leaving Massilia, which wasn’t much, it was that Thanatos took up my position as leader. He’ll be better than I ever was going to turn out to be. I’m not worried about leaving my friends in his paws...but, gods, I missed him. My Silver in Rome reminded me a lot of him, but it wasn’t the same. I’m excited to be side-by-side with my best friend again.”

/ /Shadow - "Shadow! I wish I had more time to spend sparring with her like we used to. But new responsibilities make that difficult, and I feel bad, but there’s not much I can do about it. She’s almost a full Hunter. I can’t wait to have her on our squad. I consider her another one of my close friends."

“So, she took up Silver? Good for her. She’ll do great there. I’m glad to see that she’s grown to be a nice-looking Hunter.”

/Juno - “I have a lot of respect for this cat. I’m glad she’s a Hunter now. Maybe one day she’ll be saving my ass, not the other way around. She’s a good friend and a good Hunter.”

/Furie - “Another cat I’m glad to have around, another friend. Although as far as I know, he needs to make a move on Juno. Like, quickly. I’ll have to start getting on his case about that.”

Selineen - "She walked into two different Empire's territories based on my word. I trust her. I don't care what anyone else says. She's proven herself to me."

Kleio - "Haven't talked to her much. She died? Well, that's unfortunate. However, a sand cat in a group of vicious killers...didn't seem likely that she would have survived long anyways."

/ Milla - "She abandoned us in a hunt! We needed all the cats we could get! And she just ran back to the city to...I don't know! Play with her cub or something! If she would have followed through and come to help...Caelina may not be dead, I would never have been captured...ugh! I just can't stand her. She's lost my respect. Next time I see her...you can guarantee it won't be pretty."

/ Torex - "I love his size. He's a huge asset to the Bounty Hunters. It comforts me to have him around, despite what I've heard about him."

“Aha, I missed that brute. I’ll be glad to see his hideous face again.”

Shadie - "She joined me in a hunt once, but she didn't really talk. She knows how to follow orders and such, so I have no reason to dislike her. Yet."

/ Ariyn - "She doesn't like me? Alright, then, I don't have to like her, either. She's too cold and standoffish anyways. However she came on the Lightning Empire raid and proved herself. She’s a good asset."

/ Iota - “…Hmph. Yeah, well. As much as I don’t like him and he disrespects me, we are exactly the same in different ways. Nonetheless, he doesn’t listen very well. Annoying as hell.”

/ Aella - "I like her. She listens well and seems like she has excellent potential to be a worthy Hunter."

Empire Cats

Valon - "Ah, Valon...this cat...I don't know what to say about him anymore. He's foolish. He's obsessed with keeping his Empire safe, even at the cost of his own life. He trusted me. That was a mistake, and he knew it, but he helped me anyways. Now, he's going to pay the price."

Avita - "Ah, she's the leaders mate? She shouldn't have tagged along on that meeting...it almost cost her her cubs. And Valon's life. She was foolish."

// Soren - "He offered us a new life...a life to serve him. That's a sick offer. Why would I want to leave my life as a Bounty Hunter...a free, unbounded Bounty Hunter...to live under his rules and his eyes? No thank you. Then, to add to that fact, he threw us out in the middle of nowhere to fend for ourselves! Caelina almost died because of him. He better watch his back, because once we're ready, the Bounty Hunters are coming for him."

“He’s...dead. I should be happy, right? I killed him. I watched his lifeless corpse get dragged into the arena and my owner was dumped with the spoils of his capture. But...he was my brother. I mean, it’s not my fault, I didn’t know he was my brother at the time. But after his death, I remembered well enough. I suppose I shouldn’t care. But I do, unfortunately. It bothers me that I ended his life; I might be the only one with my bloodline left alive. I’ve watched every single one of my siblings die, and I’ve been responsible for all of their deaths. How am I supposed to deal with that?”

Nimbus - "This cat..is huge. She's a brute and protects cats from other Empires. She, along with Valon, ruined our hunt. She is definitely not one of my favorite cats ever."

/ Brutus - "He's huge, he's strong, he's respectable, he's dangerous. It disappoints me that he's not a Bounty Hunter. He would be nice to have around. He’s as big as Troy!"

/ Andromeda - "I still hate everyone from Fire Empire. Nothing else to say about that."

/ Alynnia - "She doesn't know what she's getting herself into. If she wants to keep her head and dignity, she'll stay away. She should know better. I'm dangerous and would just end up hurting her. Which, I mean...as a Bounty Hunter, I really shouldn't mind, right? But...not in this way. This seems...petty. I need another excuse. Another way to get to her. I'm not sure what that is yet, but I'll figure it out eventually."

“Right now, I want nothing to do with her and those cubs. As far as I’m concerned, they’re not mine. They’ve never been mine. I just want to be back in Massilia and not worry about anything anymore, and least of all a bunch of offspring that no one knows about!”

Abiola - “Ha! This silly little scrap of fur thought he and his Empire could actually win. That’s far too…optimistic. You shouldn’t give your Empire false hope like that, Abiola. Now you’re dead, and your Empire is in ruins. Congratulations.”

Accalia - “She’s the reason most of her Empire is torn apart. She’s the reason we attacked. She should have known that betraying the Bounty Hunters was going to end well for no one. And now she’s paid the price. At least we have her in our paws again.”

Mako - “I think I can change him. I think he can be useful to me someday. I just have to earn his trust, first.”

Laertes - “He’s a good kid. Not just because he helped me, but just because he’s a good damn kid. I was skeptical, and I don’t think he really trusts me. But, to be honest, I wouldn’t trust me, either, if I was in his position.”

Thalia - “I’m sworn to protect her, and I will, even if it’s just for Laertes. That kid deserves everything good thing in this world, and if I can give him something even as simple as watching out for his loved ones, the by gods, I’m going to do it.”

Roleplay Example
Taken from a real roleplay

The surprise in Soren's eyes was plain. He wasn't trying to hide it. A wash of emotion flooded over Scaeden, but he didn't know exactly what it was. It wasn't quite satisfaction, but he wasn't disappointed either. He realized he had actually been expecting Soren to believe him. A part of him knew Soren was much more intuitive than the Air Empire leader. The fiery leader based his decisions off his mind, but his emotions were intertwined as well. Scaeden respected him for that, at a sort of hate-based level.

When Soren told Scaeden to call off the fight, Scaeden just nodded solemnly and turned his head to the green eyes in the bushes, which still watched him intensely. "Caelina. Go home. Shadie, go with her. Call a retreat." He caught a glimpse of Caelina's wounds through the dark trees, her fur soaked in her own blood. He didn't want her to die, he didn't want anyone to die. As much as he knew the others were crazy and half insane, they were still part of their own kind of "Empire". To enforce his orders and make sure Caelina followed them, he snarled, "Now."

He looked back to Soren, trusting Caelina to honor his words. Even pinned under the enemy with half his blood in a pool around him, he was still the leader of the ragtag group of Hunters, and they had to follow what he said. He said to Soren, "They'll be gone within a few minutes." He paused and thought, I'm sorry for any harm that may have come to your Empire. All we wanted was Valon. But he said nothing else out loud, for fear of upsetting Soren any more than he already had.

The moon shone bright as if it was attempting to fill in the darkness and empty spaces of the world. But Scaeden knew better than anyone else that there were some places in the deepest depths of the mind light would never touch.

This reference in under constant construction. It will keep changing as the character keeps developing.

For

Scaeden c) me