Ranulf the Vast
Description: A man who stands over 8 feet tall, massively built with a mane of blond hair, he looks to be no more than 20 summers old, but his complexion is a bit sallow, and he has an off-putting air about him. Despite his apparent youth, he walks with a seasoned confidence, carrying himself in a way that makes him seem older than his apparent years.
Personality: Ranulf is cheerful and friendly, and a bit bewildered by the reaction people now have to him. He’s always been quite unobservant and easily lost; but since the change his memory has begun to fail him, and he’s become very absent-minded, which he’s not used to dealing with yet. (He doesn’t remember that he’ll forget things, so he relies on his memory more than he should.)
Background: Ranulf was born into a minor noble household in Normandy. He grew rapidly, enough to receive the special attention of the church from an early age, but they found nothing untoward, and no adverse reaction to being baptized, blessed, exorcised, and carefully examined by those with the divine powers to see deep into the souls of men. He was just a young man, who stood taller than a horse by his twelfth birthday, and once accepted as nothing unholy; he became a squire at an early age, and went riding off with King Richard on his quixotic crusade. He was knighted along the way, and fought alongside the king for many years in various battles, including the last one, at Limousin.
He then took up arms under King John, and was part of the series of battles which saw the loss of Normandy to King Philip, his family’s lands being among many that were claimed by cousins who sided with France. He fought in the Barons’ war afterward, but by this time people were starting to notice, and comment on, the fact that he must be in his late forties, but still appeared to be a youth of twenty summers. This led to another surge of suspicion and church attention, which he again subjected himself to and was proven pure; so it was decided that his persistent youth was a divine blessing to match his great size.
Ranulf took many wounds in many battles, but his worst was in the battle of Lincoln, in 1217. Insensate, with a gaping hole in his midsection where it had been pierced by a lance, it was assumed he was dying; and he was given extreme unction and left in his bed overnight while others less severely wounded were tended to.
When a different priest came in the morning to lay him to rest, he found that Ranulf was not only alive, but awake, though hardly able to move or speak. He recovered over several months, and when he was finally up and about, expecting to resume his service, he that Henry had no use for him anymore, and while he was still a knight under oath, he was considered unlucky and nobody wanted him in battle, and it was quietly suggested that he make his own way in the world, to be called upon if needed.
Unsure of what to do with himself, he wandered the country, aimless and in fact lost.
