Everyone, meet the Wintergeist. Winter, meet the world. Now get out of my head, you adorable little mute, I'm trying my damndest to write something completely unrelated to you.


So, a brief synopsis on who/what Winter is: Medieval setting, obviously. Completely mute, not even a vocal tone when he fights. He rides a grumpy dapple grey mare and safeguards people in the wilds, but can be drawn to gatherings like celebrations or small towns. He's very active and friendly despite his mutism and gives the impression that he's completely fearless, taking on opponents much larger than himself... Which are many for the time, considering he's only 5'10". Despite his near reckless antics and daring do, he does show a paralytic fear of water. Something as simple as filling his canteen at a stream has left him frozen in place, but his mare appears to know when this happens. More than once has she been seen putting some distance between him and water, either by trotting away when she feels him lock up in the saddle or going as far as dragging him away by his cloak if he's on foot. The Wintergeist may be fleet of foot and a hellion with his blades, but he obviously depends greatly on his nameless mare to get him by. He has trained her incredibly well and in the rare times he is incapacitated, she has been seen fiercely guarding him even in combat until he comes to. Though he does have this incredibly close bond with the mare, he also has a natural gift for handling horses in particular, even as much as getting other riders' horses to betray them at times.
His mask, which consists of a wolf skull with antlers attached to it, moves so accurately with his own face that many believe it to actually be his face, but there are in fact numerous clasps and fasteners holding it there. So deliberately numerous, in fact, that it appears as though it's not meant to come off at all... No one has seen the face behind the mask. He has even been seen eating and sleeping with it on, and despite it being purely bone, he is so accustomed to it that he can make its movements quite expressive. The mask is of great importance to him, and this was made evident at one point in his history when his opponent in a sparring match had him pinned and attempted to remove it, causing him to suddenly overpower the man many times his size and accidentally injure him. Whether this reaction was panic or rage is unknown, but after coming out of the state he was shown to feel terrible about the incident. Neither of them had attempted the situation again.
The Wintergeist is known for causing mischief and mayhem on his own, but it is common knowledge that he rides with a roaming group of bandits and mercenaries. Most notably, despite the varying coming and going of members, he remains with a particularly large old mercenary and the man's brother-in-arms. The two mercenaries obviously share a close connection with the Wintergeist, especially the older man, but neither will say why. They talk to him comfortably nonetheless, seeming to know his various hand gestures and quips as though they'd known him all his life, even calling him by his nickname "Winter" instead of by his publicly-given title. Nonetheless, he will be seen with them for a day or two at a time, then disappear at some point to wreak his friendly havoc upon the land on his own once again. While the Wintergeist is seen to be a swift and determined protector of underdogs and can be quite the prankster even toward his fellow men, the old man seems to treat him gently, in a way. They were once accused of being father and son, though neither of them were around to argue either for or against the notion.



The Wintergeist ©  markoh Now please get out of my head and let me get back to writing my series, you adorable little shit.