Jax sketchpage (finished)

A few people were asking to know more about Jax, so I'll write it out here, to read or ignore as you please. ;) 

Jax grew up in the household of Matthew Falconblade, a Witchhunter of the Order of the Flaming Spear, in Kenabres. It wasn't long before he realised he was not Matthew's biological son - Matthew never married, and with his dark complexion, Jax looked very different from his adopted father's family. When he asked about this, Matthew told him he had been abandoned as a toddler, and Jax never thought to ask any more questions. Parents who had abandoned him were obviously not worth his attention. 

What did bother Jax was that he was never allowed to play outside without anyone watching over him. He didn't understand why - after all, other children were allowed outside without adult supervision. He did have a lot of playmates in the Order, but as he grew older, and even his playmates were allowed to go outside, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Soon, he had become very adept at sneaking outside without anyone noticing, scaling walls and climbing ledges, and after a while even a locked door couldn't stop him. He found that people outside would sometimes eye him with suspicion, so he developed even more of a knack at dissolving into shadows before anyone could stop  him and ask questions. His little ventures remained mostly unnoticed. Apart from this disobedience, Jax proved an eager pupil for the teachings of Iomedae, the deity his father served, and grew up with a pretty sound moral compass. Matthew did not pressure him to enter Iomedae's service, and Jax sensed that some of the higher-ups in the temple disapproved of him for some reason, but the arrangement worked fairly well for several years.

Things changed when he found, at the age of nine or so, that he was growing horns. 

When challenged, Matthew finally told Jax that he had not, as previously assumed, found the boy in the streets of Kenabris, but in the Worldwound itself - that terrible place just outside the city where, a century before, demons had ripped apart the land to create an opening to the mortal plane, and where Matthew had been part of a warband of Paladins to fight demons. Jax was a Tiefling, descended from a demon, and these unhappy creatures were often killed on sight in Kenabres. Jax was lucky that he was able to pass as more or less human (some tail surgery had apparently been involved when he was very small, but he doesn't remember that). 

Jax was furious that his father had not told him such important things, and could not see that Matthew had been trying to protect him; had, indeed, fought even people in his own order who had opted to kill him. Angry and bitter, he left the house at night and strayed around the city until he found a group of shady adventurers who didn't ask many questions, but promised to take him to the Worldwound with them. 

The tales of the Worldwound had not quite managed to convince Jax just how terrible a place it truly was. Led by a childish sense of belonging, he had envisioned himself somehow finding his true parents, but when he left the adventuring party to venture forth on his own, he soon found himself faced with the demonic inhabitants of the Worldwound, who didn't care that he was just a boy - he was fresh meat, and that was enough. Jax' fledgling talents of concealment were no match for demons. He would have been killed on the first day, if it hadn't been for the Lady.

Jax never found out who she was. He remembered her as beautiful but filled with sadness. She appeared out of nowhere, just as demons were closing in to kill him, and incredibly, drove them off with her bow. She protected him as they made their way out of the Worldwound, and when Jax finally saw a band of knights with his father at their head, he turned around to find she had vanished. 

Jax realised how insane his little trip had been, and wondered whether his demon blood had led him to such anger and irrational behaviour. He has been almost scared of his demonic heritage ever since, and didn't need any more persuasion from his father to keep his Tiefling traits hidden. He files off his horns and lets his hair grow so they won't be too conspicuous, and has discovered the advantages of hoods when he is out in public. As far as he is concerned, Matthew and the Order is all the family he needs.