Nemoran is a character which returned from the depths of my memory just today. Years ago, I've toyed with the concept of a boy assassin, hunting down highwaymen and other outlaws as a revenge for his destroyed village.

The idea didn't work out, so I had given up on it. And now suddenly it came back to me.

In his current shape, Nemoran is a mixed-blood orphan in the human city of Iretri. His family died in a pogrom that took place in the non-human district of the city ten years ago. It had a terrible effect on the little boy's psyche. Since that time, many openly racist inhabitants of Iretri - and a number of less intolerant, or at least less vocal ones - have died a sudden and sometimes gruesome death.

As I mentioned, Nemoran is of mixed heritage; his father was a half-elf, while his mother was human. The pointed ears and the color of his right eye (it's violet; the other one is blue) are the only visible signs of the elven blood, aside from his slow aging - being 20 years old, he looks as though he's 15.

The metal sticks in his hair are actually long and thick needles he uses to stab his victims; working as an errand boy for an alchemist, he learned a bit about poisons, which he uses to coat the needles. He prefers those that paralyze the victim, leaving him numb but conscious, or ones that cause slow, but painful agony.

In a word, he's a teen serial killer on a rampage. And as always with serial killers, he maintains a facade of a nice, helpful kid.

I've had an idea to intertwine his story with Shumila's... but that's all in the future.