{
  "character": {
    "id": "b64f9720-7140-4d13-9c94-af944b5819d8",
    "slug": "alden",
    "name": "Alden",
    "race": "Human",
    "character_class": "Fighter/Ranger",
    "jan_favorite": false,
    "is_ff_portrait": true,
    "profile_url": "https://framedfantasy.com/pages/hero?h=alden",
    "character_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/alden",
    "character_json_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/alden.json",
    "character_markdown_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/alden.md",
    "original_image_url": "https://obadckrukccwkjgpbsxa.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/portraits/1780367151783_qbb9y6.webp",
    "image_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/images/alden",
    "thumbnail_url": "https://obadckrukccwkjgpbsxa.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/portraits/1780367151783_qbb9y6_thumb.webp",
    "crop": {
      "x": 50,
      "y": 100,
      "zoom": 100
    },
    "story_excerpt": "Alden was raised in a village near his kingdom’s castle, where he grew up idolizing the knights who served the crown. Their shining armor, their mighty steeds, and the tales of conquest and glory filled his boyhood dreams. From an early age, he knew he was destined to become a knight.\nAnd he did.\nAl",
    "story": "Alden was raised in a village near his kingdom’s castle, where he grew up idolizing the knights who served the crown. Their shining armor, their mighty steeds, and the tales of conquest and glory filled his boyhood dreams. From an early age, he knew he was destined to become a knight.\nAnd he did.\nAlden rose to prominence as the youngest member of his knightly cohort. His unparalleled skill with a sword set him apart from his peers. Even in full armor, his movements were a blur of deadly precision. He would challenge multiple knights at once, and emerge victorious every time.\nHis first assignment was to join a battalion sent to quell an insurrection along the southern border. He was eager to prove himself, certain that his mission would be a testament to his dedication to the kingdom.\nIt wasn’t an insurrection. It was a massacre.\nThe king, in a fit of paranoia, had ordered the extermination of an entire town, burning it to the ground as a brutal warning to anyone daring to question his rule. Alden realized too late that his sword was to be used not in the service of justice, but in the service of tyranny.\nUnable to reconcile his duty with the horror of the truth, Alden defected, fleeing the kingdom to avoid execution. He was quickly hired by a mercenary company, who valued his exceptional swordsmanship. But in time, Alden discovered that these mercenaries, too, were driven by greed rather than any noble cause. They slaughtered for coin, just as the knights had slaughtered for the crown.\nDisillusioned, Alden retreated from society. He discarded his sword and fashioned a simple bow, learning to live off the land in the fringes of civilization. He came to believe that true peace could only be found in solitude, far from the reach of those who sought power.\nYears later, Alden has made only two true companions: a pair of crows, Phobos and Deimos, whom he found abandoned as chicks. He raised them, and they have been by his side ever since. Their bond is unbreakable, and in many ways, they are his family.\nAlden’s clothing is simple—worn leather and an earthy cloak—but he still carries the poise of a soldier, the disciplined grace of a knight, despite his current life in the wild. His arrows are fletched with the feathers of his crows, a testament to his connection with them. He’s a man caught between two worlds, straddling the edge of the civilized and the wild.\nPhobos and Deimos are named after the twin gods of fear and dread in Greek mythology, sons of Ares, the god of war. In many ways, Alden is a reflection of Ares—both a warrior and a man who has been shaped by the violence and destruction of war. However, unlike Ares, Alden struggles with the weight of what it means to be a soldier, and whether the violence he once embodied can ever be reconciled with the man he hopes to be."
  }
}