Crow

I have no idea who I was. Whatever memory it is that you long for has vacated my head completely.

– Crow of Khaede, to Lirius Thanred

Crow of Khaede is one of the three protagonists of Forlorn Saga and the central figure of its first installment. He is a sentient Undead—a man who has returned from death, whole in both body and spirit, yet retaining no memory of his former life. At the beginning of the story, Crow has settled in the small village of Khaede after years spent wandering the Perinian lands bordering the Red Forest. There, living in poverty and subject to extortion by the local innkeeper Tedrick, he attempts to make a home for himself. His undeath is a source of constant anxiety: in several previous settlements, the discovery of his nature led locals armed with pitchforks and torches to drive him away.

Appearance

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Crow is a man of short stature and gaunt build. At 177 centimetres tall, he measures much below the average height of an Eternal male. His weight clearly indicates that he must’ve been severely underfed at the moment of his death. His undeath, if no effort is made on Crow’s part to conceal it, is obvious at first glance. His skin is corpse grey and wraps his body tightly, sharpening the already angular features of his face: prominent cheekbones, and pointed, crooked nose. His eyes are sunken with dark bags underneath them, and while the purple color of his irises is a relatively usual trait among Eternals, the faint glow that they emit is not.

Crow’s hair is raven-black, straight and long, extending beyond his shoulderblades and halfway down his back. He also sports a bushy black beard. Despite Crow’s death, his hair has retained its former, living beauty, bearing a healthy shine and lush thickness. Although both his hair and facial hair resist being cut and grow back to their original length every time such an attempt is made, they accept grooming and styling, such as brushing or tying them up. Their state is tangled and messy when the reader is introduced to Crow, but as soon as the Undead gains the means to care for them properly, he puts great effort into making them look good. Crow often remarks that his hair and beard are the only two things he actually likes about his current appearance.

Due to the precarity of his circumstances at the beginning of the story, Crow has little choice when it comes to clothing. He owns only a single set, consisting of a rather ragged shirt, trousers and a long coat, as well as a tattered black scarf. The scarf is by far Crow’s most prized possession. He wears it drawn high over his face at all times, attempting to conceal his undeath from the world as much as possible. As the story progresses and Crow’s satchel fills, the clothes he chooses for himself are consistently black and slightly old-fashioned in their cuts and patterns.

WARNING: Potential spoilers for things which have not been published on AO3!

Crow’s appearance differs from that of a typical Eternal. His face lacks the nigh-perfect symmetry and radiant beauty inherent to most of his kin, and while he could pass as a good-looking mortal man, by Imperial standards he is a rather ugly individual. He is also considerably shorter than most Eternal men, and his teeth lack the characteristic elongated, sharp fangs. This is due to Crow being a Child of the Murrain—the offspring of a woman who suffered from the illness during her pregnancy.