A grad student and fledgling adventurer. He left his rural hometown behind for the opportunities presented in the capital city, Kimaris.
Kerri's a boisterous, cheery man whose well-trained eye fails to make up for his lack of social knowledge.
Knives and daggers are the tools of his trades. While he knows spellcasting in theory, in practice he can only manage volatile, close-range spells.
When the Kingdom of Wywick called for troops, Kerri's parents fled the capital to hide out in in rural Milluria. Past wars had already devastated them and their families, and they hoped to live quiet lives away from conflict. The journey was troublesome, with Kerri born on the way instead of at town like they hoped. It wasn't long after that his father perished, victim to bandit and monster attacks.
Under the cirumstances, Kerri was born looking unlike either his parents or the townspeople. Being awkward, too loud, and the youngest by a large margin didn't help either. Between a mother who spent more time hunting than at home and the other kids shunning him, Kerri spent a lot of time alone. He made his own fun eavesdropping on people, watching the adults work, and skipping school to pester the town guard.
With time, Kerri grew into a sturdy young man. His mother may have been distant, but she kept him well-fed and enforced strict training. Kerri was always eager to help everyone he came across even though he often struggled to curb his enthusiasm - or strength. It endeared him to some of the townfolk, seeing as Uvall was always in need of help, and he did his best at whatever work he could get. That managed to be enough.
As soon as he had grown enough, he joined his mother outside town for work. Butchering catches, hauling equipment, and hunting animals and monsters alike became part of his daily life. It was an unsteady kind of peace.
On a warm day in a forgettable year, a teenaged Kerri was wandering a ways from town. Even after the bullying stopped, he never found a reason to stay within its walls. Perhaps a dungeon nearby had been opened and adventurers failed to clean it out. Maybe it was just an unlucky day. By the time he returned home, monsters had torn through most of Uvall. The mediocre guard was barely a match for them.
Kerri had only a small knife on him, but he immediately got to work. He'd killed monsters before, but never alone or so many. By the time an adventuring party arrived on the scene, Kerri had torn through most of the horde single-handedly. Even so, he'd collapsed soon after and was consigned to bedrest for months. It gave him time to learn using and making his own canes - a necessity after the attack.
The graveyard saw plenty more visitors after, and the work to rebuild Uvall's defenses took a good few years. But the tavern had a new story to entertain itself with - Kerri tearing through beasts like a man posessed, hauling three injured to safety while limping and bloodied, the little Byrd boy, can you believe it? And they say that the day after the attack, Kerri had to be dragged back home lest he dig every new grave himself.
Despite his shoddy attendance rate and small-town schooling, Kerri knew enough to be accepted to universities. It was a fresh start to try more than back-breaking labor and killing things, maybe.
His undergraduate years were tumultuous, but relatively uneventful. The most exciting thing was always compiling his latest struggles in letters to his mom. Whenever he could make the time for it, he would venture back out the city walls to have a little fun - camping, fishing, getting mistaken for an adventurer because he certainly was eccentric enough. With no other career options in sight, he began to lean into it.
Between forgetting to register his accomplishments with the Guardian Blades and struggling through spellcasting classes, Kerri eked out a bare minimum existence for himself. Extra money was to be sent home - guild-backed messengers only, of course - and he picked up jobs between the adventuring gigs. Still, Kerri found himself much more welcomed in Kimaris than he had been at his hometown.
Grad school was much of the same, but Kerri's finally sleeping on a futon instead of a towel on the floor. As far as he's concerned, everything's turned up. Eventually, his adventuring career might even take off, and he could get his mom to move in with him...!
The exceptionally pink Kerri is unusual even for RPG standards - but he wasn't made to be a party member. Kerri's just a fancharacter for JRPG homage Legends of Empyria.
Kerri was inspired by shiny Dunsparce. This got obscured as he was also inspired by spiky-haired anime boys.