Dura Val Bobbidi Mechika

Tall and heavily muscled, Dura has green eyes and spiky light-green hair falling to his waist. His pointed ears each hold three black cartilage piercings, and a third eye sits on his forehead as it does on every Simurian. Between his eyes and ears run red facial markings shaped like three jagged lines over a dotted one, and a tattoo marks his upper back. For dress he favors robes of white and green, knotted at the waist with a sash of purple; unlike what Maru and Cross wear, his version carries no green collar.

Kind, far-sighted, and principled, Dura held views that set him apart from his fellow Rumelians. The Deskunte had wiped out his village and slain his people, yet he nursed no hatred, pushing instead for peaceful coexistence and arguing that real change demanded work from both sides and that Rumel must reform itself before chasing vengeance. He built the canal to forge a bond with Deskunte, convinced that peoples accept their differences more easily once something joins them, and he called neighbors those who grasp why your treasured things matter, a creed that sank deep into Maru and Cross.

Sharp and wise, he forever weighed lasting results over fleeting emotion, treating the canal not as the appeasement others accused it of being but as a path toward connection, better living conditions for Rumel, and fresh trade, and even sabotage could not bait him into wasting effort on conflict. His pacifism, however, was never naive. Being a warrior, he knew strife sometimes could not be dodged when his people needed defending, so he agreed to fight as the champion of Rumel against Deskunte in a duel, even knowing he might be set against his stronger friend Dabura Karaba. His grasp of the warrior's path ran deep, for he held that genuine strength only shows itself against a foe able to beat you, and the imprint of his character lingered in Dabura, Maru, and Cross.

Born on Simuria into the Rumel Tribe, Dura was best friends with Dabura Karaba before the exile, the two spurring each other toward greater skill; since Dabura shrank from attention, only Dura understood his real power. Walking together one day, Dura asked why his friend never warmed to the other Deskunte, then, after a misunderstanding, made clear he valued Dabura as his only fitting rival while fretting that Dabura had grown cut off among his own kin. Dabura answered that the proud Deskunte warriors envied his crushing strength and could not accept him, and that fighting held no appeal for him; Dura only laughed, told him he had read his own heart wrong, and insisted his friend had failed to grow into a true warrior simply because no real battle had ever tested him, vowing he would see the truth on the day a foe strong enough to threaten him appeared.

Even with the matches fixed for Deskunte and their war chief in the field, Dura took the tournament before the exile. Around twelve years ago the Deskunte burned the Rumelian village for sparing the Kalyans, killing many and banishing the survivors to barren land; Dura rightly read the religious excuse as cover for grabbing Rumel's mul quarry. Alone, he set about building a canal between Deskunte and Shaama. When an elder asked him to mind some children jailed for theft, he agreed only grudgingly, and the moment he met Maru and Cross the twins came at him swinging.