Ibn Sabur

First Blood • Khan of the BloodbornIbn Sabur was not born to lead, he was forged into it.As a child of the Azim Steppe, he knew the warmth of tribe and the strength of blood. Then it was taken from him. His people were lost, his home swallowed by hardship, and before he was old enough to understand the cruelty of the world, Ibn was sold into the flesh trade of Ul'dah.The Steppe had taught him how to survive.Ul'dah taught him how to endure.He found himself beneath the sands of the pit fighting rings, where men bought blood and called it sport. There, with nothing left to lose, Ibn learned the only law that mattered:Stand. Fight. Survive.He fought until his name became known. He fought until the chains that held him could no longer hold him. And when freedom finally came, he carried something out of those pits that no master could ever take from him—his will.Now Ibn Sabur has returned to his own kind.He leads The Bloodborn not from a throne, but from the front of the line. He asks no warrior to walk where he would not walk himself. He carries the scars of his past without shame and bears the weight of his people without complaint.He is not loud.He does not need to be.His strength is found in the silence before a fight, the hand that steadies a frightened kin, and the certainty in his eyes when others falter.Ibn does not apologize for leading.He does not ask permission to protect his people.He does not bend simply because the world demands it.Now that he has returned to the Steppes—he intends to ensure that what remains of his people will never again be taken without a fight.He is Bloodborn.
He is The First of His Line.
And he will stand before his people until there is no breath left in him to stand.

• CARRD

Ava Sira

Xaela Healer • Bloodborn Companion • Keeper of the Old WaysBorn beneath the endless sky of the Azim Steppe, Ava Sira was raised among a small Xaela tribe where the old ways were not stories, but survival. From an early age, she was taught to read the land, recognize the language of wounds, and gather what the earth was willing to give. By adulthood, she had become a healer—keeper of herbs, bones, blood, and the quiet rites spoken over the dying.But the Steppe changes those who walk it.Whatever drove Ava from her birth tribe, she does not speak of it freely. Some say she left after a blood debt. Others whisper that she carries the name of an ancestor who should have remained forgotten. Ava herself offers only a knowing smile when questioned.Now she serves The Blood Bound, bringing with her the healing traditions of her people and a reverence for the old ways that borders on devotion. She is particularly devoted to Ibn Sabur, whose side she rarely strays from. Whether she serves as healer, confidant, or something more complicated remains unclear.Quiet and watchful, Ava is not quick to anger—but neither is she quick to forgive.She believes blood remembers.She believes the dead still listen.And she knows that some wounds are never meant to be healed.

To the Bloodbound, blood is more than lineage.
It is memory.
It is the blood of ancestors spilled beneath the Steppe, the blood shared between family, the blood shed in battle, and the blood that binds one generation to the next.
Every member of the tribe is taught that they are merely a keeper of what was entrusted to them. Their duty is not simply to survive, but to ensure that the traditions, stories, songs, rites, and names of their ancestors survive with them.
Their central belief is simple:
A people dies not when its blood is spilled, but when its descendants forget who spilled it.
The Bloodbound therefore cling fiercely to the old ways. They maintain ancestral rites, honor the dead, preserve oral histories, practice traditional hunting and horsemanship, and teach their children the customs of their forebears.
But tradition alone cannot feed a starving child.
And that is where the tribe's greatest struggle begins.

Text