Basalt Crown

Basalt Crown is an Earth Pony Mercenary who uses Lithomancy, an otherwise undocumented form of magic which manipulates the shapes, temperatures, and properties of stone, without direct need for a unicorn horn, or other method of arcane manipulation.

Appearance
Basalt is a physically Imposing earth pony, standing a hair above the height of Big Macintosh. Usually, he is covered in a thick suit of armor, which doesn't seem to hinder his movement despite it's bulk, along with a large, blunt sword/club carved with unknown runes.

Beneath his armor, Basalt has a slate grey coat, his relatively short mane and tail colored in light rust red and greyish blue. his coat is thick but wiry, and hides a decent number of scars from various battles, though nowhere near as many as his combat history would suggest he should have.

Basalt's Armor
Basalt's stonework armor is a bizarre, almost artful piece of engineering, seeming to take less of a toll on the pony than even a standard suit of royal guard armor would. it seems to have plenty of moving parts, but no externally visible hinges or straps, little to none of the pony's body left exposed while he fights. some small sections of the armor are covered in similar runes as his sword, but they are few and far between, and usually on larger stone plates, like the pauldrons or chest-piece.

The Story So Far
As of this moment, very little is known about Basalt, even less to the ponies around him. He is a stallion of very few words, and he becomes very apprehensive to speak when he's questioned directly about past events

IC Knowledge
Basalt is a stoic mercenary who works with the small but expensive Iron Dawn Mercenary Company. Contacts with the company claim he is specialized in Caravan protection, Civilian Escort, and Raid operations. His accent is thin, but close enough to a Stalliongrad accent to give a rough idea of where he originates from. His reputation is somewhat widely known in bandit circles, some clans even offering bounties on him. His reasons for entering the tournament were ultimately unknown.

OOC Knowledge
Basalt is a pony who isn't entirely mentally stable. after a somewhat rough upbringing, and a castigation from his parents over learning Lithomancy, he made his own way. He believes most, if not all, of his family dead.

His brother, who he believed may have followed directly after him when he left after receiving a scornful letter from his parents that he'd run away, has never been seen again to Basalt's knowledge. His parents are assumed dead after a raid on his village in retribution for the clearing of a Saddle Arabian bandit camp, and it's immediate burial under yards of sand.

Basalt mainly blames himself for any deaths that occur even tangentially to his actions, a small portion of the runes of his sword actually a memorial, recanting the names of the dead.

Basalt's Lithomancy is also of mostly unknown origin, his mysterious teacher nowhere to be found, only the vaguest description, that she was a spindly white pony with a mane the same color in leather armor, entirely without a cutie mark. a surprising few claim to have ever seen a pony matching that description, while others believe the "teacher" to be a diversion from another source of learning.

Trivia

 * Basalt is largely based on a semi-former OC of mine, a pony named Thunderhead if memory served, a terribly brash pony who wielded a heavy hammer
 * The other Iron Crown mercenaries are wandering around, and they may soon make an appearance depending on where I want Basalt's character to go, the same goes for a few other key figures in his history.
 * If you think you know the identity of Basalt's mentor, there's a surprisingly good chance you're right.