Sir Doron Kullens

Age: 49 [currently]

Personality: Professional, blunt, and yet with a jovial uncle-esque side to him at times. Values his fellow Templar knights on the level of brothers and the younger members, especially the young initiates whom he likes to call “cubs,” as he values collaboration and familial bonds. To him, enduring pain can be necessary as an obstacle for any manner of success in the long run, so therefore pushes himself as hard as possible to work through pain especially for those around him. Sir Doron takes his lessons seriously to the highest extent given the challenges the order faces. One of his drives also is to honor his family legacy proud of protecting his home and nation.

Appearance: As an ursine Sir Doron is tall and quite muscular. Has grey-brown fur and with as well as having brown eyes. After a lifetime of combat in the field and ring he has multiple scars on his torso. Usually dons the red and white armor of the Templar Order, and off duty he wears a brown tunic, trousers, and shoes. While in private prayer (in a matter of speaking) and in wrestling a brown loincloth. Plus, he always wears a crucifix necklace and a Star Of David necklace, both representing his dual Jewish and Catholic backgrounds which he views as equal sides to him.

Height: Over 7 feet.

Species: Grizzly Bear.

Current Status: Leading combat teacher and Hebrew instructor, as well as the Vice Commander of the Irish sect of The Order Of The Knights Templar.

Background: Born in the year 1224 at a town at what is now the border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the country to a veteran to Crusades, Aaron Kullens, and the daughter of an Israeli rabbi known as Ruth who converted to Catholicism when marrying her husband. Aaron encountered Ruth during his time in the Holy Land saving the fellow bear and her family of a brother and parents from being killed by Turkish Saracens who tried to murder and rob them. The family moved to Ireland as refugees. The two fell in love soon after and married 2 years before the birth of their first son. Ruth became a Catholic Christian to marry him and while her family had some reservations about this, they let it slide as she still adhered to her Jewish traditions and customs and vowed to raise her children in them as well, which Aaron had no objections to. Plus, they respected the soldier knight for saving their lives.

Seven years after him, Doron had a little brother, David, whom he would love very much. Doron and eventually his brother would live a mostly normal, though interesting childhood, basically living in the countryside and in between two cultures, something he would not grasp the whole ramifications of until his adolescent years. Doron began to understand how his mother and her side of the family had a different form of worship and customs and even language. As an adolescent he learned what it truly meant to be ethnically Jewish and his roots in the Holy Land. Something that would be a factor later in adult life’s direction. The lad eagerly learned the language of Hebrew. After a time, he became quite fluent in it.

The young bear grew up on stories his father told him and his brother about his time in active service to his country and his duties in the Holy Land. About his training in physical combat from fisticuffs to swordplay, about the travels to and from the Holy Land of Israel, to the combat he engaged in while risking his life for his duty and his comrades, & how he met their mother. These stories had a major impact on Doron’s life and he found them inspirational. The more he heard, the more he felt impelled to take up his father’s old line of work to at least defend his birthplace. This was furthered by how he watched his father keep his combat skills up defending his town as a law man.

As the two grew, both brothers were taught by their father about the importance of working efficiently, and the two got a decent education in their area as a result of their father’s standing, some of it at home. Though as a result, he only made a handful of friends due to his focus, but they would be close together. One thing he loved doing with them was learning to spar, based on what he heard from his father from swordplay with sticks or tools like brooms, to play-wrestling with each other. The boy would get a few bruises from this, but he would keep going. Doron’s brother David would go on to be involved in architectural construction as he entered adulthood. As for Doron, his mind made up by the news of the ongoing defense of the Holy Land and of local crime happenings decided to follow his father’s path and enlist as a knight, but he chose the order of the Knights Templar instead of his father Aaron’s group in order to make it more his own. Aaron was somewhat reluctant, but he admired his son’s drive to stand for his country. He too had heard seen the Templar’s exploits while posted in Jerusalem and could not deny they had great formation and strong connections too. So, he and his wife reached out to the local bishop and the request was made to the Templar compound in Dublin. After a month the request was accepted and Doron at the age of 16 became a Templar initiate.

His parents both saw him off, it was a major step in his life, aside from seeing the world outside his hometown he was going Southward and going to see the big city, and then enlist for service and quite possibly be deployed to the Holy Land if called upon to do so. Doron before leaving in his emotional farewells with his family promised he would stay in touch and visit if he could.

Reaching the Temple compound, Doron was given residence with other recruits whom, to his interest, he saw as around age and even a couple decades older. The first year of his time in training was par for the course. The teachers he went through, including the Grandmaster at the time, a white wolf known as Oliver Kanis, noted that while the young grizzly bear was keen in some areas of study more than one [due to his unique upbringing] especially learning history and language, he also had a major willingness to throw himself into a fray with others. While a somewhat rough around the edges, Doron had the gist of collaboration and seemed looking for a challenge and had seemed to be forming bonds with some of his fellow initiates. Well, this would need to be channeled properly if he is to be in combat situations. The middle aged Grandmaster took note that the young ursine clearly must have come from a veteran family given his desire to just throw into duty with a crew, as his only reaction to setbacks or pain experienced or inflicted from anywhere was to redouble, of which there was plenty in the grueling physical training. Discipline, clearly was there, but some slight refining/refocusing was to take place. So after a year into his Templar training, the instructors with approval from the Grandmaster decided to increase his involvement in more party-oriented coordinated training, from team combat to scaling.

This soon led to Arthur meeting who would become his closest friend in the Templar Order, a grey wolf known as Arthur Lupous who was also the son of a former soldier, but the young lupine was seemingly lacking drive and connection. Arthur, while four years older than Doron who was now 17 at the time, was fit, but not as tall as the grizzly. It was during their first days in physical combat training, both with weapons and without, Lupous had his first crushing loss. He had been bested in combat training before, but outside of instructors, nothing like this. Doron had a ferocity, but most of all, he loved physical combat, especially when it was with hand to hand combat and later with heavy weapons. This was the point Arthur Lupous’ life started to turn around. It was during his first wrestling session did he really get a sense of it. Doron excelled at it, having gained some training from his father before joining the Templar Order. He would almost always win with most of the students, including Arthur, his favorite move being a devastating bear hug. Out of all the students, he had the most fun with Arthur. There was something about the wolf that fascinated him, likely his drive. Arthur at times did not want to give up, even when pinned down. After their first lesson, Doron went to him after-hours and spoke with him to get to know him. He was reluctant at first, but a dialogue began mostly casual about their time in training. The young grizzly bear challenged him to a wrestling match while no-one else was around in the store-room nearby. Arthur, never to turn down a challenge accepted. While he ended up losing, it was after a struggle, and the wolf realized he needed this thrill, to vent and motivate.

Over the following weeks, Doron continued to grow closer to him with more dialogue and even more personal spars. The wolf was interested as it was the first time in a while someone actually reached out to understand him outside of the teachers. Arthur had mostly kept to himself when he began, feeling he alone must bear the burden of his sins, but that had proved unsustainable as time went on as he had to perform more collaborative training and learning. Arthur opened up to Doron about his background, about his family, his life going from an emotional high when the young wolf fell in love to an crushing low when he got the love of his life pregnant and she died birthing that child, to being denied even visitation rights to his daughter, to the shame the whole affair brought on him and his family, and how he sought redemption and absolution for his sins by doing service for his land. The only other time he had done this was with the Grandmaster, being a concerned older lupine, able to gain his trust. The two reached understanding seeing they both had strong drives, one for redemption, the other to make family proud. Both related to family in different ways.

It was from here on in, Arthur Lupous would begin to be more open and also begin making friends and true comrades in the Order with Doron by his side. The young man continued to hone his skills via continued with studies from refining his Latin, to Hebrew, to serious theology, as well as refining his own knowledge of his land’s history, and also advanced combat training. With his friend who became like a brother, Arthur, by his side, pushing through any difficulty he faced started to become natural. The ursine was also happy to see his new brother was seemingly finding a new lease on life with the Templar Order as time passed.

At the age of 24, Doron was ordained as a knight of the Templar Order and was dubbed Sir Doron Kullens. His fellow Templar recruit brother Arthur became Sir Arthur Lupous at the age of 28. It was a milestone for the two in their lives. By this point, Doron had become a different man with a grown outlook on the world than the dreaming bear cub who grew up on stories of the past. The two were to be deployed to the Holy Land immediately placed at the Templar outpost in Acre.

The travel to the Israeli lands was tough, but the two, who were now like brothers, made it through together. Along the way through land and waterway the two continued to hone their skills in armed combat such as with swords, maces, axes, etc., and unarmed combat through means such as wrestling and boxing with each. This also included doing so with their fellow Templar knights and with knights from the other traveling Orders such as the Hospitalers. At times, it became even fun for the two trying to outdo each other. Usually it was Arthur who won or tied at armed combat, particularly swordplay. It was the other way around with Doron and unarmed combat with the grizzly triumphing or tying, especially with wrestling. These often ended with the two on the ground and laughing.

Once at the Holy Land, his ancestral home which was quite the marvel to see up close, Doron would get his first taste of real warfare in defending against Islamist rogues, especially Seljuk jihadis. It would take him about a year to get settled into this place far away from Ireland, but he was not alone. Doron had his new family with Arthur and his fellow Templar brothers by his side he had found a new life and purpose. The grey wolf never ceased to write letters home when he could. Arthur and Doron would spend ten years in the Holy Land. The two would lose many brothers in arms there, while gaining new ones along the way and many lives would be saved in their Order’s campaign and duties. There were as many victories as there were losses. Sir Doron ended up with multiple scars on his form that could often be covered with new armor and sometimes his thick fur. The knight eventually rose in position as a commander of his division in the later years of his service. Doron did not let the pain get to him and he embraced the scars, seeing it all as a badge of honor. He became battle hardened both on the inside and out, the same with his closest partner. The two never lost their competitive spirit with each other though, something that would never go away. It was one of the things that kept them going through the hard times. The same could be said of the written correspondence with his father, mother, and brother. The latter of which had gotten married to a local woman one year after he left Ireland that his brother was expecting to become a family man soon.

A decade passes and Doron Kullens, at the age of 34 was called back to the Dublin Temple with his partner. The Irish Grandmaster Oliver Kanis, who was past 60 at that point had been wounded by an assassination attempt and was in critical condition and dying. He had chosen Arthur, now 38, to be his successor as leader of the Dublin Temple. Aside from being one of his best students, he had seen how the grey wolf’s temperament had developed into leader material. His growing selflessness to where he simply accepted any comeuppance delivered to him. To also the declining personal isolation the grey wolf showed as he progressed. Said progress, once in the Holy Land, did not go unnoticed by the Grandmaster via written communication with the commander of the Acre Temple. As he got older, the white wolf knew that the subject of succession had to be considered. With each year as he read more reports from Acre, Oliver came more to the realization that Arthur Lupous, whom he had begun to view like a son in their time training together years prior, was who he wanted to take over should something happen. During what a meeting with the Irish Lordship, Oliver’s transport was attacked by political zealots who were against the current rulers and the white wolf ended up taking a blow. The stab wound ended up getting an infection and now he had no chance of surviving the coming months.

Doron, like his Templar brother, was both saddened and startled by the news. He was being discharged from his duties in Israel and was being called home along with Arthur, with his charge being to advance the defenses at the Temple and had been selected to be Arthur’s right hand. Thus began the long trip back to Dublin, Ireland. It felt longer coming back home because he was a changed man too. No longer the dreaming and inspired bear cub who grew up on stories of the past, nor the teenage ursine who was new to the greater world outside home, and neither newcomer making friends in early training. Now, he was now a wiser, sharper, and professional warrior. Scarred by both battle, loss [including even being struck down and left for dead by the Islamist forces whence he wandered back to base alone before getting saved from near death by Sir Lupous], and leadership through war and defense of the residents of the Holy Land, though with the sense he had done his family legacy proud by living up to his father’s hopes and moreso protecting his ancestral home while also having a second family so to speak. Though an air of competitiveness never left him, and neither did his brotherhood with others, especially with Arthur.

The grey wolf and his grizzly bear brother returned home as hardened veteran leaders. Once in Dublin they went straight to the Temple and reunited with the Grandmaster, who was on his deathbed. The two wolves had a deep reunion, talking briefly about how far they had come up to this point, but then the Grandmaster turned the subject to succession and why he wanted Arthur to be the one to lead the Irish Templars. Arthur was extremely reluctant to take the position, feeling he was not sure he was worthy. Oliver Kanis said that was one of the reasons, being that the fact Arthur did not desire the position, even after how much of a leader figure he had become in the Holy Land makes him more fit, being that he would lead them more justly than one who strived for such a position his whole life. Also, remembering all Arthur had told him when he was still an initiate about his background, he sees this as a way for the grey wolf to do find redemptive light, by leading others on the right road to help them to find the same and to find the best path. Arthur agrees, though his reluctance at being a leader remains. The Grandmaster dies in his arms, with Doron and the rest of the order standing behind him. This marked the beginning of a new phase for Doron’s grey wolf brother. He had gone from a knight, to commander, to now Grandmaster. He would no longer be just called Sir Lupous or Commander Lupous, but Grandmaster Arthur Lupous of the Templar Order of Ireland. With some reluctance, he accepted this and the mantle of teacher, determined to lead others out of where he had been and to serve as an example of great change. And the grizzly knight who was now his right hand would support him every step of the way as brothers.

Less than a year into their tenure, Doron though resigned from active duty as his family required his support, and since he had done his service in the Holy Land, the ursine was allowed to do so. Lupous and Doron had a potent farewell, though the two promised to stay in contact via writing and visit each other when possible.

Once home he was well received by his now older parents Aaron & Ruth, and younger brother David, the latter of whom was married and with two cubs, like the two of them with their parents, Doron notices. He tells his family about the gritty details of his business back home, among other things including some other aspects of his stay in the Holy Land. Afterwards, Aaron told his son that since they are older he required his son’s aid in getting the family’s affairs more stable due to his parents being older now which included some work in upholding the law in town, something Doron was geared to do with his skills. He also told his son he was proud of him and all he accomplished, words that did much for the grizzly’s spirits.

It was during this time he would meet a woman and fell in love with her at the age of 34, a fellow ursine known as Irene. By year’s end the two were together and engaged. By the 2nd year the two expected twins, just like his brother. He never stopped being a knight, as he applied his skills and wisdom earned to his life, and all the while still remained in contact with his Templar brother, Grandmaster Arthur Lupous. The latter informed him of progress and any development along the way.

5 years later, the grizzly was given the call to report back for support at the Dublin Temple as the initiate pool had grown and the new recruits showed major potential, two in particular, that the now leader wolf required Doron’s assistance in teaching various physical combat and even language such as Hebrew, and Doron was the best he knew professionally to do so. Doron, wanting to help his brother out agreed to return, though he would also work out how to spend time with his family too. Doron’s parents and brother agreed to help while he was teaching with that. He decided this would serve until he finalized a plan, he even considered moving nearer to Dublin if necessary. Though Doron could not go into war duty, he could still do local defense and training.

Once there, it took no time at all to get situated and he did quite enjoy working with his Templar brother together again, whom they confided in together their concerns and hopes. Their competitive relationship never went away either, again continuing to attempt to outdo each other when they could in good fun.

As the lessons went underway he met the new recruits the lupine had told him about, especially the two who had interested the wolf most, and would him too, the young red fox cub Connor Vulpes and the silver fox Edmund Reynalt. The former from a village in the Irish countryside and the latter a French lad whom had escaped political turmoil in his area to the British Isles and ended up losing his parents to highwaymen rogues. Arthur had told him all about both, especially the red fox cub that the wolf began to view parentally. The grizzly decided he would assess for himself while taking all this to heart. Just as Arthur Lupous had told him, during the language studies Connor was found a largely attentive student and did his best to follow every instruction implicitly, having learned some of from a previous monastery session. Next came combat training under his tutelage and when it came to physical combat, it even included from grappling to engaging in wrestling [a combat style with roots back to the ancient Greeks and Jews], the latter of which was one of the more rougher combat sessions for Connor and though there were some instances he felt unable to perform certain tasks, but this would only strengthen the vulpine lad’s resolve. He sought to teach them the students the ropes and had off-the-record competitions and tryouts to test the mettle of the Templars in training. To put it simply, all took a beating, including the new young vulpine, but he persevered through all of it, impressing the grizzly. Through all of it, he could see Arthur and Connor were akin to father and son as they grew closer.

During one such time earlier in their physical combat training, Grandmaster Lupous would come to assess the student group’s progress and Sir Doron challenged him to help show the initiates certain major moves which simply could not be demonstrated with a student. As their relationship never lost that competitive air of wanting to best each other, Arthur accepted and the two engaged in wrestling combat, in an exhibition match sense, in front of the students showing how intense and necessary major techniques were, it ended in a tie, but the two found themselves laughing afterwards from exhilaration.

As for the other initiate, Edmund Reynalt, his loss from the past scarring him with tragedy before being be adopted by the Templar Order in England, but due to the ranks there being filled at the time and due to his major impulsiveness, Edmund was transferred from London to Dublin for disciplinary training where he would eventually be put under Arthur’s tutelage and thereby meet Connor Vulpes. The two seemed to befriend well with the former impressing the vulpine with his own charisma and bombastic persona and the latter impressing the silver vulpine with his knowledge and skill. Through his training and his own education from learning the language and ways of the land of Ireland to Latin and more, he became more and more more unruly in the field of duty, albeit restrained in some other instances, showing the desire to become grandmaster, which began to trouble the grandmaster as much as the young Connor. Doron found him with major drive and spirit, but he too noticed his rebelliousness right from the off and he quickly showed him discipline during times the silver fox went out of line. Because of his strength and approach, Doron became one of the teachers whom Reynalt would show respect to. While Edmund would maintained that his methods of proto-iron-fisted dominance was necessary to protect the people. With some seeming toning down of the rhetoric he becomes a secondary instructor for Connor outside of the Grandmaster. Though as Connor gets older and Edmund becomes more active in the field of duty, his ideology returned.

This would eventually lead to a major debacle later. One day a few years later he was in his office writing to his wife when he received an alert from the Templar guard that the grandmaster had been attacked and majorly wounded. Shocked and worried, he hurried over to the hall where Arthur’s chambers was, and came across him being helped out to the medical wing by a tearful Connor Vulpes and the physician helping the grandmaster. His friend was seriously maimed having lost an eye and one hand, among other damage. He would not find out until the following day what happened from Connor and would receive more details from Arthur when he was well enough. Doron learned that Connor had openly informed the grandmaster about his doubts on the moral problems with Edmund’s direction and incendiary rhetoric that. Grandmaster Lupous, seeing that this has to stop seriously reprimands the silver fox. Edmund had been thoroughly incensed by this and this engendered a confrontation and Edmund Reynalt deciding then to slaughter the Grandmaster seeing him now as a threat to his ambitions. Connor Vulpes had gone to Arthur’s chambers to talk with him on proceeding with the Reynalt matter only to find much to his shock and horror that he had come across the two locked in a raging duel and quickly intervened just in time as the silver-fox was using an underhanded assassination-style attempt to kill the grandmaster. The whole chaos climaxed with Arthur Lupous losing his left hand/paw as well as his right eye being blinded, and Connor used his grandmaster’s sword and gashed Edmund’s face, leaving him scarred and half-blinded. Immediately after the silver fox escapes through a window seconds after vowing revenge with his loss, Connor drops the sword to the ground and goes to his master as the other Templar knights arrive having heard the commotion. Vulpes, shedding tears, helps his father figure in the Order up while asking if he was alright. The middle-aged wolf knight supports him, with the grandmaster embracing him in return, as he directs the other knights to arrest Edmund. Leading to what Doron had seen when the alert broke initially.

For three days, The Irish Templars sent a search party over the surrounding premises with no results as the now Templar-apostate silver vulpine had concealed his path effectively along with whatever his activities in that moment were. With a considerable stockpile made from a portion of the Irish Temple’s riches and even a suit of armor which he would modify for himself he had clearly planned for such a thing. He also took a small contingent of Templar students who shared the silver fox’s way of thought and leave Ireland and into the British Isles, crossing the English Channel, the same path he had taken with his late parents as a young kit back to his native France where he and his new order of knights, small as it was at present, would begin. Very likely to become a cause for trouble later if they resurfaced in this country it was assumed in Reynalt’s drive for societal power, recognition, and vengeance.

Above all of this Doron noticed how this impacted and changed his Templar brother further. Being no stranger to setback and tragedy himself, this only served to steel up Grandmaster Lupous’ resolve. Having lost an eye and a hand to Reynalt before getting saved by his tearful apprentice, Vulpes, his friend refuses to back down and strives to push onward, half-blind and arranges to have a custom-made gauntlet over his stump that he can fix into various gestures such as a fist or open. The process was grueling having his wounds cauterized and then having said gauntlet constructed and used. Doron stayed by his side determined to support in overcoming these new hurdles and obstacles from helping him acclimatize and adapt to his scarred physical appearance to working to focus with half-sight and to wield a sword and other weapons about as effectively as before, as well as unarmed combat. All of which done through the grey wolf’s vigorous training with the grizzly bear. It was this brotherly competition training they had developed as recruits that enabled him to keep leading and teaching, determined to keep the Templar Order of Ireland a bastion of justice in the land with him as a teacher alongside him.
It was a constant between them that would never leave the two through everything that happened in their lives no matter where they were.

In the years following that chaotic happening, Doron watched with pride alongside his Templar brother, as many of the initiates, especially the young red fox, Connor Vulpes, the growing kit was knighted and re-swearing his vows as a knight of the Templar Order at the age of 18. Two years following, Grandmaster Arthur Lupous declared the young man the finest student he had ever had the privilege of teaching. A verdict Sir Doron shared having seen the new knight’s progress in defense of the local territories and it was obvious that he was ready to be deployed in the current Crusade should the call from the Templar Headquarters in France and the high grandmaster of the Templar Order be issued. There was also the duty to defend the land from any and all threats with his fellow knight brothers.

On top of all of this, Sir Doron knew he would pass on his teachings a little longer, and while he would only come back to active duty if absolutely necessary, he considered Arthur as much his family as he did his wife, two cubs, and his younger brother with his family. The grizzly made an oath he would always support him through life.

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Well here it is, the background of my character Grandmaster Lupous right-hand man, best friend, and other major teacher to Sir Vulpes and his comrades, Sir Doron Kullens.

Same applies as before and I will link a ref piece here in the description when that becomes available.

Keep in mind this is just the general outline. Future projects expanding on this could be well down the line so any of this could change at a given time, just so you know……

Also, there is major overlap in the first four Bio sheets because their stories interconnect and this shows from each respective character's POV.

It is worth noting that various knight orders did practice many forms of physical combat including wrestling in the Middle Ages and onward [https://www.thearma.org/essays/G&WinRF.htm#.YjK1LurMK3B, http://www.lordsandladies.org/knighthood-training.htm, & https://www.freelanceacademypress.com/medievalwrestling.aspx] though there is nothing on the Templars, from recorded incidents to even opinions on wrestling from them, so I had to embellish here a little bit, and besides, this is a world of Anthro animals anyway so an inch of artistic license is to be expected. ;)

On a side note, major inspirations for my character include the films Kingdom Of Heaven (2005), Arn-The Knight Templar (2007-2008), and History Channel’s series Knightfall (2017-2019), which I have talked about in various uploads throughout my gallery and page.

I hope you enjoyed this and other character backgrounds in the pipeline for when the time is right.

And the ones after this will have less overlap due to them not being as interconnected.

Another thing, the image used for illustration purposes is from Hero Forge so credit goes to them for this preliminary version of Sir Doron showing him in his knight attire. When the time comes, that will change.

At any rate enjoy. ^^

Also, hoping you are having a good day on your end and never forget, DEUS VULT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC8uoGW2ptc