Cole Forja

Appearance
Cole appears as a man that looks to have more years than he has actually aged in his life. His face is masked by a long beard, and scruffy, roughly cut hair that recedes slightly into his forehead. His black hair, as if indicating his age, has many streaks of white going through it. His beard is no different, and the tips of his large beard are now completely white, transitioning into his normal coal black halfway up. A large scar runs through his imposing, bold right eyebrow.

Coal's build is heavy, and what you'd expect of a man who's been in the metallurgy and bladesmithing business his entire life. Even though his hair indicates advanced age, he is incredibly fit and muscular, muscles framing every part of his body, being especially apparent on his upper body and arms.

Coal wears a long-sleeved, slightly unbuttoned red and black tartan shirt. To match this he wears long, brown work pants matched with tan work boots.

However, all this is somewhat unnecessary, as he is almost never seen without his signature black apron and work gloves, which he wears while working.

Personality
Coal is a man driven completely by his own goals. As such, he is nearly always professional in his manner. Stiff and intimidating are the two words that describe him best. Coal is terrible at socialising, and blunt in manner, built on years of dedication to his craft and work. He dishes out criticism mercilessly to his students and apprentices. In short, Cole is disconnected from people and humans, instead finding peace and happiness in crafting weapons, and observing beautiful craftsmanship of other weapons and objects.

Even though he may seem completely stoic, his praise flows almost as much as his criticism does, as through years of personal experience, he's come to realise that something is never completely bad, or completely of a waste.

Cole seeks to perfect his own craft, and show other people the beauty and power of his own creations, which is why he seeks recognition.

History
Cole was born as the son to a pair of parents in a small mining town. His father was a miner, and worked hard to make a living to support their rather small family. From a young age, he had extraordinary determination, relentlessly pursuing what he wanted. His mother and father saw this in him, and were very proud, hoping for a better future.

His family did not have the money and funds to send him to a prestigious school, so rather, his father taught him on practical knowledge, and helped to train his body, unlocking his aura, but not his semblance by extension. At a young age, Cole began to help out in the mines, and in just two years, he became a fully-fledged miner.

However, Cole always felt that he could be much more, and developed an interest not in what he was mining, but what it became. Some of the minerals and ores that he mined were shipped off to large companies, but a small fraction became something else entirely. They went to the local blacksmith, and were made into weapons and armour.

The first time Cole came into contact with the products of his labour, he felt something stir inside him, a fire that had resurfaced itself in him. From that day onward, he pledged to himself that he would become a famous blacksmith, and that he wanted his weapons to be known worldwide.

He began to study extensively, gaining more and more knowledge through ancient books and manuscripts on the art of bladesmithing, and by extension, blacksmithing in general. Through these books, he learnt of the legendary Kikimi Chitan. The legends enamoured him, and only further pushed his desire to become a master craftsman.

He took up an apprenticeship under the local blacksmith, who recognised his potential. In just the first two weeks, he had crafted a weapon, and discovered his semblance, which seemed unlocked by his pride at his own first creation of a sword.

There was only so much that his local blacksmith could teach him though, and once Cole had learned all that he could, he was left dead in the water. Lacking the bare funds to send him off to any prestigious academies, his parents were left with no choices, which was why two days later, they found their son gone, a note left in his place that explained his desire to see the world of Remnant, and discover new techniques. Along with a promise that he would be back, one day.

Now a traveller, Cole made his way to the distant city of Vale, evading the fearsome creatures of Grimm, and occasionally fighting them only when they were impossible to avoid, with one of the encounters resulting in the large scar on his right eyebrow. Through many trials and tribulations, he finally found himself in the sprawling city of Vale, homeless, and unemployed.

Due to how he looked, scruffy and suspicious, to say the least, he was rejected by every blacksmith that he went to, seeking an apprenticeship. The frustration of this grew and grew, until he found himself sitting on a sidewalk, head in hands, wondering why he had left.

Strangely enough, a stranger came by, also homeless, and the two started to talk. They shared their stories, and through the gratefulness of the homeless person in finding someone willing to listen to his woes, he pointed Cole in the direction of a famed blacksmith, now obscure, and living in retirement.

Cole came to the man's doorstop, and though the man initially refused to teach him, after seeing Cole's dedication to the craft, and to the obtainment of knowledge, the old man eventually gave in, and fired up the forge again.

Thus, began Cole's 28 years of tutelage. The man taught him about nearly every aspect of bladesmiths and blacksmiths, though in a rather unorthodox style of crafting. With Cole's history as a miner, he had an advantage in being able to recognise nearly every type of metal on mere sight. However, through these years, he was introduced to something new. Dust. His town were not a town that was based around mining dust, and instead was about mining raw minerals and ores of metals.

Through 28 years, Cole became an unverified prodigy of the art of smithing, mainly in part due to his lust and thirst for knowledge, and also in part due to the sheer skill of his mentor.

After 28 years, Cole had become a Rank 2 Master in Bladesmithing, though he felt his skills were hampered by the limited amount of resources and tools they had at their disposal. It was also at this time that his mentor tragically died, and left all that he owned to his apprentice, as he had no other loved ones or relatives.

With the large amount of funds he had at his disposal, Cole opened his own shop, making weapons and armour, maintaining a strict level of quality. Through the years, he continued to gain knowledge and experience, consulting other bladesmiths and blacksmiths on their styles and techniques, incorporating them in his own weapons through experimentation and constant improvement.

Eventually, he made a name for himself as an extremely skillful craftsman capable of making extremely reliable weapons. Cole was willing to make almost whatever the customer requested, delighting in complicated orders, as it gave him an opportunity to challenge himself, and awe others.

Through his time, he acquired numerous apprentices, and is happy in teaching them his skills, hoping that one day they will be able to live up to his own standards.

He is still working currently, but was temporarily displaced after the Fall of Beacon, using the considerable amounts of money he had to relocate to a nearby village to Vale, and has now set up shop once more.

Philosophy
Unlike the bladesmithing techniques of the Hāto clan, this process depends entirely on the skills of the creator, and their ability to turn even the most hopeless of metals into something unique through their own skill. It sees the crafting of blades as a way to convey emotion and ideals into what was previously just a piece of metal. The higher the quality, the more powerful, and by extent, the more emotion, and ideals that can be conveyed and crafted onto the weapon.

Process and Technique
Although the art of the Forja's is based around the power to be flexible, the technique of each type of forging are typically the same.

It begins with the material. The weapon requested, in this case a sword, determines the qualities that the material will need in order to make an acceptable, and powerful build. First, Forja smelts the material alone, following his own instincts and intuition gathered through decades of practise and repetition.

The allow created, often containing self-measured amounts of carbon in it (usually coal) Was able to produce astonishingly sharper edges than the previous alloy would have been able to alone, being able to withstand enormous amounts of stress compared to it's previous form.

However, before even beginning the forge, the crafter needs to make sure that the alloy created can be formed into a pipe, which is then inserted with a malleable material, usually iron or steel. This produces the perfect forge weld needed where the soft core is always symmetrical to the blade. Essentially, it's when the softer metals are sandwiched withing the harder, stronger alloys to create an extremely durable metal that can flex when needed, yet not deform under stress. As such, this is then crafted into an extremely powerful weapon.

Next comes the forming of the blade, and by extension, the form of the weapon. With a coal-fueled furnace powered through an extremely strong bellows, the metal being moved between the anvil and the furnace so that the blacksmith could maintain just the right “color” of heat to keep the metal at just the right pliability.

The metal is shaped while red-hot by slowly and repeatedly hammering and re-heating until it is the length, width, and thickness that is wanted. The sides, edges, and tang all need to be worked into shape, none of which was entirely identical in its characteristics to the others.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the heat-treating needs to be absolutely perfect. It can singlehandedly ruin a perfect blade, or save an inferior one. The very fact that blades and materials aren't consistent means that the bladesmith has to rely solely on their instincts in this process. The blade was typically quenched in a liquid, often oil or water. This increases the blade's ability to adapt and change.

Last, the blade would be polished and sharpened on multiple different grains of sandpaper to give it the signature edge and sharpness of a Forja blade. If needed, and it often is, the blade will be engraved with whatever designs are ordered. It will be either sent to a professional, or done by the bladesmith themselves.

Weapons
Having not gone to a hunters academy while young, and having virtually no experience in fights since he traveled to Vale, Cole's combat experience, especially with weapons. The best he can do is wave one of his own swords around at Grimm.

Semblance - Forged Fingers
Cole's semblance is perfect for his job. Upon activation, he can identify every aspect and 'ingredient' in a blade that he is touching. For example, if a blade were composed of multiple alloys and types of metal, Cole would be able to identify the quantity and name of every single one, simply by moving his right hand's fingers over it. He can then memorise the mix and amounts in his brain, for access at any time.

However, it is limited in that Cole cannot identify anything beyond metals and alloys. If, for example, a blade had elements of something different in it like wood, it appears to him as a blank anomaly that he cannot identify.

Trivia

 * The name 'Cole' is derived from the old English name 'Cola' which means 'Black', or 'Coal'
 * ^ Reference
 * 'Forja' is spanish for 'Forge'. Thus, Cole's full name would be 'Coal Forge'
 * Cole is an attempt at me making a bladesmith that specialises in European bladesmithing techniques instead of the more commonly seen Japanese methods on the fanon. I wanted to make a character that created blades differently to other methods, and thus, Cole is born.
 * His methods of creating blades are heavily inspred by the techniques used in the medieval ages, but mixed with some modern techniques as well.