Here they are, after stewing in my brain for a bit, Kirske and Rev: Monster Hunters!

Kirske is a nonbinary human from a small country hamlet.

Rev is an agender elf from an island of dragon-dinos.

Both of them are from the super-distant past.

BACKSTORY:
Kirske, during a moment of dire need, broke off a branch from a sacred tree and unknowingly trapped the soul of a monster in it. This pissed off both the god of Monsters and the god of Death, who each put a curse on them: that they will be hunted by monsters for the rest of their life, and once they die they cannot enter the afterlife. So after thinking about it for about an hour, Kirske sets off to collect as many monster souls as possible, amass an army, and challenge the gods to get the curses removed.

Rev gets wind of a roaming champion who is slaughtering beasts of all kinds and sets out to turn them away from their island. Once meeting them, though, Rev sympathizes with Kirske's plight and decides to help them challenge the gods, while also getting to travel lands that they had been unable to experience until this point.

THE PEOPLE:

Rev has spent all 130 years of their life on their island, learning about the outside world from the more dragon-y dragons that reside there. Incredibly strong and a fast learner, they are able to buff themselves up further by channeling the natural magic of the earth into their body. None of this helps the fact that Rev can only speak Draketongue, the language of their island kin, and thus their knowledge and wit go largely unappreciated, except by Kirske, whom they taught how to understand and speak.


Kirske has largely had to rely on their ambition and tenacity to get through life in their hamlet, where they were often misunderstood and criticized for their identity and aversion to the more spiritual aspects of daily living. This has given them a smart mouth, despite the fact that they're not actually all that smart. The curses that they've been burdened with show as marks on both their neck and forehead, which they attempt to cover with their scarf and hair respectively, more out of embarrassment than anything else. In combat, they utilize the branch they broke from the tree, dubbed Palewood, to summon the spirits of monsters housed in it to fight on their behalf. Each soul only has a single use, though.