Bio Entries Nov/Dec

[[DM] Grinning Death]

Sorry for the late update, folks! Here they are!

Entry #1

Name: Saeka N'aelyn
Race: Yuan-ti Pureblood
Appearance: A pretty young elf maiden with long, flowing black hair. Her hair falls haphazardly over her face, obscuring her features, but her green eyes sparkle with intelligence.
Attributes: Deceptively Strong, nimble and exceedingly intelligent. Her other attributes are unexceptional.

History

Saeka was born in 1350 in the Jungles of Chult. Her childhood was filled with instruction on disguise and deceit, in preparation for the day when she would infiltrate human society in service to her nest.

In 1358, the god of the Scaled Ones, Sseth, had stopped answering the prayers of his followers. It was divined that the god had fallen into a slumber. A slumber that was being magnified by the Mulhorandi god, Set. The nest was weakened, but they would not draw upon Set for their power, feeling that it would only draw the anger of Sseth down upon them when he finally awoke. Without the power of their god, the nest was weakened.

In an attempt to free the sleeping deity, the yuan-ti abducted one hundred children from the settlements in Chult. They were to be sacrificed in a ritual designed to free Sseth from Set's influence. Before the ritual could be completed, a group of adventurers stormed their nest, intent on rescuing the children. When defeat was deemed inevitable, the eight year old Saeka was hidden amongst the children to be "rescued" with them.

The liberated children were returned to their families. As their numbers at the orphanage dwindled, it became more and more difficult for Saeka to hide her identity. In the end, it was an aging elven wizard by the name of Finael N'aelyn who discovered her secret. The wizard had a soft heart though, and he grew to love the child. Finael decided to take her home with him to the High Forest and to raise her to be good.

Fearing that idleness would allow her darker nature to take root, Finael kept Saeka busy. He taught her much of his own knowledge in private lessons. He taught her the elven tongue and helped her to perfect her disguise as an elven girl, introducing her as his own daughter. He filled her days with training from elven sword masters and her nights with magical studies and moral philosophies. Saeka grew to love her adopted father.

That is why, in 1368, she gave him a quick death and wept over his corpse. She should have done it slowly, painfully. That would have pleased her newly chosen goddess, Loviatar. But she could not bring herself to torture him.

Saeka now seeks to find another pureblood embedded in human society in the hope that she will be allowed to join their nest. She has traveled the Sword Coast, looking for unrest which may be caused by pure blood infiltrators. So far, she has been unable to locate any of her kind. The year is now 1372, and she has arrived in the tumultuous Sundren Valley. She is certain that the unrest in the valley must be the result of yuan-ti infiltrators.

Motivation

After reflecting on her mercy in the matter of murdering her adopted father, Saeka realized that she had been changed by love. This realization scared her. It was not the nature of her people to be soft or to indulge emotion, but she had clearly done so when the time to leave her adopted home had come. She now fears that she has been corrupted by the teachings of her adopted father.

Saeka's current goals are to overcome the good within her and to locate and rejoin her people. She fears she has been tainted by her adopted father's love, and as a result sometimes over reacts when she realizes she is allowing his teachings to influence her actions.


Optional RP Post

[[DM] Grinning Death]

Entry #2

Marcus Aquilius
Aasimar Bard, CN


Born as Edward Potts to a farming family in the Southern Dalelands, the man now named Marcus Aquilius was an almost constant source of change and frustration to his family. It all began with this birth, and the midwife seeing the downy feathers at his shoulders.


Within a year the family Potts, or Baker as they called themselves now, had begun their long journey toward Cormyr, leaving their old life and a smouldering farmhouse behind them.


The life of an outsider is a hard one, standing out from the crowd often becomes being singled out from the crowd, then becoming a scapegoat for the crowd. The young Javine felt this acutely, whatever celestial heritage hid in the murky depths of his family tree had chosen him to show itself in, marking him out as an Aasimar.


As is common with his race he spent a great deal of his time doing what he could to right what he perceived as wrongs, more often than not this landed him in trouble with the established order of the various villages and towns his parents moved through. It rarely took long for either his appearance or his supposed interfering to cause his family to move on.


His parents always cared for him despite the hardship his existence brought, their constant worry over his safety being the prime driver for their constant moving. As his 14th birthday approached his parents began to worry more and more about what his future might hold, after much thought and consideration they arranged to have Marcus delivered into the care of an order of Tyr's finest in the hope they could forge his good intentions into a source of good and hope in the world.


Marcus was heartbroken, the strict discipline of the order coming as a huge shock after a childhood spent roaming the realms. In confusion and anger he took his placement with the knights as a signal that his parents were abandoning him and had never truly cared for him, within a week he had fled the order.


His first intention was to join a circus, but soon discovered that there is little hope for those who choose that path. Unless you've been able to do the tricks since you were 6, there's no place for you with the circus beyond being a clowns straight guy or rigger.


After months setting chairs and hauling canvas Marcus got a break when the circus and a fair both set up in the same city. There he encountered the man who would become his mentor, a cynical but entertaining bard called Sebastian Quist, joining his small troupe of showmen and yellers.


With the fair Marcus grew into a bold young man, confident and with the natural charisma and presence of mind that naturally blooms in the Aasimar. Under Sebastian’s tutelage Marcus has learned a wide range of skills, particularly those focused on performance and leading the minds of those who come to see the show, his stage persona is that of a valiant celestial knight who battles demons and demons while saving the maiden.


Marcus still nurses hurt from what he perceives as his abandonment by his parents and the unjust persecution he felt he suffered as a child. While he may play the valiant knight on stage his true self is far from that chivalric ideal. He believes he is entitled to recompense from the marks who come to see his shows. After all, it was the common man who made his young life hard, so now it is the common man who must pay. He uses his natural charisma, silver tongue, subtle magics and valiant stage persona to manipulate and beguile common people, making them believe as he does, that he is entitled to whatever he desires be it money, adulation or filling some other need.

[[DM] Grinning Death]

Entry #3

Name: Ulriel Gabrieth
Race:Aasimar

In a world of strife and turmoil, balanced between good and evil the essence of the light and dark, Ulriel Gabrieth found himself wandering bringing the light of Lathander to those lands and people he made contact with. A family long ago touched by the blood of Celestials, their course had been planned out delicately from the first. To live and bring the light to the darkness where it may be found was the only direction. In this way they continued, until the time came where they either died or were unable to continue their oath, it was in this time the wanderer would stop and find a worthy heart to bring the next of their line into the world with.

In the village of Jiyyd such a stopping was made and Ulriel was brought into the world and given his birthright. His mother being the bearer of Celestial blood in the union taught him of his duty to the world, as she had been taught by her own forbearers. It was not long before he was introduced to the church of Lathandar. The Narfellian people had grown accustomed to their presence by the time he was old enough for them to make an impression upon him.

Within the Temple of Lathandar he was taught to read and write as well as other skills he would need given the path he was to follow. While his mother had been a Paladin, Ulriel found his aptitude to be in the healing of others. He had taken readily to the rehearsal of prayers as well as other healing arts such as herbalism and medicine.

Recreationally, he was taught horsemanship as was the major trade of the region, through this he befriended many of the other children in the village and while not as physically adept as some of them, he was able to maintain his lessons without an undue amount of difficulty.

It was not until his eighteenth year that his mother approached him and spoke on the matter of his heritage and duty most imminently. ‘Spend the life you have been given with the light, and share it with the world, for these lands do so desperately need your light.’ She had told him this many times through his life and always impressed it upon him. Bequeathing him her fathers’ mace Drix Olpirt, ‘that which brings the light,’ she sent him into the world with a small amount of gold with which to feed and shelter himself as he made his way in the world.

He began his journey as many do, saying his farewells to friends and family and with a satchel of basic supplies over his shoulder clad in the robes of a pilgrim, he began his track to find his place in the world. It was along the road he met an old man blind and crippled who called softly to him from where he sat upon an old chair perched atop the landing of and equally crippled hovel. ‘Even without sight’ he said, ‘I can see the radiance of a blessed heart.’

The man made greetings with Ulriel and they spoke at length of the lands and the travels the old man had himself in his youth. He had worked for a wizard who had founded a village in the west on the coast in a densely mountainous region, where, he went on to explain there had been a great many troubles which effected the whole of the land. Listening intently Ulriel found himself more and more interested in not only this place but all the lands between the old traveler had visited.

Many lands and miles were to be crossed if he was to reach the valley the man spoke of, in Damara he would have to pass through the Bloodstone pass entering into Vassa. From there the path would cross the Galna Mountains placing him between Thar and the tortured lands. In Whitehorn, the roads would end and he would have little choice but to cross through the boarder forest. Anuroch, a vast desert sea full of such dense darkness the old man advised he instead head south along the mountains of the desert mouth into Cormyr. From there, he would head west again through the marshlands and into the Sunset Mountains, following the Trade road from there all the way to Luskan and then to the Valley itself.

In exchange for the old man’s help, Ulriel spent the winter months helping to maintain the small hovel and gather food and supplies for the man that he might survive in the limited comfort that could be provided. Many tales and lessons of basic survival were given to him to help prepare him for the long journey which would span a majority of the continent.

As the winter snows melted, Ulriel said his farewells to the old hermit who gave his name as Faldren, once a mason by trade; he turned to Kelemvore in his old age though he had not for some time felt the conviction he once did for his beliefs. They spoke on the matter briefly and Ulriel left him with the blessings of Lathandar before departing on his journey across the vast expanse of lands to reach the valley.

In most of the places he stopped, Ulriel followed his mothers council and remained as quiet and reserved as he could, healing the people of the lands as he passed. On more than one occasion, he was chased out of the towns having unknowingly entered into the realm of an evil god.

Attempting to charter a boat in Neverwinter to the Valley proved to be difficult. The limited funds he had received from his mother had long since been depleted and the offerings for his services as a healer had barely afforded him sustenance.

It was a young priestess of Helm who would hear his need and offer him aid in entering the Valley, though his time in Neverwinter had been made longer for he saw the needs of the people at every turn. The districts had suffered greatly through the periodic conflicts with Luskan and his healing arts combined with the blessings of Lathandar were taxed.

The patients he saw began to blend together despite his diligent attempts to remember each and every one of them. It was as such until he was to depart, as he stopped by the hospital to see to the last of his patients, he saw a young girl, deeply beset with sickness, he leaned down to tend to her and she pushed him away refusing his aid. ‘Please sir no, if you make me better, my momma will have to keep feeding me. I am ready to die.’ He recoiled at this thought and spoke with the clerics in the hospital who took him to the dark parts of the slums and showed him the truly impoverished side of the city and explained that there simply were not enough supplies to go around to them all.

It was a defeating day for Ulriel and he spent the next two years in Neverwinter trying to find a way to help those in the slums and finding little hope. Many troubles befell the city in his time there, and the people suffered greatly despite his efforts. Had it not been for the reports of a war in the Valley, he may have resigned himself to abandon his journey and remain indefinitely in the city.

The final route to the valley was headed to a place called the Sundered pass. A vast swath carved into the very face of the world by massive magical power to allow passage over land to the Valley. The trip was not as secure as one would hope. The small caravan found more than its share of troubles; the road was fraught with dangers from highwaymen to storms. The hard rock terrain lent easy travel in warm and dry weather, but became deathly slick in the rain. The storms which raged incessantly lent slow movement through the canyon as well as making them an easy target for the more capable bandits who knew how to maneuver on the strange terrain.

Many of the caravan’s members were injured in these attacks and he tended to them the best he could. The reality of the combination of the darkness of man as well as the dangers of untamed country became ever more evident as they traveled.

In one particular stretch of the canyon there had been hollows dug into the cliff side, when he inquired it was explained as burial crypts for a tribe of nomads who came through the region annually to bury their dead.

Once the winds began to lighten Ulriel was able to breathe easier and relax slightly as they neared the sundered gate. Suddenly the wagon he was riding in listed heavily forward and to one side scattering him and its goods around the wagon bed, sending him to the ground.

[[DM] Grinning Death]

Entry #4

Name: Kyla Rylania
Origin: Waterdeep
Race: Aasimar
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Class: Paladin
Deity: Lathander
Alignment: Lawful Good

Appearance:
Kyla is a young woman who is shorter and thinner than the average human. Her shaggy golden tendrils of hair are often being brushed out from in front of her eyes which are also golden in color. Her caramel skin is unblemished and her cheeks are often dimpled as this girl is almost always smiling.

Despite her small stature, she is often clad in heavy armor with a massive sword strapped into place on her back which is accompanied by a door sized shield and her travel pack.

If visible, there is a strange birthmark on her right wrist that is eerily similar to Lathander’s symbol.

Personality:
Kyla is an energetic and friendly woman with nothing but the best of intentions for any reasonable being she encounters. As a newly roaming paladin who has little experience with people, she is fairly naïve and innocent. She would never willingly perform an act of evil or knowingly assist anyone she feels has ill intentions.

Background:
Long ago, there was a devout and dedicated paladin of the then young god, Lathander. She was one of his most loyal knights and constantly dealt out deserved justice in his name whenever and wherever necessary. As she grew older, Lathander was pleased by his followers service and decided to send one of the celestial agents in his service to watch over her, little did he know this celestial being would fall for the woman and that she too, would find love with this unexpected man who had come into her life.

Time passed and the two had a healthy human child and then tragedy struck, the woman’s lover was slain by a traitorous and fake member of the church. Leaving her child with the members of the clergy with naught but her family name and a farewell kiss, she left to finish both the duty her lover had been sent out to do and to vanquish the evil that would slay a paladin of the Morninglord. She would never return, but the child was raised a dutiful follower of Lathander and so began the long line of loyal guardians who felt driven to protect those in need even if they did drift away from Lathander’s worship for a period of time.

A long time passed and Kyla was born to Barik and Yule Rylania, a poor couple who were barely managing to get by in the chaos of Waterdeep. Barik was a city guard at the very bottom of the chain of command but he was more than happy to fulfill what he felt was his duty to the massive city that he grown to love, to risk his life daily to protect it from evil and support his family.

When Kyla was born, her parents figured her to be a blessing sent to them for their hard work. With her bizarre eye color and the hand-shaped birthmark on her right wrist that was oddly similar to the symbol of Lathander they believed that the Morninglord had sent them a gift. Little did they know that Kyla’s blood was tinged with the celestial blood from her long forgotten ancestor.

Her father would preach to her every night before bed about the virtues of hard work, dedication and duty and the girl would love every moment with it. She was restricted to the house, never being allowed to leave due to her parents fear that she would be snatched away from them because of her oddities. Her father would tell her it was her duty to protect the house and her mother while he was away for work, a task she was only glad to fulfill as these lessons of duty, loyalty and protecting her home seemed to have a deep connection somewhere within her that she didn’t fully understand.

As she grew older, visions of helping those in need and venturing off to faraway places continued to tempt her to run away from home, but she felt bound by the duty she had to protect the house and her family. She prayed for forgiveness since she felt like she wanted to shirk her duties to fulfill these wanderlust ideals and that night she had a dream of going to the temple of Lathander and becoming a paladin of his order. The next day, her fourteenth birthday, Kyla’s parents sat down to talk with her admitting that they felt like they were preventing their beloved daughter from living the life she wanted.

During a long teary talk, Kyla told her parents that wished to help those in need, bring justice to those who deserved it and explore this wondrous world that she had yet to see. She felt that it was her calling and what she was born to do. Her parents reluctantly agreed and brought her to the temple of Lathander where they were astonished at the bizarre girl that the Morninglord had guided to them. They gladly took her in and trained her in their ways.

After finishing her training, Kyla traveled out into the world, making her way towards north towards Sundren because of some inner drive to head in that direct, the world was calling and her feet were leading. Later on her journey, while resting at an inn, Kyla happened to hear that a merchant was travelling north and offering coin for any protection. With a smile, the young woman made her way to this merchant and gleefully told the man that she would gladly aid him for nothing more than the company as she was headed in the same direction.

“M’am, I appreciate the offer but you’re not exactly.. qualified for this sort of work are you?” the merchant asked with a disappointed sigh. Though any other paladin may have had her pride hurt by such a remark, Kyla merely smiled and shrugged a creaky shrug (thanks to her platemail) “Mm.. maybe not qualified, but I’ll do my best!” and then she added, “I mean, I won’t be a burden to you or anything and I’m going the same way anyway.. the least I could do is help!”

The merchant sighed, she was the only one to offer her service and she was helping him for free. “You’re the best I’ll get at this blasted stop.. alright, fine. But no pay!” With a smile and a gleeful “Yay!” the young Aasimar hugged the man tightly, then added “I’ll make sure you don’t regret it, Sir!”

The next three days were the longest of the merchant’s life. He’d never seen such an odd person in all his life and he’d been to all sorts of places. She was always cheerful, never complained about anything.. the weather, the long walks (she always walked, insisting that she didn’t want to burden his horses by pulling her weight along with the caravan), even fending off a curious gang of not-so-bright goblins. He was perplexed, so one night around the camp fire he asked “Hey girl, why are you always so damn cheerful?” After a few moments of blinking, Kyla responded with a carefree shrug and that blasted smile of hers. “Dunno! What’s there to be unhappy about? The world is neat! Not like uhh.. make your bed neat neat, but the interesting kind of neat, y’know? Yeah, that neat!” The merchant stared at the girl as she rambled off in her usual fashion and after awhile he just managed to nod while mumbling about madness.

Finally they arrived at the next town and despite saying he wouldn’t pay her, the merchant offered up a fair price for a job well done. The journey was uneventful but the merchant felt that the girl was some form of good fortune. “You’re not so bad, stranger. You might even be good luck. Here, take this as payment.” Again, that over-achieving smile of Kyla’s spread across her lips as she kindly pushed the coin purse away from herself “Nuh-uh! You keep your gold. Your company was enough, thanks for the fun! It would’ve been awfully lonely by myself. Toodle-oo!” and with that the girl wandered off, continuing on her journey north towards Sundren, Lathander's light guiding her journey.