Kheras

[Kheras]

Kheras Basic Information Race: Nuit (born Eypharian, current body Eypharian) Birthday & Age : Born 114 AV, undied 138 AV, 397 years old Gender: Male Languages Arumenic: Fluent Common: Basic Tawna: Poor Character Concept Undead magus, engaged in unearthing the pre-Valterrian past of Ahnatep. Physical Description A gaunt, leathery Eypharian that smells of dust, salt, and chemicals. Contrary to the typical styles of that race, his clothing is both enveloping and plain: a loose robe covering him from neck to ankle, and a headcloth that covers all but his face. Beneath that, everything but his face and fingers is tightly wrapped in strips of plain linen for additional protection. The sun's dessicating heat has helped preserve his undead body, but marks it indelibly. Kheras's skin has been burnt from the normal metallic Eypharian tone to a dark tarnished shade, and is creased like old leather. His hands are gnarled and spidery, with fingers that appear overlong. Shrunken eyes in dark sockets peer out of his cowl, over hollow cheeks, a thin beaky nose, and a thin-lipped mouth. Training Skills Embalming 10 (10 from race bonus) Reimancy 30 (Earth/Air) (30 initial) Malediction 10 (10 initial) Archaeology 5 (5 initial) Writing 5 (5 initial) Lore History of Ahnatep Eyktol Ruin Sites Equipment and Possessions Home: the upper floor and a half (as, in the half that hasn't collapsed) of a disused tower in Ahnatep. Heirloom: His mage-tutor's journal/notebook, an ancient and fragile thing hand-bound from sections of several other volumes as well as loose paper, all densely covered in annotations. 79 gold mizas City map (of Ahnatep) Regional map (of Eyktol) Blank book (personal journal) Quills (5), ink Shovel Walking staff Clothing (robes, headcloth, linen wrappings, sandals) Waterskin Backpack containing set of toileteries (comb, brush, razor, soap) eating knife bottle of embalming fluid flint & steel Ledger Starting money: 100 gm Initial purchases: City map (of Ahnatep, 2gm) Regional map (of Eyktol, 10gm) Blank book (3gm) Quills(5cm x 20 = 1gm), ink (2gm) Shovel (2gm) Walking staff (1gm) (possibly an archaeologist's toolkit, but I'm waiting for word on the price of such a thing) History Character History We all dwell amongst the bones of the past. A simple truth, really, but one I have seen overlooked time and time again. Even here in Ahnatep, we remember chiefly what is flattering, as if history were a feast from which one could select only the choicest delicacies. A better analogy might be vultures around a carcass: we squabble over the tenderest pieces, ignoring the harder, more enduring truths that stand, bleached pale, all around us. Sometimes the carcass isn’t as dead as we thought, either. That which comes before determines the shape of what comes after. It was a truly mighty blow that slew this particular creature. The Valterrian changed everything, obliterating what came before and staining all that came after. I know this better than most, perhaps; I first drew breath less than a century after the cataclysm. The smoke and ash of that destruction still lingered, then, fouling all that we made. Survival could be the only goal; that which was not an asset to survival was abandoned. A child whose leg was crushed in an accident could not be such an asset, unless he had some talent to counterbalance the burden he placed on those around him. Mine lay in magic: a hard and treacherous undertaking, but one that could be studied from a crutch given a willing tutor. Later, long after my tutor died, I would be granted a second stroke of fortune: the bargain that let me escape my crippled body into immortality. But let that be a tale for another time; it is a long one, full of ignorant cruelty and youthful vengeance, all of which are meaningless to me now. The thing to understand is that I saw the devastation and hardship around me, and I saw the bones of what came before, not yet buried or obscured by the ravages of time. I knew what had been lost. All those around me should have known, too, but so few bothered to look up from the mean tasks of daily survival. Now that the shadow of the Valterrian does not loom so heavily over us, I would unearth that past. It is not as simple as reclaiming what was lost and rebuilding what was destroyed; we must learn from it, or perish. There’s a very old saying: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Perhaps it’s that simple: I would not see that cataclysm repeated. Thread List