Ereban

[Ereban]

Appearance Race: Ethaefal son of Leth Gender: Male Age: looks late into twenty seasons, adult and perfectly ageless beneath the moon Birthday: Reborn in 511 on the 28th day of summer Birthplace: Reborn off the shore of Ahnatep “Shall I talk about birth or death? What is the word for both at once? Is it rebirth? That should be the saddest word given voice; rebirth, to slip from the arms of grace, to stumble from the endless beauty back into a world of shards, a land of hungry edges.” Appearance: Beneath the moon, Ereban has the appearance of his kind, pale opalescent skin, silver eyes so light as to appear blank and a fall of hair that flows beneath the horns laid back in gentle spirals. His body is lean and alabaster crafted, the long triangle of shoulders, chest and abdomen leading down to thin hips and legs best for swimming. Colored for the seasons, his hair might be white, a silvered blue, light gold or black, his horns a cloudy amethyst, lustrous gold, frosty quartz or a delicate green jade. In the day, his mortal image is that of a human, a male with similarly shaped features but more earthly to be sure; dark hair pulled back or loose around his shoulders, messy and drifting into his blue eyes. The beautiful leanness becomes a bandy thin torso. The polished curves of his face are touched with stubble, those serene eyes tinted with concern beneath the sun. The loose robes that flow around his nighttime form like froth from the sea, hang from his day lit shoulders giving his walk a traveler’s weary lean. Character Concept Ereban is curious to a fault and will go out of his way to delve into something new or interesting. Much to his own detriment he finds other people interesting even when they have no interest in him. His conversations often begin with questions, getting someone to open up and share information about themselves. He is guarded about his own dealings though and this can put some people off especially when they have the same goals of information gathering. He is wary of crowds unless he needs to get lost. One on one conversations are much more preferable for meeting new people. In the time since his rebirth, bits of the life attached to his mortal seeming have come back to him in scattered sparks and shadows. He has come to remember some of the tenets of the monastic Order of the Empty Bell now hundreds of years gone. But he recalls some of their teachings and follows them in a search for a deeper understanding of existence, chiefly his own. “I remember being so sure I had the answer. It was meal time and I ran up to him saying “Master, Master, ask me.” And he nodded, picked up his bowl and asked “What is truth?” I opened my mouth to answer and he shoved a noodle right in. It was the best martial arts I had ever seen. I had never been so thoroughly defeated.” Ereban is not materialistic and believes in the impermanence of all things, sometimes in an ironic fashion. The Order of the Empty Bell taught a concept called Tar’ahm, a very old word without a direct translation. In general it means “What is needed.” or “the truth of the moment”. It refers to doing what should be done but its implications are wide and deep. In an instant can one see the Tar’ahm of a whole people, a whole country, or just one’s self? What is the truth of Tar’ahm? Ereban wrestles with these questions as they return to him from the distant past. He has no qualms about killing or helping others, keeping slaves or punishing criminals. But what is the Tar’ahm of those actions. Such is his path inward as well as forward. If Ereban has a secret passion, a desperate weakness, it is his abiding greed for the secrets of others. Very few things please him more than discovering some secret or hidden truth about a person, even a very ordinary person. Hearing it from their own lips is like a rush of sweet-weed, spiritually intoxicating. His own secret is that he is a thief of these moments, stealing them, picking them from the pockets of those who might trust him and hoarding them away. This curiosity and need to examine the hidden lives of others leads him to any number of questionable acts and places, breaking into tombs and homes like a burglar just to see what may be laid out on their night time tables, just to see what they have taken with them into the night. “Lives as a series of decisions made real in this brush, that comb, the position of a chair before the mirror. Once I hung among the brilliant moments of eternal knowledge, now I ache for a glimpse of the shadow of the shadow of the shadow of that light.” Ereban dislikes the truly needless and useless, those things that abrogate the Tar’ahn like visiting harm on the harmless. These things displease him in a visceral manner. Sometimes he feels the need to even the scales of needfulness with actions of his own. While these attempts seldom work out well, he entertains the idea that it is possible that the Tar’ahn, as a greater concept, could use him as an agent of balance. He is well aware of how outlandishly pompous that thought is and keeps it to himself, usually. Ereban feels a great animosity toward those emotions that masquerade as other things. Fear which shows itself as hate or anger, greed that tries to be love, sloth that demands respect or cruelty to tries to be justice. These sorts of things arouse Ereban’s ire Admittedly, he is not immune from these states and despises finding himself acting out these tiny passion plays of self-delusion. He hates when beings squander their potential and when he does that same thing there is no one to blame except himself. Character History Ereban’s mortal life, ages ago, is just a collection of memories, a jumbled heap like a fall of leaves. He can sift through these memories though and often does just that searching for lessons, meanings or direction in the here and now. In those times he was part of a monastic order of warrior sages devoted to understanding the truth of existence and the reality of being. They called themselves the Order of the Empty Bell and they lived a simple existence in the lands that are now Ektol, a life of meditation, physical training, work and teaching. He remembers many of the lessons that the Sage Masters taught often as their applications become manifest in his current existence. He also remembers some of the path that led him to the stone fortress in the dessert so long ago; the failures, the missteps and the bad decisions. When others look upon his moonlit form splendid with star washed beauty, carved in the image of a perfect shape and calm like a tranquil midnight sea, there seems a great gulf between the admiration in their eyes and the broken mortal shell left behind, now once more attached like a vagabond begging. Secretly Ereban believes that it is because of that initial poorly-lived life that he is in this state now. Reborn into the waters of Ahnatep, Ereban has acclimated to the ways of the busy city and his place in it; which is to say his very low place in it. Some remembered knowledge from his mortal life has proven useful though. He can identify and harvest various herbs. He works mostly with a group of undertakers who buy the aromatic herbs he finds. It is enough to cover simple food and the rent of his cell, an actual cell in an ancient prison half buried now, its metal bars and locks all plundered and sold long ago and replaced with serviceable doors. He and several others live there near the Pillars of Dust Language Fluent Language: Common Basic Language: Arumenic Poor Language: Snake Tongue “For visitors I would say that your eyes are the fires of your soul alight with the fierce furnace of your desires. For the Eypharians I would say that your eyes are bright and hot. For the Dhani I would say wow, you have the eyes.” Skills Skill EXP Total Proficiency Unarmed: Four Elements Style 20 SP 20 Novice Auristics 10 SP 10 Novice Herbalism 10 SP 10 Novice Medicine 10 SP 10 Novice Astrology 10 RB 10 Novice Lores Tenets of the Empty Bell Flavors: Making medicine taste better Possessions 1 Set of Clothing -Simple Shirt -Simple Pants -Simple Undergarments -Simple Cloak -Simple Boots 1 Waterskin 1 Backpack which contains: -Comb (Wood) -Brush (Wood) -Soap -Razor -Balanced Rations (1 Week's worth) -1 eating knife -Flint & Steel Herbalists Toolkit Bedroll 1 Person Tent Headwear: Cowl Heirloom: A simple brass bell with no clapper Housing Location: Ereban and several others live in a prison reclaimed as a living space. Built partially underground it extends down and under the western desert wall but the sand has claimed some of the deepest levels leaving only two levels of cells made into apartments and some deeper levels from which strange noises can be heard on occasion. The chains and bars are gone and each cell has a wooden door but only a few have small windows. He stays in a first level dwelling with a window. When he arrived he lived with a mage but the magic user has since moved on and Ereban has taken up the rent for the room. House: The cells were ten by ten and many of them still are. A few have broken walls that allow access into other cells. Ereban’s room has two walls missing on either side making it a long collection of three cells, ten feet wide and thirty feet long straight through. The furthest cell has a door to what was another cell but the roof has fallen in leaving it open to the sky. Ereban uses this room, a ten by ten foot space to grow some plants that are harder to find. His rooms have his bedroll, his tent assembled at the farthest end, a low table that he uses as a workbench and not much else. All the cells have stone floors and an arched barrel vaulted ceiling except the lower stories that have flat stone ceilings. Each cell has a doorway to a central hallway that leads to the exit foyer which has been converted by the residents into a courtyard that empties into the streets near the Pillars of Dust. The rent is very cheap here since most of the cells have no light. Proximity to the Pillars of Dust make for a decidedly poor experience for anyone wanting more than a mirage tinged nightmare existence. Ledger Purchase Cost Total Starting +100 GM 100 GM Herbalists Toolkit -20 GM 80 GM 1 Person Tent -2 GM 78 GM Bedroll -1 SM 77 GM 9 SM Headwear: Cowl -2 SM 77 GM 7 SM Fall living Expenses -5 GM 72 GM 7 SM Thread List Fall 513 The Things you Keep