Nzi'fuma

[Zemos]

Zemos

Name: Zemos (Was Nzi'Fuma prior to being sequestered to the Facility for Retrospective Analysis; Was known as Subject IM-33-718-00-S7348 in the FRA before being removed.)

Race: Sev'ryn

Date of Birth: Arc 693, 2nd trial of Ashan

Marks: Yithnai

Factions Joined: Cazav, Serga Manravu.

Languages Spoken:
Fluent = Xanthea (SP), Common (SP for broken and Purchased Conversational and Fluent).

Appearance

5'9" tall. (1.75 meters tall)

His wiry hair has grown out to shoulder length and tied into a topknot. His eyes are iridescent Olive green. His nose is puggish and flattened. His build is trim. Otherwise, Nzi looks well cared for through all his trials. There are thick callouses on his hands from many years of working as a weaver and a tailor.

His clothing tends to be simplistic in design, with he preferring to wear only what he himself can produce. This is something of a problem, as he only has a simple jute robe, reinforced with hemp cross-stitching at the seams. Otherwise, he wears sandals and practical garments. The relative monotony of his garb is broken by the occasional showing of a piece of bone jewelry or crow's feather here or there.

Witchmarks/Mutations:

Zemos' upper face has discoloration to it, to where the upper half of his cranium and all its skin has turned black. It resembles warpaint, but to anyone who touches it, it will feel sticky like pine tar. All of his thralls will bear this witchmark when he claims them, and carry it even after destruction or deactivation.

Live carrion-eating bugs such as gnats, flies, yellowjackets, maggots, and others will cling to Zemos' skin, crawling beneath his clothes and sticking close by him. This makes it easier to convert them into swarms, which are one of his favorite types of thrall. It doesn't make it easier by dint of any added ability to convert them into undead, but just by the constant availability of insects on his person, which can be killed either conventionally or through a magical technique and then raised as thralls.

A bulbous growth has formed at the bottom of Zemos' tongue, which resembles an eye. The flesh is useless but appears to show the outer half of an eye looking out his mouth when he lifts his tongue to the roof of his mouth. It's not usually visible when he's talking unless he raises his voice. It can present an impediment to the way he speaks if he does it quickly, thus shortening and/or slowing his speech.

Nectar of Death: This change affects Zemos' blood and bloodflow. While functionally his blood acts the same way... He can bleed out, and lose oxygen if blood flow is disrupted, etc. his blood has taken on the consistency of sticky honey. This does have one beneficial effect in that it allows him to coagulate and harden faster when he is wounded. However his blood and indeed his entire form has taken on the sickly sweet smell of embalming honey.

Gaunt Master: This change affects Zemos' overall physique. Much of the fat and flesh has withered from his body. While he maintains the same vitality he's always enjoyed, he has the appearance of an emaciated, leper or a plague bearer. Harmless but repugnant sores appear on his skin, and his body appears emaciated. This is mostly a cosmetic change, but can affect the way others perceive him, certainly.

Fortified Bone Structure: Zemos is capable through bonecrafting magic in necromancy of reshaping and improving the durability of his bones. He's acquired some of these improvements in threads:

• Zemos' hands are hard and durable as stone.
• Necromantic enhanced bone structure of the legs, arms, and hands.

[Zemos]

Personality

Nzi'fuma is a practical person. Where another might see waste or poor conditions, he sees a potential resource. An extreme optimism informs every endeavor he undertakes. To him, the world at large is a treasure trove of experiences and wealth just waiting to be tapped. That's not to say he's an industrialist. As a citizen in good standing with Desnind, he will rarely undertake the destruction of any trees or creatures that are not sick or on the cusp of death already. Nevertheless, some may see his enthusiastic approach toward dead or dying things as almost morbid in its exuberance.

His outlook in life is informed in no small part by his potential familiar, the spirit of Fly. Fly promises him its own peculiar wisdom. Everything that rots and dies must then nourish and enrich the living. Waste is only so if it is not utilized. Under-utilization of that which has expired is the greatest sin. Fly also grants him a multi-faceted outlook on life, and he rarely meets people who he can't empathize with or see things their way. This comes in handy when it comes to the bartering economy of Desnind.

[Zemos]

Backstory

Birth and Parentage:

Nzi'Fuma's parents were members of The Cazav, a secretive sect existing within and without Desnind who follow the Serga Marvanu, a Sev'ryn religion dedicated to the Immortal Lisirra. His father, Tou'touye, and mother Lethu were not of high rank within the religion but had made significant contributions nonetheless. Given their residence in the city of Desnind itself, it often fell to them to entrap and trick foreigners into the temple, to enslave and subsequently perform experiments on. Many within the temple began to value their contributions, and so they became prominent members of the cult. Without much talent, for rhetoric or eloquence to preach the will of Lisirra, they never rose high in the ranks despite these contributions. But when Lethu found herself pregnant with their child, they both had high hopes for their offspring.

The mother, whose familiar was a gypsy moth, often instead of hearing the feathery buffeting of the moth's wings, would often instead hear a faint buzzing sound of bees or flies during the pregnancy. When she brought this issue to the priests and monks of the temple, they all shared in her joy that the child was indeed favored by their mistress.

When finally he was born, they kept him in the city, only bringing him to the Temple when he reached one arc of age. His naming ceremony was held with a good deal of pomp, and the parents dedicated his upbringing and life to Lisirra. He was named Nzi'fuma.

Childhood and Adolescence:

Nzi'fuma was raised with care by the community of the Cazav when his parents were residing at the temple and trained to take his father's trade as a weaver as he grew. He also took part in the luring of foreigners and slaves into the wilderness for capture and experimentation at the temple. His sunny disposition disarmed many an experiment, and nobody suspected he was involved in the disappearances. His parents took a back seat to his own contributions, shoring up their cover identity at Desnind as a simple weaver and his wife.

While learning a weaver's trade from his father, he was also schooled in survival and fieldcraft by Lethu. This became his preferred method of sustenance. She would set him about on scavenger hunts in the wilderness, which he took with great enthusiasm.

It was around this time when he first became aware of a spirit on the edge of his consciousness. It began with a faint buzzing sound that haunted his dreams. At times, the creatures and people he encountered in dreams would burst into a swarm of flies, which would fly around him, to his delight. He has yet to find a familiar in the forest and wetlands. The spirit has yet to find him, and he it, but there may come a day when he finally seeks it out.

Adulthood:

He dedicated his life anew to Lisirra as the true creator of the Sev'ryn. There, he was accepted as a devotee and began his training as a lay monk. His parents were so proud of his entrance, that they arranged for lodging within the city for him, to retreat to when he needed to shore up his cover identity as a Desnind weaver and tailor.

As a lay monk, he took on the vow of Duty to start with. His duty involved providing textiles to the temple, as well as any other Lisirran monks who required his crafts. This often meant crafting simple, jute hair shirts, and garments that would later be laced with experimental drugs and disease vectors. He did all of this knowingly, happily, as he ever did anything. The world was a feast for maggots, and he was hosting the banquet.

Starter Quest: Djinn

The Lady Pestilence is not one to be kept waiting, for any means. She wants to experiment, to mutate, to test the boundaries of the mortal condition. While you sleep one trial, she comes to you in a dream, a mass of buzzing flies and the stench of decay. She tells you to find a young Sev'ryn girl, any will do. She has a new plague she wants to try, and all she needs you to do is bring this little girl to her in Rhakros. Desnind itself does not have the resources to perform the experiment like Lisirra does.

But doing so means you'd leave your responsibility to the temple behind. They'd understand, surely? Unless they think you're lying to shirk your duty. Then you may end up on the slab instead. But should you ignore your Lady for fear of being accused a liar?

The choice is yours.

[Zemos]

Religion

Yithnai

Domains:
Pestilence, Toxin, Decay, Insects

Holy Names

The Pestilent One, Lady Plague, The Plaguedaughter, The Toxic One, Corrupter, The Insect Queen, The Mistress of Toxin, The Queen of Rot, The Lady of Decay, The Plague Lord, The Eternal Child, The Blight, The Destroyer of Desnind, The Terror of Rhakros, The Hive Mother



While mainly seen on the Plague Bearers, Lisirra is the sort to grant her Blessing to many who help her, even without telling them she plans to do it, as a way to keep an eye on her toys. Manifesting as a slight glow to the bearers eyes, Lisirra's Blessing is one of the more subtle marks…at the beginning.

Favored in Yithnai
Awarded here
Next 2 powers
Next 2 powers
Next 2 powers

• Egg The first ability of any Yithanai is one they never completely understand. The Egg is Lisirra’s way of planting a bit of her sadistic creativity within those she chooses to mark. The egg is the potential to change. Similar to a Spark, it is far more consciously designed. As a Yithanai grows with Lisirra’s favor, so do they lose their humanity and become a creature of the Plaguedaughter. In addition, planting the egg allows Lisirra a little more control over her marked than most other Immortals. She can twist it inside them, causing unimaginable pain, use it to transmit messages even when she isn’t around, and can locate her marked even in areas devoted to keeping the eyes of the Immortals from sight. She implants the egg within her marked’s souls and there are few, if any, ways of removing it. The abilities that come with the ‘Egg’ seem beneficial. A Marked will never again sleep unless desired. Instead they take on a form of low activity called ‘torpor’. It allows them to rest and recuperate while simultaneously remaining somewhat alert. Although very few actions can be taken while one is in torpor, a marked will be aware of their surroundings and be able to leap from Torpor when danger arises. Small, mundane, and slow tasks can be completed in torpor if it is not particularly draining. Finally, the marked will become more resistant to hunger and cold, allowing them to last nearly twice as long as other members of their race when deprived of resources. However, without energy their body will begin to slow, even if their organs and mind stay active. The egg transmits sadistic suggestions at Lisirra’s behest, quiet enough to be considered subconscious urging. This urging continues throughout all stages of marked development.
  3 Knowledges: Egg: Torpor grants awareness and near perfect rest.
  Yithnai: Egg: Growing accustomed and resistant to cold, though the chill weakens and slows his movements.
  Yithnai: Egg: Getting portions of tissue removed from the mark, prompts it to regenerate itself.
• Carrier This ability allows a user to carry one or two diseases within their body safely. The carrier acts as a transmitter and can choose to infect others in the common way their carried sickness would be transmitted. At this basic level, only minor to moderately dangerous diseases or sicknesses can be carried and transmitted, and only those diseases that the marked could realistically contract. A Carrier can choose to remove a disease from another’s system and take it upon themselves to carry, but only two can be carried at any time. A Carrier cannot willingly discard a sickness they are carrying through any other means than infecting someone else.
  3 knowledges: Yithnai: Carrier: cannot contract diseases from soiled materials, but living tissue.
  Yithnai: Carrier: Spreading disease to others.
  Yithnai: Carrier: Prolonged contact is needed, this isn't a ranged ability.
• Plaguedaughters Skills I The character is granted an extra three skill points which may be spent only on the following skills: Poisons, Resistance, or Medicine. Any skill points granted by this Mark can break the 250 (or 100 if fast track) point cap on skills. Within these skills, the points may be spent how the pc chooses.
  0 knowledges:
• ImmunityThis ability exempts a user from all diseases, infections, and parasites, even those crated magically. In addition, any venom belonging to a creature in the insect kingdom will also be useless against her agents.
  2 knowledges: Yithnai: Immunity: Zemos has nothing to fear from disease.
  Yithnai: Immunity: Zemos has nothing to fear from infection.
• Cocoon Often in the insect kingdom, a cocoon or chrysalis is used to protect the insect while it transforms. In the scope of Yithanai, a cocoon is used as a healing chamber for the injured. Visually a disturbing ability, the Yithanai spins a cocoon from white, silky strands spit from their mouth. Usually they’ll find a private place to spin and creating the cocoon takes the better part of a break. When completed, the user settles into a deep torpor within, healing twice as fast as they might outside. At Adored, this ability becomes capable of regenerating lost limbs and at exalted, it can be spun over another with the same effects if desired. When the user is completely healed and emerge from the cocoon, the strands of the cocoon itself are often strong enough to use as rope. Those attempting to destroy the cocoon with weapons will find it tough and thick, difficult to pierce or breach in any way…although remarkably vulnerable to fire. If the cocoon is threatened, the Yithanai can emerge early.
  2 knowledges: Yithnai: Cocoon: Can help you heal and rest from injuries.
  Yithnai: Cocoon: Provides rope-like fabric when it is dismantled.
  
• Compound Eyes Not actually a physical change, the Yithanai can temporarily transform their eyes into the compound equivalent of an insect’s. This allows the Yithanai to perceive with alarming superiority to others and subtly increases their own reflex speed. While this ability cannot be hidden from others, it does allow the Yithanai to truly observe all nuances of a scene or situation before reacting. Those who master this ability also find that their sight in darkness improves. While not true darksight, a Yithanai rarely needs help navigating during the night when this ability is active.
  0 knowledges:
• Diagnosis With a touch, the user can determine the name, severity, effects, and transmission method of a sickness or poison currently effecting one person. Curiously, this ability can also tell the general health of an individual and the state of their internal consistency. While this ability could be used to incredible effect as a medical practitioner, it is more meant to identify weakness in another to determine who to infect with her vectors. Lisirra likes to leave the choice up to her marked on how best to utilize the power, however. Those who displease her can quickly find the weight of her displeasure unbearable.
  0 knowledges:
• Favored By Insects With this ability, a user will never be bitten, stung, or attacked by insects encountered. Bugs generally see the user as a friend and will not grow aggressive unless compelled to do so. Even insects compelled to attack will often fall short of lethal dosages or be literally unable to continue an attack even if commanded. Deep in their insect hearts, they know Lisirra’s displeasure at attacking her tools.
  0 knowledges:
• Rotting Touch A deadly skill if used on a target that can't resist, Rotting Touch allows the user to rot anything they touch as long as they can keep their hands on their victims. Even if the target escapes, they will find that the parts of their body that have begun to decay will not heal naturally and are resistant to conventional medicines. Rotting touch can be used on living targets as well as objects, but tends to be most effective on objects susceptible to decay.
  0 knowledges:
  
  
  
  
  Yithnai Mark Story
  
  
  
  
  1st of Ashan, Arc 718
  
  Bare feet tramped against the muddied ground of the Desnind wilderness, kicking up mud and the dead leaves of previous seasons. Muddy waters trickled down the legs as they pumped up and down, at a frantic pace. The woman looked over her shoulder only once every few trills, for the most part focused on the way she was going. Nzi followed close behind, not quite matching the woman's desperate pace. Yet keeping her within sight.
  
  She wouldn't get out of sight, he was sure of that.
  
  The woman, named Karshe, was young, and more than capable of running short distances, over all manner of brambles and fallen branches. He speculated that perhaps she was a hunter, when she had a weapon. He'd made sure to isolate her while she was bathing, and hide most of her belongings before giving chase.
  
  From there, he'd pursued her across the footpaths, and into the overgrowth to the east of Desnind. He had laid a few constructed traps along the way. Nzi had been planning this venture for at least a season or more.
  
  He disappeared behind a large tree, and let her get ahead of him, relying on his ears to tell which direction she was travelling. Then he heard her rhythmic footsteps come to a stop. His bare feet squished in the mud as he rounded across the tree, waiting to hear the slightest pick up of movement from her. After a few more trills, he ventured to stick his head out from behind the tree.
  
  There he had a good look of her, casting about, trying to find out where her pursuer had gone. Nzi contemplated on what thoughts might be occurring to her in that moment. Perhaps she was contemplating going back to her campsite, to retrieve the rest of her gear. If so, she would run afoul of Nzi and catch on a trap. Perhaps she would go east, or south, or north. In any direction, a trap lay waiting for her.
  
  Lisirra would have her corpse, this much Nzi had assured his Queen in prayer. The worms would feast. He only needed to set the plate.
  
  Having had his fill of watching the dark haired woman, he snapped a branch with a stomp of his foot. Karshe looked one way, then in his direction, then made to bolt the former way.
  
  As he renewed the chase, he found himself impressed by her endurance. It wouldn't save her, going that way, of course. He'd set up a small fence of briars, a vine of thorns that he'd tied three ways from the ground. He had it in mind to chase her into it. The footpath led right toward it, and was well hidden.
  
  Sure enough, she hopped onto the beaten path that led into his trap. He ran parallel to her direction, hopping onto the path at almost the same moment. From there, he bolted toward her, lowering his shoulders to increase his momentum. She spotted him, and shrieked, bolting in exactly the opposite direction from him. She stumbled along the way, sobbing and gasping for air. Finally, her concentration gave way to the trip briars Nzi had set for her. She fell forward. He was upon her within moments.
  
  Without wasting time, before the woman could regain her senses, he grabbed at the vines and tied them to her ankles. Once he was satisfied that they were secure and their integrity uncompromised, he went to work on her wrists. These, he tied with some jute rope, to the base of a pair of trees to either side of the path. He took a few trills to secure her, and tested the integrity of her bonds. Then he took up position at her side, studying her face.
  
  For certain, she was a child of Desnind, with the classic features of a Sev'ryn. He knew she was the one his Queen had spoken of. With a sigh and groan, she began to come to. Nzi removed a small, bone athame from his belt, a ritual knife needed for the following ritual. He began humming under his breath, giving silent praise to Lisirra for this subject.
  
  As he lifted the knife above his head, she finally opened her eyes, and screamed at the sky. "No!"
  
  Then the knife fell upon her, as instructed making several superficial wounds in her belly. The wounds missed the artery near that part of the body, but nevertheless would be fatal without treatment. Even proper treatment was no guarantee with a gut wound.
  
  He took hold of the golden chain on his neck, and tugged at it. For a moment, as she sobbed, weeped, and screamed in pain, he regarded the amber gem. Inside was the larvae of an ancient fly. He always thought the creature within would be his familiar. The reasons his parents had given it to him were unclear to him. But now, Lisirra had granted him clarity. He knew what he had to do with it.
  
  He took the jewelry, and shoved it into the wound he'd made in Karshe's belly. Her screams echoed on and on, her voice absorbed and consumed by the treelines, a good enough sound barrier. Only when he felt her internal organs, did he extract his hand from the wound, having left the amulet in her belly.
  
  Her screams became haggard, wheezing breaths, until they began to subside. The woman had gone unconscious, shivering in shock. He watched her, putting a hand on her forehead to keep her eyes open, as the dream had instructed him. He expected to see the telltale glow in her eyes. Yet when her black pupils failed to glow, his faith faltered. Perhaps he'd made a terrible mistake!
  
  Then he heard it, like a trio of gnats flying at the edge of his ear. The slight buzzing rose to a torrent of buzzing, until it threatened to drown out all ambient noise. Then, his eyes were drawn to the woman, whose mouth had gone ajar. He assumed she was dead then. Then he saw something moving in her mouth. It looked like a tongue at first glance, but then he noted it's color. It was white, with the reticulation of a large jungle maggot.
  
  The woman's eyes blinked twice, and then took on a bluish glow, barely perceptible, but there.
  
  He swallowed hard, knowing the last instruction he'd been given. Did he really want to do this? Then he realized he'd already made his decision. There'd be no going back to Desnind after this murder. He might evade detection for a time, but soon enough they would find him.
  
  He lowered his head over the woman's, and kissed her. He felt the cold saliva of her mouth, the shivering of her body bubbling up to her lips, which parted easy enough as he lowered his own lips to hers. The buzzing was almost too much for him to stand. A trill after he started kissing her, something began crawling from her mouth into his. Before he could recoil, it jumped down his throat. He jumped backward from the tied corpse of the woman, crawling on his back. He coughed and retched and spat, yet nothing came up.
  
  He recovered soon after, and his head fell to look at the woman he'd just butchered and defiled. Slowly, her head turned, and spoke to him in the multitudes, like a million flies flapping their wings at once to form a voice, "Well done, this sacrifice will do nicely. The disease will take hold, germinate, and spread through these forests. Perhaps some lucky soul will happen by to gather my blessing. Or she will rot, food for my swarms. It's of little consequence. In the meantime, there's the matter of the gift I've given you...
  
  From your precious Maggot's Joy, with the corpse's kiss, the soul of the ancient maggot has transposed the egg of its soul with yours."
  
  "Lisirra!" Nzi'fuma exclaimed, his eyes widening. He could barely contain his excitement, paralyzed as he was by her glorious voice.
  
  "Yes. From now on, dear Nzi'fuma Okun, you are mine. By my will you will carry the essence of plague beneath your skin. Suffer or exult at my pleasure. You will never rid yourself of this happy malaise. Now go, I suspect you'll be of more use to me elsewhere. Or stay, and face the judgment of your kin. They gather now."
  
  So saying, the bluish light in the woman's eyes faded, Lisirra had gone. Nzi could hear the sound of voices shouting in the distance. Perhaps the treelines hadn't provided the sound cover he'd initially thought. So he gathered up himself, took one last look at his sacrifice, and made for the shade of the wilderness. Hopefully he'd make it to the ships in time.
  
  

[Zemos]

The Friendly Army

Allies

Skeever

Name: Skeever
Race: Sev'ryn
Birthday/Age: 707 Ymiden 49th
Languages Spoken: Fluent Common, Basic Yari.

Skill	XP	Level
Combat: Blades (1-hand)	51	Expert
Stealth	51	Expert
Detection	51	Expert
Resistance	51	Expert
Medicine	51	Expert
Larceny	51	Expert
Athletics	51	Expert
Endurance	41	Competent

Appearance/Biometrics: Short hair, leprous lesions on her face and scalp... Girl-like in stature but she could have easily have been mistaken for a boy. They were of the androgynous age between childhood and full maturity. But they did appear to be very sickly. She has brown hair.

Personality: She often presents a shell-shocked and plain reaction to things that cross her path. She will notice something, and tend to call it out if she's not trying to avoid getting noticed. Otherwise a shy girl that prefers to keep her own company. Is absolutely loyal to Zemos, however.

Backstory: Little is known of Skeeer's past, but one would presume her to be one of the myriad of orphans living in the city of Yaralon. This one happens to have escaped the notice of Labrae long enough that she took shelter in the sewers, and has eked out a meager existence there. She's got some skin conditions that lead to lesions and such, but they're being treated.

In-Game History Thus Far: The Weeping Walls - Here Zemos defends Skeever during the dangers encountered at the Weeping Walls. After they survive the excursion, Zemos more or less adopts her as a surrogate daughter, and she becomes his follower.

Relationship to PC: They met in the Weeping Wall, where Zemos defended her life. Since then, she's become a loyal follower and a bit of a surrogate daughter to Zemos.

Approved: Pending, but was awarded here: Weeping Walls

Mosasi

Announcement: 60 xp +20 to Dancing, +20 to Seduction, +20 to Athletics.

Name: Mosasi
Race: Sev'ryn/Biqaj mixed race.
Birthday/Age: 23rd of Ashan 700
Languages Spoken: Fluent in: Dehasin. Basic: Common

Skill	XP	Level
Seduction	50	Competent
Endurance	30	Competent
Athletics	50	Competent
Dancing	30	Competent

Appearance/Biometrics: Half-Sevryn/Half-Biqaj female. She had an olive complexion, with large pointed ears and eyes that change shade slightly when certain moods strike her. Her eyes were dark forest green uusally. Her build was athletic and average. She stood at 5'8" tall.

Personality: Still bearing many of the mannerisms of an obedient slave raised to indoctrination in Athart, Mosasi is meek and mild-mannered. She takes to her job as a server and courtesan at the Devil's Advocate with seriousness and earnestness.

Backstory: Formerly a slave imported from Athart, she bought her way into freedom on the kindness of a former master in Viden. After finding her freedom in Viden, she turned to the less savory aspects of society to make ends meet, when nobody else wanted to hire someone who could barely speak common. She was given a job as one of the girls of the Devil's Advocate recently, and works there as a courtesan and occasional server.

She lives in the lowest of the Prisms, in a common area that she also shares with Zemos, as it happens.

In-Game History Thus Far: TBD

Relationship to PC: Potential love interest and/or victim. Zemos will become unhealthily obsessed with the woman. He'll probably patronize the Devil's advocate, where she works, and when paired with her after paying, become even more infatuated. However, her purpose in the story was to later be the basis of a humanoid totem for his magic mentor Akoko and also his own first foray into making a totem. Eventually, the situation degenerates, and they end up in a situation where Zemos harvests her sovereign substances both for his mentor, and later himself. He keeps her alive with a combination of medical know-how and magic, until he's ready to dispose of her.

Sophia

Approval: here
Announcement: 60 xp +30 to Alchemy, +30 to Medicine.
Skill Scale Down 2021: Poisons to Medicine, Chemistry to Science.

Name: Sophia
Race: Eidisi
Languages:

Fluent = Common, Xanthean.
Basic = Ancient Language.

Date of Birth: 690 21st of Cylus


Skills:
Research: 40
Linguistics: 40
Teaching: 40
Alchemy: 60
Medicine: 60
Science: 30
Resistance: 30
Endurance: 10


Appearance: Ice blue skin, 5'10" tall, with lavender-white hair. She wears the fine robes of an aristocratic student.

Personality: Studious, sardonic, and solitary. Sophia tends to keep to herself when at school, and her main interactions with her fellow students involve tutoring them. While she makes an exception for Zemos, she rarely studies with groups, and prefers to stick to herself. When outside of the school, she maintains the same solitary attitude. One way to get her out of her shell is by pursuing a conversation on a subject that interests her.

Backstory: She's from a well-to-do family of Eidisi extraction in Viden. She comes from a long line of scientific scholars on both sides of her family. She attends alchemy courses in University, and plans to become a researcher for the Academy in due time.

In-game History: TBD

Wealth Tier of Family: 7

Relationship to PC: Fellow student and study buddy/tutor.

Familiars

Motsi

Name: Motsi
Type: Ose Bori Category 2
Appearance: Motsi takes the form of a creature with a monkey's body but the fly's eyes and wings. Its wings flutter and hover, but don't move too swiftly.
Personality: He likes to caper about and make merry. A happy soul, it enjoys the process of decay, seeing it as a grand feast.

Memory NPCs

Duneza Kukuru

Name: Duneza Kukuru
Race: Sev'ryn
Date of Birth: 654 10th of Cylus
Skills:
Unarmed Combat: Da'riya 30
Athletics: 26
Discipline: 26
Hunting: 18

Appearance: Salt and pepper black hair. 5'6" tall. Lithe but strong. His eyes are light gray, his skin is medium tanned. He like many Sev'ryn hunters, wears the skins of his kills. In addition, he also bears a set of prayer beads.

Personality: An adept of the Desnind Standard Da'Riya Unarmed style of combat, Duneza has a mild temperament. Slow and plodding in all of his emotional reactions, few can manage to make him angry. If he has one personal flaw, he tends toward passive aggression when somebody is annoying him.

Otherwise he's a calming and tranquil presence to whatever scene he's placed.
Relationship to PC: Da'Riya Instructor
Anything: Deducted some points from my point bank to pay the fee for the memory npc.

Lethu Dinith'Ioi

Name: Lethu Dinith'Ioi
Race: Sev'ryn
Date of Birth: 60th of Ymiden, arc 673
Skills:

Meditation 26
Needlecraft 26
Fieldcraft 26
Cooking 22

Appearance: Light olive skin, 5'8", green eyes, black hair, average physique, and lithe in build. She often wears fine clothing appropriate to the season. She conceals an amulet of Lisirra's unholy mark upon her.
Personality: Demur and kind, she seems a soft person on the surface. When one threatens her child, however, she is liable to fly into a rage as furious as a hive of bees that has been crushed underfoot.
Relationship to PC: Mother
Anything: Same deal as Duneza with the conversion of point bank points to nels

Tou'touye Oorun'sngä’i

Name: Tou'touye Oorun'sngä’i
Race: Sevryn
Date of Birth: 20th of Ashan, arc 666
Skills:

Hunting 26
Ranged Combat (Sling) 26
Fieldcraft 26
Textile Production 22

Appearance: Medium olive skin, 5'11, black eyes, brown hair, well built, stout physical form. He wears the skins of his prey, and the instruments of his trade as a hunter/trapper.
Personality: A dour, serious man, who nonetheless adores his family. He takes his efforts to provide for his family very seriously. Like the rest of his family, he's devoted to the local cult of Lisirra, and tried to raise Nzi'fuma as a responsible and devout Lisirrite.
Relationship to PC: Dad
Anything: Same deal as the rest of this crop of npcs. Deducted point bank points to get my pc some coin to pay for them.

Magic Mentors

Lockley

Name: Lockley
Race: Human
Birthday/Age: 27th Ymiden 678
Languages Spoken: Fluent: Common

Skill	XP	Level
Glamour	80	Master
Attunement	51	Expert
Empathy	51	Expert
Larceny	51	Expert

Biometrics:

Height: 6'
Build: Thin
Complexion: Abnormal (Glamour Witchmark: ivory white and deep black markings)
Eyes: Keyholes (Glamour Mutation)
Voice: High

Personality: Lockley is quite driven to near-insanity by his Empathy spark. While benign and not violent at all, he has several mutations accumulated from the discipline of Empathy that have rendered him mentallly and emotionally unrecognizable from ordinary mortals. For one thing, he can generally only experience emotion vicariously, through his spark, doing a sort of 'emotional sharing' witth anyone he happens to be following or engaging witth.

He gets by in the underground of Yaralon, only coming up for sustenance and occassional companionship. Otherwise, he's a shy soul, reluctant to engage with the violent society of Yari. His powerful magic alone protects him from harm in most instances, as he's entirely incapable of fighting, as the infliction of pain on others has a similar mutation associated with it to empathy, in that pain delivered is shared back through feedback.

Backstory: Lockley learned magic at a dangerously young age, and since then has developed into the strange mage he is today as a result of the warping that resulted from his early initiations. He once lived in Withersfield, as a gourd farmer, until a fracture-beast swallowed his family. He was rescued by an unlikely savior, who later initiated him into magics, when asked and pressed to by Lockley. He is a silver circle'd citizen, having travelled to the city under cover of invisibility, after reaching mastery of Glamour.

From there, Lockley made a living just scraping by, hand to mouth, but was kept entertained and intrigued by life from the false images he could conjure, and the vicarious experience of other people. He lived quite a long way this way, and got by on good-natured filching and swindling.

He engages in the coin trade of the Burho Beneath, often working as a thief and spy for those in the Burho in exchange for what he needs and can't steal.

He comes into Zemos' life in Yaralon, where they discover each other in the Burho beneath. Zemos takes an interest in the strange creature that Lockley represents, and pursues him when he recognizes that the other man can use magic. I'd like their arrangement for the initiation and such to be subject to story development, rather than baked in through a planned path.

Akoko

Name: Akoko
Race: Originally female Sev'ryn (Original self-totem is now deceased), currently a male Auri.
Birthday/Age: 34th of Vhalar 611
Languages Spoken: Fluent in: Xanthean Basic: Common

Skill	XP	Level
Hunting	76	Master
Becoming	51	Expert
Empathy	51	Expert
Endurance	26	Competent
Combat: Unarmed	26	Competent
Meditation	20	Novice

Appearance/Biometrics: A typical tawny-furred Auri, with a pair of curled horns growing from its cranium, in front of the ears. The creature has two tails like most of its kind, and has a keenly intelligent stare. Akoko has forgotten what their self-totem looked like.

Second Totem (This will be part of his training, obtaining the sovereign substances so as to make a totem for Akoko): Half-Sevryn/Half-Biqaj female. She had an olive complexion, with large pointed ears like the biqaj. Her eyes were dark forest green. Her build was athletic and average. She stood at 5'8" tall.

Personality: Akoko has a prideful and sometimes sardonic manner to them. They dislike being led about, but will follow those who show loyalty and comradery with them. Akoko is known to bear grudges far beyond their natural expiration. They hate Elgo Mervani, for reasons that will become clear through Zemos' story.

Backstory: Originally a mage from a village on the outskirts of Rhakros, they were a witchdoctor for their small clan, before they were beset by a group of Webspinner cultists. She managed to escape, using her Auri totem to blend into the rest of the wilderness, and evade capture. From then on, she's had a grudge against the Webspinners and all their kind.

She traveled for decades as an Auri, ignoring the ailing health of her self-totem, until the totem expired from long neglect. Akoko mourned the death of their self totem, and more than that, found themselves practically incapable of crafting a new totem, given that they'd been trapped in the form of a quadrupedal cat for the better part of the past few decades.

In time, Akoko took to wandering, taking on this or that companion time after time, until finally making her way to Videnese territory. There she settled as a herding animal for a small hamlet, a pastoral community raising sheep in the mountainous valleys south of Viden. There she lived peacefully with a family of ranchers and herdsmen, until they crossed paths with Elgo Mervani. Mervani wanted a house built on the land that the shepherds claimed for their own. When they refused to sell him the land, he came in the night and poisoned their flocks, rendering them destitute. Therefore, they were forced to sell their land to Elgo Mervani, to cut their losses. While the family didn't know the truth of it, Akoko had seen it first hand, and swore vengeance on the Professor for disrupting her peaceful existence.

Akoko made his life from then on terribly inconvenient, grabbing evidence of his nefarious activities, and dropping them in plain view at times. At all times keeping to their self and not leading on that it was their doing. Unfortunately, after decades of undermining Mervani, he inevitably found Akoko out, and had a group of trappers arrange to catch her. The trap succeeded in snaring Akoko, however, before the trappers could find her, the most unlikely of individuals did. Mervani's own apprentice, who was travelling south at the time, Zemos found Akoko snared, and freed the becomer. Akoko, sensing something off about Zemos, fled, but not after marking him with a wound made by its claws.

However, in time through their mutual travels south, they came to rely upon each other for mutual safety, and so a begrudging partnership was formed. Zemos still has no idea that Akoko was a former mage, and believes the creature to be an Auri.

In-Game History Thus Far:

A Cat of Two Tails, or a Tale of Two Cats - Here Zemos finds Akoko and frees them of the snare.
Two of a Kind - Here, Akoko returns the favor of their life to Zemos, after he's accosted by a bandit who threatens to brain him. Akoko kills the bandit, and so a tentative partnership is formed between the two travelers.

Relationship to PC: Acquaintance. Zemos is the apprentice to Mervani, Akoko's nemesis. That will come clear in the stories of Zemos.

Elgo Mervani

]

Approval: /viewtopic.php?f=369&t=23129
Skill Scale Down 2021: Poisons to Medicine.
Name: Elgo Mervani

Race: Eidisi
Birthday/Age: 634 20th of Zi'Da
Title: Professor of Arcana in Viden Academy.

Skills:
Graft: Expert 51
Necromancy: Master 76
Medicine: Expert 51
Teaching: Competent 30
Intimidation: Competent 26

Details: Mervani is a professor of Arcana and Sciences (toxicology) at Viden Academy. His classroom is not a crowded one, given the niche nature of his tutelage. Yet those who are privileged enough to be assigned to his class rarely feel privileged for the opportunity. Mervani is a harsh task-master, and brooks little foolery about the study of magic.

He will often resort to intimidation tactics in order to scare away prospective learners of arcana theory and magic in general. It matters little to him whether his students flunk out of Academy due to a lack of nerve. Such failures of nerve are a sign of a weak student, who is unlikely to survive long enough to advance their craft, in his view.

He often plays dangerous games with his students who do stay on long enough to learn more about his subject of study. More than once, certain among his students have disappeared, and not to be heard of again. Nothing could be proven against Meravni, yet there are some among the faculty who suspect him of foul play. Even so, he's a capable researcher, providing the Academy with a wealth of real knowledge of his fields of arcane study. That, coupled with his ties to the Viden Academy, has ensured that he is left to his own devices. Besides, the disappearances are irregular and infrequent enough that it leaves some doubt as to the fate of those missing.

His witchmarks aren't immediately evident just by looking at him, only a pair of fangs and rheumy eyes hint at signs of arcane awakenings.

Relationship: Mervani senses something different about Zemos from the beginning. Intrigued and curious about this student, he nevertheless doesn't show it with kindness. He is harder on Zemos than any of his other students, tests him, even will try to poison him at a point. When that poison fails to take, he will finally decide that he wishes to initiate him, if only to see the effects in the interest of furtherence of science and arcana.

Pets/Companions

Crawl

Name: Crawl
Race: Lotharro
Birthday/Age: 41st of Vhalar 698
Languages Spoken: Fluent in: Dehasin. Basic: Common

Skill	XP	Level
Combat: Axes & Bludgeons (2-h)	30	Competent
Discipline	30	Competent
Resistance	30	Competent
Mining	30	Competent
Endurance	30	Competent
Strength	30	Competent
Athletics	30	Competent

Appearance/Biometrics: A large, tall, pockmarked lotharro. Scarred by medical experiments and abuse from his master in equal measure, the hair has been shaven from his body. He's a eunuch, as is customary for non-breeding Lotharro slaves.

Personality: Whatever master says. Programmed from birth to be obedient by the Nest-Keepers in Athart, Crawl is trained for maximum obedience. While he's capable of defending his master as a competent user of the club or axe, he's not exactly bred for bodyguard duty. However, he's able to learn.

He speaks little unless spoken to.

Backstory: Born as a slave, sired by a slave, Crawl has been programmed from even before birth to act as property to any future master, whomsoever the Nest-Keepers decide he should go to. Perhaps fortunately, he was shipped to Viden, where slaves are at least treated with a semblance of fairness.

In-Game History Thus Far: TBD

Relationship to PC: Zemos is going to purchase him when he returns to Viden.

Approved: here
Announcement: 60 xp +30 to Discipline, +30 to Mining.

Thralls

4/28 Thrall points total

Husks

1 human husk thrall Lost Here

Fetches

1 sackcloth fetch, in the shape of a cat with a bloody smile. (Unwelled) Lost here

Swarms

1 small swarm of undead rodents in a sack. (Unwelled)Lost here
1 Swarm thrall of wasps. (Unwelled)Lost here

Gaunt

1 Gaunt (Unwelled)Lost here

Haunt

1 Haunt animated from his shadow. (Unwelled)

[Zemos]

Inventory

Tier 5 Inventory

• Raggy Clothing
• 1 seasons worth of a poor-quality essential perfume (completely non-toxic) [Ymiden 720]
• A Bundle of raw flax fiber.
• Weapon1 average quality double-bladed iron spear
• Armor1 masterwork quality set of hide armor (tier 3).

Point Bank Items

• Auri Companion Languages Spoken: Common, Xanthean.

Acquisitions and Loot

• a husk thrall
• 9 foot length of Yithnai Silk Rope: Tough, resistant to physical damage, vulnerable to fire.
• 2 doses of Pain Button.
• A basic quality pair of hand-wraps, with hardened leather knuckles.
• 4 doses of Flea Toxin/Medicine.
• Enough silk to make 4 2 items. Or one armor and two items.
• Tier 3 Average Quality Padded Armor
• 1 Masterwork Map of the Scaltoth
• 10 day supply of wound unguent (good)
• Burho Beneath Coin - The coin Zemos was given to go into the sewers reveals a one charge use of 'Body of Many' from Lisirra's mark once Zemos emerges from within the fracture. Spent Here
• Bonecrafted Saber (Basic Quality)
• 10 Burho Beneath Coins
• Goblin Moonblade

  

  Goblin Moonblade: Approved
  
  Base Item: An average quality bone push-dagger. The push dagger's handle consists of a horn-like, crescent-shaped handle with its ends pointing forward of the grip. The blade itself is good for cutting as well as stabbing, a straight leaf-shaped blade. Entirely constructed of bone, its basic quality can be improved and repaired according to his sculpting skill, in tandem with his bonemolding ability from necromancy.
  
  Enchantment: The Goblin Moonblade is capable of reducing a defeated Emeyan or other creature whose origins are in Emea, into a class 1 or 2 well that is usually associated with their purpose. He must defeat the creature first, but the Goblin Moonblade is especially effective against these types of enemies and does a little more damage to them. The well is produced only after Zemos has managed to defeat the enemy, and then only through a final wound inflicted with the Goblin Moonblade. Only one final blow can be used to produce a well on a given trial. Otherwise it remains an effective weapon against Emeyan beings.
  
  The types of Emeyans and wells that can be made from their defeat are as follows:
  
  Minor Emeyans: Class 1 Wells only.
  Moderate Emeyans: Class 1-2 Wells. Class 2 wells can only be harvested in this way once a cycle.
  Major Emeyans: Class 1-2 Wells only. Class 2 wells can only be harvested in this way once a cycle.

Wells

Current Count:
Splinterstones: 2 (Class 3)
Skeeverstone: 1 (Class 3)
Acquisition and Expenditure:

• a Skeever Stone (Class 3 Vermin Well) in Emea as well as three Splinterstones (Class 3 Wells).
• -1 Splinter Stone
• +3 Splinter Stones
• -3 Splinter Stones

Substance Reference

Housing

Desnind: A 400 square foot tree-house. The tree-house includes one bed, two chairs, one table, two knives, a set of six plates (assorted), one chest, two heavy fur blankets, and an Iyọ lamp. The Iyọ lamp will contain one female and one male caterpillar that are green in color. The access to Fuma's treehouse is by stairs, as it is settled near the bottom levels of the city, in a hollowed out trunk of a still-living tree.

Viden: A Bunk in some common room in a Hostel.

[Zemos]

Abilities, Powers, and Capstones.

• Eyes of the Swarm - Passing through Isandra Haze's prison changes a person. Literally. Zemos finds he now has an ability which functions like Yithanai's favored power 'Eyes of the Swarm'.