[Reventage]

The Life and Faith of Reventage D’vinn The following few pages will tell you the tale of Reventage D’vinn pretty much to the point where she is now. This is something that has been present from the very beginning when I started to play her, but this is the first time I’ve managed to force it into the form of a text. I didn’t write this to be posted here, but some people have said, that maybe it would be best if I would. So I did.

Alright, let’s start dissecting. There has been three important phases in the life of Reventage D’vinn. The first one was her childhood and what humans would call teens, up to when she was a bit over 130 years old. She was born a twin to a rich elven couple owning a successful trade company in Point Harbor. Her twin brother was named Gieran and Rev was given the name Kieran. When they were born they were the talk of the town, an elf lady had given birth to twins after all, this had to be a good sign. Their parents were proud. Despite of this they really never bothered to raise them. Her father was busy with his work and her mother spent most of her time with the other rich ladies living in Harbor. They bought them expensive clothes and hired renowned tutors to teach them the proper elven behaviour (as his father would brag to everyone willing to listen. This generated an evil rumour about him being proud of his elven heritage but still acting more like a human). Kieran was the regular rich girl, somewhat spoiled, arrogant and also the prettiest thing to walk on this earth. She had been blessed with the best of elven lineage, a hauntingly beautiful face, with a small perfect nose, eyes deep emerald green, mouth as red and frail as the bud of a pink rose, her long hair flaming red and finally a small slightly curved smile that made her eyes seem like glowed in even more perfect green. Gieran (whom Kieran quickly started calling Gil) was a swift learner, the pride and joy of his teachers. Kieran on the other hand didn’t seem to be interested of what his teachers had to offer. She practised and studies beside her brother, but her heart wasn’t in it. Slowly she started skipping classes, doing dangerous stunts such a riding her father’s horse without permission and getting hurt, trying to climbing out from the second story window of their house or flirting with the son of a rich jeweller living a few houses away and making him steal a ring from his father to her. She was also always trying to drag her brother into trouble with her. In the end she gained the reputation of a tomcat, a rascal with no respect for proper manners. Kieran’s parents were at loss what to do with her. They tried shouting at her, bribing her, sending her to live with relatives (she was soon returned) and in the end they just decided to ignore her and focus on her brother who knew how to act respectfully. By the time she and her brother had their 117th birthday Kieran decided she was bored with her current life and declared that she would not show up to any of her lessons from that day on and that she’d plan her own life from now on. After that she started to disappear from the house and never tell where she left. She could be gone for days and then appearing to the dinner table without explaining a thing. At first her parents tried question her about her actions, but soon gave up. She wasn’t around, and they didn’t hear bad things about her. Things were better than they had been. At this time Rev’s life was rather empty. She was just continuing what she had been doing since she was a child, looking for any chance to have fun, on the expense of others if necessary. She would live in the moment acting on her instincts and going along with anything that would end up amusing and wouldn’t hurt her. She played around with men, gave them promises of love and other things that she had no intention keeping so that they would do whatever she asked from then. The only person she listened to an extent was her brother, who was there for her every time one of her plots failed and she got hurt. Gieran never judged his sister, just tried to be there for her when she needed it. A few years later, in the year when the twins had their 121st birthday Kieran came home wounded. She had been shot to her left side, just a bit over her waist with a crossbow. She was pale and soon after Gieran got her to bed she passed out. Her parents paid well for the healers of Ilsare to come and heal her wound and she recovered in less than two days. Despite of this she refused to get up from her bed or to talk with her parents. A day later when she was alone with Gil she told him what had happened. For little over a year she had been a part of a small group of thieves and burglars close to the docks. The gang had know her as Reventage, that’s why her parents hadn’t heard anything about this. She was not for the money or anything, she explained to his brother, but for the excitement in it. They had been doing some minor break-ins to some houses near the docks. She had been mostly acting as the lookout. There had been this young human man called Blue-Eye Will. He was 17 years old, been with the gang from when he was six and was one of the better locksmiths of the group. He was also head over heels to Rev. He had done all he could to get her attention. He had tried to teach her how to pick locks and gave her the prettiest things he found on their raids. He even tried singing to her. Rev was amused by his innocence in such matters and had been playing around with him, giving him a bit more of her attention and on the same time daring him to do more and more dangerous stunts. In the end she had told her that she would really like if he’d get her this one special ruby necklace that was owned by a famous courtesan in one of the better entertainment houses near the city centre. To make the long story short, Will tried to break into the brothel but was caught. Trying to escape he ran to the street, but one of the bouncers managed to shoot him to the back with a crossbow. Rev ran to his body and tried to drag it out of there but she was shot too. Scared to death she ran away, to her home. It was guilt that kept Rev in the bed. She had killed him. She had just been playing around and now he is dead. She felt empty. For her whole life she had been chasing after a moments of enjoyment, living in the moment, never worrying of the future, never stopping to think if she was hurting someone. And now it all came crashing at her. She had hurt Will. She was sure she had hurt Gil. In a way she had hurt her parents. She had walked over countless of people for her own pleasure. She was guilty. Gieran was the only person she admitted to how she felt. From him she pleaded for forgiveness and of course he gave it to her. And of course this didn’t ease her pain, for she felt that she would have to redeem herself or she would never be truly forgiven. Her parents didn’t understand why she wouldn’t get out of bed, there was nothing wrong with her expect for that scar she had demanded the healers would leave. After a week had passed they were starting to get mad with Rev, just sleeping and not eating. Finally the time had come to do something about that girl. In the end, they decided to contact the local temple of Ilsare, thinking that perhaps the girl just needed something to fill her life with and religion would have to do. Maybe they would even manage to teach her some manners. The local temple was more like a noble’s house that had its doors open for anyone wishing to give The Lady of Dreams their tribute than a official temple. They organised beauty contests, art shows and especially performances of their choir, well known for it’s beautiful performances. The owned of the temple was a gentle old priestess Seran, who had inherited it from her parents, who had inherited the place from her parents and so forth for four elven generations. So Reventage’s parents contacted the priestess, asked her to teach their daughter the proper ways of serving The Archer of Love and take care of her in the future. On a completely unrelated note they also made a sizeable donation to the church. Seran met Rev, decided that her soul indeed needed saving and she agreed to take her into her house and teach her what she knew. Rev did not have a problem with this, at this time of her life she had hardly any objections to anything. Thus the second phase in her life began. After a few days Rev had settled into her new life, it you can call it that, life. She ate at Seran’s table, she sat with her and listened when she taught her things every priestess should know of Her and the rest of the time she spent in her own room alone with her thoughts that had stuck into an infinite loop of gilt and self loathing. Seran tried to get her interested of the arts. She made her try painting, but if she wasn’t supervised and constantly encouraged, her brush didn’t move. The same with sewing. They tried to teach her dance, but she never was completely there, but in some deep dark corners of her mind so she was always a bit late in her moves. They put her into the choir, and there for a second she excelled because her godly voice, but she often forgot to sing and just stood there silent when the rest of the choir sang with all their hearts. A normal person would’ve given up, but Seran was old, she knew that you can’t change your world around in an instant. So she kept trying, doing her best for Rev. Every day they sat together, Seran teaching Rev of Her teachings and history, teaching Rev Her songs, how to call her so that She s allowed to answer. Year passed and then another but Rev showed no improvement, she was still stuck on that infinite loop spiritually banging her head on the wall for her past mistakes. Then one evening she fell asleep. She dreamt of warmth that reached every nook of your soul, of light that gave you courage and will, and of voice that brought tears to ones eyes. “Why do you hate yourself so?” the voice asked. And Rev replied. And they talked. The next day Rev was different. She wasn’t what she had been yesterday. She wasn’t what she had been before the demise of Blue-Eye Will. Once again she was full of life and she was thirsting for more information of Her. Now if Seran talked to Rev, Rev replied., eagerly. When she was talking, Rev listened and learned. Some of it she understood, some not, but she was listening with her whole soul. Seran never questioned the source of this sudden change, she just smiled. Rev tried again to practice the arts. Sadly she had no skill of capturing the moment on canvas, or creating the perfect seam, her hands were too hasty, her spirit too eager to stop doing something properly. It was the same with dancing, she was only able to lead the dance on her own pace, ignoring the music. But when she came back to the choir her performance stunned everyone. With her high spirits her words rise higher and reached such power and gentleness that had been never seen before. The realisation that there was someone so great as Her who loved her was the power that had given her a new life, the chance of doing something that would please Her was the power that kept her going. So she worked, studied and sang and finally she was officially accepted as one of her priestesses. That day might have been one of the most happiest day of her life. Her life in the temple began. The lessons ceased. She and Seran would still talk, but that was in a different manner, Rev thought that she had learned what she would need to learn. Then temple life started to seem empty to Rev. She was helping the community. She was praying, singing, but that wasn’t enough to fill her life. She felt that she would have to do more for Her, she would have to be worthy of Her love and acceptance. She would have to be bigger to receive such an enormous love and the temple life seemed small to her. The urge to do more and more for her grew and in the end, she told Seran that she was leaving. Rev thanked for all that she had done for her and bid her farewell. Seran said nothing. The she went to meet her brother who was the only person of her family she had kept contact while living in the temple. She told him of her plans to leave and Gieran, who had trained in the arts when Rev had been gone, demanded that his sister would take him along with her. He also wished to see the world and especially how the magic was practised in its different corners. They went to their parents, and announced their intentions and told them that they’d leave with or without their support. After the initial shock their parents funded their trip quite generously and booked a ship for them to Mistone. They travelled around the northern continent for a few months, living quite comfortably in the best inns and spending their coin openly. They travelled around, moving with caravans transporting various objects around Mistone. Rev found the company of blunt but easygoing guards a pleasant one and she often spent evenings talking to them at their campfires, leaving Gil to study alone. On one of these trips a band of robbers attacked them, surprising them completely. The hired guards knew their job and the robbers were driven away, but during the scuffle Gil got hit to the face by one of the robbers. Rev was able to heal his wound, but she still blamed herself for not being able to prevent it. Rev started to strengthen her body. She did a heavy exercise program every day and continued the training on using a longsword she had been given when still living home. The caravan guards gladly helped her. She swore she would gain power of her own, not just depend on Her all the time. Slowly her work started giving results, her stamina would increase and she was able to use her sword more effectively. She even had to defend herself and her brother a few times while on the road. Once they fought against goblins trying to rob the caravan they were travelling with. She was only slightly wounded And then they were robbed, all of their gold was stolen at an inn. If you ask Rev it was Gil’s fault, not that she’d ever point fingers. Since Gil had been the one their parents trusted, they had given him most of their gold. Thus almost all of their wealth lost they were forced to do odd jobs and small favours to anyone asking for them. Rev was healing minor wounds for a small donation. Gil was offering his lore in magic to commoners. After a month had passed since they lost their money they were hired to look for a lost child from a forest near Centre, but instead of finding the child they were lost themselves. After wandering around for a few days they set camp next to a fallen tree and fell asleep. When they woke up they were in front of a big silvery lizard. This is the time where I started directly controlling Rev's life.

At this point the basics of Revs character had been worked out. She was an independent person. There were only two things that really mattered in her life, Ilsare and Gieran. The relationship between Rev and Gil had changed drastically after the death of Blue-Eye Will. Before Rev had been the dominant part of the pair, now Rev listened to everything Gil said. Rev felt that she had wronged him in her past life, and now she was giving her brother the respect he deserved and more. Soon after arriving Hlint Gil rented a room in the Wild Surge Inn and started doing extensive research based on the new magical information he had obtained during the earlier part of their travels. He rarely left his room. Rev kept supplying him what he needed and paying the rent (The person who was supposed to play Gil quit NWN soon after we started in Layo for personal reasons. He was supposed to be the power that kept Rev in a short leash, so him not being around affected a great deal on how Rev ended up to be).
The relationship between Rev and Ilsare had the form of a relationship between a mother and a daughter, when the child was very young. Rev admired everything having any relation to Her, she never doubted Her strength, to Rev, Ilsare was invincible. Every time Rev recited a prayer she was able to feel her love. Every single time she healed someone she felt her warmth. When Rev watched Her lightning dance in the skies she felt close to Her. Ilsare meant everything to her and She was the reason Rev lived.
At the same time Rev’s uneasiness that had began to grow when she was still staying in the temple grew larger and larger. Ilsare was giving Rev her love, lending Rev Her power. What was Rev doing for her in exchange of all this? Nothing. She was just running around the countryside, doing some random jobs to get enough gold to go by. This was no way of paying Her back. Rev felt the need to do something bigger, something important, something that would make the ground shake and every single living creature to sing Her glory. This was the thing that in the end drove her to adventuring. She needed a get rich quick scheme, she needed to find an ancient magical artifact. She needed to find something to turn the world around and make Her feel proud of Rev.
There were of course faults in this kind of thinking. First of all Ilsare didn’t want Rev to “pay back”. She didn’t want her to do great deeds in Her name (not that she would have minded that either). She was happy as long as Rev loved Her back with all her heart, this was all that she was asking in return. Love is giving without wanting anything back. Rev with her weak self-esteem didn’t realise this. The other mistake Rev did was also caused by her almost non-existent self esteem was that she needed to borrow power to bring about change. She shouldn’t have been looking for ancient artefacts to change her surroundings, true change comes from within. Rev would be able to chance the world with her own power if she’d try to and had the will, she doesn’t need to gain power from somewhere else to do it. Ilsare saw both of these mistakes and forgave her, for She was sure she’d realise the truth by herself. So She loved, supported and waited.

There were also other aspects of Rev effecting her actions (and quite a few of them affect her even now). First of all she decided she’d never let a disaster like the one with Blue-Eye Will so she started (partially not realising it herself) to act more rough and less inviting. She started to use the form of common she had learned during her life near the docks that sounded crude and impolite. She started showing more of her true nature instead of trying to please the one she was talking to. She would tell (bad) jokes on the expense of others, she would state her own opinion loud and clear and she would not listen to the opinions of others, or even give the impression she was listening. She was being her old a bit arrogant self that she had always been, now just be open about it.

The time after they were robbed taught Rev a lot of things, most important was the value of money. For all her life she had never needed to worry about it. She had never handled large amounts, but never had she been in the danger of running out. When she needed money, she had it. So the experience of poverty shook her. Money was something important. It kept you alive. It worked as a tool to guard yourself and the ones close to you. In a way she came to understand her father a bit better. She also realised that she would never be able to go back to the life she had lived before, trusting other people for her livelihood. She wanted to make her own in this world, she wanted to earn her coin so that she could be proud of it. (This aspect of her that explain why she demands a reward every time she’s asked to do something. She respects people who work for their coin and she’s proud to be a professional “Solver of various problems” aka. an adventurer. She thinks of herself as a pro, and pros make a living on what she does. She is different from these Sunday adventurers who do it just to gain wood or ore for their craft. She is there to get the job done and expects to be paid for it. She doesn’t understand those who do it for free. It’s the same as calling a plumber to your house and expecting him to do the job for free just because he likes his profession. Also Rev doesn’t consider herself a professional crafter, so she doesn’t care of she gets paid for that.)

Rev has a strange relationship with talking. She does a lot of it, and when she does, she does it loud and clear. On the other hand she doesn’t put too much weight on what she’s saying. For her, actions weigh more than words. Talking is something you do to fill the voids between doing things. It’s not the most important thing there is, as some people seem to think. This affects her view of the world quite a bit.
First of all this allows her to say things she doesn’t mean. IF she shouts at you and calls you the ugliest thing that has ever crawled from the pits of hell while she is smiling, you should trust her smile, not her words. Her words can differ greatly from her feelings. Rev also gets easily frustrated if she is in a situation where some sort of an action is needed but people around her just talk and talk. Also Rev gets frustrated if she can’t figure out the correct path (or something she believes to be the correct path) in a situation where one needs to act. This part of her character makes her rather rash and sometimes she gets so annoyed by the talking that she acts stupidly and without thinking just to make them stop. That’s why Rev has been compared to a bull that sees something red, rushing blindly towards its direction.
Rev also judges people based on their actions, not on their words. So people overly polite and verbose don’t get more sympathy out of her than the people with less skill in talking. But the attitude the words portray do effect her judgement.

Not only does Rev respect those who act, but she also expects everyone to carry the consequences of their own actions. You are free to do anything you feel is right, not caring of the opinions of others, as long as you are ready to face the consequences. Being responsible for your decisions makes you responsible making those decisions count. One should always direct all her passion on the matter at hand, use their personal strength to support their objectives. By acting you change the world around you, for good and bad. Rarely a decision what to do is simple, but once you have chosen your path, you should not look back, you should just accept what is coming to you as the price of a decision you have made. Always follow your heart for it leads you to your true destination. (This is the most difficult part of Rev personal philosophy to explain and I’m not sure if I succeeded in it. It’s best seen in the decision she makes, but it’s hard to explain in words only. Think the French guy Jean-Paul Sartre, a philosopher with strong existentialistic impression.) By alignment Rev is Chaotic Good, but she is walking close to the line between CG and CN. But I don’t think she has crossed that line since her youth.

Something Rev views as a personal matter is ones faith. Everyone decides who to follow by their own and everyone decides how to live their faith. Some people do it with a lot of noise, shouting that the one they follow is the only right one for everyone and everyone should think like them. There are people who consider their fait as something they were born with, they respect the one whose path they follow but they won’t fee anything more in that relationship. Rev’s relationship with Ilsare is very personal. Rev is following her because she has given her life in Her hands, Rev’s soul belongs only to Her. This dedication Rev feels towards Ilsare is something so personal and important to her that she rarely speaks of it. Rev’s heart is so close to Her, Rev’s love for Her is so great that sometimes it brings tears in to her eyes. The feeling is so strong it can’t be shared with anyone.

During her life in Hlint and it’s surroundings She experienced quite a few things. She grew stronger. She was in the top of her life (or so she believed) and feel. Both good experiences for her. She ran around all she was able, did what she thought needed to be doing. But she came no closer to finding what she searched, a way to do something great, something that would make Her proud of Rev. She thought only little of the things she had done thus far, that they would not amount to much. Little things were good but to create change you needed a bang.
She had also found true friends, something that she never had before she had left home. People who it felt right to be with. People who had earned her respect and seemed to respect her back. Brac’ar Fireface and Gotak Gungur, both dwarves, so in a way a strange pair to be following an elf around. But them being dwarves may be something that drew Rev to them. They were outspoken, easy going and ready to live, much like Rev herself. Also she came to know Llunieninque Artuile'rosse, a skilled elven enchantress quite well. She reminded her of his brother in her burning love to her Art and Rev also loves her rambling way of speaking, she was able to amuse herself for hours just listening to Llu. These were the first people after Ilsare and Gil who accepted her as she was and Rev returned this favour accepting their good sides and their faults. Rev’s life was standing still, something that she was not completely disappointed to. She was more or less happy, the voice in the back of her head telling her that she was not doing enough only annoying her slightly. Then her father died. He had been getting weak for a while now and suddenly he just died. The healers were able to explain it, but it didn’t really matter to Rev. He was gone, nothing to do about it. Both Rev and Gil hurried to Point Harbor to the funeral but they were late by two days. Gieran inherited the company from their father and gave up the Art for a while. He swore he’d return to it one day. Rev had a fight with her mother. A loud one. They took their frustrations out on each other. Rev escaped to the docks she knew so well, found a lively inn, and got drunk. Something she is ashamed of ever since. She even swore off drinking completely for a while living only on water. She spent a year in Harbor helping Gil to clear his affairs. For this whole time she didn’t talk to her mother once. Then she left back to Hlint. When she came back many things had changed. Some people she had known were still here, but more importantly some were gone. Gotak had died. Instead of a joyful reunion she locked herself to her room in the inn. Now both of these deaths affected Rev quite strongly. During her adventuring days Rev had seen death and she had seen it being overcome. No one really died. She had never lost anyone expect Blue-Eye Will, and the feelings she had gone trough back then came back. The first wave of these emotions came as a surprise to Rev. They had never been close, but still, she felt like she had lost something important, and that she might have been able to do more for him. And she hadn’t. Rev was to be blamed on this. But when helping Gil she slowly forgot of this, she didn’t see her mother so the guilt she reminded her of didn’t get a hold of Rev. But then she heard that Gotak had died. Frustration, anger and small doses of guilt came over her. This was wrong! She would not let things like this happen. She would not let people disappear! She needed to change the world even more than before. She was completely lost. Luckily this phase in her life didn’t last that long. Soon after returning Rev and a random bunch of people were trapped in some sort of an Illithid mind controlling experiment (A quest by Rhizome). They were trapped into a world of illusion, unable to get out. They were told that they would be able to escape by just willing themselves out. So Rev tried it. She concentrated on getting out and failed. Then she tried again, failed again. After this she gathered everything she had, she borrowed all the power from Ilsare She was willing to give, she took command of every shred of will she possessed and willed herself out. But when she opened her eyes again, she was still stuck in this hellish place, nothing had changed around her. So she gave up. She decided that her own power she had gathered, was still not enough to do anything. She was still truly weak. Her comrades were able to fund a way to get out of the damned place, but Rev was left behind. She had lost her will and was unable to find a way out. Rev herself doesn’t know how long she spent there, it must have been but a few days, days that felt like eternity. Then she had a vision. The second vision of Her in her life. And She carried Rev out of there. (What really happened is not known, Ilsare might have been there or she might have not. It’s also possible that the Illithid grew tired and let her go. Or it’s also possible that being delirious Rev just imagined meeting her, and this vision helped her to get out of there. All we know is that Rev firmly believes that She was there.) Once Rev got back she went trough the trouble of buying a house to lock herself into. She spent almost a week behind the locked doors, in the dark, being scared, feeling helpless, lost, desperate, and saved. After the shock started to wear away she started to go trough her life again. Her youth, her time in the temple, her adventuring days. Her victories, her losses. And she was overcome by this strange feeling, a feeling that she had walked off the path on some point. That she had made a mistake somewhere and now she was paying for it. She was no closer to her goals than she had been before and her means of reaching that goal started to seem more and more empty. She was stronger but that amounted to nothing. Spending a few days thinking about it, she finally came to a conclusion. She was not going anywhere like this. She had not been going anywhere she liked for a long time, not really. There had to be something for her. Something that would allow her to earn Her love. She just wasn’t sure how. She would need to find a way. She headed out of her house, out into the world to find that way. Her path was no longer as simple it had been before. She was no longer sure what the proper path was. But she would find it.

I do hope you enjoyed it, and do feel free to send me any feedback based on these pages or how I play her. A well detailed and thought out letter of feedback is more welcome than a simple message of “Good job”.