New Character Submission - Grayald d' Estrelis al Vandagar

[Grayald]

Character: Grayald d' Estrelis al Vandagar
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Classes: Fighter/Rogue
Race: Human
Alignment: Chaotic Good



Biography:

Grayald d' Estrelis al Vandagar, first and only blood child of Aman d' Estrelis al Vandagar, and Celia d' Estrelis al Vandagar was born as his father before him was. And as his father before his father. A typical Aasimar child.

Or so they thought. Never had the Vandager clan been blessed, or cursed, as some of them say, with such an... Atypical child. By age 8, it was apparant that Grayald carried significantly less of the clans revered "holy blood" than those before him, and that he should have. At very early age, he seemed just like those before him, but with age, the distinguishing features of the Aasimar became less and less pronounced. The lovely hair dulled. He stopped growing in height. His skin lost much of its beautiful sheen. He just began looking less and less like one of his clanmen. He couldn't even speak the language of the celestials. It just wasn't in him. Perhaps his "holy blood" had become too diluted to sustain the features that made his clan what they were. It had always come natural to those before him, but he couldn't so much as utter one word.

That wasn't all that was different about Grayald. His sense of clan pride and loyalty was lacking. The Estrelis family, and even the entire Vandagar clan was very old. They had always been scholars. Teachers. Wizards. All manner of "higher" positions. Naturally, his parents, relatives, and the clan council were outraged when they learned that he wanted to become a warrior and had been learning to fight on the side with such a mundane weapon as a sword. Grayald had always shirked his so-called responsibilities as a Vandagar clansman, causing frustration and heart-ache to his parents. It's not that he hated them, or made it his life goal cause problems, but he just didn't feel the need to be bound by "holy blood" dogma. Each day he sat and listened to how special he was, how much burden he carried, how proud he had to do his family and clan. It drove him crazy. He'd spend classes staring out the window, drumming on the table, jerking his knee up and down as if he always wanted to leave.

This behavior held him back. He never finished his classes at the academy for the gifted, a small and exclusive school open only to those of exceptional lineage. Finally, at age 20, with the help of Geres, a family friend and servant that helped take care of him, he left. Or rather, "escaped", as he put it.

He'd been freed. Free to pursue his own path in life. But what would he make for himself? He had his share of faults. Arrogance. Brutal honesty. Stubborn, hard-headedness. And oh, did it get him into trouble. He'd been beaten up and teased more than his share of times, though he never really worried about it too much. Then there was the fact that his progression as a warrior came painfully slow. Despite his exceptional intelligence, he was a slow learner. Also, his body just wasn't built to be an ideal warrior. He may have wanted to be a warrior, but he was still built like a scholar.

Grayald didn't care. He'd cut his own path, not take one that was already traveled. Perhaps largely due to his arrogance, he was so sure that he'd become a great warrior. He'd just have to work hard. A concept still foreign to him.

Still, Grayald couldn't help but wonder what made him what he was. Why was he born different? Perhaps one day, he'd discover the answer, but for now, he set his sights on the great unknown, forging his path wherever his wanderings brought him. Today, they bring him here. A young man of 25 years, his celestial blood has almost completely vanished. No more did he posess that tinge of gold in his hair, that lovely sheen of the skin. He had stopped growing. After all these years, would he even be recognized by his clan?

Grayald shook his head in disgust. He'd convinced himself that he didn't care. He was sure he'd be much happier as the person he strived to be than as the person his clan wanted him to be. Grayald couldn't help but wonder how he'd have been treated. Before, he was told how special he was. How much he meant. How important he was to the clan. He now dismissed those words as ill-concieved ramblings born of desperation. The Vandagar clan knew it's blood was down to a trickle. Spinning the drain, it was. They'd have said the same to anyone. Grayald wasn't special at all. Likely, he'd have just ended up being teased and tormented for being a "bloodless freak." A cancerous growth on a proud clan.

But what wrought this hardship upon him? As he let his mind wander, his thoughts went back to his youth. Then he caught a flicker of a memory. Something he'd blocked out, or had stolen. Perhaps the trauma from the experience was at fault. It all came back to him, now. It happened 17 years ago. Grayald was only 8 at the time. He, his father, and his mother were travelling. From where, who can say. He didn't remember. He knew that their destination was Waysend, their home. They had taken a rest stop to get some fresh air. Grayald left the wagon to go run around in the field, but got stung by a bug and ran back to the wagon. But when he approached, he overheard his parents talking.

He listened, as he heard his mother trying to explain to his father that they'd have to tell him the truth someday. His father said no. There was no reason Grayald had to know this, the reason for his weakening aasimar features. That reason hit grayald like a ton of bricks. Rape. His father wasn't his blood father. Grayalds mother had been raped 9 years ago by a bunch of ruffians, and that's how he was concieved. Grayald couldn't believe it. He took a step back, then turned to run away, but he bumped into something.

He looked, and staring down at him was a tall, fat, ugly man dressed in mismatched, wornout leather armor. He grinned down at Grayald. "Dad!" Grayald yelled. When they came out of the wagon to see what he wanted, they were taken completely off guard. His father was knocked unconcious and fell to the ground. He had only his mother to protect him, which is what she tried to do, shielding him with her own body. She took a bad hit. One of them jammed a sword right through the back of her ribcage. Then the bandits made off with Grayald to some hideout on a mountain.

For 6 months Grayald was kept there. Apparantly, this was one of the bandits preferred ways of getting new recruits. The worked him like a dog, trying to force upon him the way of the vagabond. Eventually, Grayald was rescued by a man he'd come to know as Geres. A traveller who found his families wagon on the road and brought his mother and father to town for medical treatment. One of the filthy bandits tried to use Grayald as a shield, but Geres knew his stuff. He planted a throwing knife firmly between the bandits eyes.

The next thing Grayald say was his father over him. Apparantly, he had fainted from fear and exhaustion and had been asleep for 3 days. "Where's mom?" He asked. His father looked away. Clearly, he wasn't up to telling the story. The man who rescued him filled in, explaining how he'd found his father unconcious, and his mother near death. He took them to town of rmedical attention, and learned what had happened from his mother. He then spent the next 6 months hunting the bandits, until he finally tracked them to their mountain hideout, where he killed the lot of them and rescued Grayald. His father was fine, but his mother still suffered from the wound she got. She'd been unable to get out of bed since it happened.

From that day on, Geres stuck with the Estrelis family, helping to raise Grayald, and becoming his best and only friend. He taught Grayald a few neat tricks over the years. Grayald would put them to use, along with the few things he picked up from the bandits. Tecnhiques for sneaking, evading attacks, striking when the enemy doesn't expect it or is off balance. Any number of subtle tricks.

And then, 2 years later, Grayalds mother died. That wound had effectively ended her life the day she got it, but she kept hanging on, until eventually, she just slipped away. It was now that Grayald would really be tested. He'd never been good in school, but from that day, it only got worse and worse. Geres was always there for him, though. He understood that Grayalds schooling was going nowhere, and that he wouldn't make anything of himself staying cooped up abiding by clan dogma. Geres taught him many tricks over the years. Many of which would help him escape his life.

It had indeed all come back to him. Grayald remembered it all, now. He'd never been one to follow the rules when he thought they didn't work, but now he'd take it a step further. If the law wouldn't punish such people, he would try to. What good is law when it doesn't work, or when it only works to protect criminals from those who might give them what they deserve? No. Grayald wouldn't be ruled by such abstractions. Some people just deserve to die, and if it came to it, Grayald would grant it to them. His thoughts turned to all the innocent people who'd been ignored and shafted by the law. Where was their protection? Their salvation? Their confort? Nowhere. You could cut red tape for the next thousand years and not make any real progress. Grayald would do what he felt was right. He'd follow HIS code. Not the code of those who are un-qualified to put a label on peoples suffering.

And so he walked into town...

[Grayald]

I feel the need to clarify a few things that will likely confuse people.

Grayald, nor any of his clan is actual nobility. Many of them fancy themselves above the "common man", but the only thing that differs them is celestial blood. There's no royalty or nobility.

There is, however, money, which is one way he got into the gifted school. His father, having money, bought his way in, and due to his appearence, he could well hav etold a little white lie and made a few people THINK he was of noble blood. His family isn't BLEEDING rich, but they did have money.

The servant. Someone hired years ago to help raise Grayald since his father was away frequently, and his mother had died. Eventually Geres became a close friend of the family, and instead of getting paid, Mr. Estrelis simply invited him to move in, where he could attend to his duties constantly and simply live there for free. Over the years, he and Grayald became close. Geres became very protective of Grayald. Kind of a mother hen. At times, it was a bit of an aggrivation, but it was a good setup all around.

The clan. The Vandagar clan is simply a group of aasimar families that, long ago, decided to band together to preserve their blood. They married amongst themselves as much as possible, only marrying in common blood when they couldn't find other aasimar and/or having children amongst themselves would be inbreeding. The lineage can't be traced back to its roots, but the clan knows it's name comes from one of the founding families. The Vandagars. Grayalds dulled appearance is a result of the blood having become sufficiently diluted to some of the features to melt away. For the most part, he still carries aasimar appearance. Many are just very dulled and people might simply take him for a nice looking normal human or even an elf rather than aasimar.

There. Think I got everything.


Another edit:

Big one here. It says in my bio that I meant to be fighter/duelist. I definately meant to be tri-classsed as fighter/rogue/duelist as it suits Grayalds story better than a pure fighter. I dunno if that's a problem, so just let me know if I can't do it for whatever reason.

[darkstorme]

Hi there!

First of all, as you're probably aware by now, prestige classes (ie. Duelist) are not approved at character submission. Please remove the class from your request (though an indication that you will be pursuing the class at a later point is fine.)

That aside, the submission is quite well-written - however, there are a few points I'd like to see clarified:

• Aasimar, as you know, are humans with celestial ancestry. If the blood gets diluted down to the point where they don't exhibit most of the aasimar phenotype... they're just humans with a touch of celestial in them. If he's not got the unearthly beauty that comes with the Celestial blood, and is, as you said, "arrogant, stubborn, hardheaded, and brutally honest", he does not appear to display Aasimar mental traits (+CHA, +WIS). At this point, I'd approve him as a human fighter, but as you've spent time clarifying that the bloodline had thinned, I don't know if the Aasimar bonuses and abilities would be acceptable/reasonable.
• Celestial does not come with the blood; it is a learned language. As a half-elf raised among humans would be unlikely to speak elven, so too an individual Aasimar is unlikely to speak Celestial. If it were passed down through the clan, that might make sense (though bear in mind, it will not be granted to Grayald on creation). But a lack of bloodline is no bar to learning the language.
• The desired rogue/fighter class combo. I see support for the fighter (having trained as such), but I don't see any support for rogue-style combat, or (given his stated high intelligence), the plethora of rogue class skills. At the moment, as I said, I'd approve him as a human fighter.

If you wish to gain the Aasimar subrace, his bloodline will still have to produce the phenotypic characteristics to match, or it simply doesn't make sense mechanically; as for the Rogue class, simply add the appropriate training to his backstory. The triclassing (with duelist) will not be a problem, as long as you adhere to the "five before twenty" rule. (And apply for duelist at a later point.)

Thanks!

[Grayald]

Alright, I added a bunch on there to explain his lineage and where he got his rogueishness from, as well as a bunch to round out his story. I'd like to reply to the 3 bullets, though.

To the first, I put the wrong thing. I always meant for him to function as a human. I guess I clicked aasimar because I was thinking it at the time. So yeah, he doesn't have any actual traits. They sort of evaporated as he go tolder because his blood is too thinned by human blood. There' snot enough viable celestial blood to carry the traits.

To the second, I never meant for him to speak celestial. His inability to speak it was a produce of his unwillingness to learn and his not paying attention. Pretty much completely shirking his lineage. Basically, he never learned it, so he can't speak it.

To the third, well, youll see that in the new bio material.

Thanks.

[jrizz]

Great bio and great idea as well. I am still a little unclear on the rogue part. Can you point out where he picked up this aspect?

[Grayald]

He learned a bit of rogueishness from the bandits who captured him, and from his servant/friend over the years. He's only going to end up with a total of 5 rogue levels anyway. He hasn't had any extensive training in it.

[darkstorme]

Fair enough. Approved with the 15/5 level split.

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