New Character Submission - Kadim Arshanavean

[Kadim]

Character: Kadim Arshanavean
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Class: Wizard
Race: Tiefling
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Deity: Az'atta


Biography:

Kadim's real parentage is by and large a mystery, but the area was a favored place for the nabassu to spend their younger years before they returned to the Abyss as it was remote, had plenty of places to hide a lair, and the locals offered little resistance to their activity there. The few times Kadim has been willing to speculate, he surmises he must have come from the local stock of woodsmen and farmers that lived there, and the long history of demonic infestation makes it easy to guess that probably one of the bolder locals attempted to ally themselves with the demon in residence (who could have been Arshan, though it's unlikely) through marriage or somesuch a few hundred years ago. After all, Kadim's mystery necromancer had obviously sought the demon out to arrange something, so it's not so difficult to believe it had been done before.

As far as Kadim's concerned, Kadim Arshanavean was the result of an abyssal pact between a necromancer and a nabassu called Arshan. What exactly the mage gained from the trade is unknown to Kadim, but what the demon got in exchange was obvious: a plaything and servant for her own.

Kadim's life, until recently, consisted of doing his master's bidding. Most often this included killing or kidnapping the local population around Arshan's lair. Kadim learned to perform out of fear, and as he got older he gained the favor of his master. That time was a dark one, one that Kadim prefers not to remember. He reveled in the death and anguish he inflicted on the mortals nearby, and his sense of self worth was derived purely from the torments he could inflict. Arshan taught him arcane secrets as he gained favor, and Kadim quickly grabbed at whatever scraps of power were offered.

Sometime around Kadim's 20th year, a band of warriors led by a cleric of Lucinda challenged and killed Arshan. They found Kadim chained like a dog to a post, howling challenges in abyssal at the band.

As the group moved to put Kadim out of his misery, one of their number argued that he deserved mercy and a chance to be delivered from his torment. This young priestess (Whom, Kadim would learn later, was a dark elf follower of Az'atta called Cathia) argued passionately about how this poor soul should not be murdered for the crimes comitted against him. Though Kadim continued to rage and lash out at the edge of his chain, the head of the band aquiesced and made him her responsibility.

Kadim was subdued, bound, and put under Cathia's care until they could bring him somewhere better equipped to deal with him. Kadim had never known comfort before, and rejected any attempt to solace him as he saw it as a sign of weakness. Cathia doggedly persisted, and, over the course of the journey to the temple, eventually gained Kadim's tenative trust.

At first, Kadim's plan was to play along until he could crush her throat and steal whatever words of power (he did not yet understand the difference between the divine and arcane) she had. He went along to the temple, allowed himself to be cleaned and dressed. He learned their names and learned how to tell people his name.

He quickly saw that his initial plan wouldn't work once they were inside the temple grounds. The people there were numerous, and though not many seemed armed, there were enough for him to know that he would not get far. Cathia remained with him and tried to teach him more of the common tongue. Kadim was a quick study and was also motivated by the need to find a way to overcome these people and escape. As he learned more, he started to realize that these people were not interested in controlling him. They gave power freely, gave words freely, and expected nothing back.

This change of attitude from his demon master was strange, but part of him enjoyed it. He decided not to kill Cathia, after all, and began to value her. He tried to repay her language lessons by teaching her the abyssal tongue, and while she appreciated the effort, she urged him to put that behind him. "You mustn't dwell on the past, and that tongue is too charged, too dangerous for you right now. Maybe in time you will be strong enough in yourself to revisit it." she told him. And so he did his best to learn about the people he found him self living with and put his upbringing aside.

Kadim found himself putting off his plans of murder, theft, and escape. Weeks became months, and months became years. Over the time, Kadim was occupied with menial chores around the temple grounds, perfecting his understanding of the common tongue, and generally coming to grips with what "normal" life is for most people. As he gained an understanding of what normal childhoods were and what normal people did, Kadim found his own past more and more difficult to stomach. As he became more and more at home in his new surroundings, he found himself forgetting much of the demonic power he had been taught. Kadim cannot and will not explain to this day how or why he's forgotten it. He regards the various holes in his memory the way a farmer regards a particularly headstrong bull: best left alone if at all possible, because you may end up maimed or dead if you meddle with it too much.

Cathia began to come and go on various errands, but always returned to the temple and looked after Kadim. Kadim got to know the others that lived there. He met many who seemed to be running from their past, people who felt guilt and anger at their lives before they had come to that place. Kadim found to his own surprise that he also felt a great deal of anger and regret over his past, and finally took it upon himself to confide the litany of his crimes to one of the priests. To his amazement, the priest simply smiled and, without judement, said, "We know you must have had to do some horrible things to survive under that demon's influence, and we aren't concerned about it. The thing to remember is who you are and how you live now, not then."

And that was Kadim's turning point. Around his 25th year, after living off of the priesthood since his release from Arshan, he asked to give more than the few menial chores asked of him. He revealed the one secret he had kept close, his knowledge of arcane words of power, and asked that he be taught more that he may help the priesthood redeem others as he had been.

Cathia finally stopped coming back to that temple unless she had business in the area after she learned that Kadim had asked to contribute. She did tell him to keep in touch, and that she will always remember him even if they never saw each other again. Kadim found himself missing another person for the first time in his life.

It's been two years since that turning point. Kadim has decided to take his leave of the priests and wander the land. He feels that it's his duty to help others in the same way he was helped, and he takes it very seriously.

Kadim is still uncomfortable about his past and has no desire to rediscover what he cannot remember. His understanding of abyssal has also faded, and he finds the words of the language only bring forth painful memory and emotion he is not prepared to face. Instead, Kadim flings himself into Az'atta's philosophy of the here and now and does what he can to prove to himself he is no longer the monster he was. The only part of his past he kept was his name, which roughly translates into "slave/servant/dog of Arshan." When asked, he says that one must always remember that even a dog of a demon can find redemption, and his name is a reminder of that truth.

<edit: further to the response I got, I changed the language to allow for the interpretations I mentioned in my reply>

<edit of the edit: Further to the second response, I've added a bit more about the mystery of Kadim's origins>

[darkstorme]

Hi there!

This is a well-written and well-thought-out story, but unfortunately Kadim's pedigree violates the Character Submission Rules. (The pertinent section: "In the case of tieflings and assimar characters the very most outsider influence they could have would be a 1/8th bloodline and this only with a very well substantiated biography.") Kadim is a half-demon, which would give him a great deal more power, which can't be explained away, and therefore is not permitted in character submissions.

In addition, Infernal, Celestial, Abyssal, and Draconic are not languages granted at character submission - only through in-game learning.

I like the concept of a redeemed character, but you'll have to adjust his bloodline to fit the character submission rules before he can be approved.

Otherwise, excellent writing!

Thanks, and I look forward to reading your revisions!

[Kadim]

It's not especially important who Kadim's parents were. The wording could be read as this: Kadim was traded for something, and in that way, he was the result of a pact. That doesn't mean he was necesarily Arshan's child, it just means he was accepted by Arshan as payment for something. Arshan could have led Kadim to believe that she was his parent, though she would have done so only to torment him further.

As far as the question of language, it's not especially important that he speaks abyssal right off, or even at all. The story clearly states that he was encouraged to set that part of him aside, and he's not very happy to revisit that part of his life in any case, so he could simply have the knowledge buried down deep to be rediscovered later. Trauma victims have been documented to suppress a lot more than that.

So, if these explanations work for you, I'd like to keep the description as is and simply work with Kadim's *understanding* of the events of his past, even if that's not what happened. The truth would probably never come out in any case.

Thanks!

Kadim

<edit: had some typoes>

[darkstorme]

*chuckles* Sorry for the wait.. seriously, we don't mean you to have to keep refreshing the forums, interesting though they are.

(I just try to only approve on my work-breaks, so I have a serious chance to read over what's been written.)

In answer to your question, it's perfectly fine for Kadim to believe whatever he wants; but if the demon and the wizard weren't his parents, we'll need to know who was - or at least have it explicitly stated a) that they're not royalty, and b) where his tiefling blood came from, to ensure that the above-listed rules are being followed.

As for the language - traumatic repression is fine, but bear in mind that if he wants to learn it, it will be just as laborious for him as for anyone - you can RP him having flashes of insight, but the process has to be fair.

Once the concerns regarding his parents are addressed, you should be good to go.

Thanks!

Edit: Oh, and by the way - kudos on noting that in Layo, they're Dark Elves, not Drow.

[Kadim]

hah! Just after I went to bed. Sod's Law that would happen, no?

Anyway...

Let me rephrase. I don't give a monkey's uncle who Kadim's parents are. If a necromancer who's happy to deal with demons knew about him, his family was probably mixed up in some twisted stuff anyway, or at least were a few generations back. If you don't want him to be royalty or whatnot, then he's not and I'm not bothered. I have absolutely no intention of roleplaying anything about the family he never knew, his reaction to them would be that of a stranger, and he would have no desire to reconnect with them. To him, the past is dead, especially a past that really had nothing to do with him.

As a side note, if he's got to be eight generations removed from the initial contact with demons, it very well could be an asbolute mystery to him where his demon blood came from, even if he did come from a normal family and was raised as a farmer somewhere. Any teifling in the game world could very easily have no idea, for that matter, and could just have come from anywhere, done anything, and never had any idea why or where their oddities came from. I don't know a single person that can tell me off the top of their head who was in their family eight generations back. Maybe they can find out if they hit the books and researched hard enough, but in the medieval era, unless you were nobility, nobody had access to those kinds of records (and couldn't read them, for that matter), so nobody paid a lick of attention to who your ancestors were. It was enough to know who your grandfather was and people left it at that.

Arshan was interested in Kadim because he had demon blood. She kidnapped, tortured, killed, and animated many children and thought very little about it. She was amused by how it disturbed mortals to see their child's broken body wandering around as a zombie. Kadim was a novelty, and a potentially useful one. Nothing more.

[darkstorme]

*grins* Actually, I just meant that we should know whether it was his mother or his father who was a Tiefer before him.. but that statement suitably addresses the requirement of "no royalty, no nobility".

With that in mind...

Your character has been approved.

Server address is west.layonara.com
Password is layoplayer

Some final notes on character creation:

• Please note that racial adjustments for players with subraces are skin based and thus get applied after getting in game.
• Only two ability scores can be less than 10 and only one can be less than 8 after racial adjustments
• Brownies, when selecting a head, the head you choose on the halfling selection will correspond to that numbered head for elves (for example, clicking right 6 times on the head selection during character creation will take the 6th head when clicking right on the elf creation)
• Half-giants and ogres, please ask for a GM (type /dm Anyone here?) if you would like to change to a custom skin.

With the understanding that the Abyssal tongue will not be granted on character creation, and must be taught, as with any other character. Good luck, and have fun!