Arestes

[Juste]

Name: Arestes
Age: 25
Race: Human
Class: Druid/Shifter (10/10)
Deity: Katia
Alignment: N
Bio:

Arestes was born in a small settlement, not far from the Broken Forest. He was believed to be a normal child, albeit with quite a large interest for nature. The settlement hunters often found him staring at animals in the forest; deer, bears, boars, even a wandering minotaur, though what was strange was that the beasts were often just staring back, with no intent to harm the small human child. It was unknown if he was communicating with them, or merely pacified them in some way, but the settlement elder soon summoned the infant to his tent.
He deemed that Arestes was gifted with a very strong soul, and when Arestes reached the late teens he was made settlement druid. He soon spent most of his time in the forests, impossible to find unless he wished to be, only returning to his settlement for short lengths of time.

It was on a fateful day, when Arestes was visiting his parents in the settlement, that disaster struck. A lich from the darker parts of the nearby Broken Forest found the settlement, and being in need of servants, the lich decided to slaughter the entire village to create mindless zombies.
It was chaos, the villagers trying desperately to either combat the lich or flee, neither proved to work since the lich killed the weak townsfolk with but a glance and the fleeing ones were slain by their former kin, arisen to serve the lich in undeath.
When the lich reached Arestes’ parents house, he immediately slew them, yet something had caught his eye in young Arestes. Arestes watched in horror as his parents shambled out the door to join the horde of living dead, while the lich prepared to cast an imprisonment spell on Arestes.
The lich had sensed Arestes strong soul, and had thought of an even more despicable use for him.

Arestes woke; he didn’t know how much time had passed since the lich had captured him. He found himself bound to a large stone table, with strange painted runes in his face and on his torso, twin blood red crystals sat embedded in his arm, linked to a larger crystal with golden wire. The lich was brewing some kind of potion, obviously giving it the finishing touches. The lich attached other wires to a construct built entirely of bones, and turned to Arestes, he told him that he planned to transfer Arestes’ essence to the bone golem, making an obedient and powerful guard.
The lich forced him to drink the strange concoction, and even though it tasted like something straight out of the Abyss, Arestes saw no other choice than to drink it.
The lich laughed and cast a spell at the large central crystal, it sent shocks throughout Arestes’ body, and the agony was unimaginable. Though suddenly the crystal exploded in a shower of shards and blood, the lich watched in shock as his golem melted into black goo, while Arestes’ body writhed in mutation. The shifting of his body suddenly stabilized in the form of a great minotaur, and Arestes ripped the now weak bindings to pieces, smashing the ritual stone table and turning his eyes on the lich, rage burning in his soul. The lich fled however, sealing the chamber shut.
Shifting once again hit Arestes and he took the shape of a rat, sneaking out of a small hole in the ancient stonewall.
Arestes now roams the countryside, trying to find a way to control his shifting abilities, yet also searching for the lich so that he might avenge his village. No matter what form he takes, his soul still shines through. One night he dreams, and a dragon appears...

[NitaThompson]

Approved