Savas Tigh
07-11-11, 10:04 PM
Basing this off a mix of Althanas' own CharApp sheet and the FATE variant used by the Dresden Files RPG.
Please note that this is a complete retooling of the character, in addition to an update. Certain past tidbits are given a reference here and there, but plenty more was thrown out.
Name: Savas Tigh
Sorcerous Name: Wormaxe
Aliases: Yanov Cross, Sinyamin Erringway, Bonekeeper
Race: Human
Age: 28
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Green
Height: 6'0”
Weight: 190 lbs.
Occupation: Funerist, Carpenter, ex-ritualist
Aspects: Dark Wizard of Corone, Former Death Lord-in-Training, I Eat Dead People, Dark Messiah in Progress, Talented Thaumaturge, Blueraven's Apprentice, With Deadly Ambitions...
Appearance: Somewhere between Charlie Manson and Grigori Rasputin, the cosmos spat out Savas Tigh and went to see a doctor about the blood. He's of average height and build for a Salvic man, with a strong nose, strong cheekbones, and his hair grows quick and thick – it's like someone on high literally demanded this man have a beard. His hair is black with random strands of gray and white, courtesy of the same high stress lifestyle that's left him with heavy bags under his eyes and an array of scars all over his forearms and elsewhere. His teeth are blocky and surprisingly white, considering the rest of his hygiene. Give him a week without shaving and he looks like a monstrous caveman.
Signature Clothing: Savas changes his overall style frequently, but he's started to establish a few personal signatures. One is a utility belt picked up during his time in Scara Brae, covered in lightly armored slots, holsters, and pouches. The belt is fashioned from thick, darkly tanned leather, and it's basically the size and shape of a championship or back-support belt. The other is a thick leather robe, open in front, with a layer of chainmail inside.
Skills
Alchemy: Savas is an Average Alchemist, able to work with anything from bodies to low-end metals. The more complex the material, including liquids, the more of it is 'lost in transition.' This is a decidedly non-combat skill.
Close Combat: Savas is Above Average as a close range and melee fighter. He's better with a weapon, and especially an axe.
Knowledge: Arcana: General understanding of magic, including its theory, history, significant figures, and defining events. Savas is Average.
Knowledge: Demonology: Specific understanding of demonic entities, including summoning, binding, bargaining, and countering. Savas is Above Average.
Knowledge: Enchantment: Specific understanding of how to bind spells and spell-like effects to physical objects. Savas is Below Average.
Knowledge: Necromancy: Specific understanding of the magic of death and undeath, including raising, controlling, rebuking, and crafting the undead. Savas is an Expert.
Knowledge: Ritual Magic: Specific understanding of rituals, including specific summonings, curses, and major area-of-effect spells, often invoking powers greater than the ritualist himself. Savas is Average – he knows about a half-dozen rituals by memory, more or less, and can improvise new ones with enough time and effort, but he's reliant on books or outside help more often than not.
Linguist: Savas is fluent in the common tongues of Salvar, Alerar, Scara Brae, Corone, and Raiaera. He can read several variants of Diamonic, including Sideways lettering.
Martial Art: Dark Messiah Style: Savas' attempt to circumvent his lack of ability with evocation while providing self-defense. The art itself bears physical resemblances to those used by the Ai'bron monks of the Dajas Pagoda, but is Incomplete since Savas has not built any spells or rituals into it. Savas himself would barely rate Below Average at it.
Abilities
Thaumaturgy: Savas is a natural at long haul magic – the stuff you can't really do in the heat of combat. Thaumaturgy is all about rituals, taking your time, gathering the right reagents, so on and so forth. Savas currently specializes in Necromancy, allowing him to slowly raise up zombies or abominations, summon and enslave or devour spirits, so on and so forth. Raising undead is difficult work, and Savas is currently limited; up to five zombies or one abomination (explained below). He has yet to even try learning the art of offensive spirit summoning. He's also an Enchanter, allowing him to fix set spells into bones and teeth (listed below). Savas can only fix one spell into any given object. Any use outside of that spell will destroy the object in question.
Raise Undead: Savas raises up to five zombies, ranging from flesh and blood to skeletal warriors. Any given zombie requires considerable preparation, meaning Savas is only able to do this outside of battle. The zombies also follow conservation of power and effort: the fewer he has, the more dangerous each one is. At their zenith, Savas' flesh and blood zombies are only slightly weaker than an ordinary person – but they're immune to pain and inhumanly aware of their immediate surroundings. Skeletal zombies, which require more effort to compensate for the lack of muscle, blood, and skin, are similarly immune to pain and inhumanly aware, being both slightly faster and weaker than an ordinary person. Flesh and blood zombies have a lifespan of up to one month, during which time they'll be rotting away and falling apart. Skeletal zombies have a lifespan of up to three months, without degradation until they simply fall apart standing up. None of Savas' zombies are intelligent – they follow orders and that's it.
Raise Abomination: Savas raises a single abomination of flesh and death. This requires considerable time and effort, more so than any zombie or zombies. An abomination is formed from between two and six bodies – humanoid or animal, doesn't matter. The bodies must be fresh enough to have meat on the bones and blood in the veins. The process of preparing them involves horrific alchemy, fusing bodies together in ways that nature could never stomach; it usually takes up to ten hours, though Savas has gone faster in high magic environments. Once sufficiently prepared, the abomination is raised over the course of an hour or so. It has about as much intelligence as a dog, but follows orders with insane tenacity. The abomination is limited to sight, hearing and smell; Savas hasn't advanced far enough to give it taste. It isn't intelligent enough to use a proper weapon, though Savas might fuse one into its body. Its strength is determined by materials, but it's usually a little stronger than any of its components would have been in life. Savas cannot raise an abomination while he has zombies active; it takes too much effort. Abominations are also short-lived, lasting up to three days on average – and much less than that in the event of battle damage.
Bone Wand: Necromantic Missile: Savas carves an enchantment into a bone, most often from an arm, leg, or a rib. Necromantic Missile hits a target like a haymaker punch mixed with a firecracker and a minor energy drain. The wands are Below Average, and Savas goes through them quickly. Most are good for between ten and twenty spells, if that.
Bone Wand: Energy Absorbtion: Requires a thick, long bone, such as those found in legs, as well as a large number of teeth. Allows Savas to absorb spells and spirits, effectively metabolizing them for his own use. Below Average, breaking after one use.
Bone Wand: Dead Heat: Best fashioned from a rib bone. This is essentially necromantic fire, best used as a blowtorch or candle. Savas can increase the flame's reach by up to three feet, but the wand will break in short order. Below Average.
Bone Dice: Beekiller's Muteblind Howler: Fashioned from teeth or bones, usually finger or back bones. Roll dice, stand back, trigger the spell: A huge ghostly skull bursts up and envelops anyone standing within three feet of the dice, mutely screaming as it closes its jaws around them. The target is left briefly disoriented and completely silenced – even any items they carry won't make sounds. It's a flashbang without the flash or the bang. Savas' version includes a short burst of cold that may or may not heighten the disorientation. One-shot weapon, obliterating the dice in the process.
Bone Dice: Ironstone's Collapsing Breath: Fashioned by whittling away an entire hip bone into no more than two dice at a time. An enormous miasma bursts out of the dice, enveloping anyone within three feet. The power then collapses, taking a portion of life force from the victims in the process. It can also sap the power from some low-end enchantments. Anyone left standing is subjected to a feeling of cold near-numbness over any part of their bodies to touch the miasma. Open wounds make it worse. One-shot, obliterating two dice. Overrides the effects of other dice.
Bone Dice: Dead Grenade: Fashioned from teeth or bones, usually back bones. Basically an M-80 firework packed into a tooth or bone. No other special effects to speak of. One-shot.
Wizard's Voice: Owing to his heavy use of magic, particularly necromancy, Savas has developed a Wizard's Voice represented as green Chiller, size 4. It has an inhumanly deep quality to it, along with its own echo and a tendency to sound 'green on the brain.' While Savas is attempting to weaponize his Voice, he's had no consistent luck so far and almost anyone could shrug his attempts off.
Items
Familiar: Blightcrow: The soul of a dead Dark Wizard named Kholia Horren, murdered by Wormaxe's current mentor just before the Scourging of Tembrethnil. Savas managed to trick him into trying to resurrect himself, then trapped and bound his spirit into his own rune-covered skull. Blightcrow serves as a cross between an unwilling teacher, an encyclopedia, and an occasional personal mentor. At best, he's a trickster-mentor who can be trusted to tell about half the truth. He's tried to kill Savas a handful of times through lies by omission, but their relationship is improving. Slowly. As a dead soul trapped in his own skull and depowered by the same runes that bind him, Blightcrow is utterly powerless to do more than glow and use his Voice to sound scary. As long as the skull is intact, he couldn't leave it even if Savas wanted him to. More to the point, if he ever does get out of the skull, Savas is probably going to wish Blightcrow was merciful enough to let him die screaming and in unspeakable agony. He might've been the Evil Overlord equivalent of a store manager in Nowheresville during life, but Blightcrow learned a lot and his power grew by an order of magnitude on the other side.
Journals: Savas has a small library's worth of journals, most of them containing cribbed notes and information from the Grimoire of his mentor, Blueraven, as well as his own scant rememberings as an Evil Minion to the Stars. He has yet to develop a Grimoire of his own.
Significant Bones: Savas has three specific bones that have not been enchanted in any way. He's saving them for the time when he has the knowledge to do them justice, so to speak. It's worth mentioning the little bluggers.
Bone of Blightcrow: The thigh bone of a dead Dark Wizard and Necromancer.
Dragon Bone: The forearm bone of a dead dragon, roughly eight feet long and close to a hundred pounds. Savas couldn't work on this if he wanted to right now.
Dragon Wing: A mostly intact wing from the same dead dragon. Fully extended it measures around twenty or thirty feet. It folds all the way down to just twelve or so. The wing still has its scales, soft tissue, and such. Savas intends to make a flying tool out of it, but the best he could do right now is punch holes in the membrane. Maybe.
Plynt Daggers: Savas is the proud owner of six Plynt daggers, each of them Below Average or Average quality. The daggers are double-edged, smooth-handled, and between five and seven inches long from guard to blade tip.
Toolkit: Funerary work ain't easy. Savas keeps a large number of tools on hand, including saws, hammers, screwdrivers, sewing kits, and other things. As useful for fixing furniture as it is for disposing or dressing up a corpse.
Arcanist's Rod: Stolen from the Wizard Blueraven during Savas' jaunt through the former Catacombs of Scara Brae. Functionally the mid-ground between a wand and a proper staff of power, a favorite of fighting magi everywhere...and something that Savas lacks the skills and talents to properly use. For now. Possibly forever. Consists of a blue shaft of delyn covered in Diamonic runes and capped at both ends with solid damascus, cored from end to end with liviol. For the time being, Savas can use it to take in energy and bolster himself during rituals, but his only combat use would be beating people over the head with it.
Partially Renovated Guard Tower: Savas' home, give or take. Includes a basement, a secret sub-basement, ground floor, and a roof some thirty or forty feet up, accessed via spiral staircase. Partially furnished, mostly in the basement. More than a little bit haunted because of the people Savas has already murdered and fused into its construction, with a minor ward attached: most people simply avoid the place on reflex, making up their own reasons for doing so. Savas' long term goal is to turn the place into a demesne – a personal place of power – but it's not happening any time soon.
Aspects
Part history, part personality, part crazy-ass justification for why Savas Tigh is who he is and does the things he does.
Dark Wizard of Corone: Savas leans hard into the chaotic evil side of Wizardry. He had some talent for shadow and fire magicks back in the day, but spending so much time knee-deep in Necromancy has basically erased such things. As a Dark Wizard, he's even more paranoid than most of his brethren – comparable to a Warlock in some regards. He's also trying like crazy to nail down a true home territory, the better to build his power base. His Wizarding education is anchored in the traditions of Salvar, up to and including some very nasty psychological traumas he endured as a child.
Former Death Lord-in-Training: Savas spent several years working for the Dread Necromancer, Xem'zund. He never ascended to the rank of proper Death Lord, but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. He sold his Sorcerous Name during this period, only recovering it after the War ended. Most of his service was as an assistant ritualist – an evil minion who helped cast curses, raise the dead, and deal with demons.
I Eat Dead People: ...no, really! Savas is very much a humanitarian! Among other things. So far he's eaten elves, humans, kobolds, spiderfolk...he's also eaten actual spirits of the dead, a nasty little habit that's given him considerable insight into the nature of the afterlife and how spirits operate. It's also part of why he can sense spirits.
Dark Messiah in Progress: Savas is currently trying to create his own martial art as a means of bypassing his total lack of talent and skill when it comes to evocation – proper combat magic, done on the fly. He's had no luck so far, but that hasn't stopped him from trying. He's also going to attempt, eventually, to use the practice forms of this art in order to perform certain acts of thaumaturgy.
Talented Thaumaturge: As mentioned elsewhere, Savas' magical talents are almost exclusively in the field of performing Thaumaturgy. The best he's been able to perform outside of that are random point blank bursts of vaguely destructive energy, none of which have been very powerful. He learns rituals fast though, and he's good at inventing them when given time and a clear head. He's even been able to devise both rituals and counter-rituals based on relatively little information, although the actual success...varies. A lot.
Blueraven's Apprentice: If it's present, most Wizarding traditions establish apprenticeships very early on. To become an apprentice after the beginning of puberty is almost unheard of. To remain one after the age of twenty-five is almost as rare. Savas Tigh essentially forced Caden Law to take him on as an apprentice – and he's a year older than his own bloody master. Their relationship is an insane one resembling brothers, friends, hateful enemies, and worthy adversaries. It's a strong bet that they'll end up killing each other someday, as both men tried to do with their original mentors...although it bears mention that Wormaxe actually did kill his.
With Deadly Ambitions... ...comes great ego, absolute pragmatism, and nonexistent morality. Savas is driven to burn his name into the history books and write his life story in saint's blood. He doesn't even bother looking for reasons to justify his behavior – he knows he's evil, that he's a monster, and he does not care one damn bit. Part of his drive, at this point, is because he's got access to the history of N'Thayn'sal. It didn't bug him that the world was basically destroyed a million times over in that bleak future. It bugged him that his name wasn't mentioned anywhere in it.
History: Savas Tigh was the only son to a puritanical Ethereal family in Knife's Edge. By all accounts that survived the Ethereal War, he was an extremely bright, happy, upbeat little boy with an infectious smile and a mind sharper than the city's namesake. His parents, including a father who was obsessed with passing on his name and legacy, believed that after six daughters, they were finally being blessed with the Saint's favor in the form of a son and heir. For the first few years of his life, Savas was a golden child who could do no wrong – and he lived up to expectations in most ways.
And then came that dark, snowy night in the middle of a winter blizzard. Savas huddled close by the fire as his father read scripture. He put his hands out, desperate for warmth, and the light simply blinked out. The heat didn't stop, the fire still burned, but there was only darkness in that little house. He wasn't even six years old. By Wizarding standards, it was a prodigal age – most don't start coming into the power until nine or ten.
His father responded by beating him bloody and toothless, then threw him out into the snow and cursed the day he had been born. Vile as he is, Savas still has nightmares about it. He tried to get back in, pounding on the door in desperation, but his only answer was a face full of boiling water and the litanies of the Saint's rebuke. Savas staggered off in the dark and would have died if he hadn't collapsed onto the steps of the Saint's Church, just as the Wizard Deadeye was emerging from prayer.
The rest of his childhood was spent learning and recovering. Savas learned the basics of Wizardry in Her Glory's service, obtaining a partial Sanction at the unheard of age of ten years old – when most magi are just starting to develop their abilities into anything resembling proper magic. He was limited to rituals, but he was good at them and that was all that mattered. There was talk of eventually joining the Aeromancer Corps, the Clerical Orders, or even the Witchhunters.
That changed. Savas has forgotten how or why. All he remembers now are his first string of murders and his reckless flight from Salvar to Alerar, across the borders of Alerar to Raiaera, across Raiaera to the sea, and across the sea to Scara Brae. Time slipped in the City of Adventure. Savas has yet to understand what happened or how, and has basically given up any idea of ever figuring it out. One minute, he was descending into a set of tunnels with some comrades. The next, he was chipping at bones and hearing whispers in the dark. The next, he had never left Raiaera at all and was pledging himself to the service of Xem'zund. Blueraven once told him about how his personal timeline had been wrinkled up somehow, but Savas doesn't put much stock in that.
He served out the Corpse War as a ritualist, helping to cast support magicks from behind the scenes. His were the curses that blew out the hearts of men all over the region. His were the hands that readied and raised countless dead soldiers in the Dread Necromancer's service. His was a Name meant to belong to the Death Lords. In the end, he never got farther than Bonekeeper, a slur-turned-nickname by his 'coworkers.' He didn't even recover his Name until well after the War was over.
Since then, he's tried to set up shop in Raiaera, Scara Brae, and Corone. Raiaera was too elfy and his magic too risky. Scara Brae met with disaster. Savas is crossing his fingers and trying to play it cool in Corone. He aims to stay low this time, ride out the Civil War, then the inevitable conflicts to follow it, all while building up his own personal base of power and knowledge in the very heart of one of Radasanth's most neglected ghettos.
Archive
The Deathly Apprentice
The Red Requiem in Cresting Summer (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=20799) – Savas' first recorded adventure, including his first run-in with Caden Law and the re-acquisition of his Sorcerous Name. Here be Worms, chewing through the sky above a red, red forest...
Twisted Koans and Burnt-In Thoughts (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?p=166937) – High stakes and low falls on the ruined fields of Raiaera, culminating in the acquisition of Savas' Familiar: the dead Dark Wizard and Death Lord, Kholia Horren.
The Catacombs of Scara Brae: Dead Sun Rising (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?21566-The-Catacombs-of-Scara-Brae-Dead-Sun-Rising) – Savas joins with Caden Law, Aeraul Smythe, and Rowan Stormwind to go spelunking in the catacombs beneath Scara Brae. Hilarity ensues, ending with dragonbones and pilfered rods and the most contentious apprenticeship this side of the Fourth Wall.
The Wormaxe Cometh (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?23043-The-Wormaxe-Cometh&p=186161) – Savas hightails it from Scara Brae to Corone, murdering anything in his path along the way...and eating a few of them besides.
The Red-Inked Ripper of Radasanth (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?23081-The-Red-Inked-Ripper-of-Radasanth) – _IN PROGRESS_
Please note that this is a complete retooling of the character, in addition to an update. Certain past tidbits are given a reference here and there, but plenty more was thrown out.
Name: Savas Tigh
Sorcerous Name: Wormaxe
Aliases: Yanov Cross, Sinyamin Erringway, Bonekeeper
Race: Human
Age: 28
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Green
Height: 6'0”
Weight: 190 lbs.
Occupation: Funerist, Carpenter, ex-ritualist
Aspects: Dark Wizard of Corone, Former Death Lord-in-Training, I Eat Dead People, Dark Messiah in Progress, Talented Thaumaturge, Blueraven's Apprentice, With Deadly Ambitions...
Appearance: Somewhere between Charlie Manson and Grigori Rasputin, the cosmos spat out Savas Tigh and went to see a doctor about the blood. He's of average height and build for a Salvic man, with a strong nose, strong cheekbones, and his hair grows quick and thick – it's like someone on high literally demanded this man have a beard. His hair is black with random strands of gray and white, courtesy of the same high stress lifestyle that's left him with heavy bags under his eyes and an array of scars all over his forearms and elsewhere. His teeth are blocky and surprisingly white, considering the rest of his hygiene. Give him a week without shaving and he looks like a monstrous caveman.
Signature Clothing: Savas changes his overall style frequently, but he's started to establish a few personal signatures. One is a utility belt picked up during his time in Scara Brae, covered in lightly armored slots, holsters, and pouches. The belt is fashioned from thick, darkly tanned leather, and it's basically the size and shape of a championship or back-support belt. The other is a thick leather robe, open in front, with a layer of chainmail inside.
Skills
Alchemy: Savas is an Average Alchemist, able to work with anything from bodies to low-end metals. The more complex the material, including liquids, the more of it is 'lost in transition.' This is a decidedly non-combat skill.
Close Combat: Savas is Above Average as a close range and melee fighter. He's better with a weapon, and especially an axe.
Knowledge: Arcana: General understanding of magic, including its theory, history, significant figures, and defining events. Savas is Average.
Knowledge: Demonology: Specific understanding of demonic entities, including summoning, binding, bargaining, and countering. Savas is Above Average.
Knowledge: Enchantment: Specific understanding of how to bind spells and spell-like effects to physical objects. Savas is Below Average.
Knowledge: Necromancy: Specific understanding of the magic of death and undeath, including raising, controlling, rebuking, and crafting the undead. Savas is an Expert.
Knowledge: Ritual Magic: Specific understanding of rituals, including specific summonings, curses, and major area-of-effect spells, often invoking powers greater than the ritualist himself. Savas is Average – he knows about a half-dozen rituals by memory, more or less, and can improvise new ones with enough time and effort, but he's reliant on books or outside help more often than not.
Linguist: Savas is fluent in the common tongues of Salvar, Alerar, Scara Brae, Corone, and Raiaera. He can read several variants of Diamonic, including Sideways lettering.
Martial Art: Dark Messiah Style: Savas' attempt to circumvent his lack of ability with evocation while providing self-defense. The art itself bears physical resemblances to those used by the Ai'bron monks of the Dajas Pagoda, but is Incomplete since Savas has not built any spells or rituals into it. Savas himself would barely rate Below Average at it.
Abilities
Thaumaturgy: Savas is a natural at long haul magic – the stuff you can't really do in the heat of combat. Thaumaturgy is all about rituals, taking your time, gathering the right reagents, so on and so forth. Savas currently specializes in Necromancy, allowing him to slowly raise up zombies or abominations, summon and enslave or devour spirits, so on and so forth. Raising undead is difficult work, and Savas is currently limited; up to five zombies or one abomination (explained below). He has yet to even try learning the art of offensive spirit summoning. He's also an Enchanter, allowing him to fix set spells into bones and teeth (listed below). Savas can only fix one spell into any given object. Any use outside of that spell will destroy the object in question.
Raise Undead: Savas raises up to five zombies, ranging from flesh and blood to skeletal warriors. Any given zombie requires considerable preparation, meaning Savas is only able to do this outside of battle. The zombies also follow conservation of power and effort: the fewer he has, the more dangerous each one is. At their zenith, Savas' flesh and blood zombies are only slightly weaker than an ordinary person – but they're immune to pain and inhumanly aware of their immediate surroundings. Skeletal zombies, which require more effort to compensate for the lack of muscle, blood, and skin, are similarly immune to pain and inhumanly aware, being both slightly faster and weaker than an ordinary person. Flesh and blood zombies have a lifespan of up to one month, during which time they'll be rotting away and falling apart. Skeletal zombies have a lifespan of up to three months, without degradation until they simply fall apart standing up. None of Savas' zombies are intelligent – they follow orders and that's it.
Raise Abomination: Savas raises a single abomination of flesh and death. This requires considerable time and effort, more so than any zombie or zombies. An abomination is formed from between two and six bodies – humanoid or animal, doesn't matter. The bodies must be fresh enough to have meat on the bones and blood in the veins. The process of preparing them involves horrific alchemy, fusing bodies together in ways that nature could never stomach; it usually takes up to ten hours, though Savas has gone faster in high magic environments. Once sufficiently prepared, the abomination is raised over the course of an hour or so. It has about as much intelligence as a dog, but follows orders with insane tenacity. The abomination is limited to sight, hearing and smell; Savas hasn't advanced far enough to give it taste. It isn't intelligent enough to use a proper weapon, though Savas might fuse one into its body. Its strength is determined by materials, but it's usually a little stronger than any of its components would have been in life. Savas cannot raise an abomination while he has zombies active; it takes too much effort. Abominations are also short-lived, lasting up to three days on average – and much less than that in the event of battle damage.
Bone Wand: Necromantic Missile: Savas carves an enchantment into a bone, most often from an arm, leg, or a rib. Necromantic Missile hits a target like a haymaker punch mixed with a firecracker and a minor energy drain. The wands are Below Average, and Savas goes through them quickly. Most are good for between ten and twenty spells, if that.
Bone Wand: Energy Absorbtion: Requires a thick, long bone, such as those found in legs, as well as a large number of teeth. Allows Savas to absorb spells and spirits, effectively metabolizing them for his own use. Below Average, breaking after one use.
Bone Wand: Dead Heat: Best fashioned from a rib bone. This is essentially necromantic fire, best used as a blowtorch or candle. Savas can increase the flame's reach by up to three feet, but the wand will break in short order. Below Average.
Bone Dice: Beekiller's Muteblind Howler: Fashioned from teeth or bones, usually finger or back bones. Roll dice, stand back, trigger the spell: A huge ghostly skull bursts up and envelops anyone standing within three feet of the dice, mutely screaming as it closes its jaws around them. The target is left briefly disoriented and completely silenced – even any items they carry won't make sounds. It's a flashbang without the flash or the bang. Savas' version includes a short burst of cold that may or may not heighten the disorientation. One-shot weapon, obliterating the dice in the process.
Bone Dice: Ironstone's Collapsing Breath: Fashioned by whittling away an entire hip bone into no more than two dice at a time. An enormous miasma bursts out of the dice, enveloping anyone within three feet. The power then collapses, taking a portion of life force from the victims in the process. It can also sap the power from some low-end enchantments. Anyone left standing is subjected to a feeling of cold near-numbness over any part of their bodies to touch the miasma. Open wounds make it worse. One-shot, obliterating two dice. Overrides the effects of other dice.
Bone Dice: Dead Grenade: Fashioned from teeth or bones, usually back bones. Basically an M-80 firework packed into a tooth or bone. No other special effects to speak of. One-shot.
Wizard's Voice: Owing to his heavy use of magic, particularly necromancy, Savas has developed a Wizard's Voice represented as green Chiller, size 4. It has an inhumanly deep quality to it, along with its own echo and a tendency to sound 'green on the brain.' While Savas is attempting to weaponize his Voice, he's had no consistent luck so far and almost anyone could shrug his attempts off.
Items
Familiar: Blightcrow: The soul of a dead Dark Wizard named Kholia Horren, murdered by Wormaxe's current mentor just before the Scourging of Tembrethnil. Savas managed to trick him into trying to resurrect himself, then trapped and bound his spirit into his own rune-covered skull. Blightcrow serves as a cross between an unwilling teacher, an encyclopedia, and an occasional personal mentor. At best, he's a trickster-mentor who can be trusted to tell about half the truth. He's tried to kill Savas a handful of times through lies by omission, but their relationship is improving. Slowly. As a dead soul trapped in his own skull and depowered by the same runes that bind him, Blightcrow is utterly powerless to do more than glow and use his Voice to sound scary. As long as the skull is intact, he couldn't leave it even if Savas wanted him to. More to the point, if he ever does get out of the skull, Savas is probably going to wish Blightcrow was merciful enough to let him die screaming and in unspeakable agony. He might've been the Evil Overlord equivalent of a store manager in Nowheresville during life, but Blightcrow learned a lot and his power grew by an order of magnitude on the other side.
Journals: Savas has a small library's worth of journals, most of them containing cribbed notes and information from the Grimoire of his mentor, Blueraven, as well as his own scant rememberings as an Evil Minion to the Stars. He has yet to develop a Grimoire of his own.
Significant Bones: Savas has three specific bones that have not been enchanted in any way. He's saving them for the time when he has the knowledge to do them justice, so to speak. It's worth mentioning the little bluggers.
Bone of Blightcrow: The thigh bone of a dead Dark Wizard and Necromancer.
Dragon Bone: The forearm bone of a dead dragon, roughly eight feet long and close to a hundred pounds. Savas couldn't work on this if he wanted to right now.
Dragon Wing: A mostly intact wing from the same dead dragon. Fully extended it measures around twenty or thirty feet. It folds all the way down to just twelve or so. The wing still has its scales, soft tissue, and such. Savas intends to make a flying tool out of it, but the best he could do right now is punch holes in the membrane. Maybe.
Plynt Daggers: Savas is the proud owner of six Plynt daggers, each of them Below Average or Average quality. The daggers are double-edged, smooth-handled, and between five and seven inches long from guard to blade tip.
Toolkit: Funerary work ain't easy. Savas keeps a large number of tools on hand, including saws, hammers, screwdrivers, sewing kits, and other things. As useful for fixing furniture as it is for disposing or dressing up a corpse.
Arcanist's Rod: Stolen from the Wizard Blueraven during Savas' jaunt through the former Catacombs of Scara Brae. Functionally the mid-ground between a wand and a proper staff of power, a favorite of fighting magi everywhere...and something that Savas lacks the skills and talents to properly use. For now. Possibly forever. Consists of a blue shaft of delyn covered in Diamonic runes and capped at both ends with solid damascus, cored from end to end with liviol. For the time being, Savas can use it to take in energy and bolster himself during rituals, but his only combat use would be beating people over the head with it.
Partially Renovated Guard Tower: Savas' home, give or take. Includes a basement, a secret sub-basement, ground floor, and a roof some thirty or forty feet up, accessed via spiral staircase. Partially furnished, mostly in the basement. More than a little bit haunted because of the people Savas has already murdered and fused into its construction, with a minor ward attached: most people simply avoid the place on reflex, making up their own reasons for doing so. Savas' long term goal is to turn the place into a demesne – a personal place of power – but it's not happening any time soon.
Aspects
Part history, part personality, part crazy-ass justification for why Savas Tigh is who he is and does the things he does.
Dark Wizard of Corone: Savas leans hard into the chaotic evil side of Wizardry. He had some talent for shadow and fire magicks back in the day, but spending so much time knee-deep in Necromancy has basically erased such things. As a Dark Wizard, he's even more paranoid than most of his brethren – comparable to a Warlock in some regards. He's also trying like crazy to nail down a true home territory, the better to build his power base. His Wizarding education is anchored in the traditions of Salvar, up to and including some very nasty psychological traumas he endured as a child.
Former Death Lord-in-Training: Savas spent several years working for the Dread Necromancer, Xem'zund. He never ascended to the rank of proper Death Lord, but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. He sold his Sorcerous Name during this period, only recovering it after the War ended. Most of his service was as an assistant ritualist – an evil minion who helped cast curses, raise the dead, and deal with demons.
I Eat Dead People: ...no, really! Savas is very much a humanitarian! Among other things. So far he's eaten elves, humans, kobolds, spiderfolk...he's also eaten actual spirits of the dead, a nasty little habit that's given him considerable insight into the nature of the afterlife and how spirits operate. It's also part of why he can sense spirits.
Dark Messiah in Progress: Savas is currently trying to create his own martial art as a means of bypassing his total lack of talent and skill when it comes to evocation – proper combat magic, done on the fly. He's had no luck so far, but that hasn't stopped him from trying. He's also going to attempt, eventually, to use the practice forms of this art in order to perform certain acts of thaumaturgy.
Talented Thaumaturge: As mentioned elsewhere, Savas' magical talents are almost exclusively in the field of performing Thaumaturgy. The best he's been able to perform outside of that are random point blank bursts of vaguely destructive energy, none of which have been very powerful. He learns rituals fast though, and he's good at inventing them when given time and a clear head. He's even been able to devise both rituals and counter-rituals based on relatively little information, although the actual success...varies. A lot.
Blueraven's Apprentice: If it's present, most Wizarding traditions establish apprenticeships very early on. To become an apprentice after the beginning of puberty is almost unheard of. To remain one after the age of twenty-five is almost as rare. Savas Tigh essentially forced Caden Law to take him on as an apprentice – and he's a year older than his own bloody master. Their relationship is an insane one resembling brothers, friends, hateful enemies, and worthy adversaries. It's a strong bet that they'll end up killing each other someday, as both men tried to do with their original mentors...although it bears mention that Wormaxe actually did kill his.
With Deadly Ambitions... ...comes great ego, absolute pragmatism, and nonexistent morality. Savas is driven to burn his name into the history books and write his life story in saint's blood. He doesn't even bother looking for reasons to justify his behavior – he knows he's evil, that he's a monster, and he does not care one damn bit. Part of his drive, at this point, is because he's got access to the history of N'Thayn'sal. It didn't bug him that the world was basically destroyed a million times over in that bleak future. It bugged him that his name wasn't mentioned anywhere in it.
History: Savas Tigh was the only son to a puritanical Ethereal family in Knife's Edge. By all accounts that survived the Ethereal War, he was an extremely bright, happy, upbeat little boy with an infectious smile and a mind sharper than the city's namesake. His parents, including a father who was obsessed with passing on his name and legacy, believed that after six daughters, they were finally being blessed with the Saint's favor in the form of a son and heir. For the first few years of his life, Savas was a golden child who could do no wrong – and he lived up to expectations in most ways.
And then came that dark, snowy night in the middle of a winter blizzard. Savas huddled close by the fire as his father read scripture. He put his hands out, desperate for warmth, and the light simply blinked out. The heat didn't stop, the fire still burned, but there was only darkness in that little house. He wasn't even six years old. By Wizarding standards, it was a prodigal age – most don't start coming into the power until nine or ten.
His father responded by beating him bloody and toothless, then threw him out into the snow and cursed the day he had been born. Vile as he is, Savas still has nightmares about it. He tried to get back in, pounding on the door in desperation, but his only answer was a face full of boiling water and the litanies of the Saint's rebuke. Savas staggered off in the dark and would have died if he hadn't collapsed onto the steps of the Saint's Church, just as the Wizard Deadeye was emerging from prayer.
The rest of his childhood was spent learning and recovering. Savas learned the basics of Wizardry in Her Glory's service, obtaining a partial Sanction at the unheard of age of ten years old – when most magi are just starting to develop their abilities into anything resembling proper magic. He was limited to rituals, but he was good at them and that was all that mattered. There was talk of eventually joining the Aeromancer Corps, the Clerical Orders, or even the Witchhunters.
That changed. Savas has forgotten how or why. All he remembers now are his first string of murders and his reckless flight from Salvar to Alerar, across the borders of Alerar to Raiaera, across Raiaera to the sea, and across the sea to Scara Brae. Time slipped in the City of Adventure. Savas has yet to understand what happened or how, and has basically given up any idea of ever figuring it out. One minute, he was descending into a set of tunnels with some comrades. The next, he was chipping at bones and hearing whispers in the dark. The next, he had never left Raiaera at all and was pledging himself to the service of Xem'zund. Blueraven once told him about how his personal timeline had been wrinkled up somehow, but Savas doesn't put much stock in that.
He served out the Corpse War as a ritualist, helping to cast support magicks from behind the scenes. His were the curses that blew out the hearts of men all over the region. His were the hands that readied and raised countless dead soldiers in the Dread Necromancer's service. His was a Name meant to belong to the Death Lords. In the end, he never got farther than Bonekeeper, a slur-turned-nickname by his 'coworkers.' He didn't even recover his Name until well after the War was over.
Since then, he's tried to set up shop in Raiaera, Scara Brae, and Corone. Raiaera was too elfy and his magic too risky. Scara Brae met with disaster. Savas is crossing his fingers and trying to play it cool in Corone. He aims to stay low this time, ride out the Civil War, then the inevitable conflicts to follow it, all while building up his own personal base of power and knowledge in the very heart of one of Radasanth's most neglected ghettos.
Archive
The Deathly Apprentice
The Red Requiem in Cresting Summer (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=20799) – Savas' first recorded adventure, including his first run-in with Caden Law and the re-acquisition of his Sorcerous Name. Here be Worms, chewing through the sky above a red, red forest...
Twisted Koans and Burnt-In Thoughts (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?p=166937) – High stakes and low falls on the ruined fields of Raiaera, culminating in the acquisition of Savas' Familiar: the dead Dark Wizard and Death Lord, Kholia Horren.
The Catacombs of Scara Brae: Dead Sun Rising (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?21566-The-Catacombs-of-Scara-Brae-Dead-Sun-Rising) – Savas joins with Caden Law, Aeraul Smythe, and Rowan Stormwind to go spelunking in the catacombs beneath Scara Brae. Hilarity ensues, ending with dragonbones and pilfered rods and the most contentious apprenticeship this side of the Fourth Wall.
The Wormaxe Cometh (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?23043-The-Wormaxe-Cometh&p=186161) – Savas hightails it from Scara Brae to Corone, murdering anything in his path along the way...and eating a few of them besides.
The Red-Inked Ripper of Radasanth (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?23081-The-Red-Inked-Ripper-of-Radasanth) – _IN PROGRESS_