Marime
04-27-15, 04:48 PM
Main:
Name: Marime Dunne
Age: 32
Race: Human
Hair Color: Coffee Brown
Eye Color: Artichoke
Height: 5ft
Weight: 76 kg
Occupation: Widow / Ghost-Whisperer
Personality:
Main:
Determined and focused, somewhat quiet at times and at others containing of a fiery temper. Mostly, she is kind and patient, especially towards children. She has a great motherly instinct, but never had any of her own, and thinks of children and young animals much of as being “innocent” and so will get very angry when they are hurt in any deliberate way. Deep down she has a good heart, and a good soul, although her experiences in her past have made her slightly bitter towards those she seems as villains.
Personal Goals, driving force:
At the moment her mission is to survive, and establish herself healthily in Eluriand. It is also to eventually get back revenge for her year of torture by the priest of the Ethereal Sway
Appearance:
Short, pale skinned. She has coffee brown hair, though she was born with very white-blonde hair, usually worn up in a loose ponytail or bun at her crown or base of the skull. Her eyes are a pale artichoke green. With a small nose and strong chin she verges on the masculine side of typical femininity. Her breasts are nothing to boast of, being small although existent, and her body is curvy but she is not a model. In terms of clothing she tends to wear work shirts, in white, green, blue or brown tones, rolled up at the sleeves in weather allows. On her bottom half is either a pair of loose-fitting trousers or a knee-length skirt. This is all completed with a pair of very practical brown boots and a dark cloak.
She can also often be found smoking, having taken up the habit after Zoltan died.
Skills:
Reading:
Marime has hyperlexia, meaning she is fascinated more with words on a page than in speech. She also learnt to read fluently by the age of five, and learnt to speak mainly from this. Her reading speed is also incredibly fast, being able to read something at least twice as fast as the last person and being able to retain as much information. Her love for reading is incredible, and she finds it a key skill in life.
Archery:
Marime is moderately good in archery. She would fail if she entered any competition, but can put up a good fight against an easy target around 50 feet away.
Melee:
Marime is weak with the sword, although she has a dagger. She can parry a few blows, but will not stand up against many foes who are quicker and faster than her with a dagger.
Knowledge of Death:
Marime has keen knowledge of the afterlife and the underworld, with her experience being vast. With all the many religions she can speak about any of their afterlives, and she knows almost precisely what happens to ones soul when it passes on. The only thing she does not know is the appearance of the underworld, for this is a secret that one can only find out when they go there.
Abilities:
Death Sight:
Probably the most complex of Marime’s skills or abilities.
For all of her life, ever since she was born, Marime has seen the world vastly different to how others see it. In not too few words she sees the dead, and also how far people are on a dead scale.
Dead Scale:
Where others see plain colours subject to light, she sees a series of muted and bright, in accordance to how dead or dying someone is. Similar to colour blindness, the muted things seem more what a normal-sighted person would define as ‘shades of brown.’ The brighter someone, or indeed something, is the more alive they are. In this sense, Marime sees a normal room as mostly muted, as most objects have no life, with bright forms being bodies and plants. Also, she can somewhat tell how close someone is to death, by how faded they are. A terminally ill person, for instance, will seem closer to a cabinet than a healthy young child.
This is not affected by magic. She can see only the dead realm, not magic itself.
The two forms of dead things are defined by Marime as “ghosts” and “wraiths"
Ghosts in this sense, and in her history, are defined as very recently deceased people whose souls are still finding rest in the afterlife. They can be of any race or religion, they just must have died very recently. Their forms to her are semi-transparent, something akin to fogged glass and they cannot interact with anything physical or magical, unless they are characters and their abilities state so. In this case it is due to some magic that Marime does not know of. Ghosts also have a very faint but hazy shadow to them, but a shadow made of light. They are also not white, but rather faded colours of their former selves, dressed always in the last thing they were wearing. They disappear when their souls find rest.
Wraiths are creatures of far more permanence. They are creatures who denied the right for their souls to find rest and brought it back here to the physical realm. This means, however, that they can never find peace for when one has denied death it is impossible to take it again (excepting for magics that so far Marime does not know of). She sees these as firmer and bolder creatures, with a near opaque quality. Their colours are still muted but shines of metal etc are clear. Their eyes, also, are fully opaque and as they were in life. Wraiths cast a stronger light-shadow, a thing which can actually be seen by other people not gifted by the Death Sight, if they are aware enough to look. It is as faint as a single flame, however to them, spread over an area that the shadow would usually cover. The main difference, though, that Wraiths have to Ghosts is that they can interact with the physical realm. This requires a great amount of concentration but gets much easier over time and learning.
Marime can see all dead and all dying. Other characters who are ghosts and who are usually invisible to PCs can be seen by Marime, as either Ghosts or Wraiths. Their invisibility ordained by spiritual unbeing does not work on her, unless it is magically ensorceled, magic in this sense being something capable of a living being.
Zoltan:
Zoltan is Marime’s familiar, for all intents and purposes. He follows her around and takes the form of a Wraith by the definitions in “Wraith” under “Death Sight.” He can be permanently seen by her but by no-one else, unless they are endowed with some knowledge of the spiritual realm and/or are ghosts themselves or have an ability to see such. Marime is bonded to Zoltan in such a way that she is his "anchor" - i.e. his point of physical power upon which he is able to appear on the physical realm and fully interact with it.
He can be in either an Active state or Inactive state.
Active state means he reacts with the physical realm, using his ghostly sword to fight against others on Marime’s behalf. In a combat state he can use his sword and shield to parry, guard and stab as a near-invisible soldier. However in this state he must fully interact with the physical realm, thus he creates noise and movement such as footprints, and must appear with a thin appearance, similar to that of a thin mist. To fully attack or parry requires concentration, and so after one attack/block/action his appearance becomes that of a fog. He can do four actions before being tired and thus must revert back to Inactive state as Exhausted (invisible but completely inable to interact with the world). In this Exhausted state he is NOT able to provide any information.
In Active setting other ghost PCs can see him as if seeing another person.
Inactive state means he does not react with the physical realm. He cannot be seen or heard, but neither can he hold things or use his sword against any of Marime’s opponents. He can provide her with clues as to whereabouts of weapons etc, but his voice will be heard. When coming from Active state into this state, though, he cannot even speak and just has to sit there (Exhausted). In Inactive setting ghost PCs can only see him.
Important Note: Magic, any spells or magical poisons or attacks affect Zoltan in any way that they normally would, as do sword strikes. If he gets severely weakened he must go into an Inactive state without any chances.
Equipment: [/SIZE][/B]
Non-combat:
3 changes of shirts
3 changes of trousers
a camping stove and food enough for one for a week
blankets and tent
golden locket with photo of her and her dead husband (Zoltan)
cigarettes
Combat:
1 iron dagger
A yew bow
one quiver of iron-tipped arrows (12)
thin leather-based armour breastplate
Familiars:
Name: Zoltan, Knight of the Highfalls
Age: 38
Race: Wraith (type of ghost who has soul in the physical realm)
Occupation: Bodyguard to Marime
Skills:
Being Seen: Zoltan can only be seen by Marime - and/or others with an ability to see ghosts. It is up to other ghost-based characters if they can see him and his Active/Inactive states (see Ability: Zoltan).
Sword: He is fully capable with the sword and shield. He is also capable with a bow but as he did not die with one he does not have one (yet).
Interaction: He is able to interact with object so long as he is in an Active state, and also sleep. The only thing he cannot do is eat. If he places food, water or anything biological in his mouth it will at first rot and then fade to dust.
Appearance:
A near-opaque figure with muted colours. He has flaxen hair and bright blue eyes, which are exactly like how they were when he was alive. He wears what he did when he died - a plain bodyguard uniform with an unmarked breastplate, shoulder guards, greaves and gauntlets. He has stout leather boots. He stands around 6ft to the shoulder, a foot taller than Marime. He has a shield and sword, but can leave them in places.
Equipment:
"Spirit Sword" that is iron in strength.
Armour that is metal in appearance but basic leather in strength.
Shield that is iron in strength.
For all comments on abilities, please see “Zoltan” under “Abilities.”
A Long and Complicated History:
She was born Marime Drenoldsson, though the world simply knows her as “Marime”. Currently into her early 30s she was born in a small village of a few that rested along the feet of hills, called the “Hill’s Feet Towns,” a set of human towns nestled in the High Elvish land. This was in Raiaera, at the time of the Corpse War, in its uprising and its duration. Being of this country’s blood her whole childhood was dominated by death, walking corpses and ghosts, in more ways than should ever be trusted to anyone.
It is still not suitably known why Marime was born the way she was. Neither to herself, nor her parents, nor husband, now deceased. Many sorcerers, mages, healers and death-walkers looked at her, asked her questions, but none came up with any answers. It did not become absolutely clear until she could talk that they way she saw was different to others, and at the beginning her parents put it down to a form of colourblindness. The way that Marime spoke of colour and vision, with muted tones and bright lights, was perfectly accepted until the age of six, when she first spoke of someone who they could not see.
She described him as a pale man with ash-blue eyes, grey hair and dressed in a cloak. He looked a little see-through and had a light shining behind him. After some deduction her parents figured out that Marime was in fact describing her grandfather, who lived the next village along. Vehemently, they told her that she was wrong - he was in the next village and not there, but firmly Marime stated that it was him.
Begrudgingly her parents took her to her grandfather’s village. Shockingly, however, they did not find him - instead they found his corpse, having died the previous night around the time that Marime had described seeing him. The fear of what had just occurred filled with with nightmarish thoughts and realisations, but the consequences of the discovery of their daughter’s power were only just beginning to unfold.
No one has ever admitted to it, not her mother, nor her father, nor her little brother who was two at the time, but somehow word got out of their daughter’s power. Word that spread like horrendous wildfire, slashing through the Hills Feet Towns, and all at once people began treating her with immense suspicion. As they prepared for the funeral of her grandfather, just a few days after the occurrence, their front door was knocked upon, harshly. Upon opening it, Marime’s family found a mob there, of folk from both villages, who politely asked at first, and then demanded, Marime. Her parents, fearing the worst for their child, sent Marime and her brother out the back of the house and escaped with them (with the corpse) shortly after.
It is understandable that the people feared her and her sight. Born under the dark era of Xem’Zund they were a deeply troubled people, plagued by walking corpses and mutant hordes alike. Death to them was something to be frightened of and the concept of a strange girl being able to see death and death people was not anything of comfort to them. To them it was hell broken onto earth, the very meaning of evil, and they chased the Drenoldsson family out of the Hills Feet Towns to another community.
From here they travelled further south and found themselves in a new town, slightly larger than the last, and full of High Elves. It was a merry trading centre, at the point where three rivers met and had a lively harbour as well as inns. Their father, being of a farming background, found a job within the granaries of the harbour, and their mother settled down to building a new home. For much of the time she hid the two children away, using the guise of simply being a ‘private’ family. Marime was introduced to books, and quickly she learnt how to read, but after a short while her insatiable lust for those books led her to leave the house and wander over to the town’s library.
She snuck her way in past the monks and researchers, taking straight away to the history section. It was from here she began to pour over manuscripts old and new, filling her head with knowledge. Hungrily she devoured them, but the longer she spent there, the more she began to get lazy and not hide herself. By the age of eight she did not bother finding a place to read privately, instead she stayed with the rest of the readers. And it was in one of these moments her secret was yet again discovered.
It began with a shriek. Flocking right to her side a nearby monk, who had been copying holy scriptures, ran to her, thinking she was in pain. What she explained, however, was that she could see a whole flock of ghosts sliding towards her. The monk, being of knowledge, rushed her to her home, thinking this was perhaps some illusion illness. Her mother naturally and quickly agreed, taking the suggestion. “Yes,” she said, “Must be some illness. She will be alright come daybreak.”
Daybreak came and the ghosts were still there. Marime complained loudly, but her mother sternly told her not to talk of such things and that she was forbidden from ever stepping outdoors without her mother again. Two days passed rather peacefully, though Marime was constantly surrounded by the white-shadowed spirits she saw, until a knock on the door came.
It was the monk, drenched in sweat. Alone he was, however, he was full of fear. He pointed at Marime, and called her cursed, and said that if the family were not gone by that evening he would call the town guards on them. So of course, the family moved.
The next town they passed they realised the reason for the monks fear. A plague had swept through the town, barbaric and senseless, killing inhabitants left and right. Now completely cut off from the rest of the world the town had seen more than half of its people killed in the last couple of days. Marime agreed with this, saying that the amount of ghosts she saw now was vastly larger than when it began. They stayed on the outskirts of the town for a few weeks, unsure of what direction to take next, but when Marime began blurting out to a passing caravan that two of them were to die in the next week, her parents realised it was time to start anew.
And thus they tried, for the third time, moving instead to a more isolated place, by themselves in a small hamlet as tenant farmers of a rustic lord. In a quiet house quite apart from anyone else, the family lived to themselves, having really only one contact a week with the outside world on market day. Marime’s little brother Muska began to grow into a fine young man, and he more or less grew oblivious to Marime’s sight, so determined were their parents to keep the ability a secret. Life in this way became tense but private and years soon passed.
It was only when Marime was fifteen that things went from normal to worse, and on market day a man recognised her. He was a man from one of the Hill’s Feet Towns. Marime had no sights of death that day, however he spurred into action the beginnings of the wrath of the superstitious crowd. Taking the matter into his own hands the man ran to the local church, and managed to persuade the priest to summon a meeting. The villagers were somewhat uncertain for a while, and it took them hours to fully come together - after all the Drendoldsson family were liked and trusted around the area. This gave the family enough time to pack some belongings and escape, though to little avail.
Weeks passed, with the family growing steadily and steadily more hungry as they kept on having to move. Muska, now fully aware of his sister’s strange sight began to grow afraid of her, calling her a “devil’s wench” and other such horrible names. He grew violent towards her, culminating in him attempting to burn her as they sat around the campfire one evening, and thus the family grew ever more wild. Mother and daughter separated from father and son for much of the day, travelling on separate horses, growing more desperate with each hoof-step.
They eventually settled in a fishing hut at the edge of a lake. The parents separated the children by demanding that they take turns sleeping outside and that Muska was to become hunter for the family, thus taking him away from Marime throughout most of the day. In this was peace somewhat settled on them in their quiet seclusion, until one day Muska returned with a crowd of his own. And this time he had a travelling priest of the Etheral Sway , one of the most violent religions known around. The crowd was so large that the Drenoldsson’s could not do anything this time. Marime was dragged away in front of her parents, betrayed by her own brother.
The memories of what followed are unclear for Marime but it is understood she went through what the priest called “Exorcism.” She was beaten, starved, mentally abused and raped several times through it, by a series of men. Her brother was a part in much of the planning of this, despite his young age, and it was he who finally persuaded his parents that this was for Marime’s “own good.” She reached the verge of death several times in her torment, but each time after was brought back with rudimentary and cruel magics, then forced to endure the treatment all over again. She was asked if she could still see ghosts and death on-coming to people, and after the first try she lied, and said that they had gone, but the priest apparently could tell she was lying. He set up a church around her, and gathered a small following, with Muska being a keen believer. So a whole year passed in this fashion, with this torture, until a company of soldiers passed by.
They were guards of a sect of the High Bard Council defence, under direct authority from the Ost'Dagorlin school. Marked out by a silver seven-pointed star on their tabards, meant to honour the seven gods of the Elvish Pantheon. They came also in companies of seven, believing that their message was a holy one. The head priest welcomed them with open arms despite their obvious religious differences. He said he had changed much since being in Raiaera and welcomed the Pantheon, as long as others could accept the ways of his church’s punishments. The guards, assuming he simply met a self-whipping here and there just shrugged and settled in the village whilst they regained their strength and provisions.
It was not long until they, being soldiers, were invited by the young ladies of the village to come to one of the more public sources of entertainment. In no small words this was a public flogging and rape of Marime, which had become a common practise on the holy day. The village, having been steadily over time introduced to the idea of this punishment found it a source of amusement, however the guards were shocked. At first they demanded the release of Marime, and the priest refused, and then explained that she was possessed by the evils of Xem’Zund. Furious negotiations and arguments ensued, but the night ended with powerful persuasion and the guards themselves taking part in the Exorcism.
That was, apart from one. His name was Zoltan Dunne and he was a titled man, a Knight of Cuarye. He was also a half-human from the shores of Scara Brae, brought over when his mother died, by his Raiaeran father. He saw the human girl, felt great pity for her. Not knowing much of Xem’Zund and the fears he brought, Zoltan felt very differently about her than the others did.
Courage bolstered within him. In the dead of night, under the guise of going to “punish” her, he freed her. She was sickly and weak, severely malnourished but to him this was wrong beyond reasoning. Abandoning his post as a guard he rode away with her, far up north through the mountains and into Alerar, rescuing her on a whim but with the clearest decision in his heart. He had seen his brother guards committing sins that abhorred and shocked him to his very soul and realised that he could no longer keep company with them.
It was only truly in the safety of the mountains that he could tend to her. As he did Marime’s memories began to come back, as did her health, but her sanity was already damaged. Severely, she feared him when he moved to tend to her, and at times she would lash out with tooth and nail. He tried to plead with her, saying that he had given up everything to rescue her, but she did not trust him. Indeed, a thread of a story in itself, the time until she allowed him to properly take care of her was around three months.
It is no surprise then, that it took almost seven years for them to fall in love. Their life was an awkward one, living as a couple yet not as a couple, with her keeping house and him hunting. They built themselves a dry-stone building in the nestles of a valley which was commonly visited by deer. It had two separate bedrooms and a kitchen and parlour. A restroom sat beyond the outside, and up the side of the mountain was a series of caves for either of them to have further privacy. Zoltan set up a shrine to his goddess nearby, and relatively they lived a stress-free life, waiting for Marime to recuperate back to a comfortable state. She was far enough away from civilisation to more or less never be plagued by any sights of death and Zoltan had brought them too near the Dark Elves for anyone to ever hunt them down.
When they fell in love, however, they decided it was time to return back to a village, mainly in order to officially marry. They chose, sensibly, to head into Alerar, and despite all rumours they found the place cheery and welcoming. It was easy to find a human holy man of no discernible religion who married them in a traditional way. Their honeymoon was spent on an airship, sailing above the world, and it was here that Marime discovered in slight shock that she still had the death sight, for it had not really been obvious in the last seven years.
It was however, enough for her to cope with. After a day or so of adjusting to such a large portion of ghosts walking around, she told Zoltan that she could quite happily live in Alerar. The couple, then, agreeing between each other, decided to go to Ettermire. It was around this time that Marime began to properly begin to converse with ghosts, and discovered that the vast majority of them were only there temporarily as their souls went through the circles of the underworld. With Alerans being less suspicious as Raiaerans she began to find small private jobs as something of a Medium, and so for the first time in her life began to use her ability for her own benefit, and not in fear.
Zoltan gained a position in a nobleman’s household as a doorguard, this being his greatest talent. He gave Marime archery lessons, at the same time as honing his own skills with a blade. The two found themselves growing successful as they brought in money from their jobs, and they moved three times in the next four years. All was perfect, and all was well, until two things happened - Marime found out she could not have children after many attempts at trying, and Muska travelled to Ettermire.
He saw her in the street. Of course it took him a while to recognise her, after the years they had been apart. It was also unknown as to why he had come to Ettermire, but things fell into fate’s path as cruel and painful as thorns. Muska hid his appearance, and began investigation into her status, until he found out where she lived and work. Truly thinking his sister evil as devils, he took time planning her demise and attacked on his own in the dead of night. Zoltan was supposed to be away that night, and this Muska knew hence his selection of the night - however the knight returned unexpectedly. When Muska attacked Marime with an iron knife, Zoltan attacked him back, and the two men raged battle until they slew each other, without Marime ever able to do anything.
Horrified and distraught, Marime began to weep. She watched the ghosts of her brother and her beloved rise into the air and look at her. For a long time she could do nothing but watch Zoltan and ignore her brother, ravaged with sorrow that this was happening. They spoke, but only in hushed voices and in tears, and Muska grew angrier and angrier - until he disappeared altogether. Watching him disappear was the breaking point for Marime, for she realised that soon Zoltan’s soul would find its place in the afterlife and that he too, would go. Days passed and she ate nothing, just clinging to his last transparent form until he fully faded away.
And then, triumphantly returned. Bigger and brighter and more real than ever. Marime was shocked to see that the ghost of her dead husband was more opaque and steady than any other ghost she had seen before. The faint white glow of his shadow was also greater, and his features more adorned in colour. In fact she could barely see through him, he was that corporeal. In joy she ran to him, and jumped into his arms. At first she fell through, but then he caught her and held her there.
Confused, but satisfied, she joined hands with him. They went out to the hall where he had died - and found his corpse still there. Zoltan paused, then confessed. He had gone through the afterlife with his soul, but then refused peace. Instead, he had demanded his soul return back to the physical realm so that he might be with her forever after. This, in essence, made him not a ghost but rather a wraith. Marime thought he was crazy - for refusing rest to his soul once meant he could never move on afterwards, but he told her an afterlife without her was no life at all. He was happy being with her, even if it meant abandoning peace for his soul.
Marime was speechless and it took her time to understand. But after a while she nodded. She quickly sorted the funerals of her brother and husband, declaring Zoltan dead without much remorse. With others not able to see him she received great amounts of criticism from her clients and friends about “not mourning properly” but she could not, seeing as he had never left. Selling the house in Ettermire, she moved with Zoltan via ship back to Eluriand, dying her hair en route to a coffee brown. Relatively rich with all their savings she set up a shop in the city, advertising herself in the kindest sense as a “teller of fortunes” and nothing more. Zoltan found his own amusement in haunting old cellars and irritating the customers to make them believe more in Marime’s powers, until she developed something of a reputation of being “connected to the gods.”
She currently now resides in Eluriand, an official widow and fortune teller, with the secret company of her permanently deceased wraith husband, invisible to everyone else. Since Zoltan died Marime has found herself taking up the habit of smoking cigareetes, something which Zoltan disapproves of, for health benefits. But, as she constantly points out, it will only bring her ever closer to him.
Name: Marime Dunne
Age: 32
Race: Human
Hair Color: Coffee Brown
Eye Color: Artichoke
Height: 5ft
Weight: 76 kg
Occupation: Widow / Ghost-Whisperer
Personality:
Main:
Determined and focused, somewhat quiet at times and at others containing of a fiery temper. Mostly, she is kind and patient, especially towards children. She has a great motherly instinct, but never had any of her own, and thinks of children and young animals much of as being “innocent” and so will get very angry when they are hurt in any deliberate way. Deep down she has a good heart, and a good soul, although her experiences in her past have made her slightly bitter towards those she seems as villains.
Personal Goals, driving force:
At the moment her mission is to survive, and establish herself healthily in Eluriand. It is also to eventually get back revenge for her year of torture by the priest of the Ethereal Sway
Appearance:
Short, pale skinned. She has coffee brown hair, though she was born with very white-blonde hair, usually worn up in a loose ponytail or bun at her crown or base of the skull. Her eyes are a pale artichoke green. With a small nose and strong chin she verges on the masculine side of typical femininity. Her breasts are nothing to boast of, being small although existent, and her body is curvy but she is not a model. In terms of clothing she tends to wear work shirts, in white, green, blue or brown tones, rolled up at the sleeves in weather allows. On her bottom half is either a pair of loose-fitting trousers or a knee-length skirt. This is all completed with a pair of very practical brown boots and a dark cloak.
She can also often be found smoking, having taken up the habit after Zoltan died.
Skills:
Reading:
Marime has hyperlexia, meaning she is fascinated more with words on a page than in speech. She also learnt to read fluently by the age of five, and learnt to speak mainly from this. Her reading speed is also incredibly fast, being able to read something at least twice as fast as the last person and being able to retain as much information. Her love for reading is incredible, and she finds it a key skill in life.
Archery:
Marime is moderately good in archery. She would fail if she entered any competition, but can put up a good fight against an easy target around 50 feet away.
Melee:
Marime is weak with the sword, although she has a dagger. She can parry a few blows, but will not stand up against many foes who are quicker and faster than her with a dagger.
Knowledge of Death:
Marime has keen knowledge of the afterlife and the underworld, with her experience being vast. With all the many religions she can speak about any of their afterlives, and she knows almost precisely what happens to ones soul when it passes on. The only thing she does not know is the appearance of the underworld, for this is a secret that one can only find out when they go there.
Abilities:
Death Sight:
Probably the most complex of Marime’s skills or abilities.
For all of her life, ever since she was born, Marime has seen the world vastly different to how others see it. In not too few words she sees the dead, and also how far people are on a dead scale.
Dead Scale:
Where others see plain colours subject to light, she sees a series of muted and bright, in accordance to how dead or dying someone is. Similar to colour blindness, the muted things seem more what a normal-sighted person would define as ‘shades of brown.’ The brighter someone, or indeed something, is the more alive they are. In this sense, Marime sees a normal room as mostly muted, as most objects have no life, with bright forms being bodies and plants. Also, she can somewhat tell how close someone is to death, by how faded they are. A terminally ill person, for instance, will seem closer to a cabinet than a healthy young child.
This is not affected by magic. She can see only the dead realm, not magic itself.
The two forms of dead things are defined by Marime as “ghosts” and “wraiths"
Ghosts in this sense, and in her history, are defined as very recently deceased people whose souls are still finding rest in the afterlife. They can be of any race or religion, they just must have died very recently. Their forms to her are semi-transparent, something akin to fogged glass and they cannot interact with anything physical or magical, unless they are characters and their abilities state so. In this case it is due to some magic that Marime does not know of. Ghosts also have a very faint but hazy shadow to them, but a shadow made of light. They are also not white, but rather faded colours of their former selves, dressed always in the last thing they were wearing. They disappear when their souls find rest.
Wraiths are creatures of far more permanence. They are creatures who denied the right for their souls to find rest and brought it back here to the physical realm. This means, however, that they can never find peace for when one has denied death it is impossible to take it again (excepting for magics that so far Marime does not know of). She sees these as firmer and bolder creatures, with a near opaque quality. Their colours are still muted but shines of metal etc are clear. Their eyes, also, are fully opaque and as they were in life. Wraiths cast a stronger light-shadow, a thing which can actually be seen by other people not gifted by the Death Sight, if they are aware enough to look. It is as faint as a single flame, however to them, spread over an area that the shadow would usually cover. The main difference, though, that Wraiths have to Ghosts is that they can interact with the physical realm. This requires a great amount of concentration but gets much easier over time and learning.
Marime can see all dead and all dying. Other characters who are ghosts and who are usually invisible to PCs can be seen by Marime, as either Ghosts or Wraiths. Their invisibility ordained by spiritual unbeing does not work on her, unless it is magically ensorceled, magic in this sense being something capable of a living being.
Zoltan:
Zoltan is Marime’s familiar, for all intents and purposes. He follows her around and takes the form of a Wraith by the definitions in “Wraith” under “Death Sight.” He can be permanently seen by her but by no-one else, unless they are endowed with some knowledge of the spiritual realm and/or are ghosts themselves or have an ability to see such. Marime is bonded to Zoltan in such a way that she is his "anchor" - i.e. his point of physical power upon which he is able to appear on the physical realm and fully interact with it.
He can be in either an Active state or Inactive state.
Active state means he reacts with the physical realm, using his ghostly sword to fight against others on Marime’s behalf. In a combat state he can use his sword and shield to parry, guard and stab as a near-invisible soldier. However in this state he must fully interact with the physical realm, thus he creates noise and movement such as footprints, and must appear with a thin appearance, similar to that of a thin mist. To fully attack or parry requires concentration, and so after one attack/block/action his appearance becomes that of a fog. He can do four actions before being tired and thus must revert back to Inactive state as Exhausted (invisible but completely inable to interact with the world). In this Exhausted state he is NOT able to provide any information.
In Active setting other ghost PCs can see him as if seeing another person.
Inactive state means he does not react with the physical realm. He cannot be seen or heard, but neither can he hold things or use his sword against any of Marime’s opponents. He can provide her with clues as to whereabouts of weapons etc, but his voice will be heard. When coming from Active state into this state, though, he cannot even speak and just has to sit there (Exhausted). In Inactive setting ghost PCs can only see him.
Important Note: Magic, any spells or magical poisons or attacks affect Zoltan in any way that they normally would, as do sword strikes. If he gets severely weakened he must go into an Inactive state without any chances.
Equipment: [/SIZE][/B]
Non-combat:
3 changes of shirts
3 changes of trousers
a camping stove and food enough for one for a week
blankets and tent
golden locket with photo of her and her dead husband (Zoltan)
cigarettes
Combat:
1 iron dagger
A yew bow
one quiver of iron-tipped arrows (12)
thin leather-based armour breastplate
Familiars:
Name: Zoltan, Knight of the Highfalls
Age: 38
Race: Wraith (type of ghost who has soul in the physical realm)
Occupation: Bodyguard to Marime
Skills:
Being Seen: Zoltan can only be seen by Marime - and/or others with an ability to see ghosts. It is up to other ghost-based characters if they can see him and his Active/Inactive states (see Ability: Zoltan).
Sword: He is fully capable with the sword and shield. He is also capable with a bow but as he did not die with one he does not have one (yet).
Interaction: He is able to interact with object so long as he is in an Active state, and also sleep. The only thing he cannot do is eat. If he places food, water or anything biological in his mouth it will at first rot and then fade to dust.
Appearance:
A near-opaque figure with muted colours. He has flaxen hair and bright blue eyes, which are exactly like how they were when he was alive. He wears what he did when he died - a plain bodyguard uniform with an unmarked breastplate, shoulder guards, greaves and gauntlets. He has stout leather boots. He stands around 6ft to the shoulder, a foot taller than Marime. He has a shield and sword, but can leave them in places.
Equipment:
"Spirit Sword" that is iron in strength.
Armour that is metal in appearance but basic leather in strength.
Shield that is iron in strength.
For all comments on abilities, please see “Zoltan” under “Abilities.”
A Long and Complicated History:
She was born Marime Drenoldsson, though the world simply knows her as “Marime”. Currently into her early 30s she was born in a small village of a few that rested along the feet of hills, called the “Hill’s Feet Towns,” a set of human towns nestled in the High Elvish land. This was in Raiaera, at the time of the Corpse War, in its uprising and its duration. Being of this country’s blood her whole childhood was dominated by death, walking corpses and ghosts, in more ways than should ever be trusted to anyone.
It is still not suitably known why Marime was born the way she was. Neither to herself, nor her parents, nor husband, now deceased. Many sorcerers, mages, healers and death-walkers looked at her, asked her questions, but none came up with any answers. It did not become absolutely clear until she could talk that they way she saw was different to others, and at the beginning her parents put it down to a form of colourblindness. The way that Marime spoke of colour and vision, with muted tones and bright lights, was perfectly accepted until the age of six, when she first spoke of someone who they could not see.
She described him as a pale man with ash-blue eyes, grey hair and dressed in a cloak. He looked a little see-through and had a light shining behind him. After some deduction her parents figured out that Marime was in fact describing her grandfather, who lived the next village along. Vehemently, they told her that she was wrong - he was in the next village and not there, but firmly Marime stated that it was him.
Begrudgingly her parents took her to her grandfather’s village. Shockingly, however, they did not find him - instead they found his corpse, having died the previous night around the time that Marime had described seeing him. The fear of what had just occurred filled with with nightmarish thoughts and realisations, but the consequences of the discovery of their daughter’s power were only just beginning to unfold.
No one has ever admitted to it, not her mother, nor her father, nor her little brother who was two at the time, but somehow word got out of their daughter’s power. Word that spread like horrendous wildfire, slashing through the Hills Feet Towns, and all at once people began treating her with immense suspicion. As they prepared for the funeral of her grandfather, just a few days after the occurrence, their front door was knocked upon, harshly. Upon opening it, Marime’s family found a mob there, of folk from both villages, who politely asked at first, and then demanded, Marime. Her parents, fearing the worst for their child, sent Marime and her brother out the back of the house and escaped with them (with the corpse) shortly after.
It is understandable that the people feared her and her sight. Born under the dark era of Xem’Zund they were a deeply troubled people, plagued by walking corpses and mutant hordes alike. Death to them was something to be frightened of and the concept of a strange girl being able to see death and death people was not anything of comfort to them. To them it was hell broken onto earth, the very meaning of evil, and they chased the Drenoldsson family out of the Hills Feet Towns to another community.
From here they travelled further south and found themselves in a new town, slightly larger than the last, and full of High Elves. It was a merry trading centre, at the point where three rivers met and had a lively harbour as well as inns. Their father, being of a farming background, found a job within the granaries of the harbour, and their mother settled down to building a new home. For much of the time she hid the two children away, using the guise of simply being a ‘private’ family. Marime was introduced to books, and quickly she learnt how to read, but after a short while her insatiable lust for those books led her to leave the house and wander over to the town’s library.
She snuck her way in past the monks and researchers, taking straight away to the history section. It was from here she began to pour over manuscripts old and new, filling her head with knowledge. Hungrily she devoured them, but the longer she spent there, the more she began to get lazy and not hide herself. By the age of eight she did not bother finding a place to read privately, instead she stayed with the rest of the readers. And it was in one of these moments her secret was yet again discovered.
It began with a shriek. Flocking right to her side a nearby monk, who had been copying holy scriptures, ran to her, thinking she was in pain. What she explained, however, was that she could see a whole flock of ghosts sliding towards her. The monk, being of knowledge, rushed her to her home, thinking this was perhaps some illusion illness. Her mother naturally and quickly agreed, taking the suggestion. “Yes,” she said, “Must be some illness. She will be alright come daybreak.”
Daybreak came and the ghosts were still there. Marime complained loudly, but her mother sternly told her not to talk of such things and that she was forbidden from ever stepping outdoors without her mother again. Two days passed rather peacefully, though Marime was constantly surrounded by the white-shadowed spirits she saw, until a knock on the door came.
It was the monk, drenched in sweat. Alone he was, however, he was full of fear. He pointed at Marime, and called her cursed, and said that if the family were not gone by that evening he would call the town guards on them. So of course, the family moved.
The next town they passed they realised the reason for the monks fear. A plague had swept through the town, barbaric and senseless, killing inhabitants left and right. Now completely cut off from the rest of the world the town had seen more than half of its people killed in the last couple of days. Marime agreed with this, saying that the amount of ghosts she saw now was vastly larger than when it began. They stayed on the outskirts of the town for a few weeks, unsure of what direction to take next, but when Marime began blurting out to a passing caravan that two of them were to die in the next week, her parents realised it was time to start anew.
And thus they tried, for the third time, moving instead to a more isolated place, by themselves in a small hamlet as tenant farmers of a rustic lord. In a quiet house quite apart from anyone else, the family lived to themselves, having really only one contact a week with the outside world on market day. Marime’s little brother Muska began to grow into a fine young man, and he more or less grew oblivious to Marime’s sight, so determined were their parents to keep the ability a secret. Life in this way became tense but private and years soon passed.
It was only when Marime was fifteen that things went from normal to worse, and on market day a man recognised her. He was a man from one of the Hill’s Feet Towns. Marime had no sights of death that day, however he spurred into action the beginnings of the wrath of the superstitious crowd. Taking the matter into his own hands the man ran to the local church, and managed to persuade the priest to summon a meeting. The villagers were somewhat uncertain for a while, and it took them hours to fully come together - after all the Drendoldsson family were liked and trusted around the area. This gave the family enough time to pack some belongings and escape, though to little avail.
Weeks passed, with the family growing steadily and steadily more hungry as they kept on having to move. Muska, now fully aware of his sister’s strange sight began to grow afraid of her, calling her a “devil’s wench” and other such horrible names. He grew violent towards her, culminating in him attempting to burn her as they sat around the campfire one evening, and thus the family grew ever more wild. Mother and daughter separated from father and son for much of the day, travelling on separate horses, growing more desperate with each hoof-step.
They eventually settled in a fishing hut at the edge of a lake. The parents separated the children by demanding that they take turns sleeping outside and that Muska was to become hunter for the family, thus taking him away from Marime throughout most of the day. In this was peace somewhat settled on them in their quiet seclusion, until one day Muska returned with a crowd of his own. And this time he had a travelling priest of the Etheral Sway , one of the most violent religions known around. The crowd was so large that the Drenoldsson’s could not do anything this time. Marime was dragged away in front of her parents, betrayed by her own brother.
The memories of what followed are unclear for Marime but it is understood she went through what the priest called “Exorcism.” She was beaten, starved, mentally abused and raped several times through it, by a series of men. Her brother was a part in much of the planning of this, despite his young age, and it was he who finally persuaded his parents that this was for Marime’s “own good.” She reached the verge of death several times in her torment, but each time after was brought back with rudimentary and cruel magics, then forced to endure the treatment all over again. She was asked if she could still see ghosts and death on-coming to people, and after the first try she lied, and said that they had gone, but the priest apparently could tell she was lying. He set up a church around her, and gathered a small following, with Muska being a keen believer. So a whole year passed in this fashion, with this torture, until a company of soldiers passed by.
They were guards of a sect of the High Bard Council defence, under direct authority from the Ost'Dagorlin school. Marked out by a silver seven-pointed star on their tabards, meant to honour the seven gods of the Elvish Pantheon. They came also in companies of seven, believing that their message was a holy one. The head priest welcomed them with open arms despite their obvious religious differences. He said he had changed much since being in Raiaera and welcomed the Pantheon, as long as others could accept the ways of his church’s punishments. The guards, assuming he simply met a self-whipping here and there just shrugged and settled in the village whilst they regained their strength and provisions.
It was not long until they, being soldiers, were invited by the young ladies of the village to come to one of the more public sources of entertainment. In no small words this was a public flogging and rape of Marime, which had become a common practise on the holy day. The village, having been steadily over time introduced to the idea of this punishment found it a source of amusement, however the guards were shocked. At first they demanded the release of Marime, and the priest refused, and then explained that she was possessed by the evils of Xem’Zund. Furious negotiations and arguments ensued, but the night ended with powerful persuasion and the guards themselves taking part in the Exorcism.
That was, apart from one. His name was Zoltan Dunne and he was a titled man, a Knight of Cuarye. He was also a half-human from the shores of Scara Brae, brought over when his mother died, by his Raiaeran father. He saw the human girl, felt great pity for her. Not knowing much of Xem’Zund and the fears he brought, Zoltan felt very differently about her than the others did.
Courage bolstered within him. In the dead of night, under the guise of going to “punish” her, he freed her. She was sickly and weak, severely malnourished but to him this was wrong beyond reasoning. Abandoning his post as a guard he rode away with her, far up north through the mountains and into Alerar, rescuing her on a whim but with the clearest decision in his heart. He had seen his brother guards committing sins that abhorred and shocked him to his very soul and realised that he could no longer keep company with them.
It was only truly in the safety of the mountains that he could tend to her. As he did Marime’s memories began to come back, as did her health, but her sanity was already damaged. Severely, she feared him when he moved to tend to her, and at times she would lash out with tooth and nail. He tried to plead with her, saying that he had given up everything to rescue her, but she did not trust him. Indeed, a thread of a story in itself, the time until she allowed him to properly take care of her was around three months.
It is no surprise then, that it took almost seven years for them to fall in love. Their life was an awkward one, living as a couple yet not as a couple, with her keeping house and him hunting. They built themselves a dry-stone building in the nestles of a valley which was commonly visited by deer. It had two separate bedrooms and a kitchen and parlour. A restroom sat beyond the outside, and up the side of the mountain was a series of caves for either of them to have further privacy. Zoltan set up a shrine to his goddess nearby, and relatively they lived a stress-free life, waiting for Marime to recuperate back to a comfortable state. She was far enough away from civilisation to more or less never be plagued by any sights of death and Zoltan had brought them too near the Dark Elves for anyone to ever hunt them down.
When they fell in love, however, they decided it was time to return back to a village, mainly in order to officially marry. They chose, sensibly, to head into Alerar, and despite all rumours they found the place cheery and welcoming. It was easy to find a human holy man of no discernible religion who married them in a traditional way. Their honeymoon was spent on an airship, sailing above the world, and it was here that Marime discovered in slight shock that she still had the death sight, for it had not really been obvious in the last seven years.
It was however, enough for her to cope with. After a day or so of adjusting to such a large portion of ghosts walking around, she told Zoltan that she could quite happily live in Alerar. The couple, then, agreeing between each other, decided to go to Ettermire. It was around this time that Marime began to properly begin to converse with ghosts, and discovered that the vast majority of them were only there temporarily as their souls went through the circles of the underworld. With Alerans being less suspicious as Raiaerans she began to find small private jobs as something of a Medium, and so for the first time in her life began to use her ability for her own benefit, and not in fear.
Zoltan gained a position in a nobleman’s household as a doorguard, this being his greatest talent. He gave Marime archery lessons, at the same time as honing his own skills with a blade. The two found themselves growing successful as they brought in money from their jobs, and they moved three times in the next four years. All was perfect, and all was well, until two things happened - Marime found out she could not have children after many attempts at trying, and Muska travelled to Ettermire.
He saw her in the street. Of course it took him a while to recognise her, after the years they had been apart. It was also unknown as to why he had come to Ettermire, but things fell into fate’s path as cruel and painful as thorns. Muska hid his appearance, and began investigation into her status, until he found out where she lived and work. Truly thinking his sister evil as devils, he took time planning her demise and attacked on his own in the dead of night. Zoltan was supposed to be away that night, and this Muska knew hence his selection of the night - however the knight returned unexpectedly. When Muska attacked Marime with an iron knife, Zoltan attacked him back, and the two men raged battle until they slew each other, without Marime ever able to do anything.
Horrified and distraught, Marime began to weep. She watched the ghosts of her brother and her beloved rise into the air and look at her. For a long time she could do nothing but watch Zoltan and ignore her brother, ravaged with sorrow that this was happening. They spoke, but only in hushed voices and in tears, and Muska grew angrier and angrier - until he disappeared altogether. Watching him disappear was the breaking point for Marime, for she realised that soon Zoltan’s soul would find its place in the afterlife and that he too, would go. Days passed and she ate nothing, just clinging to his last transparent form until he fully faded away.
And then, triumphantly returned. Bigger and brighter and more real than ever. Marime was shocked to see that the ghost of her dead husband was more opaque and steady than any other ghost she had seen before. The faint white glow of his shadow was also greater, and his features more adorned in colour. In fact she could barely see through him, he was that corporeal. In joy she ran to him, and jumped into his arms. At first she fell through, but then he caught her and held her there.
Confused, but satisfied, she joined hands with him. They went out to the hall where he had died - and found his corpse still there. Zoltan paused, then confessed. He had gone through the afterlife with his soul, but then refused peace. Instead, he had demanded his soul return back to the physical realm so that he might be with her forever after. This, in essence, made him not a ghost but rather a wraith. Marime thought he was crazy - for refusing rest to his soul once meant he could never move on afterwards, but he told her an afterlife without her was no life at all. He was happy being with her, even if it meant abandoning peace for his soul.
Marime was speechless and it took her time to understand. But after a while she nodded. She quickly sorted the funerals of her brother and husband, declaring Zoltan dead without much remorse. With others not able to see him she received great amounts of criticism from her clients and friends about “not mourning properly” but she could not, seeing as he had never left. Selling the house in Ettermire, she moved with Zoltan via ship back to Eluriand, dying her hair en route to a coffee brown. Relatively rich with all their savings she set up a shop in the city, advertising herself in the kindest sense as a “teller of fortunes” and nothing more. Zoltan found his own amusement in haunting old cellars and irritating the customers to make them believe more in Marime’s powers, until she developed something of a reputation of being “connected to the gods.”
She currently now resides in Eluriand, an official widow and fortune teller, with the secret company of her permanently deceased wraith husband, invisible to everyone else. Since Zoltan died Marime has found herself taking up the habit of smoking cigareetes, something which Zoltan disapproves of, for health benefits. But, as she constantly points out, it will only bring her ever closer to him.