Dumb Is All, And All Is Dumb [Level 5]
Changes are in maroon.
Name: Nyadir D'Var
Age: 27
Race: Half-Elf
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 6'3
Weight: 220lbs
Occupation: Smuggler
Personality:
He is normally cautious and to the point when he speaks, unwilling to reveal his hand until he understands the motivations of those around him. His patience has grown short over the years, however, and controlling his anger more difficult. He has become prideful and prone to threats, along with occasional cannibalism. When he loses control and is devoured by his dark passenger, it will seek to destroy and consume, though it will prioritize the survival of its host if truly threatened. The only physical change is his eyes, which swirl from blue to blood-filled.
Appearance:
When typically clothed, the tall and muscled half-elf wears a brown leather vest with several pockets, and matching brown pants. His extremities are protected with armored leather boots sporting a steel toe and heel, and armored leather gloves with metal knuckles and a steel plate on the back of the hand. He usually wears a black cloak, and around his neck hangs a brilliant blue sapphire. A solid leather strap crosses his chest, with the hilt of his Bastard Sword sticking out of a hole in his cloak behind his right shoulder. Under his left arm rests a Plynt Dagger and Spool of Steel Wire, held close to him by his thick leather belt.
Skills:
Expert Swordplay: He has been traveling with this sword for over a decade, and has grown used to its size and weight. He can handle several skilled opponents at once, and can effectively wield it single-handed with either arm.
Adept Knifework: In his trials, he has grown more swift and accurate with his dagger, and with similar sized weapons. He can throw a knife at twenty-five paces with either hand within a radius of a foot, making him quite accurate.
Average Wirework: After much practice he has managed to use his wire and dagger to decent effect, and has grown used to the spin and arc of the line. He can occasionally pull off more difficult maneuvers, but those still backfire from time to time, so he tends to keep it simple
Acrobatic Agility: After extensive practice with his enhancement, the half-elf has grown accustomed to taking risks in a split second. He has developed an uncanny knack for wriggling out of dangerous situations. Despite his size, he can pull off some unexpected and challenging maneuvers.
Basic Survival: After a decade of wandering, he has developed a rudimentary knowledge of wilderness survival, including things such as hunting, fishing, navigation, fire-starting, shelter-making, and common types of edible flora and fauna in Alerar, Salvar, and Corone.
Abilities:
Fell energy has suffused the half-elf since he was joined by his dark passenger, and through extensive use he has increased the number of 'charges' of this energy he can muster to eight per day. These can be used either for Enhancement, Healing, or Shaping.
Enhancement: His enhancement takes three seconds per charge. For one charge he can increase his strength and speed to two times normal for two minutes. Two charges can be combined to increase the improvement to four times normal for two minutes, or two times normal for four minutes. He can also simply increase his stamina, allowing him to fight unenhanced or maintain a run for up to one hour per charge.
Healing: Using his Focus Stone he can heal others, but will fail without knowledge of their anatomy. His healing operates in an area one foot wide, but requires more energy to heal different tissue types. Within three seconds using one charge, he can heal any broken bones, muscle, and vessel damage in the area. Within fifteen seconds using two charges, he can heal any organ and nerve damage in the area.
Shaping: Using his Focus Stone, he can reshape any solid material the density of steel or lower, with an arc of yellow energy that travels up to three paces. He can change material no further than ten paces from where the energy strikes, at a speed no greater than five paces per second. He can only manipulate an amount of material equivalent to his body mass at a time, and can't manipulate living tissue, or the gear of another player in competitive settings. One charge of fell energy allows him to reshape anything meeting those requirements for twenty seconds.
Dark Passenger
Demonic Sight: He has learned to tap into the tainted vision of his dark passenger, and in this state he can see twice as far as normal, and his reaction speed is doubled. Due to the strain, he can only maintain this state for up to two minutes, but after one minute can use it again, up to four times in a day. He is comfortable maintaining it even in combat. Activating this ability when he is completely out of fell energy grants him one extra charge to use.
Demonic Possession: Every time he loses concentration, his other self is waiting to take control. When it does, the enhancement on his body amounts to four times his normal strength and speed, and can last for up to two minutes before he blacks out from the strain. The Demonic Sight ability is automatically active when in this state. When recovering from losing himself, his speed, strength, and reflexes are reduced for a few minutes. No more than one use per day.
Passives
Half-Elven Senses: Though he appears human, his senses are twice as keen. His night vision is better than that, thanks to his affinity for night-time employment opportunities.
Mental Speed: After extensive practice with his enhancement, he has gotten used to fighting in that state, and so his reaction speed has sharpened to twice that of a normal human warrior.
Mental Purity: Due to the unusual nature of his mind, he can resist mind-effecting abilities of people his level or lower.
Physical Purity: Due to the influence of his other self, he can resist toxins and diseases of people his level or lower.
Equipment:
Steel Bastard Sword: This blade has been with Nyadir since he escaped. It is roughly five feet long, with a polished double-edge. Round metal knobs swell at each end of the hilt, with skulls carved into them facing outward, and the handle is wrapped in black leather.
Plynt Dagger: This pale green blade is slightly porous, and absorbs liquids readily. It is about eight inches in length, with two inches of serrated edge just above the hilt. The handle has a loop in the end designed to secure the clasp at the end of the spool of wire.
Spool Of Steel Wire: The spool is capped off by a steel clasp, and is able to support four times his weight.
Focus Stone: A crystal from his mentor, tied to a strip of leather. He needs it to use some of his abilities.
History:
Nyadir's father was a human barbarian from the rigid mountains of Salvar. He took to the ocean soon after leaving his clansmen, his mind set on adventure beyond their snowy borders. He traveled to Corone, where he met an elven merchant who would become his wife. Eventually they settled down near the great lake of Alerar, where they had their sons, Nyadir and Locke. One evening a group of riders, tattered and beaten, rode into the village. They asked for a place to rest, and the village accepted them. One of them left shortly afterwards, and returned in the night with a raiding party. Their leader was a man named Balenthal, one of the mountain barbarians who would rise to become their king.
The men of the village had little chance to defend themselves, most dying as they woke, yet even though Nyadir's father was awake, the coward took off into the woods rather than protecting his family. The young half-elf's mother hid him in a stack of scrap metal, thankful her other son had not returned from the woods after the two brothers fought earlier. The barbarians who burst into the forge took their time before dragging her out into the street with the others. They found him afterwards, silent and staring, and lined him up outside with the other children. Nyadir fought to keep the blue stone his mother had given him around his neck, but otherwise remained quiet. He spoke to no one for several years, except for a young slave girl named Sani who always talked to him when she got the chance.
Ken
Despite the many women taken into Balenthal's chambers, none could bear him a child. He was infuriated that his life's work would be left to crumble in his absence. He sought out the hardiest of the slave lads, and arrived at a tie between Nyadir and another half-barbarian named Kehlr. They were notorious for getting in fights with one another, that usually ended in draws. The two boys of fifteen were brought out of the mines and into luxury, though they spent all day studying and practicing with weapons under a stout grey-haired barbarian named Hasmir. The young Nyadir studied under the mage Galvarin, but often sneaked away while the old man rambled to bring some food to Sani.
The demands of the irrational Balenthal grew increasingly strenuous, until he began denying the loser of the last match dinner for that evening. The two lads quickly agreed to alternate the losses, and grew closer in their mutual hatred for the barbarian king. To toss the match to the kindling, one evening a guard reported a strange gem found in the mines. It reacted to the world around it, but any living flesh could pass right through it. One of Balenthal's wizards referred to him a book mentioning such godly gemstones, and he inquired as to how a mortal could come to possess the power of the Emerald.
Union
The mage mentioned a ritual that could reach into the underworld and tear a soul from it into living flesh, allowing the host to exist on multiple planes. After many months of searching, one of the king's agents found a scroll depicting the ceremony. After several tests Balenthal underwent the ceremony. Nearly all of the test subjects had simply received the souls of normal people from the past, and would occasionally black out and become those people. This was also the case with the barbarian king, and it didn't take him long to learn to resist the blackouts. It was then that he decided to give his sons the same 'gift,' that they may inherit all of his empire. The two lads were led to separate chambers, and that was the last young Nyadir saw of his new-found brother Kehlr.
The coldness of the shackles and the drone of chanting were all the young barbarian could remember before darkness took him. He awoke to blood on the floor and a deep unease as the few remaining mages and servants were restraining him. Balenthal chose to keep the deaths quiet, but Nyadir said very little for several months. The most anyone would tell him of Kelhr was that he had been too weak for the ceremony, so he spent his time quietly listening to Galvarin. He no longer went to see Sani, he didn't think he could face her. Two more 'incidents' occurred over the next year, but the young barbarian's son always managed to hide the bodies and avoid suspicion. Finally, he came to the conclusion that he couldn't let the barbarian king continue to ruin people's lives, so he decided to steal the Emerald and escape.
Exodus
The boy's instructor Galvarin agreed to help him, but had to leave the next day on business of the king, so he enchanted Nyadir so that he would become temporarily invisible when touched by the light of a full moon, which was due in a few days. The mage also told him that the slave girl Sani had been recently sold to another group of barbarians, so he resolved to use his first act of freedom to find her. Unluckily, the young swordsman in training was challenged to a sparring match by none other than his 'father' Balenthal the day he meant to escape. Everything went alright at first, until a simple mistake earned Nyadir a blow to the head that left him unable to fight off the roiling black clouds in his mind. He awoke some time later in a pitch-black stone cell with no idea what had happened, but he could guess. It seemed his hopes of escape were dashed, but shortly before dawn he spied some moonlight on the wall opposite the barred window. He placed his hand there, and watched it fade away.
He escaped his cell easily enough, thanks to inept guards, and shortly made his way to Balenthal's bedchamber. He found the large man asleep, cradling the gem tied around his neck. The stealthy lad cut the cord with his stolen dagger, and quietly left with the Emerald. His next goal was the sealed room protecting the scroll. With more trickery he sneaked inside, deciding to push a guard into the pillar in the middle of the room holding the scroll aloft. His choice was wise, as a bolt of light fried the falling guard and tossed the young half-elf into the wall. He managed to grab the scroll and dash out the door as the other guards stumbled in, his invisibility serving him quite well. It was a frantic run out to the main gate as the sun crept over the horizon, but he escaped shortly before he became visible again. He took off in the direction of the caravan which had bought Sani a few days prior. However, after weeks of trying to track them down, he eventually lost the trail. It was then that he began to wander.
Timeline:
King's Treasure, Fool's Welcome (Incomplete)
In another world, an older Nyadir wields foreign abilities to do battle with a demi-god.
Samutth a Ranajira
Seeking to learn more about his mother he visits Corone, and while there fights a veteran in the Dajas Pagoda.
To Roll A Drunk (Incomplete)
While in Radasanth, he tries to make some money on the black market, but ends up ambushed by guards.
Bitterwood (Incomplete)
He leaves Corone, and travels up to Salvar, taking on a bounty to hunt down a half-orc.
Steppe It Up
After returning to wander Alerar, he ends up looking for work on the streets of Ettermire. Though he gains employment in tracking down a spy carrying stolen airship schematics, relations quickly devolve between him and his employer Storm Veritas.
Along The River's Edge
The half-elf returns to Ettermire to sell the airship schematics, but despite help from a streetwise friend he is forced to escape the city before his employer returns. Relying only on rumors of The Company operating out of Salvar he travels north along a river, but runs into some familiar barbarians in the Kachuck Mountains.
A ripple appears in liquid time...
In which the half-elf realizes what was lost, and abandons what matters.
In which the wanderer uses his schematics to acquire an airship.
In which the smuggler acquires a crew, and his first clients.
The ripple subsides...
Who You Gonna Call?
While making a routine smuggling trip to Corone, the wanderer travels down-river to find some fun in The Citadel. He ends up fighting the ghostly specter Elthas in an ancient graveyard, and delves deeper into madness as the fight devolves.
Low Stretches The Hand (Incomplete)
Another routine smuggling trip goes awry when the merchandise is stolen, and the half-elf decides to solve the matter personally, to maintain his contract with a Coronian senator named Fordstein.
Tournaments:
Adventurer's Crown 2017
Round One (feat. Storm, Breaker, Leoric)
Nyadir is in Corone working for Fordstein when the invasion begins. He teams up with some newcomers, and his old employer Storm Veritas. Tensions are high even years after their falling out, and the group have their share of trouble on the way to investigate a mysterious artifact.
Round Two (feat. Dissinger)
Nyadir travels south with the artifact, and meets a strange man who compels him to use the thing to help people. The half-elf agrees half-heartedly, but after discovering that he can't help but walk toward his agreed destination, he ends up altering the fate of an entire city.
Finals (Solo - 1st Place)
After a ripple in time, Nyadir leaves port with Senator Fordstein after delivering the artifact to him. They sail to the country where the invasion originated called Melnach, in which magic is unpredictable, and has warped the land. He goes ashore to fulfill a simple mission, but the lower caste of cat-people direly require his aid.
Vignettes:
October 2012 Vignette
Prompt: Halloween-Themed Horror
With a detective-noir flair; a series of killings strikes one of the last cities in the wasteland.
September 2015 Vignette
Prompt: Write Using No Dialogue
A guardsman in Ettermire witnesses a crime, but the devil always lies in the details.
December 2015 Vignette
Prompt: Christmas On The Naughty List
While rhyming every line; Ettermire suffers Nyadir's return to solidify his spot on the Naughty List.
July 2016 Vignette
Prompt: A High-Stakes Failure
With extra cheese; Nyadir infiltrates, escapes, then glides away from an explosion into the sunset.
January 2017 Vignette
Prompt: Grass Is Always Greener
In his early days, Nyadir finds a village with some strange sickness, but they distrust outsiders.
March 2017 Vignette
Prompt: Fae Ruins in Dheathain
Nyadir travels to Fae lands seeking an artifact, but the political situation complicates things.
October 2018 Vignette
Prompt: Halloween Wizard Maze
Nyadir wakes in a strange place, and tries to lead a group through trials both physical and mental.
December 2021 Vignette
Prompt: Forest Festival
Nyadir finds a village of bug people, who are holding a feast for their cryptic leader.
Old Profiles:
Level 0, Level 1, Level 1.5, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4
