1 - They call me Lorick.

The voice has returned. My inner guiding light. My outer shroud of terror, my isolator and my ever-savior. It instructs me, and feeds me, and nourishes me and loves me dearly. Welcome oh bright and wonderful voice. I am Lorick by your naming, and by my willing choice.

Ah. The first today in an uncountable time. The first today in my life, so it seems. There was a life before today, but it is lost to me. I am born again this day from a mental haze.

Where to begin. Today. Today they gave me thought. They gave me time to record, freedom from the mental prison. They said freedom is coming. Real freedom. They said I would leave soon. They dressed me for the first time. The dark ones, the scarrers of memory. Flayers of mind. The flayers of my mind.

I was instructed to write, and so write I shall. Ever-documentation I call it, at the instruction from within.

They know my name, know my past deeds, and have concealed them from me. But they do not know the voice. They do not know my new self. Lorick. Lorick. Lorick. Lorick. How funny that they won't ever know this. And now my freedom is going to be taken again, and so I record this so I might remember it when next I am free.

LORICK.

2 - A convenient disaster.

He. He. He. He. He is my savior and my one true love. I know who it is! I know now, I do! I am no minor mage. I am destined for greatness with his backing, his horrid voice occupying my every second thought, his will fueling my every action in this desperate City I've come to!

Ah. Untold millenia later, and I am free once more. My mind flourishes, the Illithid taint gone and gone. Gone. Now all that remains is Lorick, this filthy, beautiful vessel of the True God. Yes. That is what I am. I hear his voice. I HEAR HIS VOICE.

The cave-in. Convenient and beautiful. Any pursuit from Illithid slavers after my supposed "release" was cut off. Now I've found this place. This place. A city of sorts, truly pathetic and meager but well and good enough to offer protection for such a cherished vessel of truth as myself. Myself. Such a beautiful concept, and so foreign, and so new and unexplored a person.

Who am I but Lorick?

I am a vessel and a transport. And I am chosen by him. The True God.

The Flayers of Mind have my past. My old self. I am now a blank slate, and he recognizes that. He shapes my deeds in the form that he wishes. He shapes my desires. Currently power. Power.

LORICK.

((Note to any readers who think I'm overpowering a character by giving him the voice of Cyric in his head: PM me for the scoop on what's really going on. We'll just say Lorick's impressions aren't all completely correct.))