Dhnypzhorr Nezazum // Isedreus Ghaustryn // Seramyssa

[Heartless180]

In the past year or so, I've played three characters on EfU who became somewhat noteworthy - Isedreus being by far the most long-lived of all the three. As I was too lazy to make the other two obituaries back then, I'll give them now here with Seramyssa. I enjoyed playing all of the three a lot so thanks for the good times to everyone involved with them!

I won't be going too much into detail about the trials and tribulations of the characters as it would take forever but I'll give brief description about each before the screenshots. Unfortunately, I am a very bad at remembering to take screenshots so they may seem to be a bit random. And too lazy to put them in chronological order! Also with Seramyssa I accidentally kept pressing a button I thought was my screenshot button (but it wasnt...) so half of the early career screenshots that I "took" are nowhere to be found now.

If anyone has more screens to add about any of the three, feel free. I'd be curious to have a look too!

[hide="Dhnypzhorr Nezazum"]Nezazum was a character I made kind of on the spot. I hadn't played EfU for a long time and wasn't quite sure what to try. Roachmen seemed like a cool idea so I thought about giving it a go. I was not wrong - they are a lot of fun.

Nezazum didn't have that many big goals. He actually had pretty much two:

1. Grow his brain/mind bigger through any means possible. His big goal to see this done was collecting brains of powerful wizards from each eight schools of magic and devouring them in some megal ritual. I was hoping to become a fat roach brain living in the vaults. That didn't come to be though, as I perished when trying to win the first brain in a wizard duel against SG Agent Vyrgil Vendelstalh. Fortunately though his roach mutation was a a lucky one and I was able to run around with a Big Roach Head for a while.
2. Help his people in the Vaults and make roachmen become a prominent force. He did become an Ambassador for his people (whatever this title meant though is another question...) but didn't accomplish much else to see it come a reality.

Because he was a generalist wizard, I also had a minor goal of collecting all the scrolls from every tier possible - this also to expand his mind to the MAXIMUM. In the end I did have quite the collection from the first five tiers, even if I say so myself!

Here is his brief biography:

[hide="Short Biography and character description"]Dhnypzhorr Nezazum is one of the (un)fortunate victims of the roachman mutation. The name he uses is something he became "aware of" after his mutation. His past life before the mutation is mostly shrouded in mystery to himself but he likely was a wizard of some sort because of his current powers. He is played as someone between late twenties and early thirties, but his exact age is unknown to himself as well. His appearance is unusual even for roachmen, as he has milky white, almost larva-like skin with ice-blue compound eyes. After this recent changes, he no longer can cover his head with a helmet - nor does he want to. Such actions would only limit the growth of his body and mind, he believes. He is not at all ashamed of his current nature, instead he believes the roachmen to be a superior life form compared to many others because of their capability to change and transform. He is by nature calm towards most people at first and has some lawful and loyal tendencies towards those he knows as his "friends" but will betray them if his own survival is gravely under threat. He still has at times difficulties to interact with people but mostly because of his differing way of thinking and seeing the world rather than because of mental incapacity. Indeed, his growing mind has presented him with new ways to approach matters and he is more than ready to use guile and cunning to get what he wants, especially regarding important matters such as the survival and prosperity of the roachman race.[/hide]

[hide="Arcane and mental presence"]I have played Nezazum as a roachman who has a growing tendency towards everything mental and psionic. This is also evident to most by his way of conducting himself. His school of magic is generalist because he believes a mind should not be limited in any way for it to grow into its full potential. However he has some aptitude towards divination magic in particular but it reflects more his interest (and possibly growing powers) in the areas of mental and psionic magic rather than the actual School of Divination per se. He is more about growing his mental presence and commanding his surroundings with the power of his mind rather than your usual lore or knowledge seeker. Of course the latter is as much of interest to him as it is to most wizards - knowledge is after all, he believes, one of the mind's most important building blocks.[/hide]

And here are the screenies![/hide]

[hide="Isedreus Ghaustryn"]Of all the three, Isedreus is likely the one closest to my heart and who I really, really enjoyed playing. I started the character first time already back in October 2016, not that long after Nezazum had passed. I had for a long been hoping to play a low constitution mage who would be a total wimp and needed to be carried even on the simplest of physical challenges. Also, the thrill of low HP survival was of great interest to me.

As a character, Isedreus had been developing for maybe over a year before I launched him. I just never had the push to play him before that. Maybe the saddest reason for this was because I struggled so long to come up with a name that I was satisfied with... Not sure if it was worth the wait.

In the first month or so that I played, I took part in the Arthur Vlach plot that Howland kickstarted around the same time. I was lucky to be on couple of the first missions he ran late last year before going on a hiatus.

As much as I did enjoy playing on the server with all these three character, I have to say something negative here though that I experienced during Isedreus and why I also put him on a couple months pause after the first month.

Isedreus wasn't a big quester at any point on his career although he yerned for adventure whenever his body would allow him and people were willing to take this sickly man with them. The biggest problem for me back then though were questing groups that wordlessly just did quests, running from one to another. There was hardly even RP to discuss where the party was going next and many chances for brief discussions mid quests/traveling were interrupted by the party leader pushing forth to the next quest. Some players also used "questing/gaming lingo" which at times really broke immersion in the gameworld for me.

I also wish to clarify that the problem wasn't that my poor health character wasn't waited on these quests groups - it was that his condition and RP was completely ignored. I would have really enjoyed if someone told me to pike off because I was such a burden but even this minor conflict seemed too much time wasted away from questing.

At that time, there weren't many players on the server so you had to deal with the few around or none at all. This is not aimed at anyone specifically as there were more than one player who succumbed to this kind of behaviour but it was dominating enough culture to eat all my desires to play on this server for a while. Fortunately though, in 2017 I've noted less of this and seen a lot more courtesy towards roleplay. I hope it stays so and I do not wish to dwell on it any more than this.

I'm going to put his backstory here and then the screens. I think they're plenty to give a general idea what the character was about. Only thing worth mentioning which is not evident from the screens is that he perished on an arena event against a lich. A foolish decision for otherwise super cautious Isedreus and he was slain quite swiftly with a finger of death to the face. But time was running short and he was becoming desperate to cure his condition.

You can also check his prominent figures thread on forums, Former Councilors of Sanctuary

[hide=Background]Isedreus Ghaustryn (ibn Bhattar) is the only child of a trade marriage between two rich merchant families: one hailing from Memnon and engaged in fishing trade, another specializing in logistical services and with roots deep in Saerloon. The marriage was supposed to bring together two dynasties and expand the influence of both families, however the two families drifted apart in not so amiable terms as the mother of Isedreus died shortly after childbirth.

Isedreus was close to meet an early end in the hands of his grandfather who considered him a “bastard”. However, the sudden death of his grandfather made his father the family’'s patriarch and such plans were put to rest along with the grandfather (whether the death was arranged or natural remains unclear to this day). Although Isedreus never received any official status in the household of his father and had to keep his mother’s maiden name (Ghaustryn), he received most luxurious care and support from his affluent father.

As was discovered during his first years, such support became crucial for Isedreus' survival as he suffered from some sort of strange sickness that caused his body unnatural weakness and deterioration. Because of this illness, Isedreus was barely capable of walking indoors. Any more exhausting physical activities seemed to be lethally dangerous to the boy, especially in the hot sun of Calimshan desert.

His father employed many very skilled physicians who were able to ease his pains but none were able to fully cure him. Thus, Isedreus was forced spend most of his life within a well-furnished tower room in his father’s estate. The wealth of his family assured him an ample education in form of top visiting tutors and later he began to pursue the path of arcane in hopes of finding a cure on his own.

Around the time of the Darkening, his health began to suddenly improve. Although he was not completely healed, Isedreus was now capable of undertaking a bit longer travels. He is still unable to run more than very short distances and is easily exhausted – likewise he still suffers time to time from various bodily pains, especially his own blood trickling into his lungs.

Whether the Darkening caused his improvement or something else is still unknown to him (he suspects the rise of the Red Star may have influenced it likewise, as the two events happened in swift succession). When the threat of the Dread Empire arrived, his father arranged from him to be moved towards north with paid escort. The chaos of the apocalypse reached them and his escorts abandoned him to fend for himself. Fortunately he found his way to a portal leading to the Sanctuary soon after…[/hide]

And the screenies! [/hide]

[hide="Seramyssa"]Seramyssa is so recent character that she probably won't be needing much introductions. Like Isedreus, she too is an old character idea I had on back-burner for a good while. I might've written her much before Isedreus in fact.

I enjoyed playing her a lot so thanks to everyone who took part in her story, either as allies, enemies or just casual encounters. Special thanks to her close friends though, as I would have never completed the bloodmage ritual without your help - you know who you are!

Here is her backstory.

[hide=Background:]Born in Thay to a slave woman, this aasimar girl was kept in secret by her mother who was afraid the Red Wizards would take her child for experiments and servitude. As Seramyssa grew older (around the age of 10), hiding her heritage became more challenging and her mother thought it best to send her away. She arrived to Athkatla, where she sought safety in the shadows of its slums. Joining a band of other misfits and abandoned children, she lived by practicing whatever trade available, be it shady tasks or occasional honest work. Her natural urge to do good in a two-faced society left her with troubled conscience. She did not always live up to her ideals, ideals which she struggled to fully understand on her own. But she survived and such life made her a reserved recluse in adolescence.

The Darkening changed everything for her. People fell into chaos, old societies crumbled. Surviving and fighting seemed to be the only modes of existence and she excelled in them â€" sometimes at the expense of others. The aftermath of Darkening also began to mean more to her. She slowly began to realize that on the sunless surface, ruthless and wicked men totally abused the weak, and there was none to enforce retribution. Before she found a portal to Sanctuary, a few men like these had found their end by her self-justified wrath of vengeance.

She is now taking her first fledgling steps on this new path. But perhaps the thriving force to become a vigilante has always been more about mending her own wounds rather than seeing the good deed done...[/hide]

In her backstory, I left much open for the future. Seramyssa was someone who had been struggling from her neutral alignment back towards her 'natural', good alignment. She did indeed manage to regain her faith but there was always chance for a truly cunning manipulator to turn her wrath into something twisted. This however never came to be before her end so maybe she got into heaven...? Who knows.

Here are the screens that I managed to get from the journey. [/hide]

[Deston E]

Phenomenal. I enjoyed Isedreus and Seramyssa both.

[Nezgul]

Sad I didn't get to interact more with Seramyssa post-ritual, but I was happy to have played a part in it nonetheless :)

[Kinslayer988]

BRAAAAAIN ROOOOOACH

[bacon]

Wonderful PCs with much depth.  Thanks for the womanly advices!

[OneBatchTwoBatch]

It was very tense and fun conflict and the evolution overtime from trying to work within the law, to wantonly breaking it, to inevitably blaze-of-glorying was a great development for a vigilante style.

[Pentaxius]

Absolutely fabulous PCs! thank you for sharing.

[OneBatchTwoBatch]

So much to say about our fun conflict but I think a picture is worth a thousand words. One of our first in person interactions that really shaped a lot.

Why?

[MessengerGirl]

I didn’t meet the other two characters but playing with Isedreus was great fun.  I consider interactions with the Council, the Watchers, and the Covenant around that time to be the peak of my EfU experience.

[Silvermoon Dervish]

Next time don't mess up. Damn it.