Post/Author/DateTime	Post
beezly 10-24-06, 12:12 PM	Hey, A friend of mine is setting up a ravenloft campaign, and i'm going to be playing an archivist. He lent me the Campaign setting, but, being the busy college student that I am, I don't have much time to read it. It's going to start in Darkon, so I made my character from there. Forgive the few typos and grammar mistakes, as it was somewhat of a rushed job (i'll fix 'em up when i get back from lunch) Cathrian was found on the doorstep of a monastery in the edge of the Mountains of Misery in Darkon. The monastic order, called the Disciples of the Empty Body, was devoted to no particular god, but rather, an ascetic life of abandoning of worldly pleasures in the hopes of seeking spiritual purity in a corrupt world. Cathrian knew nothing else but this philosophy for the first twelve years of his life. However, things change. At the age of thirteen, he was given the duty of cleaning the halls of the monastery’s voluminous, though largely unused library. A now dead part of the order saw worldly knowledge as a way to understand the spiritual limitations of others, and had spent a great many years bringing knowledge to the monastery in hopes of enlightening their peers. Curious about what all of these books contained, he took a couple back to his cell and began reading, and was shocked to find that there was a life outside the monastery, with ideas, people, and of course, knowledge. He became a frequent though careful visitor to the library, taking books of all types and devouring them voraciously. Cathrian saw (or perhaps, reasoned) that there was nothing inherently wrong or incongruous with this new passion and the Disciple of the Empty Body, but took pains to hide his new passion regardless. He soon stumbled upon a forgotten section in the part of the library full of particularly dusty and ancient tomes, written in an antique dialect. To his surprise, they didn’t just contain knowledge, but how to apply that knowledge, how to call upon the aid of mysterious outside forces to grant one powers to heal and to harm. Cathrian was amazed. This wasn’t arcane magic—he had long since discovered that all books on the arcane had been purged from the library—this was a new form of divine. He had read many tales of miracle workers, whose powers of faith allowed them to do what these books were talking about…but their way was…different. Excited, he quickly began studying this new form of knowledge, calling upon the aid of the divine to extract smaller, then more significant bendings of reality through the divine will. As his studies progressed, he became clumsier in his attempts to hide them. Not shortly after being able to cast his first real spell, his superior, Predis, found out what was going on and confronted him. “You have abandoned the claims of the order, Cathrian.” Predis said. “Abandon this quest for worldly knowledge and empty your body once again. It is the only path to spiritual fulfillment.” “The order has these books so we can reach, spiritual fulfillment. Why shan’t we use them?” Cathrian retorted. “Knowledge is a great tool. It can accomplish anything. Why can’t I use it for gaining the ideals of the empty body?” “Because you have developed your own form of worldliness, Cathrian. Knoweldge if your vice. Give it up. We shall burn these tomes of corruption and you shall forget these horrid teachings. Your soul can still be pure.” Predis said. “Burn…them? Do you know what power they contain? You haven’t the slightest idea what they can do! I won’t let you! I won’t!” He began sputtering. Then, Cathrian was not himself—his voice grew deep and he laid his hand upon Predis’ chest and “By Kali’s wrath, may the desert wind flay the flesh from your bones!” With that, energy flowed from Cathrian into Predis. Purple lightning danced over the older man’s body and he gasped in pain, falling to the floor. “What have I done?” Cathrian said, as his hand reached for his prayer book to find the spell for healing. “What have I done? What have I done?” He said, flipping through the tome. He shouted in the same, deep voice, touching his hand to the same spot “May the morninglord heal your wounds, faithful one.” Cathrian shouted, his hand glowed with warm, white light, but it was no use. Predis was dead. Is this a Campaign setting appropriate character?
Rowan_Whispercloak 10-24-06, 02:51 PM	You might want to clear the order with the DM, he might want to work with in as a possible place to use for plot hooks, but all in all I really like the idea of your character. I would also suggest you really play up his "flaw" of always wanting to know more, for there are always thing that are best left unknowing... Sorry couldn't help it, but I hope this helped
shaynajassan 10-24-06, 08:07 PM	A character with a tragic flaw? That prefect for Ravenloft. He's a proto-Darklord. :D