Help with a warlock background [Archive] - Wizards Community

Help with a warlock background [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Need_A_Life
10-05-05, 09:37 AM I am not sure that I am catching the right feeling to the story of his home, which is supposed to be 'survival of the fittest' magicwise, the hierachy I intended to make clear to the reader got kindda blurry and I need a bunch of names (10 boys, 12 girls to be exact) that sounds magical.

Anyway, here it is *ducks*
Everyone has done things that they would rather not be reminded of, even the holiest of saints. Caladeen is no saint; his family had long held the tradition of the warlock alive, forging grim pacts with devils. Even as a child was but an infant its parents would call upon their patron, the vile Dispater. They sold the soul of the child, for reasons that were two-fold; on one hand it served to maintain the vow of servitude between the ancient family and Dispater, and it also served to give the child the powers that the family took for granted now. The power of the warlock was so deep within them that Dispater could not rob them of their powers anymore, once he could have taken what he had given but now the force it would take to wipe it from their very bloodline would be beyond the abilities of any but a great deity.

Caladeen hated his 'family' for this reason, he despised them greatly for he had been no more than an experiment on how the blood of a sorcerer and that of a warlock would mix, but as it showed no promise he was abandoned and while he was not cast out of the mansion (it was the size of a well-sized village and had anything a village could possibly have) he was treated no differently than the servants of the house. The only one who saw him as more than a failed experiment was his aging uncle (though it was not by blood, merely a title, for he was in spirit more a part of the family than any other), he did not have the blood of the warlock in his veins; perhaps that was what kept him morally acceptable (though he did not mind a little necromancy or demonology once in a while) and tolerant of the youth who began to seek him out through puberty, a powerful wizard was something he could look up to, his own unholy powers were weaker than those of his brothers who could kill with a gesture and who could - no doubt - stand the might of many armies without getting hurt. He had managed to summon up the energy after much bother, a green flame of eldritch energy had enveloped his hand but had faded soon after, he found it hard to maintain it but it was worth it. He had tried to impress his siblings by throwing this energy against his oldest brother, who everyone knew would someday rule several kingdoms if they didn't stand up to him before he got started. The fire burned around Caladeen's hand and he swung the flaming ball towards his brother, who made no movement to dodge the fire but merely smiled as it dispersed in mid-air, "Your spells will never reach me, childe, you are weak." His brother said it without emotion, and Caladeen was once again reminded that not only was he a failure but he was no longer considered to be a part of the family, he looked at his brothers face and studied it; maybe it was only because he knew but the features of his troll heritage showed, the eyes were a hue of yellow and the nose was much longer than anyone else’s, but he had been a success, he had inherited the healing powers of the troll and were the favoured of his parents.
He turned to look at his siblings, he could see a sadistic glee in their faces and he threw himself out of the way as a dozen eldritch blasts showered past him, he had been there long enough to recognize by smell alone that there had been enough different essences in those blasts to make a Balor proud. Utterdark; he shivered, brimstone, he unconsciously lifted a hand to his neck where a burn had only just healed, vitriolic; if he had been alone he had cried from the recollection of the pain, but he had learned much self-control during his short life and the instincts of self-preservations were strong so he scrambled to his feet and did the only real magic he had ever learned and mastered, he frightened his siblings as he once again manifested the eldritch blast in his hand and jumped towards his younger brother, Neelan, they had never gotten along but Caladeen chose him because it was the only one he had a chance of beating. He grabbed his brother by the neck and threw himself towards him, causing them to fall onto the hard floor; Neelan took the fall for him, then he rammed the blast into Neelans face and watched in horror as his brothers eyes widened for a moment before his body stiffened, even his siblings froze; and they had done worse things in their lives, "Leave us, my fool of a brother," his eldest brother yelled at him as he approached the corpse; he tried to maintain his calm demeanour, but it was obvious that he was upset. Caladeen was too frightened to realize that he had just been called 'brother', but instead just ran out of the room. He heard upset voices, though a spell had been placed so that it was impossible for anyone but those in the room to hear what was said.
Only a few minutes later he heard the release of spells and cries for help followed by silence, Caladeen snuck into the room, seeing that his eldest brother had stood in the middle of his siblings, the release of spells he had heard had been the coordinated attack on him, he could smell the brimstone quite vividly and the burns on the bodies showed in clearly, Caladeen guessed that his brother had enough sense to have contingency spells that triggered should he be attacked, and by the looks of it they had worked to great effect. He studied the situation for a while and found that only two had been left alive; his youngest sister (who had been protected by standing behind a pillar at the time, the spells had missed her, but the magical discharge had left her paralysed) and his eldest brother, it seemed ironic that the only survivors was a five year-old and a twenty-one year-old (who had been the target of two dozen simultaneous attacks) and himself (who had been out of the room), he approached his older brother and knelt down to look upon his face, his brother whispered weakly, "Are you here to finish me?" He coughed and Caladeen felt blood on his face, his brother would likely die whether or not he did anything. He nodded mutely, and his brother closed his eyes calmly, "I have to admit, I would never have thought that you would survive us all, you were the runt of the pack," He laughed weakly, and Caladeen answered, "There's you, me and Thelas left, she was hiding." He knew that he sounded like his brother, feeling ashamed that one of his blood (he acknowledged this now) would hide, refusing to help in the downfall of one person of the family was perceived as a weakness, one that would be exploited sooner or later. "Do it quickly, it hurts more than the trip to Bator," Caladeen remembered that trip, his brother had fallen into a pit of lava, his fire protection spell had reduced the injuries greatly, but he would have died if it hadn't been for his mothers habit of quickening spells, which came into great use here and saved his life, his brother was quickly healed, of course, his family found it dishonest to fight one who was already injured, though ambushes or ganging up on someone was not the least bit dishonourable. He placed his hand upon his brothers chest, just over the heart, and closed his eyes; he felt the life-force of his brother, it was strong, his brother would survive if he did not mettle with anything, he reached out with his mind and found the wound in the life-force, from where the life had come from, then he ripped it in pieces; the life-force was no more. His brothers’ heartbeat stopped. He opened his eyes and looked into the eyes of his little sister, Thelas, her red hair hung loose over her shoulders and she wore a silk dress, in any normal circumstance he'd find her smiling and playing, but now she was torn between anger and sorrow, "I- I had to" He began, she looked at him in utter disgust (she amazed him with the complexity of her emotions sometimes, but when he thought back he had been at least as complicated). He took a brooch out from his inner pocket (he had caught a servant stealing it earlier, the servant had been locked in the dungeon and wouldn't be heard from for years) and handed it to her, "please don't forget me, I didn't start this, I only ended it," he said and then he ran, he would return one day when he was ready to face his sentence (and from his history lessons of the family, a beheading was a light sentence; they had things a million times worse without having to use much of their twisted imagination).

That day his life changed so much, he had gone from having over twenty brothers and sisters to having only one helpless sister and having killed two of his brothers, one of them who could have shattered his mind easily should he have wished it. He was a murderer, and he was ashamed to say that if he could change it, he wouldn’t. The road to the city was easy to find, he had many times seen caravans come from the cities to the north stop at his family’s house, now he would go to those cities, or rather he would run there for he feared that his parents would alert the family elders of his transgressions and they’d chase him down.
Thelas ran sobbing into the room where her parents sat, they were about to scold her when they saw that there was stains of blood on the front of her white dress, “… they’re dead! He killed them all, and then he ran! They’re all dead!” She sobbed; her fathers face was as that of a statue, it could not have been deader had it been carved from marble. “Who killed them?” His voice was as unconcerned as had he been discussing the weather, and he had obviously waited for this moment, “Caa--” She cried, and took a deep breath, “Caladeen” she answered in a more normal voice. Her father smiled in triumph.
Fithero
10-05-05, 07:25 PM Thats a pretty damn cool back story. The fact that the parents seem to be quite willing to let their children kill each other is rather disturbing. One question though, the eldest brother was a half troll and im assuming there are other half-monster siblings aswell, who is the parent who slept with the troll?

If it was the mother, then im sure the father would be quite pleased that one of his own blood had killed all those bastard step children. Very cool story.

Also, what classes is he? The whole "sense the life foce" thing kinda threw me off a bit.

Later
Need_A_Life
10-06-05, 03:13 PM He's a warlock, no multiclassing, just using as much as I can from the Warlocks Circle. Including an invocation similar to Death Knell (he killed his brother with it) and a skill called Manaweave allowing him to light up areas and frighten others (literally, they have to make a will save).

I'm glad you liked it.

Oh, and the father is the only blood relation, their 'mother' is only that by name, she's simply the one who takes care of raising them while the father is out selecting new specimens for his experiments.
Oh, and the parents make sure that the 'survival of the fittest' rule is kept alive. Imagine having two dozen siblings, all of whom would be glad to see one less competitor.
Basically he starts as LE, I am going to drive him towards CN; but that will take a LOT of time to make that gradual change. I am writing a little more currently...
Need_A_Life
10-09-05, 08:24 AM I'll combine a bump with an update.

[deleted]

EDIT: I removed the text for my own conscience, there was some text that I didn't like posting.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Need_A_Life 10-05-05, 09:37 AM	I am not sure that I am catching the right feeling to the story of his home, which is supposed to be 'survival of the fittest' magicwise, the hierachy I intended to make clear to the reader got kindda blurry and I need a bunch of names (10 boys, 12 girls to be exact) that sounds magical. Anyway, here it is ducks Everyone has done things that they would rather not be reminded of, even the holiest of saints. Caladeen is no saint; his family had long held the tradition of the warlock alive, forging grim pacts with devils. Even as a child was but an infant its parents would call upon their patron, the vile Dispater. They sold the soul of the child, for reasons that were two-fold; on one hand it served to maintain the vow of servitude between the ancient family and Dispater, and it also served to give the child the powers that the family took for granted now. The power of the warlock was so deep within them that Dispater could not rob them of their powers anymore, once he could have taken what he had given but now the force it would take to wipe it from their very bloodline would be beyond the abilities of any but a great deity. Caladeen hated his 'family' for this reason, he despised them greatly for he had been no more than an experiment on how the blood of a sorcerer and that of a warlock would mix, but as it showed no promise he was abandoned and while he was not cast out of the mansion (it was the size of a well-sized village and had anything a village could possibly have) he was treated no differently than the servants of the house. The only one who saw him as more than a failed experiment was his aging uncle (though it was not by blood, merely a title, for he was in spirit more a part of the family than any other), he did not have the blood of the warlock in his veins; perhaps that was what kept him morally acceptable (though he did not mind a little necromancy or demonology once in a while) and tolerant of the youth who began to seek him out through puberty, a powerful wizard was something he could look up to, his own unholy powers were weaker than those of his brothers who could kill with a gesture and who could - no doubt - stand the might of many armies without getting hurt. He had managed to summon up the energy after much bother, a green flame of eldritch energy had enveloped his hand but had faded soon after, he found it hard to maintain it but it was worth it. He had tried to impress his siblings by throwing this energy against his oldest brother, who everyone knew would someday rule several kingdoms if they didn't stand up to him before he got started. The fire burned around Caladeen's hand and he swung the flaming ball towards his brother, who made no movement to dodge the fire but merely smiled as it dispersed in mid-air, "Your spells will never reach me, childe, you are weak." His brother said it without emotion, and Caladeen was once again reminded that not only was he a failure but he was no longer considered to be a part of the family, he looked at his brothers face and studied it; maybe it was only because he knew but the features of his troll heritage showed, the eyes were a hue of yellow and the nose was much longer than anyone else’s, but he had been a success, he had inherited the healing powers of the troll and were the favoured of his parents. He turned to look at his siblings, he could see a sadistic glee in their faces and he threw himself out of the way as a dozen eldritch blasts showered past him, he had been there long enough to recognize by smell alone that there had been enough different essences in those blasts to make a Balor proud. Utterdark; he shivered, brimstone, he unconsciously lifted a hand to his neck where a burn had only just healed, vitriolic; if he had been alone he had cried from the recollection of the pain, but he had learned much self-control during his short life and the instincts of self-preservations were strong so he scrambled to his feet and did the only real magic he had ever learned and mastered, he frightened his siblings as he once again manifested the eldritch blast in his hand and jumped towards his younger brother, Neelan, they had never gotten along but Caladeen chose him because it was the only one he had a chance of beating. He grabbed his brother by the neck and threw himself towards him, causing them to fall onto the hard floor; Neelan took the fall for him, then he rammed the blast into Neelans face and watched in horror as his brothers eyes widened for a moment before his body stiffened, even his siblings froze; and they had done worse things in their lives, "Leave us, my fool of a brother," his eldest brother yelled at him as he approached the corpse; he tried to maintain his calm demeanour, but it was obvious that he was upset. Caladeen was too frightened to realize that he had just been called 'brother', but instead just ran out of the room. He heard upset voices, though a spell had been placed so that it was impossible for anyone but those in the room to hear what was said. Only a few minutes later he heard the release of spells and cries for help followed by silence, Caladeen snuck into the room, seeing that his eldest brother had stood in the middle of his siblings, the release of spells he had heard had been the coordinated attack on him, he could smell the brimstone quite vividly and the burns on the bodies showed in clearly, Caladeen guessed that his brother had enough sense to have contingency spells that triggered should he be attacked, and by the looks of it they had worked to great effect. He studied the situation for a while and found that only two had been left alive; his youngest sister (who had been protected by standing behind a pillar at the time, the spells had missed her, but the magical discharge had left her paralysed) and his eldest brother, it seemed ironic that the only survivors was a five year-old and a twenty-one year-old (who had been the target of two dozen simultaneous attacks) and himself (who had been out of the room), he approached his older brother and knelt down to look upon his face, his brother whispered weakly, "Are you here to finish me?" He coughed and Caladeen felt blood on his face, his brother would likely die whether or not he did anything. He nodded mutely, and his brother closed his eyes calmly, "I have to admit, I would never have thought that you would survive us all, you were the runt of the pack," He laughed weakly, and Caladeen answered, "There's you, me and Thelas left, she was hiding." He knew that he sounded like his brother, feeling ashamed that one of his blood (he acknowledged this now) would hide, refusing to help in the downfall of one person of the family was perceived as a weakness, one that would be exploited sooner or later. "Do it quickly, it hurts more than the trip to Bator," Caladeen remembered that trip, his brother had fallen into a pit of lava, his fire protection spell had reduced the injuries greatly, but he would have died if it hadn't been for his mothers habit of quickening spells, which came into great use here and saved his life, his brother was quickly healed, of course, his family found it dishonest to fight one who was already injured, though ambushes or ganging up on someone was not the least bit dishonourable. He placed his hand upon his brothers chest, just over the heart, and closed his eyes; he felt the life-force of his brother, it was strong, his brother would survive if he did not mettle with anything, he reached out with his mind and found the wound in the life-force, from where the life had come from, then he ripped it in pieces; the life-force was no more. His brothers’ heartbeat stopped. He opened his eyes and looked into the eyes of his little sister, Thelas, her red hair hung loose over her shoulders and she wore a silk dress, in any normal circumstance he'd find her smiling and playing, but now she was torn between anger and sorrow, "I- I had to" He began, she looked at him in utter disgust (she amazed him with the complexity of her emotions sometimes, but when he thought back he had been at least as complicated). He took a brooch out from his inner pocket (he had caught a servant stealing it earlier, the servant had been locked in the dungeon and wouldn't be heard from for years) and handed it to her, "please don't forget me, I didn't start this, I only ended it," he said and then he ran, he would return one day when he was ready to face his sentence (and from his history lessons of the family, a beheading was a light sentence; they had things a million times worse without having to use much of their twisted imagination). That day his life changed so much, he had gone from having over twenty brothers and sisters to having only one helpless sister and having killed two of his brothers, one of them who could have shattered his mind easily should he have wished it. He was a murderer, and he was ashamed to say that if he could change it, he wouldn’t. The road to the city was easy to find, he had many times seen caravans come from the cities to the north stop at his family’s house, now he would go to those cities, or rather he would run there for he feared that his parents would alert the family elders of his transgressions and they’d chase him down. Thelas ran sobbing into the room where her parents sat, they were about to scold her when they saw that there was stains of blood on the front of her white dress, “… they’re dead! He killed them all, and then he ran! They’re all dead!” She sobbed; her fathers face was as that of a statue, it could not have been deader had it been carved from marble. “Who killed them?” His voice was as unconcerned as had he been discussing the weather, and he had obviously waited for this moment, “Caa--” She cried, and took a deep breath, “Caladeen” she answered in a more normal voice. Her father smiled in triumph.
Fithero 10-05-05, 07:25 PM	Thats a pretty damn cool back story. The fact that the parents seem to be quite willing to let their children kill each other is rather disturbing. One question though, the eldest brother was a half troll and im assuming there are other half-monster siblings aswell, who is the parent who slept with the troll? If it was the mother, then im sure the father would be quite pleased that one of his own blood had killed all those bastard step children. Very cool story. Also, what classes is he? The whole "sense the life foce" thing kinda threw me off a bit. Later
Need_A_Life 10-06-05, 03:13 PM	He's a warlock, no multiclassing, just using as much as I can from the Warlocks Circle. Including an invocation similar to Death Knell (he killed his brother with it) and a skill called Manaweave allowing him to light up areas and frighten others (literally, they have to make a will save). I'm glad you liked it. Oh, and the father is the only blood relation, their 'mother' is only that by name, she's simply the one who takes care of raising them while the father is out selecting new specimens for his experiments. Oh, and the parents make sure that the 'survival of the fittest' rule is kept alive. Imagine having two dozen siblings, all of whom would be glad to see one less competitor. Basically he starts as LE, I am going to drive him towards CN; but that will take a LOT of time to make that gradual change. I am writing a little more currently...
Need_A_Life 10-09-05, 08:24 AM	I'll combine a bump with an update. [deleted] EDIT: I removed the text for my own conscience, there was some text that I didn't like posting.