Siddharth Bhattacharya -- Riedran Elan Archivist/Shaper [Archive] - Wizards Community

Siddharth Bhattacharya -- Riedran Elan Archivist/Shaper [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
JulesCARV
03-21-06, 01:16 AM NOTE: This is the character I've recently started playing. I wrote his background in Eberron, but our DM is using a weird cyberpunk homebrew where we run around in breastplates with morningstars and crossbows getting punchcard decks that require mainframes to decipher, doing jobs for shady, Shadowrun-esque corporations. Meh. Basically, before the game, the DM told us to write our backgrounds in Eberron, and we could change things to be otherwise.

Siddharth Bhattacharya
Neutral Good Elan Archivist 3/Psion (Shaper) 2
Strength 10
Dexterity 14
Constitution 14
Intellignece 17
Wisdom 10
Charisma 10

(30 point buy)
Feats:
Psicrystal Affinity
Improved Toughness
Augmented Healing
Scribe scroll

You see a short, slightly overweight man, in his late youth or early middle age. He has burnt sienna skin and neatly combed, short, straight black hair. He wears a tired-looking formal suit that looks to be roughly a decade out of style. There is little noticable about him, except that his eyes betray something unsettling -- a hollowness that betrays the first impression of familiarity or humanity.

Siddharth Bhattacharya was born a human in Riedra. Raised in a pious and nationalistic family, he revered the Inspired from an early age. Intelligent and loyal, he eventually found his way into a supervisory post in the Riedran government. At first, he was a minor bureaucrat-priest, acting as an intermediary between the commoners and the Riedran government, and teaching the common people reverence of the Inspired, the value of discipline and hard work, and other values, as well as giving more practical advice to Riedrans in need of legal help in sorting out contracts, inheritances, etc. He rose in the hierarchy to a higher-up managerial position. An oppurtunity arose to leave Riedra for Khorvaire, as an assistant to the Inspired ambassador to Aundair. Although Siddharth regarded the rest of the world as barbarous, dangerous, and inferior, and would have been content to stay in Riedra, he nonetheless felt it his patriotic duty to help in any way he could.

His duties in Aundair were to act as a "priest" to the local Riedran community in Fairhaven, keeping them on the straight and narrow, away from the barbarous corruption of Khorvaire, and also to assist the Inspired ambassador in his duties.

Siddharth performed his duties, but he was also fascinated by the prevelance of magic in Fairhaven. He saw many everyday tasks simplified and improved by minor magical tricks. Although he had heard of magic before, it had only come in the form of distorted, anti-magical propaganda, pointing to the gruesomeness of Karrnath's undead armies, the horrors of the Mournland (no doubt linked to the use of arcane magic: there is no Mournland in Sarlonas, after all), and other examples of the terrors of diabolical wizardry practiced by the corrupt and barbarous people of Khorvaire. There was never any mention of the casual creation of everburning torches to light the streets, or the conjuration of unseen servants to help maintain inns.

Siddharth was soon living a double life, studying under the adepts and magewrights of Fairhaven by night, and serving the ambassador and preaching against magic by day. He took particular interest in the magical powers associated with healing. He was, naturally, unwilling to pledge himself to the Sovereign Host or the Silver Flame, so that the supernatural forces the Aundairans worshipped could endow him with the power they said the gods gave their followers, but he was nonetheless, through careful observation and study, able to replicate some of their techniques. He was convinced, however, that this period of secrecy and deceit would only be temporary.

After all, the Inspired were wise, benevolent, and just. Although they currently prohibited magic in Riedra, once they saw how modest, cautious application of the common magic of Khorvaire's magewrights to Riedra would strengthen nation they ruled and improve the lives of its people, they would embrace it. Siddharth first made the case for training a group of 50 Riedrans as magewrights in Khorvaire and returning them to Riedra to spread magic across the land. His proposal was ignored for a month, until Siddharth found his secret magical study ransacked. Shortly thereafter, he was forced to resign from his clerical position, and urged to return to Riedra.

He considered staying in Aundair: he might be safe there, having broken no laws. He could make a modest living. Or maybe he wouldn't be safe: if he turned traitor, staying in Aundair would not protect him from Riedra's reach. Regardless, his pride and loyalty as a Riedran and servant of the Inspired rebelled against the idea of abandoning his post and duties. He returned to Riedra, where he was investigated. As the Riedran court uncovered his magical studies, and discovered that not only he had been practicing magic, but divine magic, they immediately suspected him not only of heterodoxy on the issue of magic, but of disloyalty as well: divine magic was rooted in deals with gods and demons, after all, so its practitioners could hardly be said to have undivided loyalty to the Inspired or Riedra. With a man of Siddharth's position, and knowing his secrets, the only punishment was death.

However, as he awaited his execution, he found that the plans for him had been changed. He was dragged from his cell and taken, blindfolded to some other location. There, something was done to him, of which he still isn't sure, but it changed him forever. In fact, unbeknownst to him, a rogue Quori spirit was implanted in Siddharth as punishment to the spirit. Over the next few days, he was transformed into an elan: a human with a quori spirit imprisoned inside, changing the nature of the human profoundly, but without truly giving the spirit any control. He would be able to live forever without food or drink in this new state: a perfect, unescapable prison.

Siddharth was placed in a dungeon, locked to the walls, and left to live there forever, with neither him nor the quori spirit within him having any hope of escape. This was the punishment for him in lieu of execution, yet it was far from a kinder fate, or at least, it shouldn't have been.

He stayed there for over a year, surviving only on his own psionic energy. Isolated from the real world and unchecked, Siddharth began to develop elaborate conspiracy theories to attempt to reconcile his loyalty to the Inspired with the brutal treatment he was receiving and the reluctance of the Riedrans to accept magic. He suspected some form of conspiracy bent on weakening Riedra and the Inspired, who, in spite of their wisdom and benevolence, were falling prey to some sort of internal enemy bent on undermining them. The Kalashtar of Adar were naturally suspects, being a treacherous and long-standing rebellion against the legitimate government of Riedra, but others were drawn in: perhaps the Ashbound were involved, seeking to succeed in Sarlona where they had failed in Khorvaire, keeping arcane magic from a whole continent? As Siddharth considered the myriad possibilities, he became determined to escape, return to Khorvaire, and uncover the roots of this conspiracy against his nation and lords.

It was easier said than done, of course, but Siddharth was eventually able to focus the power of his mind enough to alter reality in minor ways -- a power he found he had since the strange process he had undergone. He eventually managed to use his psionic powers to grease and eventually turn the locks. With his hands free, and totally unsupervised, he was able to escape through long-abandoned passageways and sewers.

He eventually disguised himself, and was able to smuggle himself back to Khorvaire. There, he would learn more of the Kalashtar, of the Ashbound, and of magic itself, in an attempt to save the Inspired and Riedra from the conspiracy that seeks to sap its position as the mightiest power in Eberron and block its progress, and leads them to turn on their loyal servants and allies, imprisoning and abusing them.

The thought has occured to Siddharth that the Inspired are simply cruel and backward looking, blocking progress and abusing the Riedran people without outside corruption. However, he has generally dismissed this idea, upon consideration. After all, if the Inspired were not wise, benevolent, and just, why would Riedra be the most stable, rich, powerful, and civilized part of Eberron, in spite of its minor flaws, while the Five Nations, by comparison, are crime-ridden, barbarous wastes?
Dipteran_Legacy
03-21-06, 11:01 PM this is actually a really awesome character story, jules. I will admit that I was a bit put off by your characters name, and wish I would have read it sooner. do you want any sort of criticism, or didja just feel like posting it?
JulesCARV
03-22-06, 04:14 PM Well... I mostly just posted it for the heck of it. If you have any criticisms, though, I'd certainly welcome them. (for example, what put you off about the name?)
JulesCARV
03-27-06, 12:46 PM By the way, any advice on how to roleplay the fact that this guy isn't really human, or even humanoid, anymore? Bear in mind that he doesn't know exactly what happened to him. He doesn't know what an "elan" is, and he doesn't know that he has a quori spirit inside him, but he's changed into something weird and inhuman. Any advice on roleplaying someone who's been turned into an immortal psionic aberration, but doesn't quite know it, but knows that something is wrong or different? So far, I've played him as rather quiet and introspective.
JulesCARV
04-07-06, 07:39 AM By the way, if Dipteran Legacy isn't around here anymore as to why his name is off-putting, would anyone else care to tell me?
Need_A_Life
04-07-06, 08:37 AM The name doesn't exactly roll on the tongue :rolleyes:

And if he doesn't know that he's an elan, why should he roleplay it?
Dipteran_Legacy
04-07-06, 08:22 PM By the way, if Dipteran Legacy isn't around here anymore as to why his name is off-putting, would anyone else care to tell me?

?

sorry I never responded back. your statement is slightly oddly phrased, though.... I cant quite tell what you mean by it....oh, wait! okay....

heh. at first I thought you might mean I'm not around because people never seem to give much input on threads I start ;)

I'm just not big on the name "siddharth", due to it's historical implications. just a personal thing. if you've woven that into the character deliberately, that's quite clever of you....I'm just not big on siddhartha.

for RP advice....mmm......

you could have him always be the last to actually eat. never order food or pull out rations until someone else does.

maybe he gets lots of migraine headaches, from having some horrible beastie pent up in his head?

maybe he is-on very rare occasions- posessed by the quori, who is now quite resentful of it's own kind. it would be really cool if that was the only time you actually manifested. like siddharth the archivist and the quori shaper share the same body.
;)
hopefully some of this helped

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 03-21-06, 01:16 AM	NOTE: This is the character I've recently started playing. I wrote his background in Eberron, but our DM is using a weird cyberpunk homebrew where we run around in breastplates with morningstars and crossbows getting punchcard decks that require mainframes to decipher, doing jobs for shady, Shadowrun-esque corporations. Meh. Basically, before the game, the DM told us to write our backgrounds in Eberron, and we could change things to be otherwise. Siddharth Bhattacharya Neutral Good Elan Archivist 3/Psion (Shaper) 2 Strength 10 Dexterity 14 Constitution 14 Intellignece 17 Wisdom 10 Charisma 10 (30 point buy) Feats: Psicrystal Affinity Improved Toughness Augmented Healing Scribe scroll You see a short, slightly overweight man, in his late youth or early middle age. He has burnt sienna skin and neatly combed, short, straight black hair. He wears a tired-looking formal suit that looks to be roughly a decade out of style. There is little noticable about him, except that his eyes betray something unsettling -- a hollowness that betrays the first impression of familiarity or humanity. Siddharth Bhattacharya was born a human in Riedra. Raised in a pious and nationalistic family, he revered the Inspired from an early age. Intelligent and loyal, he eventually found his way into a supervisory post in the Riedran government. At first, he was a minor bureaucrat-priest, acting as an intermediary between the commoners and the Riedran government, and teaching the common people reverence of the Inspired, the value of discipline and hard work, and other values, as well as giving more practical advice to Riedrans in need of legal help in sorting out contracts, inheritances, etc. He rose in the hierarchy to a higher-up managerial position. An oppurtunity arose to leave Riedra for Khorvaire, as an assistant to the Inspired ambassador to Aundair. Although Siddharth regarded the rest of the world as barbarous, dangerous, and inferior, and would have been content to stay in Riedra, he nonetheless felt it his patriotic duty to help in any way he could. His duties in Aundair were to act as a "priest" to the local Riedran community in Fairhaven, keeping them on the straight and narrow, away from the barbarous corruption of Khorvaire, and also to assist the Inspired ambassador in his duties. Siddharth performed his duties, but he was also fascinated by the prevelance of magic in Fairhaven. He saw many everyday tasks simplified and improved by minor magical tricks. Although he had heard of magic before, it had only come in the form of distorted, anti-magical propaganda, pointing to the gruesomeness of Karrnath's undead armies, the horrors of the Mournland (no doubt linked to the use of arcane magic: there is no Mournland in Sarlonas, after all), and other examples of the terrors of diabolical wizardry practiced by the corrupt and barbarous people of Khorvaire. There was never any mention of the casual creation of everburning torches to light the streets, or the conjuration of unseen servants to help maintain inns. Siddharth was soon living a double life, studying under the adepts and magewrights of Fairhaven by night, and serving the ambassador and preaching against magic by day. He took particular interest in the magical powers associated with healing. He was, naturally, unwilling to pledge himself to the Sovereign Host or the Silver Flame, so that the supernatural forces the Aundairans worshipped could endow him with the power they said the gods gave their followers, but he was nonetheless, through careful observation and study, able to replicate some of their techniques. He was convinced, however, that this period of secrecy and deceit would only be temporary. After all, the Inspired were wise, benevolent, and just. Although they currently prohibited magic in Riedra, once they saw how modest, cautious application of the common magic of Khorvaire's magewrights to Riedra would strengthen nation they ruled and improve the lives of its people, they would embrace it. Siddharth first made the case for training a group of 50 Riedrans as magewrights in Khorvaire and returning them to Riedra to spread magic across the land. His proposal was ignored for a month, until Siddharth found his secret magical study ransacked. Shortly thereafter, he was forced to resign from his clerical position, and urged to return to Riedra. He considered staying in Aundair: he might be safe there, having broken no laws. He could make a modest living. Or maybe he wouldn't be safe: if he turned traitor, staying in Aundair would not protect him from Riedra's reach. Regardless, his pride and loyalty as a Riedran and servant of the Inspired rebelled against the idea of abandoning his post and duties. He returned to Riedra, where he was investigated. As the Riedran court uncovered his magical studies, and discovered that not only he had been practicing magic, but divine magic, they immediately suspected him not only of heterodoxy on the issue of magic, but of disloyalty as well: divine magic was rooted in deals with gods and demons, after all, so its practitioners could hardly be said to have undivided loyalty to the Inspired or Riedra. With a man of Siddharth's position, and knowing his secrets, the only punishment was death. However, as he awaited his execution, he found that the plans for him had been changed. He was dragged from his cell and taken, blindfolded to some other location. There, something was done to him, of which he still isn't sure, but it changed him forever. In fact, unbeknownst to him, a rogue Quori spirit was implanted in Siddharth as punishment to the spirit. Over the next few days, he was transformed into an elan: a human with a quori spirit imprisoned inside, changing the nature of the human profoundly, but without truly giving the spirit any control. He would be able to live forever without food or drink in this new state: a perfect, unescapable prison. Siddharth was placed in a dungeon, locked to the walls, and left to live there forever, with neither him nor the quori spirit within him having any hope of escape. This was the punishment for him in lieu of execution, yet it was far from a kinder fate, or at least, it shouldn't have been. He stayed there for over a year, surviving only on his own psionic energy. Isolated from the real world and unchecked, Siddharth began to develop elaborate conspiracy theories to attempt to reconcile his loyalty to the Inspired with the brutal treatment he was receiving and the reluctance of the Riedrans to accept magic. He suspected some form of conspiracy bent on weakening Riedra and the Inspired, who, in spite of their wisdom and benevolence, were falling prey to some sort of internal enemy bent on undermining them. The Kalashtar of Adar were naturally suspects, being a treacherous and long-standing rebellion against the legitimate government of Riedra, but others were drawn in: perhaps the Ashbound were involved, seeking to succeed in Sarlona where they had failed in Khorvaire, keeping arcane magic from a whole continent? As Siddharth considered the myriad possibilities, he became determined to escape, return to Khorvaire, and uncover the roots of this conspiracy against his nation and lords. It was easier said than done, of course, but Siddharth was eventually able to focus the power of his mind enough to alter reality in minor ways -- a power he found he had since the strange process he had undergone. He eventually managed to use his psionic powers to grease and eventually turn the locks. With his hands free, and totally unsupervised, he was able to escape through long-abandoned passageways and sewers. He eventually disguised himself, and was able to smuggle himself back to Khorvaire. There, he would learn more of the Kalashtar, of the Ashbound, and of magic itself, in an attempt to save the Inspired and Riedra from the conspiracy that seeks to sap its position as the mightiest power in Eberron and block its progress, and leads them to turn on their loyal servants and allies, imprisoning and abusing them. The thought has occured to Siddharth that the Inspired are simply cruel and backward looking, blocking progress and abusing the Riedran people without outside corruption. However, he has generally dismissed this idea, upon consideration. After all, if the Inspired were not wise, benevolent, and just, why would Riedra be the most stable, rich, powerful, and civilized part of Eberron, in spite of its minor flaws, while the Five Nations, by comparison, are crime-ridden, barbarous wastes?
Dipteran_Legacy 03-21-06, 11:01 PM	this is actually a really awesome character story, jules. I will admit that I was a bit put off by your characters name, and wish I would have read it sooner. do you want any sort of criticism, or didja just feel like posting it?
JulesCARV 03-22-06, 04:14 PM	Well... I mostly just posted it for the heck of it. If you have any criticisms, though, I'd certainly welcome them. (for example, what put you off about the name?)
JulesCARV 03-27-06, 12:46 PM	By the way, any advice on how to roleplay the fact that this guy isn't really human, or even humanoid, anymore? Bear in mind that he doesn't know exactly what happened to him. He doesn't know what an "elan" is, and he doesn't know that he has a quori spirit inside him, but he's changed into something weird and inhuman. Any advice on roleplaying someone who's been turned into an immortal psionic aberration, but doesn't quite know it, but knows that something is wrong or different? So far, I've played him as rather quiet and introspective.
JulesCARV 04-07-06, 07:39 AM	By the way, if Dipteran Legacy isn't around here anymore as to why his name is off-putting, would anyone else care to tell me?
Need_A_Life 04-07-06, 08:37 AM	The name doesn't exactly roll on the tongue :rolleyes: And if he doesn't know that he's an elan, why should he roleplay it?
Dipteran_Legacy 04-07-06, 08:22 PM	By the way, if Dipteran Legacy isn't around here anymore as to why his name is off-putting, would anyone else care to tell me? ? sorry I never responded back. your statement is slightly oddly phrased, though.... I cant quite tell what you mean by it....oh, wait! okay.... heh. at first I thought you might mean I'm not around because people never seem to give much input on threads I start ;) I'm just not big on the name "siddharth", due to it's historical implications. just a personal thing. if you've woven that into the character deliberately, that's quite clever of you....I'm just not big on siddhartha. for RP advice....mmm...... you could have him always be the last to actually eat. never order food or pull out rations until someone else does. maybe he gets lots of migraine headaches, from having some horrible beastie pent up in his head? maybe he is-on very rare occasions- posessed by the quori, who is now quite resentful of it's own kind. it would be really cool if that was the only time you actually manifested. like siddharth the archivist and the quori shaper share the same body. ;) hopefully some of this helped