__________________QUICK STATSName Ven
Age 24-25 mentally (21 at time of death / body has been dead approx. 1000 years / had his soul returned to his body roughly 3-4 years ago)
Gender Male
Species Effectively a half elf
Height 6ft
Occupation Formerly a healer, now an agent of the goddess who reawoke him.
Residence None. He wanders.
__________________IN-DEPTH STUFFPhysical DescriptionVen inherited the slight, delicate build of his mother's people, as well as their pallor and straight black hair. His dark eyes he inherited from his father. In his living years, his cheeks flushed at the sting of the cold northern wind or at even the slightest provocation. Under the curse that burdens his ancient body, his blood has long since turned to a viscous paste, and the whites of his eyes are now dusky. He still clings to many of his old hermit habits: he dresses primarily for function, as was the way of the people who raised him, and has little use for fashionable things (though he does admire them.) Because of his unsightly appearance, Ven wears a cloth mask and a cloak with a low hood when he anticipates passing through populated areas.
PersonalityISFP / neutral good
Though frightful in appearance, Ven is quite kind and polite. In conversation he is prone to wordiness and tangents, especially if he is asked about his people's culture or traditional herbal remedies. When working, he will talk or sing to himself in his native tongue. He often talks to animals as well: a habit he can't shake from living as a hermit on the outskirts of the clan village. He has a particular fondness for birds. Occasionally, he will tell very stupid jokes and is usually the only one to laugh at them.
In spite of his approachable nature, Ven will lie or clam up at the slightest inkling of a threat. He dances around subjects that make him uncomfortable or that awaken his shame, and he is only vaguely aware that he does so. He is prone to falling back on his self flagellation as a way to avoid actual accountability. When backed into a corner, Ven will almost always choose a balm to soothe his desire for redemption, even to the point of putting his own friends in danger. So, even though at first impression he is likable, one will discover that getting any closer than acquaintanceship is an exercise in pulling teeth, and can, in fact, be deadly.
HistoryVen is the product of a runaway high priestess who, by a sheer stroke of luck, stumbled upon a human huntsman's camp as she wandered the wilderness. He was not five years old when her people found her, dragged her away, and murdered his father. His half brother, the huntsman's son, managed to hide him and save him from the same fate. They journeyed into the dark boreal forests and steep valleys that marked the territory of the northern clans. A young outcast northerner took them in and helped Ven survive the harsh winter, but Ven's half-brother didn't make it. When the northerner's banishment ended, Ven returned with him and became part of Bear Clan.
But being an outsider amongst a harsh and insular folk wasn't easy, and Ven longed to connect with his own blood. At the age of ten, he ran away, journeyed far to the south, and took up as an apprentice with an alchemist on the frontier. There were others who looked like him: products of trade between his mother's people and the human colonists from across the sea. Yet their culture was cruel and isolating, and no amount of luxury and civilization and fascinating discoveries could soothe those bruises. As the years wore on, he found that the closest thing to home was what he had left behind. Now 14, he journeyed back to Bear Clan and used his new-found knowledge to care for the people who had saved him.
Years later, devastation struck the westernmost clans. War fell upon them. From west across the mountains came agents of a wicked empire to abscond with their children in the black of night for some profane purpose. From the south, the colonists pushed further into the forest in search of gold. And from the east, their own human-allied clansmen turned against them. Ven found that he couldn't uphold his sensitive, pacifist nature and still protect his people and defend his homeland. He fought alongside them, and in secret, he discovered the purpose for the abductions: a magic so ancient and powerful that it granted a man the immortality of the gods themselves. And it was a magic that flowed not only in the veins of his mother's people, but in those of the northern clans, too.
With the blood of their enemies as a shield against death, the clans finally turned the tide, but the victory of Ven's revelation was short-lived and won at a steep cost. By cheating the very forces of nature, the people of the North awoke their wrathful god, and he rained devastation down upon them on the battlefield. In his rage he tore the very fabric of the world and doomed it to a slow, festering death. All but a few refugees perished that day, and those who died became the undead servants of a furious deity. It was not until a thousand years later that Ven's goddess, desperate to repair the hole in the world yet too weak to do so on her own, recalled his soul from the void beyond and brought consciousness back to his cursed and broken body.
A veritable scholar in life, Ven's thirst for knowledge remains a driving force even now. Though he would never admit it, his desire to comprehend the world around him has often pulled him from the path of wisdom. Indeed, his inner conflict tugs many ways. At his core, he, a bastard outsider, longs to belong to the tribe who raised him, and though they are a thousand years dead, he still fiercely holds their songs and traditions in his heart. He once surrendered to the dark temptation of forbidden knowledge, and that mistake has echoed through the history of his world and cloven countless bloody gashes in its wake. And so, too, he is driven by guilt and shame and a yearning for redemption, and with that yearning he has offered his puppet strings on a silver platter to his goddess.
In the midst of a political upheaval, when faced with certain death, Ven and Fletch became unlikely allies. They traveled together for months in search of a way to stop the slow decay of their world. Along the way, they ran into two travelers from another realm: Lys, a formidable woman with the ability to wield a magic hitherto unknown, and Flavius, a weathered ship's captain. Circumstances became dire as the four fought their way through waves of Ven's own undead kin. In an act of desperation, Lys summoned a portal to escape back to her realm, but when Ven and Fletcher tumbled in after their friends, the magic faltered. Now, Ven has found himself in another world entirely, and what's more, he can't remember where he came from. He only knows that someone important to him is lost, and that he must find him.
Magic/AbilitiesVen hails from a world where the only magic present is that of the gods. Whereas the blood magic he discovered granted rapid healing and temporarily staved off death, Ven's curse is a corruption of that power. He, and any others who died by the northern god's hand, are demonic creatures made with the sole purpose to harvest the life force of everything around them in order to sustain their master. Ven is no different: day in and day out, he must keep that incessant, gnawing hunger in check. If he doesn't, he risks losing control to the demon within him. Feeding on life force will kill his victim, be it plant, animal, or person. If interrupted before his target perishes, his feeding will hasten rot and disease and often causes old scars to bleed anew. If Ven feeds on plants and animals, it disgusts the demon within him but it keeps it in check. If he feeds on people, he experiences rapid healing, but the sensation of true satiety gives way to a thrilling high, and he becomes manic, impulsive, and quick to anger. He has the potential to chase that high and become addicted to it.
RelationshipsIn life, Ven's relationships were complicated. He held everyone at arm's length, including his older brother — the man who rescued him as a child. They often butted heads; Ven was, at his core, a pacifist idealist, while his brother was a pragmatist by necessity. In any relationship, Ven is most comfortable and familiar with being the smartest one in the room, and he struggles with knowing his value if he is not.
Thrown one thousand years beyond everything he knew, Ven is isolated and has few allies. He has recently found an unlikely friend in Devlin Fletcher, a street-smart smuggler who has, rather begrudgingly, helped him navigate a now unfamiliar world. Though they often bicker, Ven enjoys Fletch's company and takes comfort in the fact that they are both liars and, as Fletch puts it, "cock ups."
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