N P C: A S M O D E I
Details
Age: 67
Race: Avialae (Kathar)
Height: 7'10"
Weight: 460 lbs
NPC Type: Companion NPC
Influence: 6
Relation to Arkash: Caretaker/Mentor
Skills
Blades: Greatsword - 60
Bodybuilding - 50
Teaching - 50
Negation - 40
Sigilic Pyromancy - 25
Smithing - 25
Personality: Despite appearances, Asmodei is normally quite calm under most circumstances. He's easygoing, fair, and holds his tongue if there's nothing nice to say. That being said, he can snap, but never severely so. He's disciplined, rigid in his ideals, and immovable in his loyalties. He holds a sort of formal, tactful air about him in most interactions, but isn't entirely incapable of letting himself be loose and enjoying a joke or two. Around those he's unfamiliar with, his walls are high. For a select few, those walls come down completely. Beneath all his armor, thick skin and dense muscle is a tender heart that seeks to belong.
Appearance: Tall, dark and silent. His wings are skin to that of a crow's with dark, charcoal plumes that stand stark from his armor. His skin (or what is visible of it) is a light tan complexion with few scars, almost flawless, even. Even so, he doesn't shy away in the face of adversity, and instead stands firm. There's a fire in his eyes that betrays a bitter hatred for those that abuse their power. beneath his helm, his dark hair is always either cut short or tied back to keep it from getting in his eyes. He's not one to care for presentation but still makes sure to maintain his hygiene well.
History: Asmodei hailed from rare circumstances. Like all kathar, he was born in Lorien, but the typical life of a child so special did not wait for him. He was Nameless; the product of a skipped generation or two. He knew not the details of his family's eternal punishment but knew that one of his ancestors had committed high treason to sentence his bloodline to an eternity of poverty. He didn't stay in Lorien long, as his mother passed to common illness with no hope of affording the medicine. He became homeless at the age of ten and dug through bins and feeding troughs for his meals in outer Nivenhain for the next two months of his life.
It was only when a group of giant travelers found him scavenging for food that his luck began to turn around. The leader of the three men saw potential in the boy and offered to take him back with them to the free cities. He had nothing in Lorien, so he accepted with ease, and left his old life behind from the back of a wagon. In his new life, he trained and grew among the Jastai. He wasn't particularly tall compared to most of them, but he fought with as much ferocity as a natural-born elemental all the same. Though he tried to embrace the craft and the hunting culture, he didn't settle in right. At the age of 33, he left the free cities to wander the world in search of a purpose.
He'd grown into a man, but still didn't know what sort of life awaited beyond the reaches of the Jastai tribes. He ventured south to Atinaw for some time, where he continued to test his mettle against the monsters of the wilds and took on mercenary work there in search of a cause to commit himself to. He spent years working as a mercenary in the mountainous region of Atinaw and continued to grow and develop as a warrior until he was 55. Mercenary work was fun, but unfulfilling. He sought a purpose, a righteous cause. Eventually, he did find it. He wandered into his next life-altering event and encountered a band of monsters posing as humans known as the Dranoch. They were working some human trafficking business around the dark alleys of Alfsos. Asmodei had stumbled into their operation while searching for a missing person.
Ultimately, he failed to save the missing person and found himself defeated by the monsters and their vile magics. Before the finishing blow could be dealt, a band of fire-wielding warriors, who later identified themselves as the Black Remedy, stormed their stronghold and saved the last of the living captives, as well as Asmodei. At once, the Avialae took an interest in their cause and deemed it noble. He pleaded the group's leader, A Siltori by the name of Eindar Dal'Balsalor, to join their effort and swore loyalty to her there. Though he couldn't hold his own against her in a duel, he wasn't entirely void of talent. So, she agreed to bring him back to Sil-Elaine to become an official member of the Remedy.
He'd learned a little of the Siltori's plight on the journey there, and the final underground train ride into the city, but he couldn't have imagined an entire city of oppression. The dranoch were strong there, and ruled without opposition, save for the black remedy. The elves below them were cattle, a mere source of food that could never leave their parasitic overlords. Asmodei felt their rage from the moment he set eyes on their city, and his resolve and commitment only strengthened. He took the oath and accepted the black sigil. He studied and trained hard to learn his magic, but always fell behind Eindar, his mentor. The two grew close in his training, and she recognized that the Avialae would always struggle against magically adept opponents. So, she took the chance to initiate him in negation, and his body accepted the rune. As she'd expected, the Kathar took far better to learning the arcane discipline than he did sigilic pyromancy.
Finally, he was deployed on missions to gather intelligence and strike specific targets under the supervision and aid of Eindar. He'd tasted victory against the Dranoch a few times before he met a Siltori woman in the streets. Her name: Fayeth Ela'Dalana. Asmodei had never considered a comfortable life with a family of his own, he'd never known anything of the sort. But after his first meeting with Fayeth, his heart convinced him it was possible. As if it were decided by fate, the two continued to meet by chance on the moonlit streets of Silfanore before he finally asked to meet her outside of the city on a planned date, and she accepted.
They met between his arcane studies and missions for a quaint picnic that he'd organized himself. The food wasn't particularly good, but she claimed to appreciate the effort all the same. There, they spoke of their lives. Asmodei told stories of the lands he'd visited, and the creatures he'd encountered on his journeys. The Siltori found his experiences in the world beyond fascinating, but she had few stories to tell him of her own. Instead of telling him the truth, she told him of her interest in the arcane, and the magics she studied under her unnamed master. Even so, she claimed to possess no magical ability, unlike Asmodei. Asmodei soon discovered that he couldn't hold a candle to her intellect, but that only fascinated him more. When Asmodei beheld his runes, Fayeth was overjoyed, if not a little distracted by her interests.
In their meetings to come, he discovered more of her life, and how she studied the politics of foreign nations; including Lorien. But not everything had been told, and she still kept her secrets. Asmodei found the time in his own head to encompass her more and more. Before long, it was undeniable. He loved her unconditionally. He saw a future between them in which they were inseparable, away from Sil-Elaine and its darkness. When he told her of this, however, the truth was revealed. Fayeth was an envoy of the Dranoch. She acted as a mouth for the court of dusk, especially concerning their campaign against the Aldrin. Her master, a Cardinal Dranoch, had gifted her with a lost magic (blood magic) in secret and expressed his interest in making her his progeny many times. Her heart opened to Asmodei, and she spoke of how she resented the dranoch for their lies and manipulations; lies that she had helped weave in the form of propaganda.
The Kathar, of course, had his reservations on whether or not what they had was true, given that she worked for the people the Remedy sought to destroy. But he was not one to become disillusioned. He loved her regardless of the deceit, and understood, in a way. He asked her, then, to leave with him. Gratefully, she accepted. It was decided that Asmodei would make preparations for the trip while she cut ties with her master, on the basis that she feared they would be hunted if she were to suddenly disappear.
He returned to the Elainian Darklands, made his preparations, then awaited Fayeth at the place of their first date, but she did not come. The longer Asmodei waited, the more his heart weighed with dread and fear. He began to expect the worst before he finally turned away, and returned to the compound. In the coming days, without hearing from her, he was given a mission to dispatch of a fresh botchling with Eindar. The fresh Botchling was considered dangerous due to its ravenous blood sickness, and so, Eindar was to accompany him. Asmodei knew in his heart what was coming, and it twisted his stomach into knots. When at last the mentor and the student found the fresh Dranoch, his fears were realized.
There, standing over a mangled couple, was a gore-plastered Fayeth. her master had turned her regardless of her plea. Eindar readied her sigilic pyromancy to dispatch the monster. Fayeth cried for help. All of a sudden, Asmodei was caught between two worlds. he could not skim the two and had to commit to either one of the other. And with a push of his hand, he chose. Asmodei's gauntlet pushed the throwing hand of his mentor aside, and her flamelance missed the botchling. Though Eindar was angered and Bewildered, she listened to what her student had to say. When the full truth came out, her disappointment was clear, but she asked if he truly meant to leave the remedy for his love. And without hesitation, Asmodei answered yes. She explained that he would be hunted by the remedy if he pursued this course of action. And though Asmodei didn't know how to overcome that, he stood firm in his decision. He would figure it out.
What followed was a long silence, and Eindar couldn't bring herself to look at the Avialae, nor the monster his love had become. When she came to a decision, she opened a perfect portal for the two; a one-way ticket out of Sil-Elaine. Eindar declared that she would lie, claim that there was more than one Dranoch and that Asmodei was slain. But for that, she needed his weapon. Asmodei thanked her, and handed over his blade, but Eindar could barely hide her disgust. She wouldn't forgive him, but some part of her understood. Fayeth was still shaken, but with Asmodei's hand to guide her, they left the wretched city forever.
A lot happened in the years to follow. Fayeth's blood sickness was particularly harsh, maddening even. Asmodei turned to cull outlaws and travelers in an attempt to quell her insatiable hunger for the first six months. Afterward, it was a bit more manageable. With the new freedom they were given, the dranoch continued to feed, but only enough to stay alive. She gained the chance to study new magics in person on their travels, and even took on some new runes. Ultimately though, she discovered that her passion for magic was lost. All the two wanted after the horrors they'd seen and suffered was to live out the rest of their days together.
Despite everything, Asmodei stuck by her. He'd given everything for her, and would continue to sacrifice his honor and values for the sake of their futures. Fayeth refused to bear children of her own, though she was unsure if she could or not. She hated the dranoch and would not produce another, even if the two truly wanted a child. He wanted to marry her, but the SIltori custom for doing so involved transfusion of blood, and she didn't want to turn him into a Dranoch inadvertently. Asmodei had lived among a number of cultures in his lifetime. And while he knew nothing of the Avialae, he did know of typical human marriage customs. So, he bought her a ring and asked her to marry him. Familiar with the customs of humanity, she accepted. They spoke their vows and became husband and wife; there was no soul bond or celestial tie of any sort, but the two were happy all the same.
Eventually, they returned to the Kathar's birthplace to settle down, but quickly, the two came to believe they'd moved from one oppressive, self-sustaining regime for another. From birth, grand leaders had failed Asmodei while smaller bands always came through to his rescue. Governments and monarchies had steadily turned green and vile in his eyes, and no matter where he looked, he couldn't unsee his new view of the world. He shared his thoughts with his wife, and she agreed to an extent. But what could they do? They were two nameless lost in the slums of a grand city.
Fayeth returned from her feeding one day, somewhat shaken. She claimed a Rathari had seen her murder two nameless in an Alley, but she didn't feed to conceal her true identity. She hadn't killed him out of pity but feared that he might speak. Asmodei knew the Argent wouldn't care for two bodies turning up in the gutters of Lower Nivenhain, especially nameless, but tracked down the Rathari in question all the same. The one he found was some sort of lizard, living with his sickly father. He needed to know if the Rathari would break in face of the law, so he impersonated an Argent Knight and asked him a series of questions regarding the murders that had taken place. The boy put on quite the show, an almost perfect lie, and cried as he spoke of the horrors he'd seen after the fact, but denied seeing anyone at all. It was in that moment that the Rathari earned Asmodei's trust.
In the following weeks, Asmodei and Fayeth both watched the Rathari and his struggles. He was beaten, robbed, scarred, and all sorts. Having been nameless himself, Asmodei deeply empathized with the Rathari. Fayeth saw an opportunity; another soul that had been trampled by those that held themselves above him on birthright alone. To some extent, Asmodei saw the same. They decided to take him under their wing, recruit him and give him a chance at a better life just as the traveling Jastai had for Asmodei so many years ago. Only, when they arrived at his house in the dead of night, they found a smoldering ruin with a charred human body inside. Their search turned frantic, and they followed the roads he normally took but found nothing. Later, the screeches of hollows echoed and the two ran to the source. At their destination, the found the Rathari crushed, slashed, and impaled by the beasts. Before the golems could land another strike, Asmodei struck one of them with his flamelance, then charged into battle on his wings with Fayeth to finish them off.
They'd saved him, but barely. The cold of the night coupled with his coma saw his blood loss and oxygen usage drastically fall, so they brought him to a makeshift hideout, and began to conscript healers that might save him.
