Atlantic:Izrem Verin'Vlos

Izrem Verin'Vlos
Player:
Place of Birth:	Underdark, Thac'zil d'lil Noamuth Valyrin Province
Class:	Mage/Scholar
Guild:	Order of the Ebon Skull
Personal Data
Real Name:	Izrem Verin'Vlos
Aliases:	Magus, Og'elend (Heretic)
Race:	Drow
Age:	350+ years
Height:	5'5
Weight:	108
Eye Color:	Natural: Purple irises with red fringe. Unnatural: Depthless black orbs
Hair Color:	White with gray tips
Biographical Data
Residence:	Umbra
Former Guilds:	DRW, The Damned, Hand of Morgaz, The Undead
Marital Status:	Widowed
Relatives:	All deceased
Accolades
Ancient of the Scholomance
Abilities
Extraordinarily learned. Capable wizard. Natural speaker and proselytizer. Arcane Ward construction and Mana/Entropic Field Manipulation.
Unique Equipment
"Tayil-yaga trashilosan" - An enchanted death cowl designed to mitigate the effect of his Entropic Sickness.
Violently pacifistic

History

Early History (Pre-Sosoria)

Born in the Underdark, in the drowish principality know as Thac'zil d'lil Noamuth Valyrin, Izrem Shaiith (Nameless) as he was then known, was a simple boy soldier in the ranks of one of the many warring families of the province. While still fairly young his natural capacity for mana manipulation, and thus spellcraft, was noted by a particular clan known as the Verin'Vlos. Taking him from his normal duties as a guard, he was assigned to the Blada d' Faer, a university for prospective wizards in the clan where he begin his study at the feet of one of the many dark elf mages that inhabited the great tower of the mage council. He was admitted into their ranks at the startlingly young age of 68 and would spend the next 34 years of his life in the training halls. Demonology, production of poison and many of the other mainstay teachings of the ilythiiri were taught to him as he began to absorb the first tidbits of knowledge that would lead him to a greater and more extravagant thirst for knowledge in later life.

Upon his completion of his studies at the mage tower, he was attached to a scion of the Verin'Vlos household by the name of Drynn. His first and, as far as most will ever know, last love. Despite still being quite young he was pressed into service for the houses needs and sent to the front lines of the intercine violence that passed for territoriality in the Drow. Izrem, his mind always seeking new horizons, disliked the rigid and structured system of the families, clans and drow in general. Specifically because he was male. Despite his advanced training and knowledge at a young age, he was consistently belittled, mocked and beaten as an upstart male who did not know his place. On the battlefields and in the mage towers of the frontlines, those sentiments proved even more unbearable, with his efforts being sidelined, credit for his actions being taken by more worthy females and receiving blame for failures he had no part in. The only female who treated him with a modicum of respect, and thus the only drow female he showed respect to in return, was Drynn Verin'Vlos. So great was his respect for her that he joined her in the closest thing the drow recognized as a marriage and joined the family Verin'Vlos. Even greater was his desire to help her was assisting in her attempt to overthrow her mother in a coup d'etat. An overthrow which failed, forcing Drynn and all those who had joined her to flee from the wrath of her mother. Calling upon ancient, arcane and forbidden spells, Izrem and several other of the drow magi succeeded in opening an escape portal away from the Underdark. The process killed everyone but Izrem and Drynn, who escaped into the land of Sosoria.

Present History

Suddenly Izrem found himself in a land he little understood, with a hot and burning ball of fire that persisted for a number of hours through the day over his head. He was glad to have escaped death at the hands of the angered Ilharess Verin'Vlos, he did not much fancy his new home. By some fortune Drynn and he arrived near the city of Minoc, a land under the present auspices of a surface dwelling drow household. Drynn and Izrem took up their banner as their own; Drynn relieved to find kin of a sort and Izrem, glad to finally be free to the strictures of his old life. Many years would pass this way until the brash and arrogant nature of the surface dwelling drow asserted itself to the point of aggression against the city of Minoc.

It was not a town militia or council that would move against the drow, however, but a rapidly developing organization known as the Hand of Humanis. Their numbers swollen by the indignant and angered citizenry of various nations, the Hand of Humanis drove back the drow from within the city, striking a terrible blow against the house from which is would never recover. Izrem would also suffer a severe personal loss that day, as Drynn was mortally wounded in combat. As the house began to crumble, Izrem found himself without a home and with a sudden knot of grief and rage as he had never felt before. Leaving the remnants of the shattered house and the gravesite of his departed wife, he sought allies to assist him in his vengeance against the Hand of Humanis. It was a chance encounter that lead him to learn of a cult located on the northern tip of Dagger Isle. And it would be what Izrem decided was fate that he met their leader.

Azalin the Lich Lord of the Order of the Ebon Skull.

Izrem once again found himself in the presence of people who held contempt for him, yet unlike the matriarchs of the Underdark, their strength and pride seemed to come from a much more potent source. At the end of the event they titled "The Black Mass", Izrem approached the Lich Lord and spoke with him. The words themselves are lost to time, but Izrem was changed by the words of the ancient and powerful lich. The anger that had burned within him for years began to dissipate. The Order of the Ebon Skull was by no means above violence, but their way granted a form of peace and certainty to Izrem that he had not felt before. As the anger and pain drained away, a new desire to learn more of these people and their ways begin to grow boil within him. He would never be able to join their number before the Second Age of the Ebon Skull came to a close, but he took the lessons he learned from them with him.

Izrem continued his personal research and made every attempt that he could to seek out members of the now obscured Order. History would record the rise of the Shadowform Lord Alarin of the Shadowform Empire as a brief yet panicked age of war and destruction wrought from the cold north of Dagger Isle. Had it been merely that, however, Izrem wouldn't have bothered getting involved. Yet it was this empire that would begin to collect the old pieces of the Order of the Ebon Skull and see to its rise once more. Though this was by no means Alarin's interest or intention, his action nevertheless sowed the seeds of revival for the Order. Izrem followed amongst the soldiers of the empire until its eventual collapse, noting only peripherally the rise of the order. It was during this time that Izrem returned to the Underdark for an extended period of time where he carried out research and used notes he had collected from Sosoria to further his work. He brought with him the teachings and knowledge of Oblivion. And when he left, he carried the title of Og'elend, meaning heretic, back to the Overdark. Upon his arrival he learned of the rise of a new Lich Lord by the name of Admoreth. Izrem immediately came before the reformed Order and bowed himself before the new avatar of Oblivion. On that day Izrem was inducted into the ranks of the Followers of Oblivion. A path he has followed without fail since then.

Izrem's time amongst the Order in the Third Age of the Skull can best be described as a period of intense learning and service. He spent his early days as a slave carrying out the various tasks of his masters and absorbing every piece of lore, history and theology that he could. He fought in several conflicts and learned under the tutelage of various "big names" of Sosoria's darker side of history before he was once again called back to the Underdark. When next he returned, he found the Order had faded back into the mists as Admoreth disappeared. Joining with a militant group known colloquially as "The Damned", Izrem continued his personal research until the Stygian Grove fell into turmoil as the Lich Lord Norture came to power and deposed the present leader, Darrien Church.

Izrem served under Norture, continuing his projects unabated by the sudden change of power. Some part of Izrem grew indolent and carefree. As if he expected life to continue on much as it always had, forevermore. However, it was under the reign of Norture that the unthinkable occured. The Order of the Ebon Skull found itself without the Ebon Skull. A fracture in the holy artifact, that had occurred due to a concentrated and valiant strike by the Lightbringers, finally caused it to shatter, sending a screeching howl of Entropic energy blasting through the world. All of the faithful knew what it meant even if none of them knew what to do. It was the end of the Third Age of the Ebon Skull, and in the land of Umbra, which the Stygian Grove overlooked, the rising matriarch known as Ceinwyn Ab'Arawn took command.

Izrem, however, followed after one of his trusted colleagues. A man known as Azunda Thaumiel. Azunda, the pupil of Tyranthraxus, carried a strange obsession for the worship of Morgaz and near lusted after that artifact known as the Mirror of Morgaz. Izrem worked along side Brother Thaumiel in collecting various artifacts and pieces of knowledge, in an attempt to preserve the work of the Order. Having completed much of the work needed to preserve the history of the Order, Izrem once again returned to Umbra to see what was happening there. However, he found things had much changed since last he had been there. Most worrisome of all was an edict banning the worship of Oblivion in the Realm of Umbra. Izrem was forced to follow the string of refugees that fled the city in the face of some of the overzealous enforcers of this law and returned to the Underdark for the third time since his first arrival.

It would be a dark keening, a summoning deep within his heart that drew him tentatively to Sosoria once more. Returning cautiously to Umbra, he found that the old realm had been done away with. And in its place had risen a new order. The Undead. The Undead, however, carried a secret that few on the outside openly knew at the time. The members of this new order were more than a group who worshiped undeath. They were the seed of inevitability. The fertile ground in which destiny once again grew into present reality. They were working for the restoration of the Order of the Ebon Skull. And they were faithful to Oblivion. Izrem once again joined his brothers and sisters of the faith in rebuilding what was lost. No longer an uncertain and ignorant supplicant or aspirant, his knowledge and power allowed him to take bold steps forward which he had never before taken. In this present age, the Fourth Age of the Ebon Skull, Izrem is prepared to do as those did before him and rise to the calling of the scions of Oblivion and take his place in the annals of history.

Appearance

Covered from head to toe in a black cowled cloak, Izrem's figure would best be described as ominous yet unimposing. A pleasant or neutral grin is often riding on his lips, though his teeth, on the whole, often appear considerably sharper than most humans. His skin is of very dark tone, almost black, while his white, gray tipped hair contrasts brightly against it. His cloak, gloves and even sandals cover nearly every inch of his body, leaving only the lower part of his face regularly visible. His eyes are normally buried in the darkness of his hood, making it difficult to see what he is looking at, if anything. For those who peer under his cowl or see him when it is pulled back or off, they would note that his eyes remain closed at nearly all times, only opening the slightest crack. Very few physical characteristics can be divined beyond that, as his rune inscribed cloak covers anything else that might stand out.

His voice sounds distinctly male, though not of a particularly low pitch. He tends to speak at the minimal volume required to be heard by his target audience, and his tone often comes off as warm and paternal. There is a slight inflection in his speech, however, that marks him as someone distinctly foreign to the human lands. His words seem to flow in a poetic meter, a trait noted in the elvish and drow languages.

There is nearly always a book in his hands and whenever he does not appear to be engaged in some form of observation or conversation, he is reading. He can often be heard murmuring to himself in a language that only the fluent would recognize as "ilythiiri". Oddly enough, his scent seems to vary with no particular explanation as to why. Anything from an "earthy" scent, to flowers, to blood, all in a short period of time. And sometimes he has no scent at all. It is a strangely chaotic element about him that, while present, is by no means particular noticeable.

Other Information

Information regarding his Early History is almost wholly unknown in the realm of Sosoria as Izrem simply never tells it. Only the drow named Mairsil has any inklings of Izrem's story before his arrival in these lands. He is also the only one that knows that Izrem is the last of the Verin'Vlos family, the rest having been slain as Izrem discovered on his second return to the Underdark.

He is an avid scholar and prone to be preachy. His view of Oblivion is somewhat uncommon to others of the faith, as it views Oblivion as a release, peace and tranquility, rather than as blood, murder and war as most others tend to view it. That being said, he is still capable of extraordinarily brutal violence and has few qualms about causing suffering if he believes it will result in a "good result".

His idea of "good" is very, very, very different from what any Lightbringer or even regular citizen would consider good.

He is presently afflicted by a supernatural disease he has called the "Entropic Sickness", brought on by an unexpected feedback of chaotic energy upon activation of the Entropy Field Generator. Without the protection of his specially designed and warded death cowl the sickness begins to rapidly afflict him, tearing an ever widening hole in his soul.

His favorite beverage is harvest time Yew wine. Though he drinks many other types of wine just as readily.

Suspected Weaknesses: He is a skinny, short wizard. He is not "tough" physically by any stretch of the imagination. If you really want to beat him up, go for the tried and true methods. They'll probably work.