Fa’ren Vilvurin

Character Name - Fa’ren Vilvurin

Race - Ash Elf

Age - 27

Birth Date - Alduya, 28th Narquelie, 81 AW

Gender - Male

Character Description: 

Fa’ren is 6 feet tall with bright aqua blue eyes and straight white hair that’s just long enough that he usually pulls it back into a low ponytail. His skin tone is a bit darker than your average ash-elf, and borders on almost charcoal grey in color. He looks like he could be a little older than he actually is due to some age marks on his face, so as an elf, it’s exceptionally hard to tell how old he really is. He usually stands and sits with a very straight, refined posture. That is, when he’s not crouching and slinking around in the shadows as he’s so accustomed to doing.

Character Occupation:

Fa’ren is a fairly experienced hunter and alchemist, both of which he’s technically never done legally (though he has yet to be caught). He’s accustomed to using bows and crossbows from his time hunting, and he’s a good knife fighter as well as a decent throw with a blade. He’s fairly lacking in actual combat experience outside of hunting, however, as he’s only ever sparred and trained with people before.

Character Personality/Traits: 

Fa’ren has a very dry sense of humor, though he does enjoy a good laugh. He has an overall air of seriousness about him, and isn’t usually one to joke around. He’s not very personable, but he has a silver tongue and has used it to talk his way out of bad situations many times in his life through various means, be it through blatantly lying or even buttering someone up. He’s slow to trust and open up to people and is fairly secretive by nature. He values peoples’ lives, but he values his own above all others. He has no qualms about stealing from folk, but only if he believes that they’re well-off enough that it won’t affect them too horribly. He enjoys the thrill of danger, but he’s also very cautious and tries to only take risks when he’s nigh certain he’ll come out on top. 

Character Biography: 

Fa’ren never knew his parents. Instead, he was raised in Crowsport by his grandfather, a very old dark elf named Dresil Vilvurin who was exceptionally hard on Fa’ren growing up. When Fa’ren was young he would try to ask his grandfather where his parents were and what they were like, and Dresil would tell him very plainly that neither his dark elven mother (Dresil’s daughter) nor his high elven father (whom he never spoke of) wanted him. The only information Fa’ren ever got about his mother was her name; Lusona Vilvurin. Dresil was a farmer and herbalist in his retirement, and not only did he make Fa’ren help tend the plants from the time he could hold a watering can, but he’d often make the young ash elf work longer hours than Dresil himself did. When Fa’ren was finished with chores each day, his grandfather would sit him down and make him study. Sometimes it was taking notes on his grandfather’s accounts of important moments in history, or the properties of herbs, or even simple math, but it was always writing. And once he had just begun to grasp reading and writing in both Common and Elvish, Dresil added a new language to Fa’ren’s studies; Ancient Elvish. Fa’ren never did get an explanation of why he needed to learn that. Growing up trilingual was frustrating for young Fa’ren, as Dresil would constantly test him by changing languages mid conversation. And as always, if he failed to finish his chores or his studies or respond in the correct language or ever dare question his grandfather on anything, Dresil had no qualms whatsoever about knocking the elven boy around a bit.

When Fa’ren was 10 years old, the crop blight hit his grandfather’s farm hard. The crops were decimated, and the herbs were ruined. Fa’ren and his grandfather might’ve lost everything if Dresil hadn’t had a portion of money set aside for emergencies. And even then, Dresil was forced to sell his farmstead and move them into a much smaller home in town. Being in tight quarters with his grandfather only made Fa’ren even more anxious to be out of the house than he was already, and so began a bit of a rebellious phase. Whenever he could sneak out of the house, Fa’ren would do so, and it never went unpunished by his grandfather. He didn’t have anywhere to go, but anywhere seemed better than being home with Dresil, and so he’d wander and play alone or with whatever other children would accept him. It was then that he made some long-term friends, and fell into the wrong crowd. Paul was big for a human boy even when he was a kid, and as he grew into adulthood, he took on the role of a thug quite well. Jackie was a half dark elf who loved to roughhouse and pick fights with everyone in and outside of the group, and it was no surprise that as she grew up she earned quite a nasty reputation as a troublemaking brawler. But of his friends, Fa’ren was closest to Jaysevren. From a young age, everyone knew that the half high-elven boy “Jayce” (as his friends called him) was gifted. He was intelligent and charismatic, and he knew it. It seemed like he could always get things to go his way no matter what situation he found himself in. But each and every member of the friend group were troublemakers, even Jayce.

A few years into his phase of sneaking out, the year-long winter set in. It may have ended up being a good thing that Dresil had sold the farm. Dresil was very old, even by elven standards, and he’d outlived his wife by many years already. Farm work had kept him strong and healthy, but it had also been taxing on him. Now that he only had the small home for himself and Fa’ren, he’d begun to invest in his herbalism and simple alchemy in order to keep an income. So when the year-long winter hit, Dresil already had a stockpile of herbs that allowed he and Fa’ren to make simple alchemies to sell off so they could afford to feed themselves. And make alchemies they both did. During that long winter, Fa’ren learned how to apply everything he’d been taught about herbs and their properties in order to help his grandfather produce whatever alchemies they could scrape together in order to make an easy silver, despite never having the money to buy an actual permit to do so. They both worked hard out of a need to survive, and while Fa’ren was youthful and full of energy to get the work done, it seemed to take a lot out of Dresil. They barely scraped by through the winter, and all the while, Dresil’s health seemed to slowly decline. Fa’ren never knew how old his grandfather was, as the only answer he could ever get out of him was that he was “as old as any high elf could get.” That was obviously nonsense, but his old age had certainly been apparent as long as Fa’ren had been alive. Fa’ren realized at this point in his life that he might be left alone soon, and it scared him. After the winter ended, Fa’ren began to spend a bit more time at home with Dresil. Not out of love, though he did care for the man, but because he wanted to make sure he learned everything he could from his grandfather before he passed. Dresil was stubborn though, and he managed to make it for another 11 years, right up until the Deep Winter began.

During those 11 years, Fa’ren would occasionally get into trouble with his friends. Paul was intimidating and packed a mean punch. Jackie was hot headed, but had the talent to back up her anger with her talent for knifework. Fa’ren was sneaky and was good at getting into things that weren’t his. Jayce was a genius, and not only excelled at being the mastermind behind all of their mischief, but also at getting them all out of trouble. By the time they were in their late teens, as they were all around the same age, they were managing to pull off very minor crimes with a decent amount of success. Of course, whenever they’d muck it up, Jayce would step in to fix things. They cut purses, shook down easy targets, shoplifted, and even did a little bit of robbery via breaking and entering. They enjoyed the thrill of it, and they made a good team together. They all had it in mind to make it big as professional criminals, though each individual had a bit of a different idea of what that meant. Regardless, they’d often spar and train with one another as they geared up for their next “job,” and Fa’ren developed good knife fighting skills from his time spent with Jackie.

When the Deep Winter did begin, Dresil and Fa’ren were once again trying to scrape by through making and selling alchemies, but it was only a couple of months into the long winter when Dresil finally succumbed to his age. Dresil was bed bound for nearly a month before he passed, and despite all the abuse that he had put Fa’ren through, Fa’ren took care of him right up until he was suddenly gone. Fa’ren entered a very brief period of grieving, though he couldn’t ever decide why he mourned the old man. Maybe it was out of respect, or perhaps because he lamented being left alone now, but there was little time to grieve with the threat of the long winter looming overhead. Fa’ren survived the winter by continuing his grandfather’s alchemical work, but it devoured every ounce of herbal supplies that they’d had, plus some. Not only that, but Fa’ren had to pick up hunting as well just to feed himself. Once again, he didn’t have a permit, nor did he have the money to buy one, so he did it in secret. He borrowed a light crossbow from Jayce and managed to occasionally bag a rabbit or other small game to bring home and cook up. The other animal products helped supply his alchemy, too.

At the long awaited end of winter, Fa’ren was anxious to get back to working with his friends. When they all met up again, Jayce announced that he’d planned something big. He knew a man who was looking to pay top dollar for a large amount of special metal ingots to resell to someone in Thonduhm, and a ship would be passing through Crowsport that had exactly that kind of cargo. They had all heard about the fairly recent reclamation of Thonduhm, especially because it also had a port and many ships now traveled to and from that dwarven city. It made sense to everyone, and they all were seeing silver. There would only be a one night window, so they got to preparing. Jace revealed to the group that just before the winter hit he had made the discovery that he possessed two magical aspects; Illusion and Telekinesis. Because Jayce’s family was more well off than the rest of them were, he’d been able to spend the entire three-year winter honing his magical skills, and he was finally ready to put it to a field test. They made their plans, spent what little time they had remaining training, and did what prep work they could over while they waited for the ship to come. They all came to the decision that after they finished the job, they would sell off the goods and jump on the next ship to Barkamsted, leaving Crowsport behind them forever. That in mind, Faren sold off nearly everything he owned, including the house. He bought himself a custom outfit, boots, and cloak tailored to fit him exactly and designed to be functional, and saved the rest of the money he had just in case the job went wrong. They were all as ready as they could have been when their targeted ship came into port.

The ship itself was surprisingly unremarkable for the supposed value of its cargo, but Jayce insisted that this was the one and that his information was good. They were to wait until just after sunset before they began. Jackie would cause a distraction on the dock, starting it with some help from Jayce’s illusion magic. Paul would keep watch for guards and help in the distraction if needed, resorting to violence if he had to. Fa’ren would board the ship while everyone was occupied, disabling any locks that kept the metals secured. Once he had done so, he was supposed to load as much as he could into sacks and wait for Jayce to join him in carrying out the loot, getting clear of the dock as fast as possible. That was the plan, and it actually worked. In less than ten minutes, the four of them had successfully made off with the exotic metals completely undetected. They wanted to celebrate, but they knew they had to lay low, so they waited until the ship left the dock again, and they sent Jayce off with the metal to cash it all in. What none of them expected was for Jayce to hastily return with no coin and no metal, but that’s exactly what happened. Jayce explained that he’d made a grave error. The man they were selling to was a member of the Rogues Guild, which was fine. What wasn’t fine was that apparently the ship they stole from was a smuggling vessel that was also owned by the Rogues Guild, and Jayce didn’t know that until he was informed by his buyer. Jayce had barely talked his way out of it, and in doing so he had to give the man all the metal with no pay. But worse, the man had demanded that Jayce give him the names of everyone involved in the heist and how they pulled it off. Faced with the threat of potentially getting killed if he didn’t cooperate, Jayce told him everything. The man let him go, but first he made it clear that he was going to report what happened to the Guild, and that they might not be so pleased to hear about their competition in Crowsport.

Jackie was unreasonably infuriated, especially considering how well Jayce had handled everything in the past. Paul was stoic through the news, simply scowling at what he heard while he tried to calm Jackie. But all Fa’ren felt was shock. He’d thought that Jayce was invincible, that the man couldn’t possibly make such a simple and horrible mistake. Fa’ren had striven to be as good as Jayce was, then in that moment, he suddenly realized that he didn’t want to be as good as Jayce was; he wanted to be better. After a very brief conversation and some very strong words, they decided that it was time to go their separate ways… at least for now. Jayce would go to Barkamsted, Fa’ren would go to Falkvard, and Paul and Jackie (who had become a bit of an item) would go to Whitecliff. None of them would wait around to find out what the Rogues Guild had in store for them. They said their goodbyes, and they each got passage to their separate destinations over the course of the next few days. With all of that behind him, Fa’ren is headed to Falkvard.

Other/Extra: 

Just to call additional attention to it, I have it down that Fa’ren knows how to read and write Common, Elvish, and Ancient Elvish (as explained in his backstory).

(Photo Credit: heroforge.com)

Magic Biography; Explain your character's magic through backstory application: 

When Fa’ren was seven years old and digging in the garden to plant herbs, he came across a simple looking spherical stone that was about the size of an adult human’s fist. As he grabbed the stone and pulled it from the dirt, he hesitated a moment to toss it away since it felt quite a bit lighter than it looked like it would. As he brushed the dirt from it and he examined his find, his mind suddenly opened up to the stone in his hands. He could clearly picture the inside of the spherical rock he held as well as how it could influence the world around him. He realized that the stone was a geode and that inside of it were thousands of tiny crystals that grew and shrank and shifted constantly, and he inherently knew that it was a tool that could be used to move pieces of earth, shape glass, and even dissolve solid stone into sand. Startled and excited, he took the stone to his grandfather to share his find. Dresil was very skeptical at first, saying that he shouldn’t play make believe while he’s supposed to be doing his chores, but seemed to think twice once Fa’ren explained what the stone was supposed to be able to do, recognizing his description. Dresil called for a mage to visit their farm, and the very next week, a high-elven woman came for the stone. This mage confirmed that the young ash elf was correct, and that the geode was a “trinket” that was aligned to earth magic, and that it would allow a mage with an earth aspect to channel spells at a “medium” level of strength. She told Fa’ren and his grandfather that some ash elves had been found to have special interactions with magical items and enchantments unique to the other races, but that little was known about it beyond that simple fact.

The mage offered to buy the trinket off of Dresil, but Fa’ren protested, saying that he found it and that he should get something for it too. If it wasn’t for the high-elf’s presence, his grandfather would have certainly knocked him upside the head, but because of their guest and reasoning known only to him, he agreed. He said that he would sell the trinket to the mage on the condition that the mage would spend the time to teach Fa’ren the basics of magic and do what they could to find out what exactly Fa’ren’s “special interactions” were. The mage agreed, and produced what appeared to be a small lantern, no more than six inches tall, with a frame made of gold and frosted white glass. She asked for the boy to examine it and tell her what he determined. Before he even touched it, he found that he knew it to be enchanted. But as he took it in his hands and looked closely, he could visibly see what it was capable of in his mind. He told the mage that when the bearer of the lantern spoke the word [E]“Illuminate,” the lantern would activate and produce a soft light for twelve hours, and that it needed to be exposed to sunlight for twelve hours before it would function again. He also told the mage that it was not fully charged yet, as it still needed to be in the sunlight for two more hours. The mage confirmed that he was correct once again, and bade him to try to activate the lamp, knowing fully well that it wasn’t ready to be activated. When Fa’ren did speak the word to activate the little lantern, not only did it successfully light up, but it was even a little brighter than he’d anticipated it would be. The mage was confused but intrigued, and confirmed that the light was slightly brighter than what she had observed before. After ten hours of the mage teaching Fa’ren about the basics of magic through the rest of the day, they witnessed the lamp go out. She pointed out that the lantern had been successfully activated prematurely, and it was indeed brighter than it normally would have been, but that it also expired faster than it would have when it was fully charged. She announced that she would return the next day to finish Fa’ren’s lessons and purchase the trinket, and so she was. Halfway through the next day of studies, after the lantern had been in the sun for only six hours, she told Fa’ren to try to activate the lantern prematurely as he had before. He attempted, but was unsuccessful. They continued their studies, and when night came and the lantern had been in the sun for a full twelve hours, she had him activate the lantern again. Once more, the light the lantern gave off was slightly brighter than it normally would be. At that point, the mage purchased the trinket and departed, promising to send a letter if anything out of the ordinary happened with the lamp once they had left. Sure enough, they received a letter the next morning informing them that the lantern’s light had lasted into the next morning, finally going out after thirteen hours. In the letter, the mage explained that while Fa’ren could make educated guesses, there was likely no exact way of knowing how his gift could affect the magic items he used in his life without experimentation.

Fa’ren learned about the basics of Soul, Outlier, and Elemental magics as well as summaries on how trinkets functioned and how mages progress in power, taking extensive notes that he would go on to review and study over the next many years of his life, as enforced by his grandfather. But perhaps more important than what he learned about others was what he learned about himself: Because he was an ash elf, he had the ability to detect enchantments and trinkets from a distance as well as identify them upon inspection, he was capable of activating some magic items during a time they’d normally be inert (with limits), his use of some enchantments could potentially enhance their effects in unknown ways, and that there may still be more to discover about his gift. Only time and experimentation would tell.

Please explain, in your own words, the limits Ash-Elves have placed on them:

All ash elves are incapable of casting any kind of magic themselves. The only trait that magically gifted ash elves have in common with normal mages is that they are able to detect the presence of enchantments and trinkets as well as identify their effects after inspecting them briefly. Other than that, all of their abilities are exclusive to their race. The way they interact with magic items isn’t always as straightforward as what the magic items might state their abilities and limitations are. Items might be able to be activated before they’re fully “recharged,” their abilities may be enhanced, or they might take less effort to use from the wielder than normal. Put simply, it will come down to what the GMs decide the extra effect will be, or if there’s any effect at all.

Please give a description of the magic system in your own words:

There are three different categories of magic; Soul Magic, Outlier Magic, and Elemental magic. Each of these categories have their own subcategories, or “Aspects.” Characters are limited on how many aspects they can choose by their race. These chosen aspects do not have to come from any specific category (unless otherwise stated in the racial key features), so it’s possible for some characters to have aspects in multiple different categories. To channel any kind of magic, one must first possess a trinket. Trinkets are aligned to specific aspects, so if a character has multiple different aspects, they will need a separate trinket that aligns with each of those aspects in order to cast all of them. Trinkets also have predetermined levels of strength that dictates the maximum amount of magical power that can be channeled through them. From least magically potent to most magically potent, these levels are; weak, feeble, moderate, medium, strong, powerful, wondrous, and divine. Mages must practice an aspect’s magic in order to grow in magical power, and each level of magical potency not only dictates how effective a mage’s spells are, but also unlocks new abilities for that aspect and determines how many spells the mage can cast and at what tier of power those spells will be. If for any reason a mage goes a long period of time without casting spells from a certain aspect, their progression towards the next tier of spells will begin to roll back, which is called “Decay.” Being highly experienced in multiple aspects will begin to grant mages “Mastery,” which allows those mages to cast even more spells than originally dictated by their primary aspect.

Outside of what I’ve already said, the spell effects in Saphriel are very open-ended and up to interpretation. While each aspect has example spells that are appropriate for each tier, those are not the only things that mages can accomplish, as those spells also serve as guidelines for roughly how effective spells of those tiers should be. It’s up to the player’s creativity and the GMs rulings to determine the endless possibilities!

Minor Lored Item Requests:

I believe that these three things are fun flavor items that mechanically are no different than starting without them, as anyone could just describe their starting clothes to be this way. Let me know if you think any of them would give me an advantage over other players, and I’ll happily adjust them or just go without. ^.^

&8Rogue’s Tactical Raiment

&7This full outfit has been custom tailored to fit a person of slender build who stands at approximately six feet tall. It consists of a breathable linen undershirt, a dark grey long-sleeved jacket with minor padding on the shoulders and elbows, a pair of black gloves that have their index finger and thumb uncovered, dark green trousers, knee pads, and plenty of straps, belts, and buckles to keep everything snug. It also includes many secure pockets on the insides and outsides of nearly every piece. While it certainly isn’t anything extraordinary, it appears the wearer of this outfit has taken exceptionally good care of it.

&8Rogue’s Tactical Boots

&7This pair of dark brown and black leather boots have been custom made to fit slim feet that are exactly twenty nine centimeters long. They have blackened metal caps over their tips and on the back of their heels as well as leather covers with buckles in the back that serve to cover and protect the laces on the front, making them more durable and resistant to wet weather and daily wear-and-tear than the average turnshoe. While they aren’t particularly special, they could last a long time yet should the wearer continue to keep them in good shape.

&8Rogue’s Tactical Cloak

&7This simple hooded cloak of black canvas is more than meets the eye. With the hood pulled up over the head, the wearer can unfold an attached piece of canvas with two eye holes from under the peak of the hood in order to cover one's face, effectively donning a mask and potentially making it harder to identify the wearer. The hood and its cowl are separate from the rest of the cloak, and the clasp of the cape portion itself is designed to slip open should it ever be under more pressure than a moderately strong tug. Should it ever get caught on something during a hasty getaway, this would allow the wearer to keep running and leave the detached cape behind.