Tyranthrax Shadowheart

[kitteninablender]

Template For Character Creation Reward:

First Name: Tyranthrax
Last Name: Shadowheart

Appearance: A Gruff beard, gaunt form, and a lazy eye. The very epitome of "Desheveled."
Race: Human
Age: 36
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 140
Eyes: Grey
Hair: Grey
Facial Hair Style: A gruff beard that looks like it may have a bird living in it.

Personality Profile: See Below.
General Health: Physically fit as a fiddle. Mentally he's utterly FUBAR'ed.
Deity: Oghma
Initial Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Profession: Unemployed Bum.
Base Class & Proposed Development: Warlock, going Daggerspell Mage
Habits/Hobbies: Sleeping, drinking ale to "quieten the voices."
Languages: Common, Elven
Weapon of Choice: Dagger

Background: Tyranthrax is a Warlock pacted to a being from the Far Realm. He does not know the Old One's name, and likely couldn't pronounce it if he did. The Old One provides him with Knowledge and Power in exchange for being able to "linger" inside of his brain and experience what it is like to exist as a physical being. As such Tyranthrax will oftentimes seem to speak to SOMETHING that is not there, which is actually the Entity (as he calls it) that is along for the ride in his brain.

Goals: Tyranthrax seeks to obtain knowledge and recoup what he has lost of his sanity. This is very difficult.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts: The Old One that exists inside of Tyranthrax' Brain is tied to the Plane of Thought. As such The Old One is nigh-Omniscient. The amount of knowledge that he can bestow to Tyranthrax, however, is quite limited, and is limited by what Tyranthrax' feeble Human brain is capable of processing. His insanity is due to the strain placed upon his brain by quite literally having his brain connected to a source of nigh-infinite knowledge. Potential plot-hooks might be that someone else learns of Tyranthrax' connection to this old one and wishes to exploit that connection to gain forbidden knowledge. The Entity exists entirely inside the Plane of Thought, linked to Tyranthrax' mind through a psychic connection. As such: only Tyranthrax can perceive the entity. Reading Tyranthrax' mind could reveal the Entity to others....much to their dismay. The Entity keeps Tyranthrax's mind in a sort of "shark cage", protecting his mind (faintly) from the trauma of perceiving the Entity. The Entity would not be so kind to others.

Personality: Tyranthrax is the very epitome of Chaotic Neutral. He does what he wishes, when he wishes, at a whim that seems completely random. But this is for a reason: The Old One inside of Tyranthrax's mind is an Omni-dimensional being that exists outside of the bounds of normal time and space. As such the "Entity" can predict the outcomes of events as if he were watching the fall of Dominoes. The Entity might compel Tyranthrax, for example, to throw his drink on someone. This results in the man taking time to clean himself, give Tyranthrax a proper thrashing....but also be ten minutes late in coming home. Too late to stop the Orcs that would slaughter his family. This adventurer would then take up a crusade to stop Orcs and in the process change history. All because of a spilled drink. Tyranthrax essentially serves as an "Engine of Causality." A tool used by the Old One to set events into motion. The initial push of the dominoes. (This also gives DMs quite literally infinite plot hooks with which to set events into motion, via the Entity's communion with Tyranthrax.) Tyranthrax will oftentimes babble things that seem completely odd or insane. Most of the time they are. Sometimes, however, he receives certain "insights" into things that others may not get. The result of his link with a, quite literally, nigh-Omniscient being.

To Verify: Tyranthrax is not Omniscient. His link to the Entity, however, allows the Entity to give him tidbits of information into different things. The Entity cannot reveal too much to him, however, or risk breaking Tyranthrax's mind permanently.

[kitteninablender]

Edited a bit.

[kitteninablender]

Updated for Review

[DM Narshe]

Ground your character in Forgotten Realms lore, not Lovecraft. No Yog-Sothoth or Hastur.

Direct links with god-like beings won't work either. Assuming a constant communication would be godmodding the NPC and leverage for metagamed information. Nothing even remotely Omniscient. No whispering voices telling him dark secrets about people. Change this.

6'2" and 140lb would be ridiculously scrawny... If you want "physically fit as a fiddle" then you're looking at 180-200lbs. More if he's muscled.

[kitteninablender]

That's fine. I can always say he's pacted to the Kaorti.

MOre information here: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Kaorti

Kaorti would make more sense, actually.

[kitteninablender]

I'm going to tell you a story. You don't have to believe it. You don't have to even think about it too hard. In fact: I encourage you not to. All that I ask is that you listen.

Imagine, if you will, that there is an ant colony. Now imagine that Ant colony is inside of a glass case. A Child's ant farm. Seems relatively simple, right?

Now imagine that you are one tiny, insignificant little ant. A single ant living among a colony of billions of others. You scurry about in your day to day lives and you pretend that everything is okay, and that you are much larger and more significant than you actually are.

Then imagine, one day, that you learn both a wondrous and a horrible truth: Your ant farm, the only home you have ever known, your entire world...is just a speck. Your entire world. Everyone you have ever known. Every leader and beggar. Every saint and sinner. Every Lord and Serf. Every Noble and peasant. All that you have ever known is nothing more than a tiny pale blue dot suspended in a sunbeam.

Imagine that you learn that your ant farm is just one tiny little shard of a much larger crystal. And in those other shards are entirely other worlds. Entire other civilizations. Some of them are just like you. Others are radically different.

Now let's take our imagination a little bit farther. Imagine that between all of these "shards" there is a vast emptiness. A vast space if you will. A great gap between the stars and worlds. Now imagine, if you will, that the emptiness....isn't quite so empty.

Imagine, if you will, that there are things that exist within the Blackness beyond the stars. Thing that have existed since the very beginning of our multiverse. Things older than the Gods, and likely just as powerful and beyond our reach.

Imagine, now, that you are ONE of these things. Imagine that you have been around since near the very beginning of it all. The beginning of everything. Imagine that you watched, in silence, from afar as the crystals took their shapes. Imagine that you were witness to the first of all life. The first drops of water in the oceans. Imagine that you were there for it all.

Now imagine that on one of these tiny little crystal shards a species of life emerged. Simplistic. Little hairy apes who swung around in trees and flung their feces at one another. Imagine that these insignificant, stupid little creatures are just now starting to populate.

Now imagine that after being awake for eons...you decide to take a nap. Just a nap. A short little cat nap just so you can regain your strength. But how long of a nap to take? You've been around for billions and billions of years...a nap of a million years or so isn't that long, is it? So you curl up on your favorite couch, or whatever your omni-dimensional species refers to as a "Chair"...and you nap a while. And you nap. And you nap.

You take a short nap...that lasts for two million years. Not so long really for a being who has been around since the beginning. But in this "short" period of time everything has changed.

You look back down on this tiny shard you had visited only a "short" time ago. But something is so very strange here: those little knuckle-draggers that you watched just starting to come out of their caves have changed. EVOLVED even.

These....monkeys...they have created Art. They have discovered agriculture!

They have created "civilization." They have created language!.

They have discovered SCIENCE, and they are infinitely curious about just how the Universe works....and they aren't even yet fully aware that their tiny little shard is just one among billions.

How curious would you be? How enthralled would you be? Do you make contact? Do you attempt to bring them knowledge that would advance their primitive little "civilization" by hundreds of thousands of years?

How would you feel gazing down upon these insects and seeing that they have made Gods and Goddesses of their own? Gods who hold dominion over this one tiny little facet of reality? Gods to whom they bow, and scrape, and swear Fealty to as if they were the Oldest beings among Reality?

Now imagine, my friend, that you decide to make contact with these insects. Imagine that, for whatever reason your chaotic mind can come up with, that you actually want to TALK to these creatures. Even if it's only to say "Hello! Yes, you there! You are not alone in the Universe!"

Now imagine that you try. Imagine that you reach into the Shard to speak to one of them. To make your presence known. You reach into this tiny little shard and pick one of them at random, and you say "Hello there! Yes, you! I've been watching since the beginning, and I'm quite impressed with how far along you've come..."

Now imagine that their primitive little minds can't take it. They just can't handle it. One look upon you and their primitive minds start to break. One utterance of your voice and their psyche begins to cave in upon itself. Imagine that you are so far beyond what they are capable of seeing or capable of hearing that merely attempting to make sense of your existence would drive them completely mad...

What would you do? How would you communicate? Perhaps send them alien objects of unknown origin for them to decode upon their own, in time? Perhaps send forth denizens of your home as interstellar mediators? The lesser parasites from your home..the Illithid, the Aboleths...they have already made a presence there. Why not you?

But how then to communicate? First you must learn about them. First you must learn how their minds work and how they would accept you. So you reach down, and you take one. Just one. Just one little ant among billions...it'll never be missed. So you take this tiny little ant and you bring him into your home. And you poke it. And you prod at it.

Now imagine that your essence is so powerful, so ALIEN to this creature...that it begins to transform it merely by being in your presence. It becomes less natural. It becomes...Pseudonatural...and then you decide to return it to it's home so that it can spread your message! To tell people that you exist! To tell people that you're out there, and that you want to make contact!

But it doesn't work that way at all. Now imagine that this abomination that you have unleashed upon an unsuspecting world has begun to warp your message. It calls itself "Kaorti." It tries to deliver your message, but to do so it must make others like Itself. It must connect to people.

It must make a Pact.

Now imagine, my friend, that you're gazing down upon this world...and you finally have someone who GETS you. Someone who KNOWS you exist. Someone who BELIEVES that you are actually out there, and finally knows that they are just a small, insignificant speck of dust compared to the whole of this giant, wonderful cosmos that we're all a part of.

You have....a child. It may not be yours biologically. It may not even be the same species. But he's YOURS. He's your little speck of hope that can bridge the gap between the Kaorti you have created and the other Ants that have yet to acknowledge your presence.

Imagine that you want to nurture them. Imagine that you want to TEACH them. Oh, the things you could teach them. Imagine finally being able to show someone just how the Multiverse works. Imagine teaching them about concepts such as "Gravity", "Electromagnetism", and the laws that govern nature. Imagine teaching them that Time is entirely relative, that their primitive minds are simply uncapable of imagining it as anything less than Linear.

Imagine being able to teach them about Matter! About Biology! About how Life came unto their world! Imagine being able to teach them that their "Gods" feed off of their Worship to grow strong...but you don't have to.

..you don't have to.

...why SHOULDN'T they worship you!?

YOU HAVE BEEN AROUND SINCE THE BEGINNING! YOU WERE OLD WHEN THE STARS WERE YOUNG!!

YOU HAVE REACHED OUT TO THEM, THESE ANTS! THESE INSECTS!! YOU COULD CRUSH THEM ALL WITH BUT A GESTURE!!

..if they were worth your time. They aren't. Not yet. They are all so small. All so insignificant. But they will learn about you, with time. Because you are Patient.

After all.....you have all of the time in Creation.

[[DM] Seren]

After discussing and cementing the knowledge the pact provides, I approve this biography. Contact a DM IG for XP reward. I am leaving this thread UNLOCKED, as it seems you intend to use it as a journal.

[DM Bloodlust]

Rewarded.