Valshar The Necromancer

[Aelcar]

Template For Character Creation Reward:

First Name: Valshar
Last Name: lost in the dust of the past, like his House itself (See below)

Appearance: Tall for an Ilythiiri, and slender. Very sure of himself (perhaps too much), evidently more agile than strong. He uses an ivory quarterstaff as a walking stick, in stark contrast with his black robes and mantle.
Race: Drow
Age: 240
Height above average
Weight: below average, considering how tall he is
Eyes: burning red
Hair: silver white, shoulder long
Facial Hair Style: none

Personality Profile: See story below
General Health: His physical strength is very low, and he needs to rest rather often. He looks rather frail.
Deity: Kiaransalee
Initial Alignment: Neutral Evil
Profession: Necromancer
Base Class & Proposed Development: Wizard , Pale Master, Arcane Scholar, Shadowdancer (See story below for reasons)
Habits/Hobbies: Loves reading, obsessed with extending his lifespan, eternal life, lichdom. Likes to play chess, knowledge in all forms.

Languages: Very many (among others: draconic, gnome, goblin ...)
Weapon of Choice: none. The dagger is pretty much a tool, as the quarterstaff is. The real weapon is magic.
Background: See story below
Goals: Regain his powers and increase his knowledge, become immortal (lichdom also desirable), possibly in quest for godhood.
Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts: See story below


- When a House Falls...

The story of the Drow faern now known as Valshar (whatever his name was originally) started more than 200 years ago, in Undrek'Thoz, the city divided in 10 "districts" in the Underdark region called the Earthroot, several miles underground below Thay. He was born in 1150, curiously the very same year Sszas Tam transcended his mortality, becoming a Lich. His father was the Loremaster of a quite small house, and since he was gifted with modest talent in sorcery, he started to teach magic to his son from a very young age. The Drow child was very intelligent, and devoured books at a surprising pace, memorizing huge amounts of knowledge in few days, months and years, and showing a promising inclination towards the arcane arts. However, his body was frail, and his health always precarious, so much that no magic school took him in, not wanting to waste time and effort in teaching to a whelp who was likely never going to live much longer, let alone face the trials of magical indoctrination. It is said his house was widely regarded as weak, and was by then out of favor and hardly tolerated. It is said that was the reason he could not find a place for his scholarship, and the reason why the house itself was destroyed without a trace left, literally scraped from history. It is said, but that is not what really happened.Surely, the Yath did not help them when disaster came, but the real reason for their demise was the wrong choice in their alliances, as well as their deep involvment in very dangerous surface affairs: they opposed Sszas Tam, Zulkir of Necromancy and now de facto ruler of Thay, thinking they could restore the house's glory with the support (in gold, magic items and men) of his adversaries. The Lich crushed his enemies, and the weak, pathetic drow house which supported them was trodden underfoot as a consequence. Noone survived. Well, noone apart from Valshar (let's call him like this) and his father...The magical skills of the old loremaster surely could not protect them, and it is unclear how they escaped the slaughter. There is a fascinating hypotesis, according to which one of their allies was, in truth, a wayward Deep Ilmaskari wizard, and that he used his powers to slip them away unnoticed through secret tunnels that only he knew...fascinating, that such a creature would help Ilythiiri avert their funeral...but then again, perhaps it's just a fancy theory, a tale.

- Valshar the Vain, The Necromancer. The Dead.

In any case, Valshar survived, and (supposedly with the help of this rather peculiar, ally) kept traveling through the Endless Waste with his surviving parent, continuing his studies of magic autonomously since he now far surpassed his father's abilities (some say the Ilmaskari wizard helped the boy in exchange for lessons on drow lore and drow language from the Loremaster...), till they reached what remained of an abandoned ilmaskari settlement, which ruins were hidden on an island in the centre of a large grotto, surrounded by a subterranean sea. It is unclear what happened in those years, but one thing is sure: Valshar The Dark, The Necromancer, was born those days.
Reports of few creatures and explorers coming across that place are contradictory: a party of adventurers (Kivvil tomb raiders, all dead few years later after having spent the rest of their lives as rothen...) claimed the city was overrun with undead creatures, under the direct control of a Vampire wizard wearing an ancient ilmaskari robe.A drow fahliel, looking for artifacts, claimed with his last breath he was talking with a drow faern, that apparently had taken residence in there, about the arcane tomes contained in the settlement's library before being struck down by undead darting out of every dark place all around him...
The Yath sent a squad to investigate the matter, but the only one that came back was a young yath'abban babbling of a black robed necromancer by the name of Valshar, controlling the city with a small army of undead, and of a strange magic portal she could not identify. When a Yath'Tallar herself gathered her retinue and traveled to the cursed place to annihilate the dark mage,she found no sign of undead, or dark clad jaluks, or magic portals...although a rothe svirfneblin has been reported to try and bring to the attention of his jabbress a small piece of cloth with a symbol...a slim drow female hand with bone-white rings on all fingers. The jabbress burned the pagan symbol of the Vengeful Banshee, and sacrificed the rothe on the altar of malla Lolth because he dared waste her time.There was no sign of necromancy, nor residual traces of any weave. Valshar was gone, only the dead were left.

- The Phantom Wizard

It is said the portal lead to the Netherese sanctuary of the Undead King, Larloch. Valshar sought his guidance, according to the theory that the fall of his house and his travels provoked in him a "need" for security that he believed could only be found in undeath, namely Lichdom, its purest and highest form. Larloch himself rarely refuses a meeting with someone powerful enough to get to him...if he is also POLITE enough, of course. It is not clear what followed, but it seems as though the pursuit for a Netherese Scroll, and the attempt to wield its power sprung an ancient trap designed to annihilate all life close to the relic. Valshar used every ounce of his considerable might to save his life, but his inner energy and powers were drained away from him, leaving him weaker than he had been in over 2 centuries. Trying to survive in this difficult situation while slowly getting his powers back, Valshar developed an uncanny ability to shadowmeld to compensate for his temporary failing magic. As he traveled through Faerun, attracted by the knowledge available in cities like Candlekeep and Sshamath, many surfacers reported a cursed Drow mage with the ability to just vanish in plain sight: this was also quickly dismissed as a foolish fable, and tales of the Ghost Mage are now just children's stories. One way or another, The Spectre, The Dark Mage, The Phantom Wizard reached Sshamath, next step (maybe the decisive one) on his path for Eternal Life...

[DM RabidBadger]

*bump. Waiting to see them in game to reward.

[DM RabidBadger]

Reviewed - XP rewarded