Full name: Ereval Rynn
Age: 323
Race: Moon elf
Sex: Male
Date of birth: 8 Ches, 1039 DR
Place of birth: Silverymoon
Alignment: Neutral good
Patron deity: Labelas Enoreth
Profession: Scholar, diviner
Classes: Wizard (Divination). Future classes: Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep, Archmage
Primary language: Elven
Secondary languages:
Fluency rated 1-10.
- Common (8) - Acquired as a bridge language
- Illuskan (9) - Acquired as a regional language
- Chondathan (9) - Acquired as a regional language
- Dwarvish (7) - Acquired due to Silverymoon's dwarf population
- Sylvan (5) - Studied due to relevance to elven culture
- Draconic (9) - Studied as an arcane language
- Gnomish (8) - Studied as an academic language
- Loross (6) - Studied as a historical arcane language
- Netherese (5) - Studied for research on Netherese history and artifice
- Undercommon (4) - Studied for research on faerzress
- While Ereval was a scholar at the Lady's College, he read enough about the difficulty of divining and teleporting into the Underdark to wonder if it's a phenomenon that could evidence a dualistic relationship between conjuration and divination. He spent about a year gathering and analyzing whatever sources he could access in the city. The findings were too sparse to justify conducting experiments, so Ereval shelved the research. All he could truly say about faerzress is that there seems to be a single phenomenon that inhibits both divination and teleportation, whether cast from surface-to-Underdark or Underdark-to-surface.
Ereval's midnight blue hair, once nearly black, has begun fading to a greyish blue not unlike the glaucous coating on a dark grape. His face is gaunt with green, gold-flecked eyes set deep above sharp cheekbones. He has a slight build with little muscle but gracefulness befitting an elf and the blessing of good health.
He wears robes unless circumstances dictate otherwise. Preferably heavier fabrics, dyed turquoise or green, adorned with flowing linework, and layered with mantles, shawls, and the like.
Psychological description:
Ereval isn't venerable so much as weary. He lost people over the years, most recently his cousin - his best friend and last living relative in Silverymoon. Grief won't shroud memories of home forever, but it won't fade until he makes new memories elsewhere.
A place like Candlekeep would suit well. A good library is a gateway to knowledge, experiences, and ideas spanning continents and ages. A means to share what he learns for the benefit of many. Ereval spent much of his youth on the path to becoming an Olin Gisir, a tomb of forbidden lore exhumed if needed to avert crisis; he understands the value of keeping secrets. But it isn't his nature. The scholar's path is his calling.
322 years among all sorts of Silvaerens was something like the Myth Drannan ideal of racial harmony. Ereval is a moon elf in his heart of hearts, but shuns the idea of elven superiority. He aims to be accepting of decent folk. Humans leap before they look; sometimes they achieve by leaps and bounds. Dwarves hold grudges over trifles; sometimes they're the voice of responsibility. Most halflings and particularly half-elves are even more accommodating than Ereval, though, and gnomes tend to suit his scholarly sensibilities.
Evil deeds, however, are to be rejected no matter who does them. Nor does Ereval have patience for greed, exploitation, or chauvinism. If Labelas Enoreth offers wisdom to those willing to learn, young or old, then a person's efforts and character are worth more than their status, wealth, or origin. Egalitarianism may not be Labelan dogma, but it is Ereval's conviction.
Literal-minded as he is (often to his embarrassment), song, poetry, and a love of architecture and landscapes live in Ereval's heart. He's comfortable in a study, but it's essential to venture out into the forests, gardens, and (well-kept) streets now and then. He is observant until he sinks his focus into a task or text or train of thought. Once his mind is elsewhere, he can forget his surroundings for hours on end.
Religious views:
Labelas Enoreth teaches how to live a considered life in an ancient, ever-changing world. Even an aged sage like Ereval remains a pupil. That he has learned enough to enlighten others is a blessing that comes with the responsibility of sharing what he knows. Thus does the world grow.
Labelas ensures that time flows as a stream of history and gathers as a well of experience. To know the past is to understand the world's endless process of becoming. No matter what we wish, the past cannot be changed. If it could, we would be lost: the past would not inform the present - the time for action - and we would neither be ourselves nor know ourselves. Glimpsing the past and future through divination grants a higher perspective of one's place in the timestream.
Ereval offers devotions to other Seldarine as well, holding Sehanine Moonbow in high esteem as the patron of his deceased aunt, uncle, and cousin. As for the dwarven and Faerûnian pantheons, he respects the benevolent deities but only regularly invokes Mystra, Azuth, Savras, Oghma, and Deneir.
Biography
Family
Mother: Olauth Rynn (NG moon elf abjurer/Olin Gisir). 506 years old. Evereskan. Relocated to Evermeet with Vaeliss 12 years ago, continuing their work while living near Ereval's remaining grandparents.
Father: Vaeliss Rynn (CG moon elf conjurer/Olin Gisir). 495 years old. Evereskan. Relocated to Evermeet with Olauth 12 years ago, continuing their work while living near Ereval's remaining grandparents.
Uncle: Isidreth Silvermantle (CG moon elf bard). Effectively Ereval's guardian. Brother of Olauth. Evereskan. Died at the age of 373 in 1232 in a collapsing building.
Aunt: Loquenna Silvermantle (CG moon elf smith). Silvaeren. Died at the age of 177 in 1031 after giving birth to Lhandruil.
Cousin: Lhandruil Silvermantle (CG moon elf ranger). Effectively Ereval's sister. Silvaeren. Died at the age of 317 in 1348 while adventuring (possibly working with Harpers).
Other blood relatives are few, distant, and uninvolved in Ereval's life.
History
History loomed over Ereval's life before it began. His grandparents, mere decades old, were evacuated from Myth Drannor in 712. They later settled in Evereska and became dedicated to their lost home's legacy - and someday, its reclamation. The cause was eventually passed down to Olauth and Vaeliss, who spent decades adventuring before deciding to nest in Silverymoon. Their own parents had left Evereska for Evermeet, and Isidreth was in Silverymoon raising Lhandruil (then 8 years old) in Loquenna's absence.
Ereval grew up alongside Lhandruil. While she excelled at archery and woodcraft, he was entranced by the Art and Tel'Quessir history. His parents, pleased, began guiding these studies so that their child would one day be prepared to take up the cause of lost Myth Drannor. In Ereval's 72nd summer, Olauth and Vaeliss announced a journey to Waterdeep to rendezvous with a contact from Evermeet. Olauth and Isidreth quarreled about whether Ereval was ready to travel in dangerous lands, so the decision was left to him. He chose to stay in Silverymoon. To visit the library of Everdusk Hall. To unravel the workings of read magic. To spend time with Lhandruil, his closest friend.
Olauth and Vaeliss travelled more and more following that summer, eventually paying for Ereval to enroll at the Lady's College in hopes that it would help him observe, reject, and transcend the short-sighted ways of 'short-lives.' It was nonetheless an unmatched opportunity to study spellcraft from across the Realms throughout the ages. Ereval focused on learning divination to accelerate his research.
Upon concluding his studies, Olauth and Vaeliss returned from afield possessed by great purpose. Years of errantry had finally borne fruit, plans had been set in motion, and Ereval would have a role to play in the future. His original education resumed. Though too little remained to study the traditions of elven dualists, he delved into conjuration as divination's diametric opposite and complement. Though it was too soon to learn forbidden lore, he studied abjurations for keeping such secrets. Years passed with little joy other than times spent beyond the walls with Lhandruil, learning to survive.
The plague of 1150 led Ereval and his family to flee for the High Forest. They returned to find almost half of Silverymoon's populace had died. A fifth of Ereval's friends, colleagues, and acquaintances vanished, and the elves were just as dead as the 'short-lives.' All that was left to save was what the lost had written. Ereval returned to the Lady's College and began his career by archiving the intellectual remains of scholars who perished in the plague.
When he came of age nine years later, Ereval was to accompany Olauth and Vaeliss to Waterdeep for an introduction with an honoured visitor from Evermeet. Again, he refused. His work was incomplete. To go aid Myth Drannor's cause while one of its sister cities struggled to live on in its spirit... it was understandable for his parents, but Ereval was Silvaeren.
Continuing at the College, he taught divination but otherwise focused on recovery efforts. He served as a consulting sage at the Vault of Sages while testing magical means of retrieving books faster, and helped process Elven texts at Everdusk Hall waiting to be copied and translated for the Vault. After completing these projects, Ereval finally settled into research and teaching at the College.
Pleasant years followed until 1232. High Mage Sepur abandoned the city and triggered a succession crisis - Spellsfall - that saw 25 wizards destroy each other and swathes of the city. Reputed as a scholar first and a mage second, Ereval managed to lay low. Isidreth, however, died in a building collapsed by a spell duel. The duellers died as well, and Silvermayor Scalson soon took power in a compromise to restore peace. Still grief gnawed at Ereval and Lhandruil.
In 1235, the Black Horde sieged Silverymoon and Warlord Shieldsunder usurped the Silvermayor. An army officer appeared in Ereval's office with an ‘offer’ to take an oath of loyalty and secrecy or accept a geas to the same effect. When asked about the geas elapsing, the officer made a veiled threat that Ereval could die first. He took the oath. His assigned task was ‘moongazing’ for the military: the officer provided intelligence gathered by powerful diviners; Ereval researched, verified, and contextualized it. He worked in the field once to ensure alchemist’s fire traps went off at the peak of an orc assault that he helped predict. His success was hideous to behold. Shieldsunder died soon after. Ereval’s moongazing work disappeared from his office. Questions about what remained of Shieldsunder’s authority (including the oath) went unanswered.
But the end of the siege and the beginning of High Mage Alustriel's rule brought better days. After the Spellguard repulsed a fell army led by Zhentarim, Banites, and Myrkulites in 1272, Lhandruil began adventuring far past the Silver Marches once every few years. Each expedition was lengthy, demanding, and confidential, but Ereval was glad to see her live with renewed purpose. They last spoke in 1347: Ereval saw Lhandruil off and made plans to visit Everdusk Hall together once it was rebuilt. Instead, a handful of her fellow adventurers returned her body in repose the next year. They could explain little except that she fought for a good cause and didn't suffer.
Ereval spent 13 years passing on much of his belongings and responsibilities while completing research dependent on lore in Silverymoon. In 1361, he left home. He planned a long journey stopping at Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate, and finally Candlekeep. There, he could become a scholar anew.
Future
- Join the Avowed of Candlekeep. To preserve, expand, and share knowledge according to principles of caution and reciprocity is a good cause, and it would be nice to be somewhere peaceful. A place where paper doesn't burn is rare and well worth protecting.
- Continue research into arcana, spellcraft, history, and topics relevant to happenings in the region.
- In the long term, create a spell (maybe something that can transcribe text).
- Remembrance: A silver ring inscribed inside with the phrase "Who does it help?" in Elven. Ereval commissioned it shortly after coming of age.
- Eternal Cycle: A brooch depicting the setting sun of Labelas Enoreth, used as neck jewellery. It was a gift from Ereval's parents; a reminder that what leaves us will return in some form, given time.
- Handbook: A folding wax tablet and accompanying stylus that Ereval has taken notes with since childhood.
- Olauth, Vaeliss, and/or their associates might have a request for Ereval.
- The right artifact or text would be worth going on an adventure to acquire.
- If Ereval joins the Avowed, Candlekeep's affairs would be his concern as well.