Description
You see a tall, slender elf man with shining green eyes and long, golden
hair. His hair has been braided and pulled back behind his shoulders in the
style of the high elves of Darsylon. His symmetrical face is marred by a
long, ugly scar that runs from his left ear all the way to his chin, as if
he had once been slashed by a jagged blade. But in his eyes, you see
kindness. He is dressed quite simply, by outward appearances. His clothing
is travel worn and understated, thread bare in some places. And yet this
elven man holds himself with the posture of one who has perhaps has served
in a noble house of his kind.
Upon this elf's left wrist is a shining bracelet, perhaps mithril, with a
crest depicting a rearing stag with a sun in its horns.
Role
TLDR Character Summary
Added Sun Jun 25 01:51:32 2023 at level 3:
Character Summary
- Darsylon elf, family murdered and captured by orcs
- Tortured for a long time
- Saw a vision of Azorinne and was granted the ability to heal, surviving and
saving others
- Healing gift faded after rescue
- Seeks Azorinne and the path of the healer
- Will seek to become a Scribe in the Fortress
Personality
Celedyl is a kind person who will never turn his back on one in need. He is a
bit of a dreamer and a deep thinker. Some might find him a bit serious, due to
his desire to find meaning even in small things. But he can be drawn into
levity, given the right atmosphere. Due to the trauma of his past, he suffers
from nightmares. He is fiercely protective of those he cares about or who are
under his care, and would rather die than see them come to harm if he can
prevent it.
A Night of Horror, Capture
Added Sun Jun 25 01:52:58 2023 at level 3:
The door burst open, the frame splintering like kindling. Standing in the
doorway was a huge orc, its breath puffing out in clouds between its jutting,
yellowed tusks in the cold night air. The firelight from inside the home
highlighted the orc's massive frame, while the fires and thick smoke outside
from the burning neighboring homes provided a terrifying backdrop that made
the figure seem more demon than mortal creature. Celedyl cringed against the
back wall of the home, trying to somehow make himself hidden or flat,
invisible, something. But there was noplace to hide. The orc raised its
massive mace to its shoulder, smiling and taking two thudding, heavy steps
forward into the fireplace light.
Just then, Celedyl's father dashed into the room from a hallway, placing
himself between Celedyl and the orc. He was clutching a short sword in his
hand. "Celedyl! Run!" his father shouted. At first, Celedyl could not move,
paralyzed by fear and revulsion of the orc. "RUN!" his father shouted again,
as the orc closed the distance.
Celedyl bolted for the hallway his father had just come from, thinking only of
escape through the rear door beyond. His feet tangled on a rug, as he was
driven to the floor. He heard the sounds of steel on steel behind him. Then
another sound, like a wet slap. He heard his father cry out in pain! Rolling
on the floor, Celedyl looked up just in time to see the orc bring down his
iron mace on his father's prone form, and where once his father's head had
been became a tangled mass of gore and bone.
"FATHER!" Celedyl screamed. He awoke with a start.
His voice echoed in the dark, enclosed space, followed by muffled groans from
unseen people around him. At first, he was disoriented as the sleep slowly
drizzled away from his anguished mind. The orc. His father. Yes, he had been
dreaming. Dreaming of how it had begun for him, days ago. Months ago. He did
not know. Time had no meaning here. Only pain had meaning. He had been
dreaming a nightmare of how it had begun, and now he had woken from that
nightmare into this one.
The Bleeding
Added Sun Jun 25 01:54:36 2023 at level 3:
A dim light trickled in from the barred windows high in the chamber, and with
it the faint sounds of frogs gurking and blorping in what Celedyl assumed was
Blackwater Swamp. The smell of dank rot had bothered him when he had first
come here, but now he did not notice it at all. He glanced groggily down and
to the right at the moldering remains that had once been a fellow captive from
Darsylon. That, too, had once been a smell too overpowering to stand. But it
was strange how the body adapts, even to the worst offenses.
Celedyl hung from the stone wall, his arms raised above his head, shackled to
a steel loop. His feet rested upon wooden crates, spread just wider than
shoulder width. A faint drip, drip, drip reached his ears and he was faintly
aware that it was his blood flowing from the gash that had been made in his
chest, down his body, into a basin that rested below. It had been his turn to
bleed, again.
An orc entered the chamber, keys and weapons clanking and rattling about its
body as it moved to where Celedyl hung. "Not fast enough!" the orc grunted.
"Bleed more!"
Celedyl was suddenly thrust back into full awareness as a sharp pain assaulted
his senses. He looked down in horror to see the orc plunging an iron dagger
into his side, blood pouring from the wound. He screamed in agony, something
that might have been words. Maybe "please." Maybe "stop" or "help." But this
chamber had heard those words before, and they held no power here.
"You want more?" the orc snarled, and raised the knife to Celedyl's face.
Fresh agony pierced him as the orc slit a ragged gash from his ear to his
chin. Blood and tears flowed. The plip plop of the blood in the basin
quickened.
"Stop! You will kill him!" came a woman's voice from outside of Celedyl's
blurring vision. "He is no good to you dead! The blood..." the voice trailed
off as the darkness overtook him.
Azorinne's Light
Added Sun Jun 25 01:57:06 2023 at level 3:
Celedyl woke again. He looked around and saw that he was not on the wall.
Another was on the wall, a young woman. He recognized her. Leilatha was her
name. She was badly beaten, a nasty slice running from her collarbone all the
way to her belly. The basin of blood was nearly full, but the blood still ran.
Leilatha hung there loosely, seemingly unconscious or dead, and Celedyl
remembered the voice he had heard before blacking out. She was maybe the one
who has spoke up for him. She had saved him, shielded him!
He got shakily to his feet. He raised his hand to his face, and then quickly
withdrew it from the stinging pain he found there. He staggered over to the
woman and looked up at her. Her head raised slightly and she looked down at
him with watery eyes.
"You lived," Leilatha said. Her voice was barely a whisper. "You lived."
Celedyl's eyes filled with tears. This woman was suffering, for him. He would
have gladly traded places with her now, to die and spare her this suffering.
Suddenly, he was filled with a strange energy. Without thinking, he raised his
hand up and gently touched the woman's wound. His mind was filled with a
vision, that of a child with golden hair, surrounded by a corona of light. He
spoke a name that swam unbidden into his pained mind. "Azorinne." It felt
right, powerful, so he spoke it again, more loudly. "Azorinne!" Golden light
poured from the wound, as the flesh began to heal. Leilatha looked down at
Celedyl in wonder, the strength returning to her body.
The elves of Darsylon freed the prisoners a few days later, many of whom had
survived repeated bleedings only due to Celedyl's healing gift. The gift had
faded on his return journey to what was left of his home. He felt it go, like
a warm breeze blowing past on a cold night. But he knew that the seed of that
gift remained inside of himself, and he knew what he must do.
"Azorinne," Celedyl whispered to himself.
Meeting Azorinne
Added Fri Jul 7 19:43:14 2023 at level 42:
A quiet and thoughful elf, Celedyl had never been particularly good at
asserting himself. He preferred listening to speaking, which is a valuable
skill much of the time, but can be a hinderance in some situations. One of
those situations, it seemed, was speaking to a child deity whom he revered
above all other things. How does one even speak to a goddess? Just to be in
the physical presence of Her was incredible beyond measure. How could his
words ever be worthy of Her ears?
In his first meeting with Azorinne, he explained to Her how he had received a
vision and had been guided by that vision to become a healer. She had granted
him Her blessings, and given him a task: To consider carefully what would be
his vow to Her. She had also healed an old wound of his that he had carried
since his torture at the hands of the orcs, taking the wound into Herself.
Celedyl thought much of this act in the days following that meeting. That She
would take on the hurts of a humble servant like himself spoke a great deal
about why he had been drawn to Her faith in the first place. For it was the
desire to shield others from harm, even if he must take that harm onto
himself, that guided his path forward as a healer.
And so, when he climbed the mountain again to make his vow, the vow he had
decided upon was simple and to the point. "I vow to place the wellbeing of
those I protect ahead of my own, in both body and in spirit."
The Golden Host, speaking in its chorus of voices through Azorinne, told
Celedyl that it believed in his desire to uphold such a vow. But, it also
expressed its doubt in the value of the vow itself. Would those who Celedyl
protected want or even let him place their wellbeing before his own? Are those
who seek to be selfless in life really just martyring themselves for symbolic
reasons? Celedyl did not know how to respond. For this was truly his deepest
desire, to protect the innocent and the good, even if it must be at his own
expense. He did not wish to throw his life away foolishly to be seen as a
martyr, he only wished to ease the suffering of the world.
Azorinne asked Celedyl, as a thought experiment, to consider why selfishness
might sometimes be desirable, or even necessary. She also tasked him with
"homework" of speaking to his fellows of the light about their thoughts on
justice, especially in regard to how it ties into mercy. And so he left the
shrine that day with his mind reeling.
Thoughts of Selfishness
Added Fri Jul 7 19:53:48 2023 at level 42:
Celedyl, in seeking to explore the idea of selfishness as Azorinne requested,
spoke with others regarding their thoughts. Bazz and Garrick suggested that
selfishness was necessary because one cannot take care of another unless they
have already taken care of themselves. Garrick said that, for example, he has
gathered equipment and items of power for his own use as a Paladin to combat
evil. He could give those items to another, sure, but then he would not be
able to join the fight himself. So while it might seem selfish to take those
things for himself, in reality it serves the greater good. At least that was
the meaning behind what Garrick said, Celedyl thought, since Garrick is often
very difficult to understand.
Bazz had similar thoughts, and urged Celedyl to think around the concept of
what a selfish action looks like. Celedyl suggested that if he had a piece of
bread and was hungry, he could give that bread to another hungry person,
because there we hungry people everywhere. Or he could eat that bread himself.
If he chose to give the bread away, he could starve and thus be unable to help
other people in the future. Celedyl suggested, however, that such an act is
not truly selfish because he is not taking the bread from another's mouth,
simply not giving it away. Is choosing not to be selfless in a situation truly
selfish, or is it simply a neutral act like breathing or walking? Isn't a
truly selfish act one which not only benefits the self, but does so at
another's expense? Bazz did not see it that way.
Another concept that Celedyl expressed was, such as with Garrick's example,
performing an act that might be perceived as selfish by another but that
actually benefits others cannot be selfish by its very nature. If one's intent
behind the act is acually unselfish, then the perception of it is not how one
should judge the action. If I must take care of myself so that I can take care
of others, then taking care of myself is not a truly selfish act. It is a
necessary action with the intent of future selfless acts. In the end, the
logical loop always presented: This action is selfish because it benefits me,
but I do it with the intent of being able to do something unselfish, and so is
it truly selfish? In Celedyl's thinking, this is not truly the definition of
selfish. And neither Bazz nor Garrick could think of why an act that not only
benefits yourself, but does so at the expense of another, would be desireable
or necessary.
And so, Celedyl decided that perhaps those of the light are not the best
equipped to think around this question. As such, he asked the antipaladin
Dunvidd the same question. Dunvidd agreed that a selfish act is one which not
only benefits him, but which also does so at the expense of another. He said
that this is often necessary because there is only so much to go around. If
someone else has something, then you cannot have it as well. So if you want to
Thoughts of Selfishness (cont.)
Added Fri Jul 7 19:54:52 2023 at level 42:
be happy in life, then sometimes you need to be selfish. He also said it was a
stupid question, and gods of the light are stupid for asking it.
PK Wins
Jul 12, 2023|Lv 48|Ruins of Maethien|Acaeygah vs 3: [51] Garrick (5%), [48] Celedyl (3%), [51] Coqui (90%, disruption)
Jul 12, 2023|Lv 48|Ruins of Maethien|Sargrizitha vs 4: [50] Najhriv (5%), [51] Garrick (2%), [48] Celedyl (7%), [51] Coqui (84%, mental jolt)
Aug 3, 2023 |Lv 51|Gol'Galath|Vaskal vs 4: [51] Bazz (4%, claw), [51] Celedyl (6%), [51] Lasuira (49%), [51] Makdran (39%)
Aug 3, 2023 |Lv 51|Fortress of Light|Zyrinzlor vs 2: [51] Celedyl (0%), [51] Coqui (100%, blast)
Aug 4, 2023 |Lv 51|Fortress of Light|Skarrmak vs 2: [51] Ihol (100%, claw), [51] Celedyl (0%)