Description
Before you is a man who appears to be very well put together. You first
notice how formally he is dressed. Atop his armor rests a fancy black cloak
with long tails and a high, turned up collar. His shirt and pants are clean
with sharp creases, and they fit his sinewy frame very well, as if custom
sewn. His boots are well-made and polished, but blackened by ash. The
fineness of his clothes is belied by small scorched spots and hems with
their fray charred off. Nonetheless, this man bears himself with a
confidence that, when paired with his impeccable wardrobe, creates a
strangely refined, sophisticated air about him.
The man within these clothes is handsome, and he acts like he knows it.
Although singed short in places, tousled locks of ebony cascade down his
shoulders, framed by a chiseled jaw adorned with the roughened darkness of a
perpetual five o'clock shadow. His eyes are an intense hunter-green, but
with flecks of what almost seem to be firelight flaring from beneath thin
eyebrows with untamed fervor that gainsays his stately clothes. At times he
seems to look past his immediate surroundings, as if searching for something
unseen. Below these wild eyes you find a disarming smile. As you continue to
assess, you realize he is also crippled.
From his finely embroidered left sleeve hangs a mangled mass of fingers and
strangely burned flesh that may have been a true hand in the past, but is no
more. Enveloped with old scars that seem seared closed by some abberant
flame, and darker even than the rest of his tanned skin, the fleshy jumble
appears to contain a thumb, two working fingers, and about one and half dead
fingers dangling limply from the grotesque, claw-like appendage. You could
almost swear that the air about his hand is wavering as if it was radiating
a great heat, but your eyes must be playing tricks on you.
All in all, Zolgandor appears a man of noble bearing and convivial mood. You
also notice that...
Role
The Burgomaster's Bastard (Part I)
Added Thu Dec 7 15:03:08 2023 at level 1:
Zolgandor was born in a wagon just north of Barovia to a pretty young Vistani
woman. Merey, his mother, raised him fatherless with the help of the other
Vistani. Although she told Zolgandor from an early age that the Burgomaster,
he would live over a decade of denial before Barovia's power-broker admitted
the truth of the matter. By the time he was five, the rest of the wagon folk
knew the truth of the matter. By the time he was 10, he bore such a
resemblance to his father that all of Barovia sussed out the reality of the
situation. Even so, it would be another two years before the Burgomaster was
forced by the obvious nature of the answer to reveal it. Because of that,
Zolgandor was nigh a teenager before he was welcomed into his father's house,
and so spent the most of his youth roaming the dark woods and swamps
surrounding Barovia.
As he took so much after his father, Zolgandor was a strapping, healthy young
boy. However, a chance (was it really random?) encounter with a traveling
stranger on the winter solstice of his thirteenth year entirely changed the
trajectory of his life. After meeting a very strangely dressed traveler in
Barovia and helping him find his way onto the path to Arkham, the mad
foreigner had tricked young Zolgandor with the promise of great blessings and
coins, after he had played a small prank on the stranger. The culmination of
this arrangement was realized when the stranger surprised his young guide with
a hammer and attacked him, resulting in the horrible maiming of his left hand,
among other minor injuries. As he brutalized Zolgandor he had both cursed him
and preached maniacally about how curses could be blessings. At the time,
Zolgandor's mind couldn't process what he had heard. Between the searing pain
and the traveler's other mad ramblings ("I must find Dr. Armitage!", "Doors
must be shut that should never have been opened!", "Miskatonic in Arkham holds
the secret!"), Zolgandor understood little. But time, combined with the
priest's words echoing through his dreams like the inhuman roar of an Old God
trapped in a lightless void, would serve to be a relentless teacher.
After that day, young Zolgandor had to adapt and learn to live anew. Whatever
curse the madman had laid upon him kept his hand from healing fully, and
neither the curse nor the damage done could be healed by any healer that could
then be found. Although at first the hand was completely useless, as Zolgandor
grew he learned to do minor things with the fleshy lump at the end of his
wrist. At this point he could even use his thumb and first finger to grasp
small things, although the price for this progress had been paid in physical
agony. But adapt Zolgandor did, and for a few years he knew some measure of
peace.
The Burgomaster's Bastard (Part II)
Added Thu Dec 7 15:04:26 2023 at level 1:
But during his sixteenth summer, that peace was shattered beyond repair. Early
one morning, Imperial slave-catchers emerged from the northern mists and
blanketed Barovia like wildfire, enveloping the dark woods as part of a
counter offensive against the Outlanders. The imperials gathered all of the
healthy men and young adults, and any woman without child, and led them away
in chains. But of course they had no use for Zolgandor- he wouldn't fetch a
price to make it worth feeding and transporting him. As he watched people he
had known his entire life be marched into the yoke of slavery, he was wracked
with dark premonitions he could not put to words. That night, he dreamt of the
mad priest most vividly, and when he woke he had an unshakeable feeling that
he had, in a literal sense, been somewhere else while he slept. After this
night, Zolgander often dreamed of the priest and his "sermon."
He was still in Barovia two years later, when he saw The Fire in The Sky. He
was immediately entranced by it, and as he watched he felt his spirit kindle.
By the time the Wildfire died down and it was over, Zolgandor's curiosity had
conflagrated into a raging desire to be closer to the source of those holy
flames. That same day, he snuck into his father's mansion and stole some of
his finest clothes. Newly dressed and looking like a Outland noble, he set out
for Arkham to join a guild. While there, he searched high and low for any sign
of a "Miskatonic," but no person or group that he could discover in Arkham
bore that name. Undissuaded, Zolgandor added his name to the roster of
shapeshifters, vowing to himself that he would find the Fire from the sky, and
then grow strong enough to wrest Barovia from his, father and find the mad
traveler that had cursed him.
Character traits/outline (Skim this for brief overview)
Added Thu Dec 7 15:17:36 2023 at level 1:
Outline
- Born in Barovia
- Bastard son of Burgomaster. Denied until teenager
- Grew up mostly in dark forest and swamp of Barovia
- Strangely dressed traveler comes through town when he's 13
- Traveler cursed Z and smashed his hand with a hammer
- Tells Z that curses are blessings while he's doing it
- Says a lot of other strange that Z doesn't understand
- Hand won't heal right because of curse
- Years later
- Has learned to live pretty much one handed
- Imperial slave catchers come through Barovia and enslave all able-bodied men
- Z dreams of priest get stronger after this
- Still in Barovia when saw the recent fire in the sky
- kindled his spirit, knew it was time to leave
- Left home, went south to Arkham
- Checked for miskatonic and it doesn't exist in Arkham
- Joined guild to grow strength to find Fire, best father, and find the strange
traveler
Traits
- Z usually acts overly formally
- It's just an act
- He will occasionally the act around people he knows well
- At the core, it's a creation of mocking his father's power and position as
a youth
- Z isn't "in your face" evil
- Generally jovial and friendly with most folks
- More honey with flies
- Learned from father
- Subtly self serving and malicious for own amusement
- He's learned to live with mangled hand.
- Some use of thumb and first two fingers. Last two fingers basically dead.
- Can hold some stuff in hand. Can't wield a staff.
- Hand is cursed by strange, unliftable curse from mad traveler.
- Seen many healers, none can cure
- Hand might have gotten a little better since joining guild.
- Wonder why? Magic?
- Z's biggest fear is being brought back as undead
- worst kind of slavery
- no fire burning inside
Character traits/outline (READ THIS INSTEAD OF CH. 3)
Added Wed Mar 20 08:49:48 2024 at level 51:
Born in Barovia
. Bastard son of Burgomaster. Denied until teenager
. Grew up mostly in dark forest and swamp of Barovia
Strangely dressed traveler comes through town when he's 13
. Traveler cursed Z and smashed his hand with a hammer
. Tells Z that curses are blessings while he's doing it
. Says a lot of other strange that Z doesn't understand
. Hand won't heal right because of curse
Years later
. Has learned to live pretty much one handed
. Imperial slave catchers come through Barovia and enslave all able-bodied
men
. Z dreams of priest get stronger after this
Still in Barovia when saw the recent fire in the sky
. Kindled his spirit, knew it was time to leave
. Left home, went south to Arkham
. Checked for "Miskatonic" and it doesn't exist in Arkham
. Joined guild to grow strength to find Fire, best his father, and find
. strange traveler
Z usually acts overly formally
. It's just an act
. He will occasionally drop the act around people he knows well
. At the core, it's a creation of mocking his father's power and position as
. a youth
Z isn't "in your face" evil
. Generally jovial and friendly with most folks
. More honey with flies
. Learned from father
. Subtly self-serving and malicious for own amusement
He's learned to live with mangled hand.
. Some use of thumb and first two fingers. Last two fingers basically dead.
. Can hold some stuff in hand. Can't use staff.
. Hand is cursed by strange, unliftable curse from mad traveler.
. Seen many healers, none can cure
. Hand might have gotten a little better since joining guild.
. Wonder why? Magic?
Z's biggest fear is being brought back as undead
. Worst kind of slavery
. No fire burning inside
He laughed at the stars, frightened but free, his terror as sharp as pain and as sweet as a ripe October apple.
Added Wed Mar 20 08:52:43 2024 at level 51:
Osvolisso had made it most difficult for Zolgandor to find a branch, because
she hated the mask of civility he wore. So be it. He persevered as a hermit
for the better part of a decade, finding intermittent refuge by a centaur's
campfire or tucked in the shadows beneath the great trees of the Draniette.
Some seasons he would come down from darkened old hills to mingle in the
valley villages, but other seasons he would see no man's face and no words
would pass his thin lips.
As the years passed Zolgandor became further disconnected from the civilized
world. His domestication flaked away like ash, and so his commune with the
spirits of Thar-Eris strengthened. Despite his exile, the time between his
solemn pledge to the Huntress and his eventual induction into the Tree was
anything but serene. After all, Chaos is inevitable.
Curiosity burns hotter than balefire, but is ever so much more unpredictable
and threatening. Zolgandor still dreamt of the mad priest often, sometimes in
a most strangely realistic fashion. Although some part of himself knew he
treaded a dangerous path, he would not shy away from these visions. As he
gained magical prowess, Zolgandor became more enmeshed in this dream world,
but his mangled hand still did not heal.
Usually, the dream was a replay of his first meeting with the vicious
stranger. Again and again he relived the "lesson" from that childhood day, but
there were differences. In one dream they were both clothed in royal garments.
In another it was summer, not winter. Sometimes Zolgandor's dream was set in
places he didn't recognize and had never been to in his waking life - strange,
alien landscapes that seemed to the eye to follow alternative laws of
geometry, infinite night skies in which foreign stars created constellations
never seen by Thar-Eris, or a curiously confusing cuckoo clock in a dark,
colorless forest of crystalline trees. Sometimes the priest used a rock
instead of a hammer, sometimes he smashed Zolgander's face until he was blind.
Some ruins he saw in the dreams were recognizable to him, but only faintly, as
they were thousands of years older than the cities he knew them as.
These dreams were difficult to bear, but they bore occasional reward. More
than once Zolgandor used some bit of ancient wisdom he seemed to have learned
from his dream sojourns in his waking life. Nonetheless, they wore on him
severely, and he had long since stopped being surprised at waking up with
fresh bruises to match the beating in his dream, or when the dreams were true
nightmares, fully devoid of any shred of reason.
"We live on a placid island of ignorance ... (I of III)
Added Wed Mar 20 08:55:18 2024 at level 51:
One particularly cold fall equinox, Zolgandor was scouting prey from the air
when he had a powerful sense of Deja vu. He had long embraced the habit of
scanning for the mad priest from the skies as he soared about on the updrafts
but had seen neither hide nor hair throughout all the years he looked.
Today felt different, though. Because it felt the same. Zolgandor had been
here before, in this exact moment, in his dreams. He screeched into the
howling wind with curious delight and banked recklessly, changing direction
and instantly spotting the tiny campfire twinkling in the distance - exactly
where he knew it would be.
By the time the strange traveler was awake, Zolgandor had him well tied up,
limp fingers be damned. As enjoyable as it would have been to paint the quiet
snowy morning with this foreigner's lifeblood, curiosity burns hotter than a
grudge. There were questions Zolgandor demanded answers to, first. As the
priest grumbled about the cold and lamented starting the fire to keep warm,
Zolgandor pressed him for a name. In response, the priest simply laughed and
muttered a single, guttural sound that was like no language he had ever heard.
Before he could ask another question, Zolgandor was distracted by a strange
dark rift in the air that began to swirl and rapidly expand to resemble a
forsaken scion portal, but only momentarily. The portal wavered and then
seemed to snap into solidness. To Zolgandor's amazement a large oaken door,
covered with indecipherable calligraphy, stood with them in the opening in the
forest.
Zolgandor moved quickly to block the mad priest from escaping through the
door, earning another jovial chuckle for his effort. "Oh no, no" said the
strange man with his unplaceable accent, still oddly polite despite his
bondage. "This door is for you."
Zolgandor squinted at his captive, momentarily perplexed. Then, like a child
who has never burned his hand grabbing something hot, he reached out for the
doorknob without another thought. As he grabbed it and began to turn, he had a
fraction of a second to think to himself that the knob was surprisingly cold,
much colder even than the frigid air that blew about them. That thought, and
every other, fell away as the door slowly swung open to reveal what appeared
to be a mirror. Zolgandor was stunned dumb as he gazed back at himself. ("Had
the background been somehow wrong at first?" he wondered faintly.) He tried to
clear his thoughts, but his mind only felt more muddled as he watched himself
shake his head in the mirror. Propelled by a will that that didn't feel
entirely his own, he reached the crooked index finger of his mangled hand out
slowly towards the mirror to meet his reflection's reversed digit and
countenance. Curiosity burns ...
... in the midst of black seas of infinity, ... (II of III)
Added Wed Mar 20 08:57:35 2024 at level 51:
As soon as he touched the mirror, Zolgandor felt a sickening vertigo, but was
able to blink it away and focus. He stared at himself, frozen in consternated
contemplation. As he wondered what exactly he had found, his mind turned
toward memory. He thought about his childhood in the swamps, and his teenage
years in Barovia. He catalogued people he had known and places he had been.
Grynmear. Azatodeth. Maethein. Cantydine La Sinc. Innsmouth. Gath-Shuul, the
Crawling Horror. Calla Bryn Sturgis. ("Wait," he thought, "how do I remember
things I've never known?")
The thought snapped him back to the present, where the image in the mirror
hadn't changed, but Zolgandor felt different. He had just a split-second to
realize two things: First, he could no longer hear or feel the wintry wind he
saw blowing in the mirror. Also, his reflection was grinning at him in a sly,
knowing way that was nightmarishly revelatory. SOMETHING ELSE WAS IN HIS MIND!
Then the visions crashed back over him, and he was dragged down by the
undertow.
More memories flashed by, but now it felt like a burglar ruffling through a
stack of parchments. Some visions were his own, but others were filled with
dark rituals and Eternal Nights where Ccul'gra roamed freely. Still others
were of vast, all but empty voids where timeless, hungry things lurked, and
even demons knew well enough to fear them. Zolgandor trembled as he was
battered by the understanding that there was a cold, vast Outside where the
fires of natural life no longer kindled and grew.
As he was succumbing to the eternal despair of the void, a vision of Ocaiye's
great wildfire in the sky roared into his consciousness and brought him back
to himself. This refocusing led to an even more terrible feeling: a strange
sensation of ... separation wracked his mind. Whatever formless abomination
that had been waiting behind the mad priest's door had come through it and
traded places with Zoldandor. He realized with a dawning horror that the thing
was now trying to sever the connection between them and leave him behind the
"mirror."
Zolgander threw the whole power of his will against the mystical bulwark,
fighting the intruder in his mind with animal frenzy. He struggled endlessly
against the ancient force- time didn't exist in this realm. He knew he was
making progress when he felt the old, familiar searing pain in his mangled
hand, and his resolve hardened. After another countless number of eternities,
awash in primal pain and sickness, Zolgandor finally drew sharp, wintery air
into his lungs, ripped his finger away, and slammed the cursed door closed as
he fell to the ground with his back against it. He closed his eyes. The
campfire was out, he guessed it had been two or three days since he opened the
door. The strange traveler was nowhere to be seen, of course. Zolgandor had
been led into a trap, and the priest had been the bait. Curiosity burns hotter
known.
... and it was not meant that we should voyage far." (III of III)
Added Wed Mar 20 08:59:21 2024 at level 51:
As he got to his feet, Zolgandor's head swam with a mix of indecipherable
fragments of alien memory and nauseous vertigo. He ignored it all as he
woozily moved the cold remains of the campfire to the base of the accursed
door and rekindled the embers, adding more firewood that had been left stacked
nearby. Zolgandor added more than enough extra wood, stood and watched the
fire grow for a few minutes, and then added two more armfuls to the blaze
before he finally allowed himself to get comfortable against a nearby tree.
He watched the blighted door start to catch fire with exhausted relief and
tried to understand the cacophony in his head, but it was beyond full
comprehension. Thick, acrid smoke rolled out from the fire as the door burned
in earnest, with bright blue flames licking up the sides. It had no smell but
the thicker it got, the more vivid the vicarious visions that rattled
Zolgandor's mind. He saw Outsiders lurking in their frozen, hollow lairs on
the edges of existence, waiting for their chance to infiltrate the fertile
in-worlds of Thar-Eris and feast on the fiery life at the heart of creation.
He knew he had to stand against these interplanar predators, and their
conspirators in this world who work to let them in. If these contemptible pets
of the void meant to befoul the natural creation of Thar-Eris, then he would
bring them destruction. Men like Kiendosi, Zylaris, or Trothon couldn't be
given the freedom to damn the whole of Thar-Eris to extinction. He would burn
their knowledge, their blighted altars and other tools of foul ritual, and
every door they meant to cast open. Then the fire would consume them.
As Zolgandor watched the blessed flames fully embrace the door that should
have led to his demise, his eyelids grew heavy and he started to fall away
from consciousness. Ocaiye's Greatfire had once again shown him to passage,
and he knew now that she was the Pharos by whose firelight his path through
the chaos of the infinite void would be revealed. It was hellishly harrowing
to realize that one is no more than an ant when cast against the vast
uncontrollable chaos of existence. Could Zolgandor follow the firelight of the
great Pharos to freedom?
The Spark of the Dark Phoenix
Added Wed Jul 3 08:59:11 2024 at level 51:
"I am what was, what is, what will be - the black angel, Chaos-Bringer! I AM
POWER!"
Solisren asked me what I would do next, and I answered that I would spread Her
fiery evangel across the lands by word and deed both in the hopes she would
find some enjoyment in watching Thar-Eris dance in the firelight. Then the
Dark Phoenix put her Fire into me and I took it out into the world and blazed
it across the sky for all to witness, and I was happy. As the fire on my
tongue and the chaos in my spirit engulfed me entirely over the coming season,
the curse left within me by the mad priest burned away and my now charred hand
began to strengthen. Before I knew it, I was even able to hold a staff.
Soon after this welcome change came a more bewildering progression. The
strange dreams from my youth had become much more chaotic and powerful after
my confrontation with the Outsider in the mirror, they had been contaminated
by the memories of the Other One who had tried to consume my mind. But as the
priest's curse burned away, I became even more consumed by these Dreams, which
had in most aspects become just as real as my waking time in Thar-Eris. I came
to understand that the mad priest's curse had been affecting more than just my
hand- it had also clearly been acting somehow to suppress the intensity of the
transplanted memories from the infernal Outsider. And now Ocaiye's flames had
incinerated the dam that had been restraining those memories and they flooded
my mind in torrents of semi-comprehensible experiences. Had she cursed me to
drown, dragged down by the undertow of the insanity that eddied and pooled in
the voids between the natural planes?
After this, I no longer dreamed. Whenever I slept deeply, I would simply awake
in another place, or time, or reality. (I was never exactly sure which at
first but sometimes I was able to piece together where and when I was.) Some
places were familiar, but some were entirely foreign and barely
comprehensible. As time went on, I came to understand that what I was
experiencing as dreams were actually memories that had bled into my mind from
the Outsider. Apparently, I was far from the first person whose mind had been
invaded. At first, I was battered into helplessness by the unyielding chaos of
the otherworldly dreams. But I pressed onward, undeterred by the pain and fear
they stoked, and developed the ability to train my focus on my memory of
Ocaiye's Greatfire to find my path. Through my focus on this divine Drishti, I
once again came to find the Pharos by which I could navigate through the
infinite multiverse I found myself adrift in whenever I slept.
A Dream of Chaos
Added Wed Jul 3 09:01:16 2024 at level 51:
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very
angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Zolgandor nestled into his sparse bedding beneath the great Tree and closed
his eyes to chase sleep that he desperately needed. Moments later he opened
them to find himself utterly confused on a great battlefield of
indistinguishable proportions, scrambling for cover. In the indeterminate time
that followed (day? weeks?), it became apparent that he was entangled in a
memory of the Great Battle of the First Age- the final conflagration of the
war between the armies of Order and Chaos.
He watched from hidden holes and dense forest as the mages of Order sheparded
the first, newly created, BattleRagers onto the fields, and he bore witness to
the bloody destruction of the Chaos mages at a turn of events they could not
have foreseen. Then Zolgandor watched as the forces of Order lost the illusion
that they had ever been in control of these bloodthirsty barbarians. While the
fires of the marauding warriors spread across the young land, the so-called
Lords of Order made deals with the same Shadow they had so recently warred
against. After yet more chaos and destruction, BoltThrower retreated with his
remaining savages and the Lords of Order's regime self-immolated, fueled by
their own hypocrisy and failure.
Zolgandor observed this all and understood: Although apparently defeated, the
forces of Chaos had won the Great Battle, and forevermore would Chaos be the
undeniably natural state of the world.
As such, Ocaiye was inevitable, and Her firelight the guiding Pharos. As this
ancient memory began to fade into dream, Zolgandor could have sworn he saw a
great obsidian bird flying on the dark horizon, surveying the aftermath and
roaring with delight.
A Dream of Fire
Added Wed Jul 3 09:07:46 2024 at level 51:
"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll
be warm for the rest of his life."
Zolgandor opened his eyes and was relieved to find himself under a large jack
pine in the Forest of Nowhere. "Oh, I must've dosed off in the past," he
thought lazily to himself. He stretched and rolled over to let the sun warm
his face and fell back to sleep. He woke again under a cloudless, moon-lit sky
with a vague disconcerted feeling that he couldn't place. As he gazed up at
the silver orb and tried to ignore his growing unrest, he shook his head and
chided himself for flinching at shadows in his mind. Changing shape into the
majestic reindeer, Zolgandor stomped his great hooves and leapt into the sky
to fly back to the Tree.
What he saw next surprised him into a sudden idle in the night sky, and as he
gazed out across an unfamiliar landscape lit eerily in red by his flame-like
nose he wondered when he was. "I'm not in the past, I'm in the past!" he
thought to himself in a growing frenzy. ("Shit, I sound crazier than usual!")
As he began to slowly spiral downward (both literally and figuratively),
movement below him in the woods caught his eye. He lit silently on the ground
and faded into the bushes, having doused his nose during his descent.
What he saw was a curious group of people carrying supplies that he couldn't
identify from afar into the west end of the forest tunnel. They moved with the
fervent determination of the self-righteous, laughing and shouting joyously as
they talked, although Zolgandor didn't catch what they said. After a couple of
hours the traffic stopped, and most of the participants left the forest. As he
crept closer to the tunnel, he was startled by the last two men of the group
erupting from the tunnel, running out of the forest at a full sprint while
they cackled and howled at the full moon.
As he watched the men disappear into the ancient, vibrant trees, he heard
another voice behind him in the tunnel. The voice began in a triumphant laugh
that quickly devolved into screams that just as quickly were swallowed by the
roar of a Devouring Inferno. Zolgandor saw the first licks of orange flame
sprout up out of the tunnel like roots, quickly followed by a belch of black
smoke. Within a matter of minutes most of the tunnel was aflame - Zolgandor
could hear the red sap hissing and popping beneath him. The flames quickly
crawled upwards from the tunnel to conflagrate the lush forest floor and
within the hour most of the forest burned.
In this dream, though, the fire didn't burn his flesh. It seared his mind with
truth. These flames would claim untold life and this forest would never be the
same. But it would become something new. And in the ashes that remained, in
the ages to come, a cave would come to be. And at the heart of this hot, smoky
cavern raged Ocaiye's divine Pyre, before which Zolgandor would some day burn
with Her favor.
A Dream of Destruction (I of II)
Added Wed Jul 3 09:15:16 2024 at level 51:
"With his coming are the dread fires born again. The hills burn, and the land
turns sere. ... Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven
purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side
of death."
Broken paving stones crunched under Zolgandor's heels as he sprinted across an
old street to hide in another alley. The entire City was broken, what he had
seen of it, and obviously long usurped from the hands that originally created
it. Abandoned as it may have been, though, the ancient city was anything but
empty. A maelstrom of sounds echoed throughout the vine-covered ruins, marking
the cacophonous clash of forces going on all around him. War (and much worse)
had come to this place, and although he had been scrambling amongst the long
shadows and chaos for the better part of a month, he had yet to make full
sense of everything he saw.
Ragged groups of awful half-beast trollocs were spurred on by horrifying,
eyeless half-men (Myrddraal, the Other's memory knew) against human soldiers
bearing the crest of ancient Aridhol in their fortified positions. Pikeman and
horsemen defended bravely, but they were clearly outmatched and Zolgandor saw
them overrun, torn apart, and consumed alive again and again and again. No
matter how many men they killed, though, the unnatural beasts were never
celebratory, nor were they restful. He hadn't understood the apparent
contradiction at first, but that was before he had seen the mist.
So seemingly innocuous that he didn't even see the thin tendril of silver-gray
fog drifting low across the street, it was only chance that kept him from
stumbling into it before he watched the faintly glowing fog coalesce into
thickening tentacles that struck a group of trollocs and the Fade that had
been driving them onward. As he watched the abominations writhe and die,
filled with morbid curiosity, Zolgandor heard another name echo in the
memories that were not his: Mashadar.
As if it were a spectral key, the name unlocked a blaze of forbidden
knowledge. Mashadar was the taint of a damned civilization, kindled into
creation by Aridhol's wrathful self-destruction. Now it consumed without
regard or hope of satiation, and Zolgandor knew that it would continue to
consume until Shadar Logoth ceased to be. This destruction was a blessing,
though, because this place did not belong in Thar-Eris, as it was of another
plane of existence. Zolgandor just had to get himself safely out of here
before this entire reality was devoured, which seemed ever more immanent as
the world began to fracture around him.
Destruction of a Dream (II of II)
Added Wed Jul 3 09:16:31 2024 at level 51:
He survived another two weeks watching Mashadar kill anything it touched and
stoking a slowly creeping, ineffable flicker of understanding. There had
always been a disconcerting swamplight glow to the mist, but that glow had
been brightening ever since Zolgandor found himself here however many weeks
ago, like it was intensifying in some way. As he watched out of the window of
the crumbling second story library he hid in, he saw the mist lance two
myrddraal who had been distracted by their panicky trollocs. As the fades
crumpled into lifeless heaps, so did the trollocs. And then something
completely unexpected happened.
As the bodies fell, the mist emitted a white-hot flare. Zolgandor was blinded
by the incandescence, but as he rubbed at his eyes, he saw the truth in the
darkness: Annihilation was the path forward not only for Shadar, but for
himself and all of Thar-Eris. In trying to preserve, progress is smothered. In
being content only surviving, a person binds themselves to a cold, lifeless
existence. Zolgandor's path was once again illuminated before him, and as he
walked downstairs to confront Mashadar he was smiling for the first time in
months. There was another flash of blinding brilliance, and then there was
only searing pain, and then even that burned down to dark nothingness.
Zolgandor woke before Ocaiye's pyre, bruised and exhausted and with a mouth
too parched to speak. He cackled silently with joy nonetheless, knowing he had
been freed by his own destruction.
The hot winds of change rage across Thar-Eris! (Character update)
Added Fri Aug 2 11:01:42 2024 at level 51:
Zolgandor the Ardent Nightreaver
Solisren had bidden Zolgandor to focus on the Tree, and to shape it to please
her. Acheive this satisfactorily, and She would bless him with new change, one
catalyzed by the essences of his desire. Zolgandor threw himself wholly at his
divine charge, and both he and the Tree flourished by her firelight. Some of
his fires burned out quickly, but such was her way. Zoldangor was wracked with
terribly delicious apprehension when he wondered if his commitment was
pleasing to her, and if he could bear the brunt of her blessings.
Zolgandor had reaved and fanned her flames across That-Eris in myriad ways,
but one scheme he was particularly proud of was his subtle support of the
Village. They were almost to a man too foolish to see the greater dimensions
of his machinations, but they flared brightly and the damnable Scions felt the
most of their unfocused rage. Just as he had hoped. Solisren had been right
about this, too, telling him to lead with intention.
Zolgandor the Curious Reflector
In his travels, Zolgandor has (coincidentally???) stumbled across a spectral
mirror that's uncannily like the one that almost consumed him when he was
younger. This wicked glass is buried beneath the Oryx Steppes and guarded by a
great Ifrit. He doesn't know what this could signify, but curiosity burns
hotter than the desert sun.
Zolgandor the Brazen Catalyst
While his curiosity was growing in regards to the cursed mirror, the bulk of
Zolgandor's free attention was currently consumed by concocting a certifiably
crazy plan. Quite simply, he was planning to try and pilfer something from
Ishuli's Grand Library! At least, this was the front. He didn't expect to
succeed, rather, he was planning to fail.
Most likely, Zolgandor thought, Ishuli would catch him in the act and
summarily execute him. But he had an idea. He had witnessed the end of the
Fifth Age in one of (not) his Dreams, and he heard the incantation Ahtieli had
been tricked into casting to draw power to Jullias. Zolgandor expected that,
with Solisren's aid, they could create a variant of the ancient curse that
would draw some fragment of Ishuli's power through him, to Ocaiye. He probably
wasn't a strong enough conduit to channel enough of the Order Witch's power to
harm her before he burned out, but Zolgandor would only be the catalyst. The
result he would leave to Chaos, and if the world were to be destroyed again,
then Ocaiye would see what grew from the ashes.
PK Wins
Dec 13, 2023|Lv 32|The Eastern Road|Phalvala vs 1: [32] Zolgandor (100%, bite)
Jan 11, 2024|Lv 44|BattleRager Village|Chakos vs 2: [44] Zolgandor (10%), [41] Celatrix (89%, slash)
Jan 12, 2024|Lv 44|Arkham|Zwelgham vs 2: [44] Zolgandor (86%, KB), [48] Shayor (13%)
Jan 23, 2024|Lv 48|Spiderhaunt Woods|Snongnulall vs 1: [48] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
Mar 20, 2024|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Brenwade vs 4: [51] Zolgandor (73%, immolation), [51] Snoraloo (0%), [44] Davrithil (0%), [51] Hrendya (26%)
Mar 20, 2024|Lv 51|The Outlander Refuge|Brenwade vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (0%), [51] Snarbeldina (100%, crush)
Mar 20, 2024|Lv 51|The Outlander Refuge|Brenwade vs 2: [51] Snarbeldina (17%), [51] Zolgandor (82%, KB)
Mar 20, 2024|Lv 51|The Village of Barovia|Tyun vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, kick)
Mar 21, 2024|Lv 51|The Outlander Refuge|Celdimerick vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (51%, slash), [51] Sinnyah (48%)
Mar 21, 2024|Lv 51|The Ruins of Ostalagiah|Hrendya vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (63%, stomp), [51] Sinnyah (36%)
Mar 25, 2024|Lv 51|The Redhorn Mountains|Nisyraim vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (98%, punch), [51] Nahria (1%)
Mar 26, 2024|Lv 51|The Redhorn Mountains|Davrithil vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (55%, KB), [51] Zeest (44%)
Mar 27, 2024|Lv 51|The Ruins of Ostalagiah|Gabley vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, KB)
Mar 28, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Brenwade vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, stomp)
Apr 19, 2024|Lv 51|The Imperial Palace|Larishae vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (49%, punch), [51] Neshamar (50%)
Apr 24, 2024|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Brenwade vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (83%, punch), [51] Emerada (16%)
May 3, 2024 |Lv 51|The Imperial Palace|Brunda vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (98%, punch), [51] Urmbeg (1%)
May 7, 2024 |Lv 51|Mansion of Twilight|Henglrefen vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, stomp)
May 16, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Wullster vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (75%, punch), [51] Gabley (24%)
May 17, 2024|Lv 51|Outlying Villages|Prossyn vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
May 30, 2024|Lv 51|The Spire of the Blood Tribunal|Henglrefen vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (18%, punch), [51] Kaleekalouw (81%)
May 31, 2024|Lv 51|The Imperial Lands|Humeuhvar vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
Jun 3, 2024 |Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Yidezan vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (9%), [51] Gabley (90%, bleeding)
Jun 4, 2024 |Lv 51|Mortorn|Skeanz vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (31%), [51] Urmbeg (68%, bite)
Jun 4, 2024 |Lv 51|Mortorn|Shelanij vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, suction)
Jun 5, 2024 |Lv 51|The Spire of the Blood Tribunal|Blinkinbum vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
Jun 5, 2024 |Lv 51|The Dragon Sea|Yidezan vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (27%), [51] Nepicse (72%, tsunami)
Jun 7, 2024 |Lv 51|North Sutherspring Road|Umrik vs 2: [51] Nepicse (16%), [51] Zolgandor (83%, punch)
Jun 7, 2024 |Lv 51|The Skies above Thera|Raju vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (4%), [51] Nepicse (95%, nova)
Jun 15, 2024|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Gorag vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (58%, punch), [40] Maytisae (41%)
Jun 17, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Baaegler vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
Jun 21, 2024|Lv 51|BattleRager Village|Quzevril vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (87%, punch), [51] Nymira (12%)
Jul 10, 2024|Lv 51|BattleRager Village|Thathrosk vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (7%, punch), [51] Aggma (92%)
Jul 12, 2024|Lv 51|Hamsah Mu'tazz|Trecildroon vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (92%, punch), [38] Tiachga (7%)
Jul 19, 2024|Lv 51|Silverwood|Dengamari vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (78%, punch), [51] Carayak (21%)
Jul 19, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Ghakler vs 3: [51] Wendrosh (12%), [51] Zolgandor (58%, punch), [51] Carayak (28%)
Jul 19, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Trecildroon vs 3: [51] Zolgandor (9%), [51] Wendrosh (50%), [51] Carayak (39%, pierce)
Jul 23, 2024|Lv 51|Bramblefield Road|Zeltrix vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (23%, punch), [51] Isoegaob (76%)
Jul 29, 2024|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Trecildroon vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
Aug 2, 2024 |Lv 51|Voralian City|Snilvayl vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, stomp)
Aug 9, 2024 |Lv 51|The Ruins of Ostalagiah|Tegrall vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
Aug 9, 2024 |Lv 51|A Virgin Forest|Moldrak vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (34%, stomp), [51] Zsin (65%)
Aug 9, 2024 |Lv 51|A Virgin Forest|Trecildroon vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (47%, stomp), [51] Zsin (52%)
Aug 14, 2024|Lv 51|Arkham|Tegrall vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, KB)
Aug 15, 2024|Lv 51|The Ruins of Ostalagiah|Moldrak vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (26%, KB), [51] Zsin (73%)
Aug 19, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Yenelor vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
Aug 20, 2024|Lv 51|Mount Kiadana-Rah|Umrik vs 3: [51] Zolgandor (54%), [45] Kolarkos (39%), [43] Yulvonzal (6%, earth-rending tremors)
Aug 20, 2024|Lv 51|Ayr'Trinil, the Arial City|Blovbo vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, KB)
Aug 20, 2024|Lv 51|Mount Kiadana-Rah|Nahria vs 3: [50] Yulvonzal (0%), [51] Kolarkos (64%), [51] Zolgandor (35%, punch)
Aug 27, 2024|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Umdruil vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (91%, KB), [51] Chorkniss (8%)
Sep 18, 2024|Lv 51|Voralian City|Rhisa vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, stomp)
Sep 19, 2024|Lv 51|The Wastes of Nonviel|Garuk vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, KB)
Sep 20, 2024|Lv 51|Ar'atouldain|Inolaf vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, punch)
Sep 27, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Inolaf vs 3: [51] Zolgandor (100%, KB), [51] Saikym (0%), [51] Decrasus (0%)
Oct 10, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Grymiir vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, KB)
Oct 11, 2024|Lv 51|The Rocky Paths|Yahkira vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, charge)
Oct 31, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|Frennya vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (34%, KB), [45] Shoolnenup (65%)
Nov 4, 2024 |Lv 51|Loch Terradian|Xthys vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, bite)
Aug 29, 2025|Lv 51|Galadon|Acheronwyn vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, crush)
Sep 10, 2025|Lv 51|Evergrove Outpost|Lurithavalla vs 1: [51] Zolgandor (100%, flaming bite)
Sep 10, 2025|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Utek vs 2: [51] Taesnir (12%), [51] Zolgandor (87%, stomp)
Sep 16, 2025|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Larusae vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (61%), [51] Taesnir (38%, lightning bolt)
Sep 18, 2025|Lv 51|Underdark|Grondar vs 2: [51] Zolgandor (7%), [51] Ulgrog (92%, hit)
PK Deaths
Jan 8, 2024 |Lv 44|Hamsah Mu'tazz|vs 1: [51] Dajedal (100%, mental assault)
Jan 16, 2024|Lv 48|The Jade Mountains|vs 2: [47] Betrah (13%, bleeding), [46] Ogahn (86%)
Jan 17, 2024|Lv 48|The Jade Mountains|Zolgandor committed suicide
Jan 19, 2024|Lv 48|The Village of Barovia|vs 1: [51] Zwelgham (100%, bite)
Jan 22, 2024|Lv 48|The Eastern Road|vs 1: [51] Zwelgham (100%, disembowelment) *Disemboweled*
Jan 23, 2024|Lv 48|Western Aryth Ocean|vs 3: [45] Aesrii (7%), [46] Turtraen (41%), [51] Skaya (51%, immolation)
Jan 31, 2024|Lv 51|The Jade Mountains|vs 1: [51] Woreich (100%, virulent venom)
Mar 20, 2024|Lv 51|The Galadon Sewers|vs 2: [51] Snoraloo (33%), [51] Mauotto (66%, defilement)
Apr 1, 2024 |Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|vs 1: [51] Gabley (100%, chop)
Apr 1, 2024 |Lv 51|The Dwarf Forest|vs 1: [51] Najaraa (100%, claw)
Apr 1, 2024 |Lv 51|Village of Mal'trakis|vs 2: [51] Nahria (53%, cleave), [51] Larishae (46%)
Apr 1, 2024 |Lv 51|The Skies above Thera|Zolgandor plummeted to death.
Apr 16, 2024|Lv 51|The Wastes of Nonviel|vs 1: [51] Coqui (100%, smash)
Apr 29, 2024|Lv 51|The Dragon Sea|vs 1: [51] Neshamar (100%, defilement)
May 30, 2024|Lv 51|The Imperial Palace|vs 1: [51] Neshamar (100%, slash)
May 30, 2024|Lv 51|The Imperial Lands|vs 1: [51] Neshamar (100%, shocking bite)
May 31, 2024|Lv 51|The Tower of Sorcery|vs 1: [51] Gabley (100%, parting blow)
Jun 3, 2024 |Lv 51|The Eastern Road|vs 3: [51] Gabley (62%, pierce), [51] Yidezan (25%), [51] Ihialania (12%)
Jun 11, 2024|Lv 51|The Jade Mountains|Zolgandor committed suicide
Jun 12, 2024|Lv 51|The Jade Mountains|vs 1: [51] Neshamar (100%, shocking bite)
Jul 1, 2024 |Lv 51|The Skies above Thera|Zolgandor plummeted to death.
Jul 8, 2024 |Lv 51|Galadon|vs 3: [43] Moldrak (37%, hit), [40] Morphul (27%), [51] Zeltrix (35%)
Jul 15, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|vs 2: [51] Henglrefen (44%), [51] Ghakler (55%, hit)
Jul 30, 2024|Lv 51|Galadon|vs 2: [44] Moldrak (45%, slash), [51] Bidaj (54%)
Aug 5, 2024 |Lv 51|The Eastern Road|vs 2: [47] Taishojira (97%, claw), [51] Skaeldifer (2%)
Aug 29, 2024|Lv 51|Mausoleum|vs 1: [51] Yenelor (100%, punch)
Sep 2, 2024 |Lv 51|Graveyard|vs 1: [50] Zafir (100%, punch)
Sep 10, 2024|Lv 51|The Imperial Lands|vs 1: [47] Mirelda (100%, deathly touch)
Sep 24, 2024|Lv 51|Aturi Timberlands|vs 1: [51] Thaldrak (100%, crush)
Oct 2, 2024 |Lv 51|Aturi Timberlands|vs 2: [51] Tinthius (16%), [48] Lonnel (83%, bleeding)
Nov 26, 2024|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|vs 1: [51] Nelfykh (100%, claw)
Aug 22, 2025|Lv 51|The Wastes of Nonviel|vs 1: [51] Dondonxa (100%, bleeding)
Sep 22, 2025|Lv 51|The Wastes of Nonviel|vs 1: [51] Dondonxa (100%, KB)