Zynder "Zap" Dur'Ruran
Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:16 am
Name: Zynder Dur'Ruran
Alias: Zap, Ruran
Age: 22
Race: Half-Elf (Sun-Touched)
Physical Description: Every inch of the man speaks of oddities not often seen in the dark, magic-scarred region. Hair was a wild and fiery orange, sticking out at mostly upward angles from his head. Pointed ears were visible from either side of his head, both pierced with small, golden hoops dangling from near he base. Eyes were a startling, stormy gray, sparked with inhuman, golden veins. Facial features were fine and mildly angular, nose slender but decidedly human, skin fair but darkened by sunlight. Crooked yet cheerful smile made white-ish teeth visible, canine's unusually pronounced. Neck and jaw were often obscured by an over sized and well-worn scarf, that seemed to have once been deep crimson in color. Torso was covered by a dusty leather jacket, thick enough to perhaps serve as armor, though left loose fitting. The jacket was colored a deep black, though the long sleeves were embroidered with bright, golden fabric. If left open, the jacket would reveal a thin, silky undershirt of darker coloring. Hands were almost perpetually gloved or, if not, tucked deeply into pockets. Crimson pants were long, flared slightly at the bottom, and made of a thin fabric of finer quality than wool. Feet were covered by simple black boots with golden buckles. (none of the gold except the earrings is real, simply colored.) If one were to closely inspect him without clothing, they would notice his skin is cracked and slightly glowing yellow along his palms and small spots across his torso.
Possessions: Zap is a curious man, and carries curious things. If one were to search his person, and the considerable amount of hidden items within the interior pockets of his coat and in his boots, one may find a random assortment of seemingly useless trinkets, often including twigs and bits of metal, hard candy, teeth, and assorted cheap jewelry.
In addition, he also carries a pair of steel daggers, hidden in sheaths made into the interior of his overcoat, at near-hip level. The daggers are made in a more eastern style, with a single sided blade, however they are surely of a more local make for the metal is thick and solid.
His scarf is almost always handy, and a favorite weapon should his blades be taken from him. The fabric is reinforced with several small chains, making for a suitable garrote.
His coat is simple leather, though perhaps a bit fancy, and has several interior pockets in which he typically stores useless knick-knacks and trophies.
A boot knife, just in case.
A pair of lock picks, kept in various and seemingly random pockets of his coat or in his boots.
Powers and Abilities: Zynder Dur'Ruran is a nobody, though he often claims to be a mercenary or, indeed, an assassin. To back that claim he does possess certain abilities that may seem out of place on your average citizen.
-Zap is very proficient with the daggers he carries on his person, able to spin and maneuver them with practiced ease.
-He is a friendly fellow and often gives off warm smiles and greetings to any who look his way. He is fairly charismatic, in his own way.
-Zynder is Sun-Touched, and can manipulate sunlight in localized areas. This is a magical power and is rarely used for obvious reasons. The abilites of a sun-touched are as follows:
+The ability to absorb direct sunlight in localized areas. For Zap this includes his hands, palms primarily, and eyes. This ability creates a black sphere around the area, impenetrable by sight, as any light passing into the area is absorbed.
+Absorbed light can be used to in place of food, and can stave off thirst for longer periods.
+Light can be projected from the sun-touched areas (eyes and palms) in concentrated blasts. These attacks take a short moment to charge, but the effect is virtually instant. The pulse emitted is a blinding white/gold, and will burn anything touched by it. Sun-touched are not immune to their own attacks, and fine mirrors will reflect the light. The damage can range from slight to moderate burns, and can easily penetrate cloth. Leather armor provides adequate protection, but may be destroyed or lit aflame in the process. These attacks can only be used shortly after absorbing direct sunlight.
-Zynder has an uncanny ability to identify minor details, due to his obsessive nature.
-Zap is clever, in a serial-killer kind of way.
-He is well-practiced at using his magical abilities in conjunction with his daggers.
Weaknesses:
-Sun-touched cannot go for prolonged periods without daylight or they will begin to weaken and eventually die. After 24 hours they will start to feel ill or fatigued. It takes approximately 4-5 days for a sun-touched to die in total darkness, a week in artificial light.
-Zap is a hoarder, if he thinks something amusing or interesting he stores it. Often, many things he stores are mementos of past victories. Chips of metal from an enemy sword, a signet ring, a strip of cloth from an enemy's shirt. Some things he simply obsesses over for no apparent reason.
-Zap is obsessive. Sometimes this is a boon, but usually it is a hindrance. If he gets an idea in his mind he absolutely cannot be dissuaded.
-Zap is eccentric, massively and obscenely eccentric. Everyone can easily get his name or any information about him out of him just by asking. For this reason he is a terrible assassin, and also discredited as such, so it sometimes works in his favor.
-Dur'Ruran's are known for being vile and cruel in his home, a fact that is not altogether false about Zynder. He is cheery on the surface, but he is immensely sadistic beneath that cheerfulness. He's not a bad guy, but he goes well out of his way to kill his enemies slowly if he is convinced they deserve it. This reputation works against him in some rare scenarios where people know of his family.
-Zynder is mentally unstable and grows more-so the longer he goes without violence or direct sunlight. Daylight has a mildly soothing effect on his nerves, enough so that he can act fairly normal.
-Zap tends to sleep the moment the sun goes down, till dawn. If he's out at night, he slowly becomes more and more nervous and irritable.
-Cloudy or rainy weather has a slightly adverse effect on his mood, usually causing him to be more withdrawn from people.
Personality: Outwardly, Zynder Dur'Ruran is a rather cheerful fellow. He smiles warmly at anyone he meets, often extending a greeting to most who look his way. He is fond of being flashy, and showing off, whenever the opportunity presents itself. This is a game he plays with himself, and takes great amusement from so openly and obnoxiously presenting himself to the world. It is a mockery of kindness, a play for the benefit of the actor alone. If anyone knew the truth, knew the roiling sea of hatred that was Zynder Dur'Ruran, would they smile back. Would they even allow him to walk free in the streets, knowing that behind every smile was a threat, every wave a promise of pain and death? Imagined images of slit throats and severed tendons, hacking knives and gushing blood? Likely not.
The Dur'Ruran blood line is tainted with madness, overflowing with mental illness so severe that most could not even mask it. Dementia, Bi-Polarism, Psychosis. All of these things were common in the family, and not only through shared blood, but through the raising of unstable children by simply manic adults.
Zap has learned to mask his torment, his darkness, but he can barely contain himself enough to do even that. To sate his madness he has developed nervous habits, collecting items of trivial value to sate his obsessive nature. Anything to distract him from what he really wanted, violence. Sadism was his greatest weakness, screams of pain soothed him like a lullaby, calmed his frayed mind and allowed him to focus. Focus that came at a terrible cost to whomever he had in his clutches. He didn't like being cruel, on a logical level, but deep down he loved it. He knew it was wrong of him, knew that if he went too far he would be found out and summarily killed, but he could never stop.
Secretly, though, he wanted to be the mask he wore more than the man he was.
History: The Dur'Ruran family is a small and minimally feared collective, known for escaping justice and dispensing pain and torment due to random bouts of spite upon anyone passing through their meager holdings. No more than a house tucked into a copse of trees, in the empty and monster-infested wilderness of the Sooqui plain.
A product of rape and violence, his human mother being subdued and humiliated. Revenge for having tortured an elven man's family, Zynder grew up under stressful circumstances at best. He was raised out in the family home, away from the city and in a family of villains and madmen. It was a loveless childhood, his mother hating him for the reminder of her shame and his father cut down for his transgression long before the boy's birth. He knew nothing but discipline and malice for many years, told never to leave home for the land outside was wild with magic and full of danger. Eventually, knowing no reason to stay, beyond fear of the outside world, the outcast Dur'Ruran child wandered off into the wilderness one night.
Miraculously he lived long enough to reach a road, dirty and scraped from the journey. A merchant picked him up along the road and carried him eastward, to Ji. On the road, the man he traveled with was gruff, but kind, the first the young Dur'Ruran had ever experienced the foreign concept of kindness. In Ji he learned of customs and life far removed from his home, and discovered that the world was vast and differing. He got his nickname when a passerby noticed his hair, claimed he seemed to have been struck by lightning, or zapped. Perpetually fearing, as a child might, the name of his family may come back to haunt him even in these distant lands, he took to calling himself Zap. It was not long after that the merchant made the return trip to Thar Shaddin, and left the young boy behind at his request.
left on the street he spent many years in poverty, fending for himself. Still, it was a better life than he had known. Eventually, he grew to know violence and found it much to his liking. penance for the suffering he had endured as a child, a release from fear and oppression. Power. However, knowing the pain he had suffered as a child, he knew that his thirst for torment had to be sated in a more selective fashion. Thus, Zap the mercenary was born. He found as much satisfaction in ripping apart monsters as he did men, soon finding the brutal and personal closeness a short blade offered to be his preference.
He took to guarding merchants on less-used roads and long trade routes between unprotected lands. On one such trip, an uneventful one at that, the sky opened up, a rift of crackling power unleashing across the landscape. The phenomenon destroyed the cart upon which has had been sitting in a fit of wild and untamed magic. Zynder was blasted clear, but his hands were severely burned and he was blinded by the sudden ferocity of the attack. Fearing he had been ambushed, the mercenary stumbled around the wastes for hours. It was days before his sight returned, having taken refuge in a ditch and covering himself with a wooden panel blasted free of the cart. When he did, he found that his hands had not healed, and were radiating a glowing power.
The return trip to civilization was long and arduous, though he had plenty of supplies left over from the cart. During this trip he found that he seemed to gain power and energy in direct sunlight, and substantially weaker during the night. It was quite by accident he originally found out his new powers, his eyes drinking in the light from around him on a rogue though and flooding his mind with images from too many angles. Disoriented, he closed his eyes and found that when he opened them some moments later, the magically burning skin on his hands was glowing hotly and he could see his cheeks lit up from the light of his glowing eyes. It was then he realized that he was no longer a half-elf, but something more. His body had been plagues, or blessed, by magic. Magic that gave him a direct link to the light of day, allowed him to drink it for sustenance, and redirect it as a powerful weapon. The magic soothed the burning of his mind, eased the strain on his fragile grasp at humanity. It may be the key to saving him from that dark abyss that perpetually pulled at him, urging him to slip up, to fail and fall deep into the madness.
Zynder chuckled at the grandeur of his thoughts, the sudden power he had gained, and decided it might be time to head home. Thar Shaddin was always a land of trouble, surely a mercenary could easily find work is that dismal world. Perhaps he could change the repute of his vile family name, though surely, should he do that he would need a clean slate on which to write. No Dur'Rurans of the present line would live up to his new vision, and thus, his quest began to hunt down his family and make them see things a new way.... a positive way. Or a way that lie face down in a gutter. Whichever worked!
Alias: Zap, Ruran
Age: 22
Race: Half-Elf (Sun-Touched)
Physical Description: Every inch of the man speaks of oddities not often seen in the dark, magic-scarred region. Hair was a wild and fiery orange, sticking out at mostly upward angles from his head. Pointed ears were visible from either side of his head, both pierced with small, golden hoops dangling from near he base. Eyes were a startling, stormy gray, sparked with inhuman, golden veins. Facial features were fine and mildly angular, nose slender but decidedly human, skin fair but darkened by sunlight. Crooked yet cheerful smile made white-ish teeth visible, canine's unusually pronounced. Neck and jaw were often obscured by an over sized and well-worn scarf, that seemed to have once been deep crimson in color. Torso was covered by a dusty leather jacket, thick enough to perhaps serve as armor, though left loose fitting. The jacket was colored a deep black, though the long sleeves were embroidered with bright, golden fabric. If left open, the jacket would reveal a thin, silky undershirt of darker coloring. Hands were almost perpetually gloved or, if not, tucked deeply into pockets. Crimson pants were long, flared slightly at the bottom, and made of a thin fabric of finer quality than wool. Feet were covered by simple black boots with golden buckles. (none of the gold except the earrings is real, simply colored.) If one were to closely inspect him without clothing, they would notice his skin is cracked and slightly glowing yellow along his palms and small spots across his torso.
Possessions: Zap is a curious man, and carries curious things. If one were to search his person, and the considerable amount of hidden items within the interior pockets of his coat and in his boots, one may find a random assortment of seemingly useless trinkets, often including twigs and bits of metal, hard candy, teeth, and assorted cheap jewelry.
In addition, he also carries a pair of steel daggers, hidden in sheaths made into the interior of his overcoat, at near-hip level. The daggers are made in a more eastern style, with a single sided blade, however they are surely of a more local make for the metal is thick and solid.
His scarf is almost always handy, and a favorite weapon should his blades be taken from him. The fabric is reinforced with several small chains, making for a suitable garrote.
His coat is simple leather, though perhaps a bit fancy, and has several interior pockets in which he typically stores useless knick-knacks and trophies.
A boot knife, just in case.
A pair of lock picks, kept in various and seemingly random pockets of his coat or in his boots.
Powers and Abilities: Zynder Dur'Ruran is a nobody, though he often claims to be a mercenary or, indeed, an assassin. To back that claim he does possess certain abilities that may seem out of place on your average citizen.
-Zap is very proficient with the daggers he carries on his person, able to spin and maneuver them with practiced ease.
-He is a friendly fellow and often gives off warm smiles and greetings to any who look his way. He is fairly charismatic, in his own way.
-Zynder is Sun-Touched, and can manipulate sunlight in localized areas. This is a magical power and is rarely used for obvious reasons. The abilites of a sun-touched are as follows:
+The ability to absorb direct sunlight in localized areas. For Zap this includes his hands, palms primarily, and eyes. This ability creates a black sphere around the area, impenetrable by sight, as any light passing into the area is absorbed.
+Absorbed light can be used to in place of food, and can stave off thirst for longer periods.
+Light can be projected from the sun-touched areas (eyes and palms) in concentrated blasts. These attacks take a short moment to charge, but the effect is virtually instant. The pulse emitted is a blinding white/gold, and will burn anything touched by it. Sun-touched are not immune to their own attacks, and fine mirrors will reflect the light. The damage can range from slight to moderate burns, and can easily penetrate cloth. Leather armor provides adequate protection, but may be destroyed or lit aflame in the process. These attacks can only be used shortly after absorbing direct sunlight.
-Zynder has an uncanny ability to identify minor details, due to his obsessive nature.
-Zap is clever, in a serial-killer kind of way.
-He is well-practiced at using his magical abilities in conjunction with his daggers.
Weaknesses:
-Sun-touched cannot go for prolonged periods without daylight or they will begin to weaken and eventually die. After 24 hours they will start to feel ill or fatigued. It takes approximately 4-5 days for a sun-touched to die in total darkness, a week in artificial light.
-Zap is a hoarder, if he thinks something amusing or interesting he stores it. Often, many things he stores are mementos of past victories. Chips of metal from an enemy sword, a signet ring, a strip of cloth from an enemy's shirt. Some things he simply obsesses over for no apparent reason.
-Zap is obsessive. Sometimes this is a boon, but usually it is a hindrance. If he gets an idea in his mind he absolutely cannot be dissuaded.
-Zap is eccentric, massively and obscenely eccentric. Everyone can easily get his name or any information about him out of him just by asking. For this reason he is a terrible assassin, and also discredited as such, so it sometimes works in his favor.
-Dur'Ruran's are known for being vile and cruel in his home, a fact that is not altogether false about Zynder. He is cheery on the surface, but he is immensely sadistic beneath that cheerfulness. He's not a bad guy, but he goes well out of his way to kill his enemies slowly if he is convinced they deserve it. This reputation works against him in some rare scenarios where people know of his family.
-Zynder is mentally unstable and grows more-so the longer he goes without violence or direct sunlight. Daylight has a mildly soothing effect on his nerves, enough so that he can act fairly normal.
-Zap tends to sleep the moment the sun goes down, till dawn. If he's out at night, he slowly becomes more and more nervous and irritable.
-Cloudy or rainy weather has a slightly adverse effect on his mood, usually causing him to be more withdrawn from people.
Personality: Outwardly, Zynder Dur'Ruran is a rather cheerful fellow. He smiles warmly at anyone he meets, often extending a greeting to most who look his way. He is fond of being flashy, and showing off, whenever the opportunity presents itself. This is a game he plays with himself, and takes great amusement from so openly and obnoxiously presenting himself to the world. It is a mockery of kindness, a play for the benefit of the actor alone. If anyone knew the truth, knew the roiling sea of hatred that was Zynder Dur'Ruran, would they smile back. Would they even allow him to walk free in the streets, knowing that behind every smile was a threat, every wave a promise of pain and death? Imagined images of slit throats and severed tendons, hacking knives and gushing blood? Likely not.
The Dur'Ruran blood line is tainted with madness, overflowing with mental illness so severe that most could not even mask it. Dementia, Bi-Polarism, Psychosis. All of these things were common in the family, and not only through shared blood, but through the raising of unstable children by simply manic adults.
Zap has learned to mask his torment, his darkness, but he can barely contain himself enough to do even that. To sate his madness he has developed nervous habits, collecting items of trivial value to sate his obsessive nature. Anything to distract him from what he really wanted, violence. Sadism was his greatest weakness, screams of pain soothed him like a lullaby, calmed his frayed mind and allowed him to focus. Focus that came at a terrible cost to whomever he had in his clutches. He didn't like being cruel, on a logical level, but deep down he loved it. He knew it was wrong of him, knew that if he went too far he would be found out and summarily killed, but he could never stop.
Secretly, though, he wanted to be the mask he wore more than the man he was.
History: The Dur'Ruran family is a small and minimally feared collective, known for escaping justice and dispensing pain and torment due to random bouts of spite upon anyone passing through their meager holdings. No more than a house tucked into a copse of trees, in the empty and monster-infested wilderness of the Sooqui plain.
A product of rape and violence, his human mother being subdued and humiliated. Revenge for having tortured an elven man's family, Zynder grew up under stressful circumstances at best. He was raised out in the family home, away from the city and in a family of villains and madmen. It was a loveless childhood, his mother hating him for the reminder of her shame and his father cut down for his transgression long before the boy's birth. He knew nothing but discipline and malice for many years, told never to leave home for the land outside was wild with magic and full of danger. Eventually, knowing no reason to stay, beyond fear of the outside world, the outcast Dur'Ruran child wandered off into the wilderness one night.
Miraculously he lived long enough to reach a road, dirty and scraped from the journey. A merchant picked him up along the road and carried him eastward, to Ji. On the road, the man he traveled with was gruff, but kind, the first the young Dur'Ruran had ever experienced the foreign concept of kindness. In Ji he learned of customs and life far removed from his home, and discovered that the world was vast and differing. He got his nickname when a passerby noticed his hair, claimed he seemed to have been struck by lightning, or zapped. Perpetually fearing, as a child might, the name of his family may come back to haunt him even in these distant lands, he took to calling himself Zap. It was not long after that the merchant made the return trip to Thar Shaddin, and left the young boy behind at his request.
left on the street he spent many years in poverty, fending for himself. Still, it was a better life than he had known. Eventually, he grew to know violence and found it much to his liking. penance for the suffering he had endured as a child, a release from fear and oppression. Power. However, knowing the pain he had suffered as a child, he knew that his thirst for torment had to be sated in a more selective fashion. Thus, Zap the mercenary was born. He found as much satisfaction in ripping apart monsters as he did men, soon finding the brutal and personal closeness a short blade offered to be his preference.
He took to guarding merchants on less-used roads and long trade routes between unprotected lands. On one such trip, an uneventful one at that, the sky opened up, a rift of crackling power unleashing across the landscape. The phenomenon destroyed the cart upon which has had been sitting in a fit of wild and untamed magic. Zynder was blasted clear, but his hands were severely burned and he was blinded by the sudden ferocity of the attack. Fearing he had been ambushed, the mercenary stumbled around the wastes for hours. It was days before his sight returned, having taken refuge in a ditch and covering himself with a wooden panel blasted free of the cart. When he did, he found that his hands had not healed, and were radiating a glowing power.
The return trip to civilization was long and arduous, though he had plenty of supplies left over from the cart. During this trip he found that he seemed to gain power and energy in direct sunlight, and substantially weaker during the night. It was quite by accident he originally found out his new powers, his eyes drinking in the light from around him on a rogue though and flooding his mind with images from too many angles. Disoriented, he closed his eyes and found that when he opened them some moments later, the magically burning skin on his hands was glowing hotly and he could see his cheeks lit up from the light of his glowing eyes. It was then he realized that he was no longer a half-elf, but something more. His body had been plagues, or blessed, by magic. Magic that gave him a direct link to the light of day, allowed him to drink it for sustenance, and redirect it as a powerful weapon. The magic soothed the burning of his mind, eased the strain on his fragile grasp at humanity. It may be the key to saving him from that dark abyss that perpetually pulled at him, urging him to slip up, to fail and fall deep into the madness.
Zynder chuckled at the grandeur of his thoughts, the sudden power he had gained, and decided it might be time to head home. Thar Shaddin was always a land of trouble, surely a mercenary could easily find work is that dismal world. Perhaps he could change the repute of his vile family name, though surely, should he do that he would need a clean slate on which to write. No Dur'Rurans of the present line would live up to his new vision, and thus, his quest began to hunt down his family and make them see things a new way.... a positive way. Or a way that lie face down in a gutter. Whichever worked!
