Thar Shaddin

(the artist of the above can be found here: http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/loth/k/e/ ... uthie.html )

Name: Ausbryd Carreg
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 108 pounds (or nothing)
Species/Race: Gylhan (ghostly humanoid)
Occupation: Gem Cutter

Physical Description:

~ From a distance, this individual does not appear too strange. A slightly diminutive figure, with shoulder length light hair, perhaps a very pale blonde, standing out against darkened, stylish, and scholarly robes that will occasionally flash a bit of light as if sewn with shiny metallic threads. From the tight cut of the robes, and the apparent lack of soft curves, one can find safely assume that this person is male. Strewn over his shoulders is a hooded cloak a nightly shade of turquoise, adorned with thin chains connected with small stones of various hues - none too beautiful from the looks of them. Usually he'll be wearing a necklace with a green gem that seems misshapen, even from afar. But upon closer inspection, things become more interesting...

Ausbryd gives off the impression of being smaller than he truly is. He is neither very short nor tall, only a hand span below average, but he manages to exaggerate this truth to dodge notice. The way he holds himself, his casual stance and posture, makes him appear unobtrusive. Which is fortunate in his mind, for he normally would stand out enough as is - his striking features are bold enough to make up for his lesser stature.

Foremost would be his hair, straight and sharp strips of a silvery grey that come to points, seeming at times to fade away into nothing. Although not cut evenly, the longest regions reach down to his shoulder, while the shortest are cropped around his jaw-line. Underneath this pale lunar growth are strands of a richer shade, a deep mahogany, braided simply and offering a startling contrast of light and dark. These coils remain mostly out of sight, tucked underneath the prominent growth of silver and further stashed behind the collar of his robes.

At his throat is often a necklace strung from an odd toned cord and texture, like that of stony wood. The most dominant feature of this piece of jewelry is a gemstone that rests at the base of his throat, an emerald it would seem, but cut so poorly and so cracked for it to be nearly worthless.

His skin, a shade that shows little sign of coloration from sunlight, is sculpted upon his face to form a picture of delicate beauty. A strong projection of a nose, high cheekbones, almond shaped eyes and thin expressive lips all allow for a wide range of visual emotion, and often depict clearly what Ausbryd feels inside even when he tries to hide it. His ears, coming to points like those of half-elf, are occasionally shrouded by the subdued silvery strands. The left ear is dotted with a few tiny studs on the outside edge, each earring containing a small shard of green stone or crystal, all of which appear cheap and overly simple; the right ear remains untouched. Eyes are a cloud patterned pearly white, and under certain lights it is difficult to recognize that he has irises at all.

The contours of Ausbryd's body are sharp, accentuated by form fitting robes of a shadowed grey. This piece of clothing seems to breathe as he does, follow his movements as would a reflection. Stitched about it are symbols, runes that flow about it in wavy designs that would be attractive were they not so confusing to follow. Although worn tight upon his thin frame, the clothing seems to allow a great fluidity of motion, from his slender arms to his well structured legs. At it's highest point, the robes flare out into a wide collar, bearing the chaotic design on the inner lining only. The cut of the cloth then sweeps down to outline his streamlined waist, which is tied with a pure white sash, and then widen once again upon reaching his ankles. Rich black boots of a material like that of worn leather, are tied up calf high and bear smaller renditions of the strange runic markings elsewhere – mimicked exactly by a pair of gloves that coat hands bearing lithe fingers. Thus, the only flesh seen is upon his face and neck, every inch of him covered otherwise.

Completing his attire is a long cloak of a deep rich velvety turquoise, usually worn open, that displays a strange collection. Small, dully metallic chains are strung throughout, each bearing an assortment of rough rocks, fractured gems and crystals, all of which are different in shade and shape. None are polished, and none seem to hold any beauty at all. The cloak hangs lower than that of the robes, almost brushing the bottom of his boots, but never seeming to touch the floor. No patterns adorn the outside of the garment, like those of his robes, but when one gets a glimpse of the inside lining, the same wavy lines of incomprehensible design can be found.

One disconcerting fact about his appearance should be noted. Nothing, not his clothing nor his flesh, catches dirt nor dust. Always does he appear pristine, his clothing never wrinkled, and his hair never tangled.

Personality:
He is skittish and greatly cautious of that which is unfamiliar, but tries to hide this with his awkward smiles. Often he'll mask his fears, his doubts and the pain of his past and present, through bouts of cheerfulness. Inwardly there is a constant battle, as he struggles with great sorrows held deep inside of him, of a nothingness that he fears could one day consume him. Altruism, offering his helping hand and asking little in return, is one way he strikes against the void he finds within himself. He seeks to do good, and in doing so push away the shadows that plague his soul, of the torture he has faced at the hands of man. When his thoughts turn dark, he can be distant, sarcastic, pessimistic. This is a part of him he does not fully understand, but through humor he manages to find a way to cope with it. He tries to disguise that dour side of himself from most people, and is usually determined to show a contented face to the world.

Pride is one of his week points, a highly sensitive issue for him, and he does not take insults well. He knows there is something within him worth preserving, some meaning to hold on to, but he cannot fathom it, and tentatively holds on to the mystery of his existence. Attacks demeaning his character are often taken way too personally, as he begins to lose a hold of that awareness of possible self worth, and it brings out the worst in him.

A quality of his he inherited from his people is an adaptive intelligence. He is fairly good at problem solving, and even better at absorbing information - he learned how to fluently speak, read, and write the common language here in under six months. His cunning has contributed greatly with his skill as a gemsmith, and to a lesser extent as an alchemist.

His fears revolve around magic, displays of which put him on edge. Regardless of the source, it intimidates him, and makes him feel vulnerable. Any exposure with black magic, the clearly necromantic, can send such a terrible fear into his heart that he can lose hold of his sanity. Often he'll feel insecure, and this he will transmit to others through occasional arrogance, using pride as a shield against fear and self doubt.

Special Abilities:
Ausbryd's natural form is mostly intangible (see History below). When in this form, he cannot interact with most physical matter, including the living. He merely passes through such things, suffering pain of varying degrees (depending on the size and speed of the object) from doing so but remaining physically unharmed. An exception to this are objects of magic, elements that are supernatural – and as mentioned below, objects made of wood. The supernatural affect him normally regardless of form, as his race's close bond with magic is their one main connection with the physical world. Also, magical spells affect him even more so than they would affect normal people when he is in his natural ghost like state. Wooden objects penetrate his incorporeality, and deal him greater damage and pain. Something to note: although while being similar to a ghost in form, he is not undead, and thus not subject to things that would specifically harm such creatures.

When incorporeal, his movements make no sounds. Not even the gems clinking together upon his cloak break the silence, for they are a part of him, and thus as quiet as the quasi-death this state of existence represents. No footprints are left behind him, and he is entirely weightless - but he appears completely opaque. Only when he fluxes between physicality and immateriality is there a brief occasion of transparency.

This power has its limits. He still is mortal, and needs to breathe, eat, drink, and sleep. Eating or drinking when incorporeal requires intense concentration that leaves him weakened severely, as he must concentrate in converting the substance he imbibes into a ghostly form. Additionally, his incorporeality is not absolutely complete. Some forms of objects he must interact with normally when incorporeal - such as the floor or walls of a building, or a door. He has no special ability to phase through such barriers. Plus, through intense concentration he can manipulate minor physical things (such as eating as mentioned above, or turning a door's handle), but this does not always work, and the pain of attempting to do so is often unbearable. In time, he might be able to completely phase through objects such as metal bars or a window, but doing so as he is now would most likely knock him out if not kill him from the trauma it would inflict.

Because of experimentation done to him as a child, Ausbryd can take a physical form unlike the rest of his race. His mainly intangible bones were magically replaced with wood bearing entrapped spirits, and thus his incorporeality was modified. He becomes material when his flesh stays in contact with wood, but such contact in turn causes him agony. When no wood touches his flesh, he is as stated above. The Chaos Filter (as described under Equipment), allows him to maintain his physical form with less pain than usual, as both the innate magic of the object and its nature as petrified wood makes things easier for him.

His soul-rich wooden bones also grant him some extraordinary abilities. For one, when he is dealt damage, that damage is healed at a fairly quick rate – his bones have regenerative qualities, repairing his substance when it is disrupted. However, the healing is drastically slowed when wounds are inflicted with wooden weapon. In addition, the souls held within his bones give him a sixth sense for trouble that works off and on. Occasionally he will be alerted to an attack or a region that holds danger, but this power works unpredictably and can even warn him of danger when there is none.

Finally, when his flesh comes in contact with undead, be they material or wraithlike, he drains them of their energy. This is due to another facet of the curse of his race, in which his kind had forbidden interactions with the spirit realm. While a mere touch is not draining enough to seriously hamper such a creature, it is painful and can weaken them - prolonged exposure (anywhere from a minute to five) can be deadly. When material, his clothing (gloves mainly) prevent such contact, but when immaterial the draining is unrestrained.

Skills:
Ausbryd has learned to be a survivor, and can hold his own out of doors if need be. He can forage, and build himself a shelter, and even has a bit of an ability with hunting. But his main expertise lies with minerals, as he has fine tuned his ability to refine them and create wonderful works of art. For instance, given a little bit of time with some of the seemingly worthless stones hanging from his robes, he can craft some startlingly beautiful gems. Also, he dabbles in alchemy, using powdered stones of various compositions to create interesting effects. Sometimes he even gets the results he aims for.

He tries to avoid physical conflict, for in battle he is fairly weak. The powers of the maul (below) can be stunning, but not directly harmful. He has trained himself to use the maul competently, but he is no warrior and would not be able to face off against someone who knows battle. Also, he can use the staff as a weapon, using it to trip opponents or disarm someone's weapon, both of which he has fair ability in. His main advantage in combat is his speed, and when his sixth sense functions, his reflexes are superb. And of course, his incorporeality is a great defense so long as he does not need to strike back, and his opponent are not supernatural or using wooden weapons.

Equipment:
The components of his attire are all ceremonially enchanted to function when incorporeal - they shift with him. Among these is his belt pouch, a slightly magical container that appears to be a simple sash of white. Objects put inside this pouch shift as if they were part of Ausbryd as well. All such bonded items share a minor link with him, repairing damage to themselves over time by borrowing his own regenerative qualities.

Other than his clothing, he carries with him an object of great utility crafted of smooth petrified wood. Sculpted with the essence of chaos, and bonded to Ausbryd through an ancient linking ceremony, this object is his prized possession – required to live a normal life. Like his attire, it too is enchanted to shift into incorporeality with him - as long as it does not touch his flesh. Named by him the Chaos Filter, it can take three forms - that of a staff adorned with multiple flawed emeralds, the above mentioned emerald necklace, and that of a great maul affixed with a pale emerald in the shape of a perfect prism. This object allows him to be materially existent constantly as long as it touches his skin (as per normal wood), with the added benefit of only minimal pain from contact - it being petrified numbs Ausbryd's sensitivity and prevents greater torment. For the most part, he only wears it as a necklace to remain material, but every once in awhile he'll take off his gloves and use it as a staff, or rarely when threatened, wield the maul in battle. As a creation of chaos matter attuned to him, Ausbryd can manipulate its form, cause it to momentary take different shapes, but it will only stay in one of the three main forms for extended periods of time.

Nothing is exceptional about either staff nor necklace other than it's strange composition (so far), but as a maul it has the power to be quite an interesting weapon. Once it strikes a target, it absorbs pigmentation and stores it for later use. Once it stores enough, it can release the pigment in a brilliant display of color and light that has the chance of dazzling foes. Absorbing pigment from clothing or other non-living non-magical mater takes the color away permanently, but a living creature or a magical object will regain it's colors within an hour. It does not deal much damage, as Ausbryd does not have much strength to put behind his blows, but it can be intimidating.

Also, he keeps with him, stashed securely in his sash's secret compartment, a small quantity of alchemical materials to be used in emergencies. A very compact gem cutting kit is kept in the sash as well, next to a few wooden beads he keeps as backup if ever he should lose the Chaos Filter.

Strengths:
-agile and dexterous
-quick learner
-can become intangible
-speedy regeneration
-draining touch against undead
-occasional effective sixth sense
-occasion luck with alchemy
-the Chaos Filter's powers as a maul

Weaknesses:
-dominated by fear
-prideful
-physically weak
-vulnerability to wooden weapons
-susceptibility to spells when ghost-like
-reliance on wood to be material, eat, etc
-constant pain when physical
-occasional false sixth sense
-occasional mishap with alchemy

History:
To better know where Ausbryd came from, delving into his race's past is helpful. The Gylhan were a magically attuned folk, experts at finding the hidden secrets of the arcane and bending reality to their wills. Their god, Naimad, allowed his people great freedoms, forbidding only magic that would take life, cause immortality or sustain life too beyond what is natural. But some found a loophole to this decree, finding their dearly departed's souls and using magic to freely interact with them even in death. More and more of the Gylhan took to this magic, and Naimad's anger grew and grew as he realized that physical death became meaningless. In a rage, he stripped the magic from the Gylhan, cursed his people to lose their material existence, and damned them to never again touch upon those who have passed from life without causing great harm. Many died, but the race survived to face the torment of not being fully able to deal with the living or dying world.

It was a fanatical human necromancer Kartoth, that many generations later, abducted a young Gylhan boy and took it as a challenge to unwork the curse of Naimad. Several years this boy, the unfortunate Ausbryd, was experimented on, losing the later part of his childhood to know pain beyond anything most even come close to experiencing. The necromancer constantly rebuilt him, and then decided one day that Ausbryd was a flawed experiment. Not wishing to cause death to the boy, and knowing that letting him go would merely bring animosity upon him from the locals once they discovered what had been done, Kartoth banished the lad from the world. Expelled with only the bonded clothes on his back, and a wooden spoon, the tortured youth was alone.

He found himself in a land of chaos. It was there, insubstantial for the most part, he managed to survived on his own. Several years of barely eking out a living by scrounging around for exotic food, eating with great pain from the wooden spoon, and hiding from the insane local inhabitants, passed by. He was barely in his teens when he was captured by a being of chaos. He found himself being subdued by a shapeshifting mage, a fluctuating being of energy. This creature, which called itself Limbo, was lonely. At the beginning, the relationship between Ausbryd and Limbo was that of prisoner and captor, but eventually their relationship turned to an odd form of friendship. It was Limbo that created the Chaos Filter, sculpting a rare petrified wood and imbuing it with chaos matter for his prisoner-friend, and it was Limbo that taught the young man how to ceremonially link objects such as clothing to himself so that he could interact with them freely (such as his clothing) - a long process but a necessary one. And it was Ausbryd that began to know a life that was not pure torment.

Before he had reached his twenties, by a quirk of fate, Ausbryd was shunted from the chaos realm through a magical experiment gone awry – once again he was sent to another world. And again this youth adapted, fearful but determined to survive. He found himself in the world in which Terre Haute lies, a place so different from his original home that had become but a vague memory. He faced hardships here at first, learning the language and the laws of the land, but he quickly gained a rudimentary understanding of how society worked in this realm of existence. Wielding the intelligence his race was known for, he picked up knowledge exceedingly quick. It was in a distant city that he picked up his trade of gem crafting, becoming an apprentice for several years to a gentle master. He finished his apprenticeship in less than half the time it normally took, exceeding the skill of his benefactor and mentor, and turned to travel. He would hop from city to city, learning to avoid smaller towns for their intolerance, and pick up new skills by absorption. Danger he knew, and at points he came close to death through run ins with the supernatural, but still he adapted, and grew stronger. Rarely would he allow himself to slip into incorporeality, knowing the constant but dull pain of physicality through the Chaos Filter. He learned to live, for the most part, as a creature of solid flesh.

His journeys from city to city have led him here, where he seeks to pick up more knowledge of the way this world works, and refine his talents. Maybe he'll even find he favors this region, and his travels will come to an end. The future is uncertain, and to a certain extent, Ausbryd prefers it this way.