UltimaGabe
First Post
Hey, everyone. I'm currently a senior at Dearborn High School, and I had an assignment in my Creative Writing class to write a detailed character backstory about a fictional character I've invented. So, what did I do? I wrote about my favorite D&D character, of course! This is just a rough draft, but it's kinda long. If anyone's willing to sit through it all, I'd be interested in getting feedback. Thanks in advance!
Atop a mountain far beyond the reaches of mortals, above glistening clouds and flocks of birds flying to their highest, farther from the settlements of man than most people have dreamt of travelling, sat a man. Dressed in simple clothes, he stared off into the expanse of sky above and beneath him, dreaming of how things are and were to be. He had seen more sights and experienced more pleasures than most men imagine in their wildest dreams- and yet he saw it as no more than a grain of salt. Thus was the life of a legend, an adventurer, a man- Ichi.
Ichi was one of many who traversed the unimaginable horrors of the world around him... he bravely fought against his deepest fears daily in his quest to find the true meaning inside himself, finding little help along the way. Life of a man like him was easy by no stretch of the imagination, for this was a world of myth and monsters, of magic and mystery, of dungeons and dragons. This was the land of Faerun, the Forgotten Realms.
Ichi was an adventurer. Like many others, he had quite a story to tell- in fact, he spent most of his days in the small town of Uthmyr sharing stories of his travels- from the epic battle with the half-demon dragon Ashardalon, to the time two nations warred at his behalf, to the armies of undead that stood between him and the light of day. Ichi was a sight to behold- six and a half feet tall, his body had reached a state of perfection sought by kings far and wide. From his strong herculean legs, to his broad, muscled chest, to the long dark brown hair on his wise head, his mere appearance was told of in legend. Though he was, in every physical way, shape, and form a mere 27 years of age, he had been in this world for more than half a century... the powerful magics of the land were able to keep him young, and eager to have another adventure. His mind was always cluttered with memories of adventures waiting to be told- but, every now and then, he simply had to get away from it all. So he came to places like this, where he could be alone. It was times like this when Ichi could clear his head of all distractions and think.... think back to his younger years, and find the person inside him that made him do what he did. Even he didn't understand himself at times, but in his solitude he was able to find some semblance of hope.
His thoughts often drifted to his childhood... or what little of it he had. Ichi wasn't his real name... his birth name hadn't been used in years, and never by anyone but him. It reminded him too much of the pitiful excuses for parents he came from. "Emeren Raithe" simply didn't sit well with him. He had been born to two unloving parents without any feeling of connection between them... and their sense of order annoyed him to no end. He simply couldn't be contained- causing his parents much grief and frustration, no doubt- and to nobody's surprise, they abandoned him at an orphanage when he was barely 6 years old, branding him a "wild child". His days of being wild had only begun, as they never stayed around to find out.
Emeren never got along with any of the children at the orphanage, let alone any of the adults. Their lessons were far too strict for a chaotic being such as he, and his confinement in the orphanage left him feeling powerless. Of all of his feelings, his fear of being powerless motivated him to never give up. He tried to escape at every chance he got, without any regard for how he would survive if he somehow did. And one day, he got his chance. Around the age of 14, he fled from that accursed building, finding a place in the nearby woods. What little education he had received was soon forgotten, as well as his aversion for killing. Killing was simply a part of survival, which he learned well. He had been graced with strength and quickness beyond his years, helping him to survive in the wild. Strength and Quickness, however, are nothing when compared to cunning- something Emeren lacked, and became his downfall many a time.
Luck was on his side, however, more often than he realized. Around the age of 16 or 17, Emeren would have met his end when hunting a pack of wolves that had been giving him trouble. He realized too late that when he had planned to ambush the brutes, he was in fact the one being ambushed- their intuition had definitely overcome his. But, when he thought all was lost, he was saved- by a strange, yellow-skinned man from far away.... an expert swordsman, he slew every wolf before Emeren knew what was happening. The man helped Emeren to bandage his cuts and bruises, and introduced himself as Akuma Quan. He was a traveler from afar, and he claimed to see something in Emeren that Emeren hadn't even seen in himself. In exchange for saving his life, Quan asked him to be his apprentice... his student. Emeren had never been a willing student before, and Quan had never been a willing teacher... so he christened Emeren "Ichi", meaning "First" in his native tongue.
For the next three years, Emeren- now calling himself "Ichi", as if he had never known a name before- trained with Quan, his first true friend. His trainings were intense, but bearable- emphasizing the importance of swordplay, survival, mobility, and above all, focusing power. At times, despite his fear of being powerless, Ichi began to fear the exact opposite... the forces of nature, as he had observed all his life, was a powerful thing. If such power ran rampant... he wouldn't know what to expect. Although he relied on it more than anything else, Ichi began to develop a fear of the one thing he always thought he needed... power. As a result, he began to feel a calling... a calling to leave. Quan allowed him to go, but gave him a gift.... a katana, an expertly crafted weapon from his homeland- an implement of mastership and perfection of beauty. But Ichi's mind was too simple and chaotic to appreciate the gift, and simply took it, regarding it as any other weapon. He travelled to the north, resting in a town called Silverymoon. There, he found peace for some time.
Silverymoon was the place that Ichi considered home for the majority of his life, even long after he moved away. There he began to achieve the maturity of the man he would be for the rest of his life... there he first experienced the wonder of magic, and grew relationships with people who appreciated him for what he was- and after two years of working as a member of the town militia, he decided he had grown enough physically and mentally to continue his training with Akuma Quan. When he arrived, however, the place where they trained was in ruin- but there was a man there, sharing the same skin tone and physical features as his master... he called himself Koshi Yakamoshi.
Koshi- this small, slender swordsman, claimed to be of the same clan as Akuma Quan, and had come to investigate his disappearance. He wielded the same kind of weapon as Ichi- except he showed a kind of... respect for it that Ichi had never seen. He introduced Ichi to a friend of his- a curious, short, heavily-tattooed elven Shaman woman named Phedre. The two of them had been investigating nearby hamlets whose inhabitants had all been slaughtered... presumably by hordes of Drow, the Dark Elves that lived in caves below the ground. There was believed to be an entire world beneath them, called the "Underdark" by adventurers brave enough to go there. The isolation and darkness of such a place produced only evil creatures, as far as anyone knew- and, as far as Ichi knew, he had seen enough proof of that to never doubt it.
Koshi and Phedre introduced Ichi to a friend of theirs... his name was Alastair. To this day, Ichi still doesn't realize quite how influential Alastair was in his life, despite how much their personalities seemed to clash. Alastair seemed human, by Ichi's standards, but over time he realized that looks can be quite deceiving. He was a High Priest of Mask, the god of lies, deception, and illusion. Ichi had few morals, and to his fortune, Alastair proved to be a powerful ally, and over time, he was the person most responsible for building up the legend that the world knows as Ichi the Undead Slayer.
Ichi's first experiences with Koshi, Phedre, and Alastair proved to be one of the most taxing and bitter adventures of Ichi's career as an adventurer, yet one of the most rewarding. They answered the call of a poverty-stricken town at war, and eventually had to travel into the world of the Underdark and stop forces of Drow that threatened the entire world's safety. To their dismay, however, there were more than just Drow against them... there were endless hordes of undead coming from this evil land as well, and these foul abominations of life proved to be their most dangerous foes. When they found out what they had gotten themselves into, it was too late to turn back... they had to stop this onslought of the dead before they reached the surface, or die trying. It was there that Ichi truly realized his fears of power and powerlessness... he was powerless to fight against undead, and yet they had all the power he had ever known and more. The power of undeath is a vicious wellspring indeed. And, despite Ichi's fear and hate for these disgusting mockeries of life, he learned that mere undead are only as powerful as those controlling them... Alastair, with his natural cunning and divine power, had his own forces of undead for his own protection. In Ichi's mind, he fought fire with fire, regardless of how Alastair viewed it. As long as he knew who his allies were, he had a light of hope in the Underdark.
After what seemed like months of fighting and running from armies of undead around every turn, Alastair and Phedre managed to use their magics to their greatest extent and finally stop the onslought of dead from destroying the barriers that kept them from invading the world above. As a result, the threat was halted- for how long, nobody knew. The group emerged from the Underdark victorious in everyone's eyes, hailed as saviors of the land. Alastair, however, always had a plan. In order to keep the rest of the group safe from possible enemies, he hailed Ichi as the savior, instilling in everyone's mind the image of "Legendary Ichi the Undead Slayer". Ichi, none the wiser, accepted it all. Countless adventures followed, saving the world from dire peril whenever the need arose. Ichi's fame rose, and Alastair's plan saw no end.
Ichi's fear of power and powerlessness seemed a mere afterthought. That is, until he, Koshi, and Phedre traveled to a coastal city called Velprintalar by request of a local merchant. They decided to split up and explore the town... and, by his luck, Ichi was approached by a half-elven man named Morninglord. He, like few others, was born as a cross-breed in the nearby Elven nation, and was shunned by the mostly human nation of Velprintalar. He claimed that he and several of his kinsman had been killed by a group of human bigots seeking to cause war between the two nations- and he begged Ichi to help. Ichi put him in an inn, told him to stay put until this was all settled, and traveled far outside of town to the manor house where Morninglord had fled from. When Ichi came to the building, however, he found it was occupied by demons and unholy knights, the likes of which Ichi had never seen- and although he managed to slay most of them, his mind was taken over by one of the horrible creatures that lived there. The next thing he knew, Ichi was standing in Velprintalar, his sword in his hand, blood all over his clothes- and the body of Morninglord lying in pieces. As he found out all too late, Morninglord wasn't simply a knight- he was the prince of the nearby Elven nation.
All evidence pointed directly at Ichi. He had no recollection of anything he had done since he entered the Manor House, and could not deny any of the accusations that the nations threw at him. He was put in jail and put under heavy guard, yet he offered no resistance... for once, he had been powerless. To make matters worse... Koshi and Phedre tried to break him out of jail, and were killed in the process. His time in jail caused him to fear power even more than ever... even the power of justice was something that a chaotic being as himself feared. He sat in his cell, tormented by the fear of what he had done when he lost control of himself, and the thoughts of how things still could have been much worse. Two nations were waging war due to his actions. His grief and fear knew no end.
To his relief, after a year in jail, his name was cleared. The Elven royal family called upon powerful magics to speak with the slain spirit of Morninglord, and as it turned out, Ichi had not killed him- it was all a setup, an attempt to cause the two nations to war. The true culprit was the demon that controlled him. Despite the control over him, he somehow resisted killing Morninglord- so the demon killed the prince himself, framing Ichi in the process. Now, he was free. And yet, despite his freedom, two of his friends were dead due to his lack of power.
Over time, the wounds healed. Ichi became as carefree and easygoing as always within the next few years. Alastair arranged two more adventuring partners for their travels- a powerful Sorcerer with no memory of his past named Kael, and a seafaring, seductive assassin named Aiako. They shared many adventurers over the years themselves, such as stopping the evil Dwarven warlord Imperagon from reforging an ancient sword spoken of in legend, and waging war with the blasphemous dragon lord Ashardalon. With their help, the legend known as Ichi the Undead Slayer remained a legend.
Ever since their last epic battle, Ichi, Kael, Aiako, and Alastair had gone their separate ways. Ichi hadn't spoken to any of them in years, and spent most of his time traveling across the lands and experiencing everything there was to experience. He wasn't an uncommon sight at the local tavern, drinking everyone else under the table and starting barfights for fun, or on some tropical island basking in the hot sun or swimming along the current. His mind grew with his adventures, yet he still acted simple when around most people. He found that the world was more enjoyable from a simpleton's point of view.
When he was by himself, however, he spent most of his time thinking. He'd wonder about the sights he hadn't seen, or the lessons he had still to learn... and he pledged to himself that some day, he'd finally travel off into the land where no man has set foot and end his days peacefully. Until then, the world is but a playground for Emeren Raithe the Undead Slayer.
Atop a mountain far beyond the reaches of mortals, above glistening clouds and flocks of birds flying to their highest, farther from the settlements of man than most people have dreamt of travelling, sat a man. Dressed in simple clothes, he stared off into the expanse of sky above and beneath him, dreaming of how things are and were to be. He had seen more sights and experienced more pleasures than most men imagine in their wildest dreams- and yet he saw it as no more than a grain of salt. Thus was the life of a legend, an adventurer, a man- Ichi.
Ichi was one of many who traversed the unimaginable horrors of the world around him... he bravely fought against his deepest fears daily in his quest to find the true meaning inside himself, finding little help along the way. Life of a man like him was easy by no stretch of the imagination, for this was a world of myth and monsters, of magic and mystery, of dungeons and dragons. This was the land of Faerun, the Forgotten Realms.
Ichi was an adventurer. Like many others, he had quite a story to tell- in fact, he spent most of his days in the small town of Uthmyr sharing stories of his travels- from the epic battle with the half-demon dragon Ashardalon, to the time two nations warred at his behalf, to the armies of undead that stood between him and the light of day. Ichi was a sight to behold- six and a half feet tall, his body had reached a state of perfection sought by kings far and wide. From his strong herculean legs, to his broad, muscled chest, to the long dark brown hair on his wise head, his mere appearance was told of in legend. Though he was, in every physical way, shape, and form a mere 27 years of age, he had been in this world for more than half a century... the powerful magics of the land were able to keep him young, and eager to have another adventure. His mind was always cluttered with memories of adventures waiting to be told- but, every now and then, he simply had to get away from it all. So he came to places like this, where he could be alone. It was times like this when Ichi could clear his head of all distractions and think.... think back to his younger years, and find the person inside him that made him do what he did. Even he didn't understand himself at times, but in his solitude he was able to find some semblance of hope.
His thoughts often drifted to his childhood... or what little of it he had. Ichi wasn't his real name... his birth name hadn't been used in years, and never by anyone but him. It reminded him too much of the pitiful excuses for parents he came from. "Emeren Raithe" simply didn't sit well with him. He had been born to two unloving parents without any feeling of connection between them... and their sense of order annoyed him to no end. He simply couldn't be contained- causing his parents much grief and frustration, no doubt- and to nobody's surprise, they abandoned him at an orphanage when he was barely 6 years old, branding him a "wild child". His days of being wild had only begun, as they never stayed around to find out.
Emeren never got along with any of the children at the orphanage, let alone any of the adults. Their lessons were far too strict for a chaotic being such as he, and his confinement in the orphanage left him feeling powerless. Of all of his feelings, his fear of being powerless motivated him to never give up. He tried to escape at every chance he got, without any regard for how he would survive if he somehow did. And one day, he got his chance. Around the age of 14, he fled from that accursed building, finding a place in the nearby woods. What little education he had received was soon forgotten, as well as his aversion for killing. Killing was simply a part of survival, which he learned well. He had been graced with strength and quickness beyond his years, helping him to survive in the wild. Strength and Quickness, however, are nothing when compared to cunning- something Emeren lacked, and became his downfall many a time.
Luck was on his side, however, more often than he realized. Around the age of 16 or 17, Emeren would have met his end when hunting a pack of wolves that had been giving him trouble. He realized too late that when he had planned to ambush the brutes, he was in fact the one being ambushed- their intuition had definitely overcome his. But, when he thought all was lost, he was saved- by a strange, yellow-skinned man from far away.... an expert swordsman, he slew every wolf before Emeren knew what was happening. The man helped Emeren to bandage his cuts and bruises, and introduced himself as Akuma Quan. He was a traveler from afar, and he claimed to see something in Emeren that Emeren hadn't even seen in himself. In exchange for saving his life, Quan asked him to be his apprentice... his student. Emeren had never been a willing student before, and Quan had never been a willing teacher... so he christened Emeren "Ichi", meaning "First" in his native tongue.
For the next three years, Emeren- now calling himself "Ichi", as if he had never known a name before- trained with Quan, his first true friend. His trainings were intense, but bearable- emphasizing the importance of swordplay, survival, mobility, and above all, focusing power. At times, despite his fear of being powerless, Ichi began to fear the exact opposite... the forces of nature, as he had observed all his life, was a powerful thing. If such power ran rampant... he wouldn't know what to expect. Although he relied on it more than anything else, Ichi began to develop a fear of the one thing he always thought he needed... power. As a result, he began to feel a calling... a calling to leave. Quan allowed him to go, but gave him a gift.... a katana, an expertly crafted weapon from his homeland- an implement of mastership and perfection of beauty. But Ichi's mind was too simple and chaotic to appreciate the gift, and simply took it, regarding it as any other weapon. He travelled to the north, resting in a town called Silverymoon. There, he found peace for some time.
Silverymoon was the place that Ichi considered home for the majority of his life, even long after he moved away. There he began to achieve the maturity of the man he would be for the rest of his life... there he first experienced the wonder of magic, and grew relationships with people who appreciated him for what he was- and after two years of working as a member of the town militia, he decided he had grown enough physically and mentally to continue his training with Akuma Quan. When he arrived, however, the place where they trained was in ruin- but there was a man there, sharing the same skin tone and physical features as his master... he called himself Koshi Yakamoshi.
Koshi- this small, slender swordsman, claimed to be of the same clan as Akuma Quan, and had come to investigate his disappearance. He wielded the same kind of weapon as Ichi- except he showed a kind of... respect for it that Ichi had never seen. He introduced Ichi to a friend of his- a curious, short, heavily-tattooed elven Shaman woman named Phedre. The two of them had been investigating nearby hamlets whose inhabitants had all been slaughtered... presumably by hordes of Drow, the Dark Elves that lived in caves below the ground. There was believed to be an entire world beneath them, called the "Underdark" by adventurers brave enough to go there. The isolation and darkness of such a place produced only evil creatures, as far as anyone knew- and, as far as Ichi knew, he had seen enough proof of that to never doubt it.
Koshi and Phedre introduced Ichi to a friend of theirs... his name was Alastair. To this day, Ichi still doesn't realize quite how influential Alastair was in his life, despite how much their personalities seemed to clash. Alastair seemed human, by Ichi's standards, but over time he realized that looks can be quite deceiving. He was a High Priest of Mask, the god of lies, deception, and illusion. Ichi had few morals, and to his fortune, Alastair proved to be a powerful ally, and over time, he was the person most responsible for building up the legend that the world knows as Ichi the Undead Slayer.
Ichi's first experiences with Koshi, Phedre, and Alastair proved to be one of the most taxing and bitter adventures of Ichi's career as an adventurer, yet one of the most rewarding. They answered the call of a poverty-stricken town at war, and eventually had to travel into the world of the Underdark and stop forces of Drow that threatened the entire world's safety. To their dismay, however, there were more than just Drow against them... there were endless hordes of undead coming from this evil land as well, and these foul abominations of life proved to be their most dangerous foes. When they found out what they had gotten themselves into, it was too late to turn back... they had to stop this onslought of the dead before they reached the surface, or die trying. It was there that Ichi truly realized his fears of power and powerlessness... he was powerless to fight against undead, and yet they had all the power he had ever known and more. The power of undeath is a vicious wellspring indeed. And, despite Ichi's fear and hate for these disgusting mockeries of life, he learned that mere undead are only as powerful as those controlling them... Alastair, with his natural cunning and divine power, had his own forces of undead for his own protection. In Ichi's mind, he fought fire with fire, regardless of how Alastair viewed it. As long as he knew who his allies were, he had a light of hope in the Underdark.
After what seemed like months of fighting and running from armies of undead around every turn, Alastair and Phedre managed to use their magics to their greatest extent and finally stop the onslought of dead from destroying the barriers that kept them from invading the world above. As a result, the threat was halted- for how long, nobody knew. The group emerged from the Underdark victorious in everyone's eyes, hailed as saviors of the land. Alastair, however, always had a plan. In order to keep the rest of the group safe from possible enemies, he hailed Ichi as the savior, instilling in everyone's mind the image of "Legendary Ichi the Undead Slayer". Ichi, none the wiser, accepted it all. Countless adventures followed, saving the world from dire peril whenever the need arose. Ichi's fame rose, and Alastair's plan saw no end.
Ichi's fear of power and powerlessness seemed a mere afterthought. That is, until he, Koshi, and Phedre traveled to a coastal city called Velprintalar by request of a local merchant. They decided to split up and explore the town... and, by his luck, Ichi was approached by a half-elven man named Morninglord. He, like few others, was born as a cross-breed in the nearby Elven nation, and was shunned by the mostly human nation of Velprintalar. He claimed that he and several of his kinsman had been killed by a group of human bigots seeking to cause war between the two nations- and he begged Ichi to help. Ichi put him in an inn, told him to stay put until this was all settled, and traveled far outside of town to the manor house where Morninglord had fled from. When Ichi came to the building, however, he found it was occupied by demons and unholy knights, the likes of which Ichi had never seen- and although he managed to slay most of them, his mind was taken over by one of the horrible creatures that lived there. The next thing he knew, Ichi was standing in Velprintalar, his sword in his hand, blood all over his clothes- and the body of Morninglord lying in pieces. As he found out all too late, Morninglord wasn't simply a knight- he was the prince of the nearby Elven nation.
All evidence pointed directly at Ichi. He had no recollection of anything he had done since he entered the Manor House, and could not deny any of the accusations that the nations threw at him. He was put in jail and put under heavy guard, yet he offered no resistance... for once, he had been powerless. To make matters worse... Koshi and Phedre tried to break him out of jail, and were killed in the process. His time in jail caused him to fear power even more than ever... even the power of justice was something that a chaotic being as himself feared. He sat in his cell, tormented by the fear of what he had done when he lost control of himself, and the thoughts of how things still could have been much worse. Two nations were waging war due to his actions. His grief and fear knew no end.
To his relief, after a year in jail, his name was cleared. The Elven royal family called upon powerful magics to speak with the slain spirit of Morninglord, and as it turned out, Ichi had not killed him- it was all a setup, an attempt to cause the two nations to war. The true culprit was the demon that controlled him. Despite the control over him, he somehow resisted killing Morninglord- so the demon killed the prince himself, framing Ichi in the process. Now, he was free. And yet, despite his freedom, two of his friends were dead due to his lack of power.
Over time, the wounds healed. Ichi became as carefree and easygoing as always within the next few years. Alastair arranged two more adventuring partners for their travels- a powerful Sorcerer with no memory of his past named Kael, and a seafaring, seductive assassin named Aiako. They shared many adventurers over the years themselves, such as stopping the evil Dwarven warlord Imperagon from reforging an ancient sword spoken of in legend, and waging war with the blasphemous dragon lord Ashardalon. With their help, the legend known as Ichi the Undead Slayer remained a legend.
Ever since their last epic battle, Ichi, Kael, Aiako, and Alastair had gone their separate ways. Ichi hadn't spoken to any of them in years, and spent most of his time traveling across the lands and experiencing everything there was to experience. He wasn't an uncommon sight at the local tavern, drinking everyone else under the table and starting barfights for fun, or on some tropical island basking in the hot sun or swimming along the current. His mind grew with his adventures, yet he still acted simple when around most people. He found that the world was more enjoyable from a simpleton's point of view.
When he was by himself, however, he spent most of his time thinking. He'd wonder about the sights he hadn't seen, or the lessons he had still to learn... and he pledged to himself that some day, he'd finally travel off into the land where no man has set foot and end his days peacefully. Until then, the world is but a playground for Emeren Raithe the Undead Slayer.
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