Posting Color: Magenta (#b300b3)
Name: Auri Grashaal
Race: Drakkar
Sex: Male
Age: 350
Hair: None
Eyes: Magenta
Height: 8'3 (252 cm)
Weight: 882 lb (400 kg)
Languages: Drakkaric, Common, Elven (intermediate), Dwarven (intermediate)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Vigor: 50
Arcana: 75
Strength: 65
Melee Warfare: 50
Ranged Warfare: 30
Speed: 20 ft
Auri possesses a unique innate ability that allows him to ingest one of the four main elements in some form, and then promptly release at targets directly in front of him within a short range. Using this ability oddly does not deplete his Arcana, but it does require 2 points of Vigor.
Besides that, his talents span two additional arcane arts.
Auri is a skilled practitioner of Elemental Sorcery, able to read and consume arcane scrolls of the four elemental schools, as well as put them to good use.
School of Air
-
School of Fire
-
School of Water
-
School of Earth
-
Auri keeps a keen interest in Runecrafting, and is able to make use of blacksmith tools and stations to inscribe items with runes of potent sorcery.
Learned Runes
-
RIGHT WEAPON
• Steel-Core Cane [Flame Rune]
LEFT WEAPON
• Heavy Drakkar Shortsword
ADDITIONAL WEAPON
• Heavy Drakkar Shortsword
AMMUNITION
•
SHORT WEAPONS
•
•
HEAD GEAR
•
•
•
UPPER GEAR
• Ceremonial Ambassador Outfit
•
LOWER GEAR
• Ceremonial Ambassador Outfit
•
FOOT GEAR
• Ceremonial Ambassador Boots
RIGHT HAND
• Drakkar Ambassador Signet Ring
•
•
LEFT HAND
•
•
•
Auri is currently not in possession of his satchel.
• Map of Asgard
• Map of Alicante
• Compass
• Quill x3
• Ink Bottle x2
• Pouch (full of pebbles)
• Clay Bowl (unengraved)
• Info Template Paper x10
• Large Red Towel
• Spyglass
• Travel Journal
• Sorcery Journal
• Notebook
• A Traveler's Guide to Regions of Western Asgard
• Tasty Snacks x5
• 65 gp
• 2 sp
• 9 cp
Constant challenges, adventures, travel, exploration, and hardship have melded Auri into a wise and jovial creature who appreciates life. Knowing that he has far more years behind him than ahead, he chooses to make the most out of each day, each hour.
He loves a good meal, a good story, and a good joke, but most of all, he loves sharing all of these things with good people! He will go out of his way to do so. He does not tolerate evil or injustice. Though he does not seek trouble, he is no stranger to it, and many are the adventures behind him.
Generous and brave, old Auri is loyal to his own ideals and those he deems worthy of his friendship. However, his curiosity and hunger sometimes get him into trouble. He is very wise in the ways of people, having become so during his lifelong odyssey of discovery. He continues to possess the open mind of a student; for there is always more out there to learn and share, and the world still has plenty of good people to do the sharing with.
The short version? A tremendous eater, Auri is best-known as "the Insatiable" for his beyond-draconian appetite, but those few who know him know his impossible-to-satisfy desires also reach into knowledge of people, cultures, languages, and traditions. In his three and a half centuries of life, Auri has studied as a librarian, warrior, weaponsmith (of drakkar weapons), and runecrafter, but his favorite subject of all is arcane elemental magic. Boom, woosh, pow! =)
A practicing wizard of over three centuries, and drakkar ambassador for almost as long, Auri has visited most every country on the map of Western Asgard (some if only briefly). Still, there are many places he has yet to come to know. Time has changed much of the world, even before foul Ilhirel the Sorceress came to Asgard.
Long version of his history: Clan Grashaal. In the year 2971, that was the mighty warrior clan Auri was born into, though he outlived it. The Grashaal warlords were some of the fiercest and finest fighters the drakkar had in their day. Utterly fearless. Seemingly-indomitable. Terribly competitive. Strong of soul, mind, and muscle... and rotten to the bottom of their steel-clad cores. This was the clan Auri was to serve for life.
Bright-minded and incredibly curious, he was raised as a warrior and weaponsmith from the egg. Auri's youthful years were spent competing with his brothers and sisters for dominance in a world where the weak died forgotten and the strong claimed glory everlasting. This, like many young drakkar, was Auri's sole dream. But it was not meant to be...
When Auri was nearing 50 years of age, he found he had reached a point as a warrior where he could grow no more. He had learned most of what his great masters would teach him - all too soon. His desire to learn was considered insatiable by many, but then came the dimming days when the path of the warrior ceased to interest him.
His passion, his fire for fighting and death, had slowly burned out of him, and no one was more surprised than he. It was not that he was the strongest or most-cunning (far from it). He had gained honor in battle and proved himself over the years only to find that he had only become the greatest warrior he could become.
He had solved all of the mysteries and riddles. All of the techniques he longed to master were there when he needed them. His body and mind were in the best possible shape, for his personal ultimate plateau had been reached. Yet his impossible-to-please spirit longed for more! But after having spent decades down this path, he found there was nothing more for him...
His masters, agreeing that he had served mightily and with honor, allowed Auri to find his own path. He left with their blessing with an open invitation to return. Yet this would also never come to pass. Having no choice but to leave his warrior brothers and sisters behind, tearful Auri entered into a deep and dark depression. He separated himself from all that he knew and all that he had ever known.
In this sorry state, he ate as if he were still working hard on the training ground and the stronger the shadow of the depression became, the more he ate. And as he ate, he grew. And grew... He searched all things drakkar to find the answer to a question he was yet uncertain of, for now the battlefield held few secrets. Nor was the forge any solace, for he had mastered the basics of weaponsmithing there too. He searched monuments and chapels, taverns and training fields, secret caverns and tall mountaintops. Until one day...
It was on his 50th birthday, after two long years of lonesome wandering, Auri finally found his answer deep in a book in a small bookstore. Forgotten in a heap of moldy manuscripts and tattered tomes, Auri found the journal of Corthan the Content - the first journal in a great series of journals.
This series held hard-to-find words for the wise, for Corthan was once a famous drakkar wizard, and not just any wizard, but an archmage that dealt only with his own matters and to hell with the world and its presumptions! In all things, Corthan was his own person. Auri could relate to this. And so, he sought out the rest of Corthan's journals in the bookstore.
Each one held a clue as to where another was. It was as if Corthan had writ them in such a way as to deceive lesser minds and enlighten greater spirits. The rewards? Profound, soul-changing knowledge! Self-knowledge! One by one, there in the bookstore, Auri figured out the mysteries and found them. He found something else, too.
At long last, Auri had found his purpose. He decided he would read every last journal from cover to cover and find this Corthan, this old scaly drake most called Corthan the Contemptible (for he never chose a pupil to pass his knowledge down to, nor did he share with his greedy peers). Auri desired to see for himself what a wise wizard was. He steeled himself and gathered his armload of rare treasures.
His journey, however, was far shorter than he would have ever guessed. For as he huddled the small journals close to his chest and went to the counter to ask to buy them, the head librarian there had a question of his own. Why did Auri care at all for such a cheap collection of battered pages?
Auri explained that regardless of what drakkar society thought of Corthan, at least the old drakkar had found himself in his travels, and that was something worth having! This, Auri argued, was a special something you might take with you when you passed on from this life. What was worth more?
The librarian contemplated this and agreed. He then proceeded to show Auri the rest of the wizard's collection, and finally, the wizard's own identity - the head librarian was none other than Corthan the Content. Auri and Corthan became fast friends in a world where such things are worth more than a king's crown.
Eventually, Corthan accepted Auri as both a disciple and an apprentice bookkeeper. As the happy years passed, the old fellow trained Auri in the nigh-limitless methods of magic, for old Corthan wanted to leave someone behind that would not only remember his legacy, but live and grow wiser from it! Corthan had retired from wizardry because he could never find the pupil with the right way of thinking, the openness of mind, and the decency of a good heart.
All he found were selfish would-be wizards, eager for powerful magic, but caring nothing for their neighbors. By their meeting, both drakkars' spirits had found purpose once again! They also realized that they needed each other deeply, but Corthan's time was running out, for he only had so many years left in his aging body.
Youthful Auri was as insatiable as ever, yet he had learned the value of patience and giving himself time to understand things yet beyond him. Their long friendship flowed together like mountain to stream and river to ocean.
One day, the old library fell into financial trouble. To earn money, Auri applied for a position at the grand palace - the position of junior ambassador's aide. This lowest of positions, fetching this stack of papers, getting that person's signature, provided just enough means for Auri to keep his great appetite for food and knowledge in check while helping keep the library maintained.
He held the position, which sometimes required long travel, for another 50 years, all the while learning everything he could about being a true ambassador. Yet in secret under Corthan, he practiced his real love - wizardry!
When Corthan the Content finally passed away, Auri had become a true wizard, though he missed old Corthan dearly. Even more, Auri knew he had been given a great legacy from a great soul; all from an old drakkar he considered to be his best of friends.
Corthan had opened Auri's mind in directions his warrior path would have never taken him. But Corthan warned Auri of great trouble before he had passed away. For something in the old archmage's magic told him that the drakkar were about to enter a new age...
When the Drakkar War struck, Auri was glad that Corthan had not lived to see it, for the terrors and triumphs came at the deepest cost for both invaders and defenders. Each week brought new and horrible surprises.
One of the worst of all was the ultimate collapse of Auri's own clan. After bloody battles of epic proportions, the last of the warlords of the mighty Clan Grashaal finally fell to the onslaught of Asgard. And Auri wept. For he alone knew what he was and what his clan had once desired of him.
And yet, standing by the ashes of his father's warm corpse, caressing the two-handed sword that lay still in his father's claws, Auri knew that he would have joined his father in glorious death had he stayed on the path of the warrior. Auri had no regrets. He was a much-changed person, no longer a Grashaal in spirit. He was now the Auri he was meant to become.
So when the battered forces of Asgard came wearily forth over the corpses of Clan Grashaal and their minions, they did not face Auri the Warrior or Wizard or even Auri the lowly bookkeeper... They faced Auri the Ambassador.
Auri learned from his people that all of the other drakkar in ambassadorial positions had either died or surrendered their duties and fled the realm for safety. This left, of all people, Auri in charge. When the Scroll of Sacred Duty was thrust in his hands, Auri looked all the way down to the very bottom of the page, following name after struck-through name, until finally he saw his own. The very last.
The discovery caused him to fall on his backside in surprise. When he rose, he rose with purpose and dignity. For he was now someone seen as an authority - the highest-ranking drakkar ambassador alive - at least for his smashed section of the city, but for those angry and frightened drakkar behind him who could not fight the invaders, Auri may as well have been the Maker! Auri demanded to speak to the leader of the Asgardians, and when that person came forth, Auri silenced the bloodshed there, not with spellbooks or siege engines, but with an open mind, a quill, and a scroll.
Auri, with his calm prudence, thoughtfully and carefully wrote out the terms of surrender for the drakkar in his section of the city. And by doing so, he stopped further killing and helped, at least in some small way, to bring out the change he knew had come to the drakkar. The new age Corthan had foreseen had come.
The end of the Drakkar War had meant great change to the drakkar. Auri's words were those of a man who knew well the power of change, and while surrender was imminent, it could be done with honor, integrity, and understanding between both kingdoms. It could also be done without further casualties on either side. Fortunately for him and all involved, the powers that be agreed.
Auri became the youngest drakkar ambassador to ever hold the seat. And today, in the year 3321, Auri proudly holds that very same seat. He is not the highest nor any longer the lowest of his order. He has the proud distinction of having outlived every other drakkar in his area of responsibility.
Ambassador Auri has visited nearly every civilized nation in Western Asgard (though he has never crossed the sea), and enjoyed cuisine and music, tale and tradition, like few other drakkar in his 250 years of dutiful service.
Not to mention his 300 years of life in the arcane arts! Oh, the joy his chosen path has brought him! During the first years of his ambassadorial duties, Auri visited the Varden Kingdom and tried to impress upon them the idea that not all drakkar were of a gruff and deplorable nature. One of the Varden decided to test Auri by challenging him to drink from the cauldron of a Varden witch.
For years, the witch had used her cauldron for a variety of means and measures, adding ingredient after ingredient until none could say what floated in that simmering green pot. Most Varden would not touch it, but Auri the foreigner knew nothing of this. So, in an attempt to impress the Varden, Auri, instead of sipping what he thought was a soup, grasped the iron vat with both hands, lifted the pot to his maw, and chugged down the whole thing in the manner which the warriors emptied their tankards. He earned the respect and wonder of that Varden clan on that day (not to mention the eternal befuddlement the cauldron's owner), but that was not the only thing he gained...
Auri gained the ability to amplify any element he ingested. At first, he had no idea what had happened or why he felt so tremendously strange. When he poured a cup of water down his throat, he immediately shot back a geyser of water so great, it blasted everything near across the room.
Now, after centuries of practice, he knows how to make full use of this innate ability. By tossing a match down his hatch, he can blast out a flash of fire. By inhaling deeply, he can blow a wind so strong at his feet as to propel his big body up in the air and so forth. By drinking some water and inhaling a mouthful of dirt, he can expel great globs of mud into the faces of would-be foes. Plus, it provides some wonderful entertainment!
Auri uses these tricks and talents to entertain people he meets in his travels. Sometimes, he puts on little shows, usually enough to earn him a decent dinner, but more importantly, to show Asgardians that drakkar really are not all foul-tempered monstrosities. Would that such understanding could have prevented the coming of Ilhirel the Sorceress and her hellish armies...
When Ilhirel conquered Western Asgard with her demons and monsters, with the twisting of the very land, Auri could not help but feel as if he had seen this all before. Except now, the drakkar faced an enemy that threatened every race and every land.
The very future was at stake. In secrecy and silence, Auri reached out to the Resistance and has served them keenly and discreetly ever since. Such is his confidential business here in Alicante this day. On the surface, his ambassadorial duties as a servant to the draconic kingdom shroud his true intent to help the Resistance against Ilhirel the Sorceress, the enemy of all Asgardians.
And as he strolls the streets of Alicante, today on his 350th birthday, Auri finds himself quietly searching for a young and holy friend. The old drakkar expects this meeting to mark a change of some kind to his life.
Perhaps this meeting will find him on a new path yet again, and with new paths come new adventures, new challenges, new people to learn and share with, and new days to feel great to be alive! Or so the old wizard hopes. It is his birthday after all... If the whole day goes by without something fun or enlightening happening, he will be one disappointed drakkar indeed!
Standing just over 2.5 meters tall and weighing just over 400 kilograms, this spry, old drakkar has enormous wings, a long agile tail, and a big round belly with thick arms and legs to get around on. His body is round like an enormous ball. He waddles more than walks, strolling around with the assistance of his stout, weathered cane.
Despite his tremendous girth (or perhaps because of it), there is practiced grace and care to his every movement; he always appears to be balanced. His eyes and ears eagerly take in all that they can. When he listens, it appears to be with real interest, and when he speaks, he makes eye contact and addresses his every audience as if they are a person of great importance.
From the highest queen to the lowest of beggars, all people appear worthy of this respect. He often wears a knowing grin as if he holds many secrets or perhaps he just has a good joke on his mind. Either way, he appears to mean no harm to anyone.
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