McHaggis — Roleplayer Guild

A character sheet, for if you are accepting more. I think my minor character would be the orc that Melandir is in love with, but I can sort that out later.

Melandir [+]

My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

Name

Melandir Saron stands for “sweet young man” and “lover” respectively. Sharing a first name with his supposed father cast high expectations upon him, given that Melandir Sr. was a prodigious magister lost to a life-long illness shortly before his son's birth. Whether it was pressure from his mother because of his name or Fate toying with him, Melandir did indeed follow in his father's footsteps.

His surname was not quite as coincidental. He chose it himself after being disgraced twice over and stripped of his own, first for his infatuation with an orcish girl and secondly for dabbling in forbidden magic. The name Saron was originally a pseudonym that he wrote poetry under as a teenager.

Race

Elf, born into a family who were a few well-placed marriages away from being uplifted from minor noble to something more renowned. As the sole heir, Melandir's disgraceful behaviour ruined any chances of that. Melandir has few positive feelings about his people, though he greatly respects their intellectual and magical advancements.

Age

Melandir is considered barely an adult amongst his people at forty-nine. His apprenticeship (that typically last a few decades) had scarcely ended when he went into self-imposed exile. Many of his family and friends believe he is somewhat immature for his age.

Appearance

Melandir boasts a fair complexion and long, golden hair – a stereotypical elf, some might say. He is certainly a paragon for effeminate beauty. A willowy figure with lean muscles, if any, suggests that his build is for speed, not strength. While he often wears extravagant silk clothing, he never wears robes if he can help it out of pure pragmatism. It is hard to fight in them.

His facial features are sharp and dainty as many elves are with an unusually strong jawline supposedly inherited from his father. His eyes are now an acidic shade of glowing green due to his uncontrolled use of dark magic, a far cry from his mother's soft, calm blue. He often despises that particular characteristic.

The ritual magic he uses to communicate with the evil spirits and do their bidding has left its mark on his body. Scars from providing blood to the creatures as payment as well as various symbols carved into his skin litter his arms and legs, hence why he wears long sleeves if he can help it.

Personality

Ask anyone about Melandir and they will describe him with some variation on “disgustingly sentimental”. He oozes romanticism from his pores and dons the expected archetype of the passionate elf quite happily. Whether he realises it or not, he is arrogant and prone to boasting about his own achievements – to some extent, he loves the sound of his own voice. He deludes himself into believing that his quest for power is necessary and not at all for his own benefit.

Melandir doesn't hide away his gentler side. He is brave, almost to the point of foolishness, and would not think twice about helping a damsel in distress or rushing into battle to save a friend. Keenly aware of the dangers of the world and its inhabitants, however, he is rather ruthless when it comes to second chances – he would rather take an enemy out now than risk his loved ones lives in the future by showing mercy. He is a devout believer in the orcish afterlife and so tries to leave his mark on the world by following a path of bringing evil to justice, perhaps to sate his guilty conscience.

Class

Melandir is a warlock, a mage who has sought out and made soul-rending deals with malignant spirits for enhanced magical power and to sate an addiction to dark magic. By using carefully worded contracts, he can also unleash these shadowy beings upon his enemies, so long as he is careful. In payment, however, he has to give something up; anything from his blood to another's life.

Strengths

Melandir values his intelligence above all else. He learns things quickly and from his training, he has an impressively large repertoire of spells, allowing him to be both creative and unpredictable in his approach to attacking an enemy. When it comes to fire – his preferred medium of attack – he knows dozens of enchantments to summon infernos and firestorms.

Although he can use other forms of magic and knows of them in passing, his second greatest strength is the shadow magic that he risks his life for. He has restraint enough to use them only in the most dangerous of situations, not only because they are draining but also because they don't inspire trust in allies.

Surprisingly, he considers his natural diplomatic skills to be important too – especially when it comes to orcish culture. Given the amount of effort he put into wooing his lover, he knows more than enough to make it through their camps without committing any social faux pas out of ignorance.

Weaknesses

Melandir does not realise that his most critical flaw is his addiction to magic. He alternates between believing that he can control it to denying its existence in the first place. As a result, he is beginning to use magic for more frivolous things and has no inclination of pacing himself in training or in battle. Without realising the problem, he could easily destroy himself... or worse, his allies. His magic addiction also leads him into the grasp of the spirits, many of whom support the Black Scourge or just want to see chaos wrought on the universe and if he does not focus, he might end up their willing pawn.

While he pretends not to notice, Melandir is physically limited by the same unknown condition that plagued his father's mere century alive. Without knowing what it is, he is forced to persevere in combat through shortness of breath and fits of tachycardia that he knows will eventually lead to his death if left untreated.

He would consider his romantic heart to be his biggest weakness and, true enough, it is one. No matter if the world is falling apart around him, he disregards the death and destruction and focuses only on the primary goal of his mission: ensure his lover's safety. He would sacrifice his life if he thought it would keep her safe indefinitely. He also imagines himself as something of a hero or a 'white knight' figure and of course would charge into battle recklessly to uphold his facade of respectability and bravery.

Current Location

He lives above a seedy tavern in the worst possible part of Shallow Point where black magic and crime are natural parts of life.

History

Melandir was raised in Elfanir close to the royal city of Elalond, where he often claimed he has cousins living. His mother's family were fairly rich – he never wanted for anything – and the prestige from his father's magical heritage meant it was relatively easy for him to find a magister to apprentice under. Until he began to show a talent for magic, however, there were always questions of his paternity given that his appearance is too similar to his mother's.

During his apprenticeship, he travelled the continents with Magister Elluin, spending up to a year or two in each of the capitals. He saw more than his fair share of debauchery but the experience enriched his knowledge of the history of magic, amongst other things. When he was in Drestin for the first time with his master that he began to delve into the darker schools of magic, and he was not stopped from doing so. His first, most foolish deal with a spirit was when he was thirty-six and in return for his magical power, he swore to deliver a certain number of deaths. Melandir keeps his promises.

A life-changing experience for him occurred during his travels in Low when he and Magister Elluin visited during an orcish tribal meet up in Paahruir in that he discovered "the love of his life", a young nomadic orc by the name of Zari. He took an interest in her work as a shaman (a conduit for the ancestral spirits) and started a particularly elven courtship with flowers and poetry and the whole shebang. Of course, he and his master were kindly escorted out of the orcish lands when he fought with other potential suitors in honour duels, but ultimately young love was not crushed and continued through letters and gifts.

Naturally, he was disowned almost as soon as he returned home and his mother found out why he didn't want to marry up in the world and carry his family name with him. With his former master's blessing and thoughts of his one true love, he left for Shallow Point again so as to pursue power enough to keep them both safe in an unfriendly world... at least, that's what he told himself. If criminals started to go missing around his home, well, everyone has to have a hobby.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

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