Volen Xidarh, Rogue Drow

[KaiserKold]

Name: Volen Xidarh of the 23 house of Sshamath
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Race: Drow Elf
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 195
Age: 207



Description: Volen Xidarh was the weaponmaster of his house in Sshamath, the drow City of Dark Weavings. He was not in the favor of his Matron Mother and fled the city and the Underdark all together, ironically, 2 years before the wizard/matron civil war and the rise of the new patriarchal drow society. He never learned of this for 50 years and lived his days on the surface, rejecting his wicked brethren and Spider Queen. He has acquired a liking of the humans, even if they don't share the feeling; though he still hates the surface elves and the dwarves, but doesn't seek them out and destroy them anymore as he did on older surface raids.

He is brawny for a drow and uses a staff-blade with a potent enchantment of pain amplification. Volen also has a decent command over some magic and is usually carrying a couple wands of elemental conjuration and alteration on his belt. He has also cast a few long-lasting enchantments on himself, which he renews every year. The first is the most obvious: he has magically given himself the ability to grow facial hair, for he favors a stylish goatee. The second and third are actually from his weapon and are there to absorb some shock and frost damage. the last is a magical infusion of Faerzress magical radiation; enough to allow him to continue to use his drow-made equipment and innate magical abilities on the surface world.

He is very skilled with his staff blade, a few swords and some polearm weapons. He has honed his body to the extent of its limits and is as deadly with his bare hands as with his blade.

Roleplaying notes:
- Puts on a facade of nonchalance and coldness towards those he meets, but usually will try to be somewhat friendly.
- As stated above, he hates elves and dwarves and rarely trusts them.
- Hates fighting. Prefers to stay hidden and avoid most people due to the usual violent or fearful reaction to his heritage, though he will kill anyone who opposes him with little remorse.
- Doesn't trust horses.
- Can be quick-tempered towards others.
- Has at least one drow son still in Sshamath that he cares little for, and a 12 year old, illegitimate half-human daughter Kara that he he has grown to care for. She lives with her mother Lici in a small village. Lici no longer wants anything to do with him, but he secretly visits Kara every month in the forest by the village. She is the only being on the surface that he fully trusts and is warmly open to.

Equipment: Staff-blade, a few wands with various lower level spells, and a healing pipe that he smokes. Does not wear a drow piwafwi.


Combat Strengths:
- Fairly strong, for a drow elf. As strong as a fairly sturdy man.
- Very skilled with hand to hand and staff-blade combat.
- Stealthy as most drow are, though he never focused on stealth in his training.

Abilities:
- Innate drow abilities of levitation, darkvision, faerie fire, globe of darkness summoning and stealth.

Combat Weaknesses:
- Cannot safely use teleportation of any sort, due to his Faerzress radiation.
- Receives double damage from fire, while his weapon is on his person.
- Bright light, sunlight included, will still hurt his sensitive eyes.
- Receives double damage from holy magic, a side effect of the Faerzress.
(will add more if I can think of some good ones)

[Lord Hoehn]

Accepted, everyone has pipes, I might put one of my characters to have his pipe be invisible so it just looks like spoke rising out of nothing

[KaiserKold]

It's what they smoked out of in elder times.

[The Rogue King]

Honestly he doesn't seem very balanced. I'm not gonna stop you from useing him because this site is for fun but I cant see how a few more weakneses could hurt.

[KaiserKold]

I added a weakness to holy magic and removed a the 40% resistance to frost and shock.

I also want to point out that he can't use his pipe to heal during battle. He could smoke it while fighting, I suppose, but it won't help him enough to be worth the awkwardness of it. It's for healing himself and friends after the battles.

I kind of want to know what you guys think from a non-combat perspective. Do you like the character? I tried to make him interesting, and not Drizzt-like. I'm still looking for opinions on his backstory, to make him more interesting. I'd like to take this character past the RPG and use him in a fan-fiction story.

I'm fairly happy with the look of him (it took me 3 hours to draw him, though the picture I have posted was a the 2 hour mark!), but I will accept critique.

[Cjtc3]

I think its a fine, interesting character.

But from an entirely personal standpoint I always feel like I'm stealing if I make a character directly from another author's or franchise's universe. Like if we took a character from a marvel movie and made him really midevil-ish. I don't know I'm just weird like that.

But other than that, nice character and i like him.

[KaiserKold]

Yah, I totally know what you mean, but for a fanfiction or an RPG, it doesn't bother me as much. Especially since - at least to me, Kurt and Randall - the Syvalm country is heavily based on Dungeons and Dragons Faerun campaign setting . Whether it be gnomes, dwarves or drow, I THINK we all have D&D style in mind.

[Cjtc3]

I never really got into D & D that much. I only got to play it a few times. There were never enough people for me to actually play and the few times i did play i didn't get to play very long.

So i guess my characters i just pulled out of thin air.

[KaiserKold]

Let me point out that not in any way was I suggesting that you base your characters off of D&D. You can have whatever the hell you want, to the extent of the fantasy/medieval setting of course. However, (and this might just be me, I don't know) if I say a dwarf walks into a bar, or an elf, what I'm picturing is D&D stock. Which is, in all honesty, so close to Lord of the Rings and most other fantasies that this is almost pointless in the first place.

I really haven't played much D&D either, by the way. R. A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms series is based on the D&D campaign setting called Faerun. The only thing he designed himself is the drow, actually. They existed in name and basic idea only, before him.

[Cjtc3]

Yeah, I understand what you mean. I was kind of wondering about that. I mean I'm assuming he got necessary permission to use D & D things?

Cause he sure made alot of money.

And when I picture dwarves i see the short bearded axe or hammer warrior. With elves I see tall skinny archers and magicians. So I guess my idea is good enough.

[KaiserKold]

Surely he did get permission, just like when Nylund writes Halo novesl or whatever.

Yah, their are some things that aren't always the same in every fantasy universe though.

Unlike LotR, D&D's orcs are stronger than men and are more beast-like, with tusks and stuff, but fairly similar otherwise. When I honestly think of orcs, I first picture the LotR kind.

Trolls in D&D are nothing like the trolls in LotR.

Stuff like that.

[The Rogue King]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I thing just to be different we should make all elves women and all dwarfs men, and there really the same species they just live apart. i think that would be awesome.

[Cjtc3]

Well I'm not so sure about that. I'm not a fan of dwarves myself. I just don't like that type of character. And I'm not sexist or anything but I try to use my characters to represent different aspects of myself or things I would like to be and a woman is not one of them.......



Just a thought.

[KaiserKold]

Kurtis, I like your idea, but it's really out there. I don't know about it.

And Collin, if you haven't read Forgotten Realms (have you?), I don't yet believe that you don't like dwarves!

Andrew Sundstrom thought he didn't like dwarves until he read them.

Also, I have one woman character (obviously). I design most of my characters without the RPG necessarily in mind. I just like designing characters usually. Which reminds me by the way, that you all have a one legged, claymore-wielding dwarf and an evil wizard halfling coming soon.

[Cjtc3]

No, its true. I haven't read it yet. I usually read books like 1984, and Fight Club. I'm reading the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series and I'm on the second book out of 5. Maybe after that I could pick up a forgotten realms book or something.