Helliell B. Vu, Free Knight

[CrazyLance]

Character Sheet

Name: Helliell B. Vu
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Race: Shade
Alignment: True Neutral
Class: Knight


Appearance

Skin tone: Pale, almost albino.
Eye color: Bright green.
Hair color: N/A, bald.
Physique: Muscled.


Literacy

Basic Literacy: Yes.
Magic Literacy: Yes.
Demonic Literacy: Slight.
Celestial Literacy: Slight.
Elvish Literacy: Slight.
Druidic Literacy: Slight.

Theme: Because god damn it Kimiko I had to do it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFWdMVn_lPwftp://


Proficiencies

Weapons: Melee, non-mana dependent ranged weapons. Prefers Lances/Spears.
Armor: Heavy, medium armour/shields. Prefers Heavy Gear.
Items: Items of magical/unusual nature, so long as they don't use mana. Throwing Knives


Restrictions

Weapons: Bows, any magic type ranged weapon that draws upon mana.
Armor: Light armour.
Items: Shackles, earrings, chains, Recall Potions/Magic Mirror.


Flaws

Wizard's Binding - Helliell has great magical potentional but he can't use his mana at all after recieving the Wizard's Binding unwillingly.
Additionally, Long range teleportation taxes Helliell's fatigue and health heavily, short range teleportation is endurable if not spammed.
Failure Psychosis - Failing personal endeavors causes Helliell to become different, revealing emotions usually buried (-15 on Speech Rolls, -10 Attack/Dodge Rolls, +1 Defense/Block Rolls). He does things he normally doesn't do, displays jealousy or baseless anger, breaks rules/morals and generally turns into a different person for a time.
Deep Contemplation - You'll most likely find Helliell sitting somewhere, sunken in deep thought and pondering questions that bother him.
Helliell is not a man of action now that he is free. This constant state of lethargy helps him calm down the emotional burden he gets from
Failure Psychosis (+1 Defense/Block Rolls).
Masked Knight - Silent and masked, he rarely gives out his name and forces himself to don his skull mask to hide his face as well as deter
cowardly people. (-1 on Speech Rolls).


Traits

Darksider - Shades have little trouble operating at darkness [Negates penalties to rolls performed in total darkness, +5 to rolls done in total darkness
Tolerant - No hatred or dislike towards people regardless of race, gender, alignment, nationality or social standing, not without a good reason.
Mellow - Easy going, doesn't complain alot and generally doesn't have any problem with anyone/anything.
Honesty - In his point of view, lies get nothing done, he will confess the truth when pressed and will rarely lie unless lives are at risk.
Shieldman - The best defense is a good defense, while having a shield equipped, Helliell's skill and confidence rise (+6 to Defense/Block and Attack Rolls while having a shield).

Special Equipment

Whiteskull - The skull helm he wears on his head. While it does not present any unique arcane, celestial, demonic or druidic enchantments, the
skull seems to react when the wearer has a malicious or hostile intent. When it senses such intents, the mask's smile seems to deform and widen.
It also presented such behavior when death is involved. As it stands, it only serves Helliell as head protection and deterrent.


History

Note: This section is a sort of tl;dr of the Backstory section, refer to this if you want to quickly understand his backstory

Having been a slave to a Wizard, he was inflicted with multiple magical curses that disabled his magical capabilities and removed his special
Shade abilities. This slave existence has made Helliell dislike slavery. His captor freed him after a touchy encounter and Helliell set out
to adventure on the current plane of existence. The same curses that his captor placed on him remain still. In his adventure he found the Whiteskull
that tried to kill him but failed and now serves as his headwear.





Reference pictures, taken from Dark Souls 2


Backstory

A Shade is a person who has absorbed some essence from the Plane of Shadows, making him darker and more like a shadow. Anyone who knows about Shades
tends to grow suspicious of their stealthy nature but since Shades are rarely seen outside their home plane, they aren't widely known by many.


Helliell was a Shade who was unwillingly pulled out of his home plane and binded as a "familiar", a aide and servant to a Wizard. The Wizard's Binding
was supposed to make Helliell more magically capable in order to assist his Wizard in whatever rituals and researches he decided to perform but Helliell's
resistance and resentment to his Wizard only caused his magical skill to be suppressed. It was still there but it was inaccessible by Helliell.
The Wizard still used him as a mana font for whatever matter that roused his curiosity.


Days, weeks, months went by, Helliell's hate towards his summoning Wizard, a Elf named Joachim, was still burning bright. He was resisting Joachim's orders
at every turn. Helliell would not be chained down like a slave, he would settle for nothing more than freedom or death. Joachim realized this fairly quickly
but decided to let Helliell stay, he was sure his anger would die down and he would accept his fate.


But after a while, Joachim's patience grew thin and he realized Helliell would not be subdued. So he sent him to kill one of his rivals, another Elf wizard
named Elai and he sent him knowing full well that Helliell might die against Elai. Helliell went eagerly but resisted his command to kill Elai. Helliell was
as stealthy as you would expect a Darksider to be, stalking Elai around his own tower without triggering any alarms or revealing his prescence to a sentry.


Elai only noticed him when they were both at his private quarter. Helliell was holding back against the command Joachim inscribed into his brain, to kill!
Helliell pleaded Elai to banish him or at the very least kill him. Elai was merciful and decided to banish him but the spell was too weak, it didn't even
send the Shade back to Joachim. Helliell was at his wit's end, he couldn't resist Joachim's order and he lunged at Elai. The young Elf wizard was not as
careless as he seemed, having a pendant of protection on him at all times. Helliell's strikes did nothing to him with a ordinary short sword.


Elai couldn't bring himself to kill Helliell, his would-be assassin that was forced to strike against his own will. But Elai couldn't bind Helliell to him.
Instead, Elai levitated him outside of the tower and dropped him. Ordinary men would die from such a fall but lo-and-behold, Helliell survived. Barely. He
was whisked away to the Plane of Shadows because he was on the brink of death.


Helliell was over-joyed to return to his homeland. But that joy was short-lived, the Wizard's Binding quickly brought Helliell back to Joachim's tower.
Joachim's wrath at the failed assassination depraved Helliell of his hope of ever returning home. Joachim placed a rune on Helliell that prevented him from
ever traversing the planes of existence. With that, the Shade lost his signature ability to meld and teleport between shadows. Helliell's spirit was finally
broken.


This did not lessen Joachim's wrath, punishing Helliell for his failure. Helliell couldn't care anymore, he let the Wizard do what he pleased with him.
A year passed. Helliell was never sent outside of Joachim's tower, bound to it by the Wizard's curse. He has spent alot of time getting accustomed to his lack of stealth as well as the lack of strength he would normally recieve in the night. He no longer had any hope of recieveing his past self back. But this sense of hopelessness was slowly being replaced by vengenace. Plans began to formulate to kill the Wizard when he least expected it. Make it look like a
accident, yes, so if it went awry, Helliell would not be suspected.


Another year passed, a year of pretending to be obediant and submissive to Joachim. Perhaps it was a good idea to wait so long. Joachim let Helliell stay at
the library under supervision. All that time in the library spent learning about magical phenomena, famous magical accidents that led to the creation of
multiple laws on the use of magic as well as mana-less magic. The time was neigh to end the Wizard's reign over him. But Helliell did not. He had to know
more. Why was Joachim doing this? Could he really be a good man underneath that surface of bad temper and vile attitude? He had to know.


A few months passed. Helliell explored the tower. He found the results of many failed experiments as well as the corpses of many a adventurer who attempted to stop Joachim. Stop from what? Was he known as a evil person? Many of the journals he found on those corpses described Joachim as a "Evil necromancer" or a "Cursed Sorcerer" and sometimes a "Damned anti-god". Deeper into the tower he delved. Broken golems and scorch marks, ashes and debris. It almost looked like a war was waged inside the tower and Joachim neglected to take care of it, or at least let his servants clean it up. Yet this was not the first floor of the tower, Helliell still had a few floors to pass. For a Wizard's tower, Joachim had a modest abode. But the interior left much room for speculation, spell experiments or vicious fights? Construction accidents or purposeful destruction? The more Helliell saw, the more he felt the need to go and ask Joachim himself.


The first floor of Joachim's tower was surprisingly clean and well-maintained, there were no golems around or any traps. Helliell arrived at the tower's entry plateau in the same time a group of adventurers entered. He bid them to begone from the tower, lest their lives be forfeit like the dozens upon dozens of adventurers that tried and failed to kill Joachim. The group ignored his request. Helliell still didn't understand anything about Joachim's motives. All this death couldn't be just for the sake of magical interest? He returned to the top floor.


He did not find Joachim in his private quarter but he found his diary. His very first entry went years back, the diary might as well be a book about Joachim's life. Helliell knew very well what the consequences would be if Joachim found him reading his diary but he did not care. For the better part of an hour, Helliell read Joachim's diary.


Joachim was never a mage to begin with. He used to be a hunter, using the iconic long-bow Elves are so good with, in the name of his family. He later found the love of his life and they started a family in the same village he was born in. The village was attacked and raided by a warband of bandits, as his diary describes. He was injured during the fighting and fainted from blood loss but didn't die. When he came to, his family was nowhere to be seen and the village was destroyed. Ever since then, Joachim had a strong hatred towards Humans, he forfeited his way of life as a hunter because it failed to protect his village in a time of need. That's when he began to pursue magic.


The diary entries began to shorten down to just a few sentences every day, each entry had no emotions or thought attached to it but it was obvious to any person who read it, Joachim's main focus was on necromancy and abjuration. He wanted to avenge his loved ones and find the warband that decimated his village. Some of the entries talked about the need for human specimens to use in his experiments, many of the experiments were attempts to merge them with other life forms so they could be the perfect warriors. Only one in fifty or so was a success. Joachim returned to his quarter. Helliell expected anger from Joachim but instead, he got silence.


Helliell asked Joachim to remove the Wizard's Binding off him but Joachim ignored him and asked him what did he manage to read from his diary. Helliell confessed that he read most of it. The silence was errie but it was broken by the group of adventurers, they were three people shorter. Helliell showed his sympathy to Joachim and argued that this was not the way to avenge his loved ones. Joachim didn't answer, he only looked at Helliell before snapping his fingers.


That was the last Helliell saw of Joachim.


Helliell woke up at night, laying on his back on a clearing some where. The tower was no where to be seen. Helliell had his freedom but he felt guilty that he had not found out about this sooner and perhaps persuaded Joachim to stop. But as fate would have it, it was too late and Joachim was most likely dead.


Helliell wandered about aimlessly, there was no point now, Helliell still had his Wizard's Binding and couldn't get back to his home. He can only hope he will find another Wizard who can dispel the runes Joachim casted on him.


Eventually, Helliell's wandering brought him to a little town owned by the local lord. Helliell sought acceptance among the villagers, it was difficult at first but after a while, he assimilated into the peasent life style. Not for long though. As more time passed working in the fields, Helliell realized that
he was as free as he was ever going to be. He might not be able to marry and live happily in the Plane of Shadows but he was given an opportunity not every Shade recieves. The opportunity to explore a different world. And so, after saving his funds for a few months, he bought what equipment he deemed necessary
and set out to adventure.

He started to think more about Joachim's fate and past. Sitting idly alot more than before. His mind was assailed by more questions, he started putting himself in Joachim's shoes, trying to simulate his thoughts. Trying to understand why he chose this path of magical treachery over every other path he might've took. But the more he sat, the less options he had to think of and he realized how stupid it is to keep thinking about it. Yet, he couldn't stop. Was it the Wizard's Binding forcing him to think of his previous master's life? He didn't know.


In his roaming, Helliell came across a grove. The bark of the trees was dark in color and they were arranged in such a manner as to guide a person directly
somewhere. He entered the grove. It twisted and turned such angles that Helliell thought he walked circles and only occassionally turned at a skillfully disguised fork in the path. Eventually he reached a dead end. There was a alter, made entirely out of wood but decorated with emeralds and rubies, lined with gold and copper. There was a malformed skull on it and a plaque at it's center. The plaque read "Don the Whiteskull to recieve enlightenment".


Helliell held himself. He might be stealing from Elves. But the thought tempted him, what kind of enlightenment? Still, he stayed his hand. He seated himself and began to ponder yet again. Did this alter really belong to Elves? Skulls don't fit the elegance usually portraited in Elves. But Orcs could have never made such a beautiful alter. Dwarves? They are rarely seen. Elves were known for their powerful enchantments but why select a skull? Was the skull made from a special material? So on and on Helliell sat, questions rising and falling like waves in the ocean. Eventually he finished his thinking and it was late evening. Lighting a torch, he picked up the so-called Whiteskull. The thing was smaller than his own head and had a elongated shape to it, indeed, the skull could fit the head of a Elf. The inside of the skull was covered in a black fabric that was soft to the touch but did not tear. The skull itself had it's archaic smile that is present on every skull. He placed the skull on his head. It came short, the lower jaw only reached his lower lip while he couldn't see at all. Helliell heard the cracking of bones and hastily removed the skull lest it be his death. Helliell couldn't believe what he saw.


The Whiteskull that originally had the size of a Elf's head was now enlarged and widened enough to fit a Human's head. The teeth grew larger as well and formed a even bigger grin. Now the skull fit on his head. He had not felt anything when he wore it. Nothing at all. The Whiteskull felt comfortable on his head and he could see through the dark fabric that covered his eyes and breath normally. But enlightenment did not come to him. His vision was tinted in a faint red and the alter that stood before him was set on fire. Thankfully, the fire didn't spread to the trees. After the alter was consumed by the flames, the trees parted and opened a new path. Helliell's body moved on it's own. The more he went down that grass path, the stronger the red grew in Helliell's
eyes. Eventually he reached a cliff top and stood there, dangerously close to falling off. His body did not answer his command and instead threw itself off the cliff. Helliell had a flash of deja vu and regained control. He realized what the alter ment by enlightenment. His hands desperately tried to grab the cliff's edge but they slipped. His hands instead gripped the long roots that jutted out of the cliffside. Mercifully, the roots held his weight and he began to descend, the red tint no longer coloring his vision.


What did he do when he reached the bottom? He sat down. If the Elves had made the skull he wears now, then they had killing intent in mind when making the skull. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that he survived. With that thought in mind, he got up and started walking again, the grove was no where to be seen and he was back on a dirt packed road, more questions assailing his mind and a new sense of danger to accompany him as well as a new head piece