Essek Thelyss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
resonantcomplications) wrote2021-09-18 01:05 pm
resonantcomplications) wrote2021-09-18 01:05 pm
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Name: Essek Thelyss Door: Left Canon: Critical Role Canon Point: Episode 141 “Fond Farewells” Just as he teleports from the Blooming Grove Age: Almost 120 (Going with 117 if ever needed) though, due to being an elf, he doesn’t look any older than his mid-to-late twenties Appearance: Link 1 Link 2 History: Wiki Link Personality: Inquisitive- Essek’s best trait is, by far, his mind. His inquisitiveness in particular. He desires to know all that he can, particularly the arcane and things related to Dunamancy, but it isn’t limited to only that. Essek is hardworking and ambitious in his pursuit of knowledge, even going so far as to question long-established traditions and assumptions his society, the Kryn Dynasty, is based on. When he delves into the studies of Dunamancy, he quickly learns that even though the power of dunamis is important and nearly sacred to the Kryn Dynasty, they won’t allow study of the religious artifacts related to dunamis, believing the act to be blasphemous. Instead of being turned off by that, Essek is driven even more to learn what he perceives as only just out of reach due to red tape. Hubris- His worst trait is, of course, directly tied into his best. While he is brilliant and studious and clever, he is also horribly arrogant and filled with hubris that proves to be his moral undoing. He sees a challenge no one will allow him to pursue in the study of the Beacons and their tie to Dunamancy and believes he can not only discover their secrets, but do so in spite of the Dynasty’s laws. He steals two of the three religious artifacts through his high position in the royal court and delivers them to the Dynasty’s sworn enemies, the Empire, simply because he believes they are his only avenue for knowledge. Never once could it be said Essek trusts the Empire, but his own hubris allows him to believe they’ll at least honor their deal. When the Dynasty discovers the theft and blames the empire, it sparks a war long in the making, a war Essek’s inquisitiveness and hubris set into motion. Reclusive- Essek’s position in court was hard earned through his dedication to his work and studies and his ability to put on a mask of polite charm and clever navigation through courtly politics. But even with all that charm, he remains elusive and aloof, shown in how he dealt with the Mighty Nein at first and his arms-length approach to their relationship with him. Essek is naturally reclusive; he tells the Nein, once they get him to warm up to them more, that with the exception of his brother, he’s never gotten along with anyone in his family, especially his mother. As the head of one of the ruling families, Essek’s actions reflected heavily on her: both his climb to Shadowhand of the queen and his blasphemous questioning of the Beacons. This disconnect with his family and with most of his own society, resulted in Essek becoming a bit of a recluse in his studies and ambitions. He had no one he trusted to talk to or to bounce his thoughts off of, resulting in his own mind becoming an echo chamber of bad ideas in his pursuits. At least until the Nein. When he leaves them at the end of the series, he claims he’d never had a need for company before them, but he found he was going to miss it now because of them. Selfish- Essek’s reclusiveness and his disconnect from his family and society resulted in a man who felt shunned and only had himself to rely on. Naturally, this led to a much more selfish and self-serving line of thought. Everything Essek does, he does for himself, from the decision to hand over the beacons which started a war just for his own pursuit of knowledge, even to his own guilt for those actions later on. When the Mighty Nein discovers his crimes, he feels guilt because of them and their influence, not through any self examination or interest to better himself he came to on his own. It's shown later on that he is starting to consider what of his actions might be selfish, when he has the potential option to go back and change what he's done wrong in his past, he claims he won't because it's selfish to think fixing the cause of his guilt will only affect him. Time has ripple effects and he admits he can't possibly know what those effects will be, so he turns away the opportunity. This is a start, but a steep climb up from the bottom he's started at and a decision he makes after the canon-point he'll be pulled from. Powers and Abilities: Here’s the breakdown of what we know Essek can do, otherwise in a more broad sense, Essek claims to be a prodigy of Dunamancy, the magical discipline involving gravity (subsect graviturgy) and time magic (subsect chronurgy). Since Essek is a wizard and well connected, he would conceivably have access to any of the spells related to dunamancy in his spellbook, but he would only really have access to whatever he’d prepared from his spellbook from day-to-day. As far as limitations go, he would not have access to anything that bends time or reality drastically, like Reality Break or Time Ravage, and none of the offensive spells involving time or gravity will be used without player or mod consent. Other abilities of note: -Essek has an unnamed cantrip he uses nearly constantly that allows him to float everywhere, but otherwise has no other impact -Essek is sensitive to direct sunlight. Mechanically, it imposes disadvantage on skill and attack rolls, but ICly, they cause headaches and limit vision without shade of some kind -On the other hand, Essek can see in the dark with his Darkvision Inventory: -His spellbook -A parasol made and given to him by Jester Lavorre - His Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location (Obviously not applicable to any mod needs, more for character/intrapersonal plot things) Samples: Open TDM Thread Previous TDM thread Network thread |
