Vaelas Torn

### Known Relatives

Taris Tialaen Phiarlan (Wife, deceased), Jaianna Paleon d'Phiarlan (Daughter, presumed deceased), Atalya Elorrenthi Phiarlan (Son-in-law, status unknown), Valendra Paleon d’Phiarlan (Grandaughter, deceased), Leiryns Paleon d'Phiarlan (Son, presumed deceased), Thariv Tarravan (Son-in-law, status unknown)

## Physical Description

### Remarkable Features

Mark of Shadow on left forearm, sightless right Eye

## Sources

### Out of Core (incl. pg #)

XGtE, pg. 54, 56, 57Faceless Background from BG:DiA

## Appearance

Standing 5ft 11, Vaelas wears the face of a moderately distinguished elf getting on in years; deep laughter lines and wrinkles across the forehead set against pale olive skin, a sharp nose that borders on cruel. He wears his medium length iron grey hair streaked through with white pulled back into a messy bun, exposing his sightless left eye.

The vestiges of showmanship from his youth shine through in carefully curated colour accents - a cravat the colour of the setting sun, trousers of deep indigo blue, the burnished bronze mask pendant bearing scorch marks around his neck - but otherwise his clothes are well worn yet comfortable, covering the soft leather armour underneath. As well as a simple travel pack, he carries a battered leather bound book and an intricately carved walking staff *(not that he needs one, but it completes the look)*

## History

### Early Life

Vaelas Torn was born Marrath Paleon Phiarlan in Metrol in 368YK, a child of the Demense of Shadow back when Galifar was still young. Blessed with natural grace and an inborn aptitude for both music and dance, his temperament as a young man had been one of joy and carelessness, every emotion writ large across his face - and therefore wholly unsuitable for a discrete life in the Shadow Network. This had initially disappointed his house’s Matriarch, yet his easy smile and natural openness had proved infectious, an undeniably gift to any performer and a boon for Phiarlan’s public facing enterprises. Thus had begun a lifelong journey with the Carnival of Shadows, crafting and performing stories back and forth across the length and breath of Khorvaire for nearly four centuries.

### The Last War

Vaelas had always had a gift for both music and dance, but his true passion lay in the creation and design of props and costumes - the mechanics behind the magic of the performance. Thus, the Demense of Shape had seemed the most obvious destination upon deciding that his decorated service in the Carnival of Shadow was drawing to an end in 989YK. There he had taken to the role of teacher with gusto, liberated from the expectation of performance and free to impart his experience on those with talent within the house (including his own Granddaughter Valendra), as well as look for someone worthy of taking on the mantle of the Heirloom performance he carried. Thusly he had passed the first eight decades of the war blissfully unconcerned with the cut and thrust of the conflict embroiling the continent all around him.

That all changed in 972 YK with the Shadow Schism. Being a Paleon in a Thuranni stronghold made his family easy targets, and the fact that he himself was an unmarked elder and teacher did not save him from the knives of his own Thurrani students. Yet those who had struck were students still, eager to impress and less than thorough in their dispatch of orders. He had awakened coughing up blood to a searing pain across his forearm - the manifestation of a dragonmark five centuries after his family had deemed him unsuitable for the test of siberys. Seeing the corpses of his wife and granddaughter laid out beside him, he acted on instinct alone. Utilising fire to destroy any evidence of his escape, he invoked the new powers of his mark to slip out of Atur and head .. anywhere, so long as it wasn’t back there. Back to where Marrath Paleon Phiarlan died.

Looking back, the next few years are a blur to him, lost within the confines of his own mind, drawing in a sea of madness and sorrow. He remembers wandering through mountains that seem to stretch to the sky, past villages guarded by the spectres of their own dead, and over vast plains stretching far beyond the horizon. He remembers the cold hand of sorrow clasped tight around his heart, draining the colour from the world. He remembers his endless pleading; prayers for it to be over; prayers for justice; pleas for direction, for some purpose to justify his continued life. And then he remembers the answer, there on the shores of Lake Dark; the unfettered emotion burning the madness out from within himself, the silken voice promising the opportunity for purpose and for justice; and searing light that took his left eye as the price of power. He remembers standing, fully awake for the first time in years, and feeling a bright light surge up from within in response to the shame and horror he felt looking at his reflection in the waters. He remembers the horrible crawling sensation of skin regrowing over emaciated bones, the sudden draining of emotion that sent him to his knees and left him empty. Sitting there alone, he recalls each and every word of the vow he swore, to never again squander the opportunity he had been given to helplessness, and to find a way to live with himself - or die trying.

### Invitation

Appalled at having lost over a decade to madness and disgusted at who he found himself to be, Vaelas sought refuge in the way he knew - by crafting himself a new persona from deep within the thousands of roles he had played over the centuries. Borrowing the name from one of the last faces he saw in his old life, Vaelas Torn assumed the role of a refugee fleeing east to avoid the fighting along the Cyre river. Within the small settlement of Irontown he found himself a home, amongst people who had no notion of who he had been, and with his newfound apparent skill at healing in much demand amongst a community ravaged by nigh on a century of war, famine, and pestilence.

Perhaps he could have been happy there, having found something like peace and purpose in the small backwater town. But the untimely intrusion of his past in the shape of former student Vaelas Uruvai d'Thuranni put paid to that. Shocked into a fight or flight state at the sight of a painful figure from his past, he had acted on instinct alone to follow the Thuranni agent out to an abandoned farmstead beyond the town. Here he uncovered a clandestine meeting between his former student and a unit of Emerald Claw soldiers, but he arrived too late to discover its purpose. After waiting for the Claw unit to depart, he had unchained his emotions and fallen upon the hapless younger elf with a savage fury he had not realised he possessed.

Returning to Irontown numbed by the consequences of his actions, he found it engulfed in a running battle as the same Claw unit he had seen previously fought house to house against a smaller aggressive force. Desperate to protect the home he had found, Vaelas had rushed headlong into the conflict - once again embracing his emotions to unleash his magic against those threatening Irontown. When he came too come the morning, he found these newcomers at his door in search of the local ‘miracle’ healer. They revealed themselves to be a Wayfinders expedition in search of Khyber shards the Claw had stolen, and impressed by his actions the night before, extended an invitation to the guild as payment for services rendered.

### Experience

* Vaelas was an actor, orator, and shaper of things for nearly five centuries with the Carnival of Shadows. He is comfortable with slipping into many roles - provided his head is in the right place for it
* As a member of the Carnival, he also travelled extensively across Khorvaire, and as such has a loose grasp of the layout and geography of many of the major cities and locations on the continent. Likewise, he also knows a reasonable amount about the kingdoms various cultures (it always pays to know your audience), but is almost totally oblivious to much of the division caused by the last war having either been retired in Artur or not fully awake for most of its duration
* Whilst based in Irontown, he fulfilled the role of Healer - both magical and mundane. Although not technically gifted in that department, he found he had a knack for being able to mimic skills from his previous performances - such as giving advice. Or minor surgery. He also discovered that in many instances, the best way to heal those around you is to proactively stop them from getting hurt to begin with. Never afraid to step in and take decisive (or quite often recklessly impulsive) action, Vaelas is equally happy at stopping a problem as he is with fixing it - so long as it provides him with purpose and a way to keep moving forward.

### Motivation

* Get justice for his families murder. He is not overly bothered what form this takes, so long as those who took his loved ones from him are made to pay for their actions.
* A worthy fight or cause he can get behind, something capable of re-igniting the spark of life within him. He believes that has to be a reason he is still here - he just hasn’t found what it is yet.

### Future Goals

* Find the remaining killers of his immediate family. He doesn’t much care *why* that did, as their motives don’t concern him. They did it, and therefore they must pay.
* Find out if any other Paleon’s might have survived the purge, or if either of his children’s husbands survived the Schism.
* In his former life Vaelas once held an Heirloom Performance, and either had or was in the process of handing it over to his chosen successor Jayla during the Shadow Schism. *If only he could remember what the damned performance was...*

### Secrets

* Vaelas Torn is an assumed identity based on collected elements of personality from across the many characters he played throughout his long career. For most of his life he was **Marrath Paleon Phiarlan**, veteran actor and cherished member of the carnival of Shadows for nearly 400 years. However, as far as the world is concerned Marrath died in the Shadow Schism, and Vaelas would like to keep it that way.
* Vaelas never manifested a dragonmark because his superiors in the house considered his emotionally open, happy-go-lucky personality to make him a poor candidate for the test of Siberys and the house’s true business. However, the stress and anguish of watching everyone he ever knew died / betray him did in fact cause a mark to manifest - at the grand old age of 604. With limited training or experience, he has very little idea how the mark actually functions - and will frequently attempt to use it’s power, only to get it very wrong.
* Vaelas has absolutely no idea where the source of his powers comes from, and despite sacrificing an eye for them, doesn’t understand their full cost. His memories of the years immediately before the pact was made are … hazy at best, and provide him no clues for who answered his prayers - or what they want from him.

### Allies

* **Credence Lister** - A former Aundairian Royal Eye turned soldier of fortune, Credence was recruited into the Wayfinders only a couple of weeks prior to the Day of Mourning. It was Credence who led the group tasked with recovering the dragon shards from the Emerald Claw in Irontown, and it was she who formally extended the invitation to Vaelas

### Enemies

* **House Thuranni** - and to a lesser extend the rest of **the Twelve** - whom he feels codified his families betrayal by allowing the new house to stand when they should have sought justice
* **Lord Eriz d’Thuranni** - the man who now runs the Thuranni enclave in his former adopted home of Atur. A coward squatting over his family's grave.
* **Jayla Uruvai d'Thuranni** - A former prodigy of Marrath’s at the Demense of Shape, and one of the three assassins involved in his immediate families murder. It was Jayla who struck down Marrath’s granddaughter Valendra, and it is Jayla that carries at least a fragment of his own heirloom performance
* **Vaelas Uruvai d'Thuranni** (*deceased*) - another beloved former student turned assassin, and thus far the only one he has managed to lay his hands on
* **Lia d’Thuranni** - the third and final assassin, it was she that struck down Marrath’s wife Jaianna

## Personality

### Traits

* Vaelas is a creature of instinct far more than one of reason, and see’s little value in containing his emotions. As such, he is quick to reward those that show him kindness and becomes very protective of those he views as worthy of his aid
* Despite this, he is still not comfortable with who he has become, and prefers to hide behind the persona he cultivated in Irontown - unless he deems another role more suitable for the situation.
* Whilst his life on the stage has taught him a measure of control and flexibility suitable for casting cantrips, the unveiling of his more potent magical abilities requires **extreme emotional triggers** (I.E Hellish Rebuke is triggered by pain, Guiding Bolt is triggered by anger). The strength of emotion required is incredibly draining, hence the limited amount of times he can cast a spell before requiring time to recover

### Ideals

* Civilisation is a thin veil of control, every virtue it espouses bears the weight of chains. Break them. Let your instincts guide you, experience your emotions fully, and you will know a freedom others cannot imagine

* It is deeds that should be remembered, not the instrument of their enactment. In the same way that the music is more important than the musician, Vaelas believes that his body is merely a vessel for his families justice. *Else why else would he still be here when they’re not?*

### Bonds

* Everything Vaelas does, he does in memory of those who were taken from him. His search for either justice or absolution is what drives him to persevere
* The Wayfinders have given him a chance to discover why he is still here. He is determined to seize this opportunity and not to let them down

### Strengths

* He is flexible and adaptable, willing to put his all into whatever he is trying to accomplish

* Vaelas is willing to throw himself into dangerous situations in search of a worthy cause. For even should he fail, should he fall, he will know that he has found purpose once more

### Flaws

* There is almost an air of reckless nihilism about Vaelas at times that his better judgement tries to overcome, as if death is an acceptable alternative to finding the reason he’s still here.
* No matter how hard he tries, he cannot let go of his past. There is still a knot of anger and pain clutched tight at his core like a crutch; there are times he is afraid of who he has become, yet he is even more afraid of who he would be without them as a tether.

## Crunch

### XP & Gold Log

*This transaction list must include all finished expeditions and the gold & XP earned for each, as well as all expenditures (what you bought and for how much).*

**Total Gold Remaining:** 72.5gp

**Downtime Remaining:**

### Character Sheet

Vaelas Torn: https://ddb.ac/characters/22541572/CQn5jk