Cassian

* Humanoid Form
* Werespider Form

Cassian was a high elf previously affiliated with the Wildguard, the group of vagabonds led by the eladrin Dane Evergreen.

## Description

Born to elven parents residing in the minor settlement near Wolvshide in the lands of the Hollow Concord, Cassian's disenfranchisement with authority developed at a young age when he was forced out of his familial home alongside the rest of family for the purpose of a series of military operations. Wandering southwest, they found themselves in the lands of the Aethelwald, revelling in the freedoms afforded - and from there learning from a group of wood elf poachers how to stalk through the forests unseen until in the perfect position to strike.

## Personality

Cassian had been harried by haunting nightmares that corrupt his trances since he was first guided to partake in such a thing, which further serves to dampen and sour his mood.

Secretly, Cassian had previously been infected with a form of lycanthropy that transformed him into an aranea, or werespider. When Dane hired a private investigator to look into comings and goings around him, he grew close to discovering this secret, learning that Cassian often wandered off into the forest come the evening - wherein he would transform in an attempt to sate his lycanthropic hungers by hunting nearby wildlife.

Unbeknownst to the Wild Cape, much of the silk used in the finer items of the store was produced by Cassian directly.

## History

After Dane's disappearance shortly after the Attack on the Pearl Ward, Cassian likewise vanished, stirring rumours and questions of his potential involvement in the occurrence. By the time he was eventually tracked in the Nadir District of Aviacrest down by an adventuring party in 134WD, Pinnul-Greencrown, he had been taken captive a few months prior by the Fate's Path gang who used him as an assassin to kill competitors and defectors.

Before this point, Cassian had attempted to start a new life for himself under the name of Roqen, selling silks to other weavers and merchants in the city through the Broken Bill tavern. However, unable to sate the hunger cursed unto him by his lycanthropy and unwilling to leave the privacy afforded by the Nadir District, he instead found himself forced to prey upon its residents - targetting lonely and otherwise isolated individuals unlikely to be missed. This attracted the attention of the bandit crime lord Heritage, who had the elf captured and subdued. Unaware that the monstrosity was indeed Cassian, they were slain by the adventuring party and Heritage alike, but after the gang was dealt with, he was subsequently *revivified* by Rover Custard Augustine and placed under a *Zone of Truth*. While held in such a manner, Cassian confirmed freely the following details:

* He did not kill Jeremiah and Henrik.
* He was out in the forest during the night that the murders occurred, and returned early in the morning.
* He saw Zylvari leaving the Wild Cape the day that Dane disappeared, alone, though remarked that she did not seem particularly hurried or panicked.
* He decided to flee, knowing that fingers would naturally be pointed his way.
* Dane sought the destruction of civilisations, following on from the teachings of Eesonnet who gifted him his blade Magnar. However, he looked to do so by undermining relationships between political groups and parties, rather than direct wanton destruction.
* The Wildguard stole from Ódóvir Jotunsson and tried to frame Brinley Vodorsk and Howell Holdings in the hope to get the paladin to turn his ire against them.
* Nonetheless, having heard about the Attack on the Pearl Ward he remarked that it was "beyond anything that Dane could have hoped" and that if the opportunity presented itself again, Dane would probably engage in the destruction willingly again. If the original attack was planned and orchestrated by Dane then Cassian knew nothing of it.
* Whittengrove is indeed a city.
* Dane would be unlikely to go into hiding, revelling in the boldness of his actions, whereas Zylvari had shown herself to be more devious - "you might not even know she was in the same room as you."
* He did not condone the beliefs and teachings of Eesonnet, but seemed disenfranchised with the scale of destruction that it had yielded - "I hate bureaucracy, not people".
* He actively seeks his own death, although whether his affliction or guilt being the primary driver of this remains uncertain.
* The Fate's Path gang used him to kill competitors, and in doing so were holding back the inevitable tide of the Other Hand, Lightfingers and agents of the Arken Den seizing control of the Nadir District.

Although split on what exactly to do with Cassian, the party ultimately agreed to use him as a source of evidence moving forwards. Willingly revoking his contract with the pallid elf Aralee (absent from the Broken Bill), Rynros accepted that Cassian's removal from the city would ultimately spare the deaths of other individuals, with Rover keen to take him back to Rydoon to testify. However, on leaving, Cassian was seized by the Feather Fall of Aviacrest, owing to the Aethnarch's own losses in the Attack on the Pearl Ward - namely a Greatwyrm Aership.

After a series of investigations enacted by the Aethnarch and the Solace Summit, he was eventually released into the custody of Ochon qu Galanis and Kypris qu Harmonia to return back to Rydoon with, to face justice through the Guild of the Guerdon. However, as they arrived in the Hippodros of Midalios a detonation of sudden arcane energy surged forth, seemingly timed with their appearance - the resulting damage claiming the lives of the trio, and many thousands besides.