Essek Thelyss

Art by Lin <3

## **Appearance**

Essek hides his slender Elvish build under long dark and purple robes and a gray mantel over his shoulders. The robes hide all of his body, but under them, he wears stylish, expensive, sleek clothing in the Xhorhasian style. His short white hair is coiffed into a half curve to the side, and he wears some jewelry - some on his fingers, some in his ears.

## **Powers**

Essek is a Graviturgist Wizard, and a very powerful one at that (at least level 15, by D&D 5e measures). He practices a specific school of magic called Dunamancy, and is something of a prodigy of Dunamancy. This school was developed by the Kryn Dynasty in Xhorhas and specialises in manipulation of density, gravity, entropy, time, and… shall we call it potentiality? It's all quantum.

Among other things, Essek is capable of levitating at will, teleporting (taking others with him, at least twice a day), using telekinesis, granting himself or another a Fragment of Possibility, making an object a fixed point in space for an hour, compressing gravity, tapping into an unused branching timeline to create a shadow echo of himself, or setting off vacuum blasts.

He also keeps his spellbook in a small extradimensional pocket plane and can conjure it by drawing a quick sigil in the air. He needs his spellbook in order to cast spells that take effort.

His magical ability between rests is of course limited, and he cannot simply keep casting such spells at will, only cantrips.

## **Talents**

Essek is a prodigy of Dunamancy, and as a Graviturgist, specialises in the manipulation of gravity. He is also an excellent scholar. He is great at evading answering questions and very efficiently ran a network of agents for the Dynasty, and has a keen political mind. He's also fairly good at being patronizing, let's be honest.

## **Interests**

magic, Dunamancy, dunamis, studying the Luxon Beacons, studying magic in general. ...also, looking good.

## **History**

Essek was born in Xhorhas, a country on the continent of Wildemount, in the world of Exandria. This country is ruled by the Kryn Dynasty, with the Bright Queen Leylas Kryn as its head. Their society is built around the worship of a god called the Luxon, and their use of the Luxon Beacons, which allow souls linked to them through a ritual called Consecution to be reborn again and again. As such, the Bright Queen has been their monarch for over six hundred years, and has lived for about double that time. The three most powerful dens of their society have access to consecution.

Essek was enough of a prodigy of dunamancy that he was adopted into one such den at a fairly young age, Den Thelyss. He is about 120 years old and was never consecuted. He became the Shadowhand for the Bright Queen, and as such handled important matters for her and his word held some sway with her.

He spent most of his time either handling such matters for her or doing research into dunamancy, and wished that the Dynasty would be less religious, and allow proper research to be done into the Beacons.

He was recently tasked with keeping an eye on The Mighty Nein, a group of adventurers who brought one of the Beacons stolen by the Dwendallian Empire back to Xhorhas (the very reason why those two countries were at war). His Den offered them a house to stay in in Rosohna, the capital of Xhorhas. Over the course of their interactions, Essek sometimes expressed frustration with them, but they have over time become… friendly. It had been a long time since Essek had had any friends, and it showed that he was unused to socialising, but he did try, with them. They reminded him what it was like to enjoy someone else's company. In turn, he helped them in many ways (teleporting them when they required it, helping devise a spell to turn Nott back into her original form, advising them on what to share or not to share with the Bright Queen...).

With peace talks on the horizon thanks to the work of the Mighty Nein, Essek suddenly found himself transported to the City of Wall.

## **Within Wall**

In the two years since coming to Wall, Essek has ingratiated himself with the city mayor, set up in an abandoned bell tower, and started doing a lot of research and studying in his home. There are many rumors about the bell tower he lives in, since he keeps the door hidden and makes sure he is never seen coming and going, and its former resident used to very much do the same thing. Essek has kept the title of Shadowhand, only now to the Mayor of the City, but few people have met him outside of the network he has taken over to run for the Mayor. His title is whispered about town more than his name, but few indeed could associate either with the stylish Drow occasionally walking through the streets of Wall, and no one but the Mayor and perhaps their closest advisors know where he lives.