Orani

*"I get all those folk with their grand gestures and dreams for the future... But what's wrong with just wanting to have fun?"*

## History

Orani's true origins are something of a secret, as he was left on the porch of an Absalom orphanage as a baby. The young man was never adopted, in part due to his continued immaturity. He liked to play with knives and scissors, and often broke toys that weren't his. This continued even into the years of his puberty, and eventually the orphanage decided to get him looked at.

Healers specialized in both mind and body found nothing that should have caused such immaturity, and attempts to cast healing spells and curse-breakers did nothing. The orphanage did not ring the proverbial alarm until Orani's planar heritage manifested for the first time in the form of an eye on his forehead. Finding him riding a dazed-seeming employee around the orphanage hallways, the senior staff decided to bring him elsewhere.

There was a temple to Kurgess near the orphanage, and one of the priests was befriended with a member of the orphanage's senior staff. There, they found out the boy was not human; not purely, at least. His blood had been tainted by that of a div, a destructive outsider closely related to the daemons.

Realizing the boy would eventually grow into quite the menace if left unchecked, an elven priest named Tasar agreed to take the child under his wing. Tieflings lived a long time, but elves lived longer; by giving him an elven guardian, he would assuredly not outlive his new 'foster father'. The man was unusually fit for an elf, and from that day on, worked the youth to the bone.

For several decades, the clergy of Kurgess trained the boy in both body and mind. He was left free to indulge in some vices, but strictly forbidden from partaking in others. He was encouraged to pick up the arts, and turned out to have a talent for sketching and string instruments that starkly contrasted his destructive impulses.

He grew slowly, but he still grew. His "puberty" was a strange time for everyone; the boy pushed back against authority like many youths his age, yet still followed instructions to control his desires to the letter. He was insufferable at times, running away from the temple to explore the town or using his adult appearance to get his hands on alcohol. In the end, however, he always returned and was always taking his lessons the next morning.

Around his 60th nameday, the clergy finally judged Orani to be adult enough to be given more liberties. He would still return to the temple on the regular to speak to Tasar, but was allowed to leave the temple as much as he wanted. He had received plenty of physical training, and had honed his natural psychic abilities into a useful tool. He had all the makings of an adventurer, and it was no surprise to anyone he eventually found his way into that profession. It allowed him to do good in the world, while also giving him plenty of opportunities to find that rush of adrenaline the "young" man had so learned to love.

After surviving the siege of Absalom by Rovagug's forces, Orani spent the following decade submerging himself in adventure, aiding as many of the cult's victims both on the Isle of Kortos and abroad. For a period of about a year he spent time on the Isle of Kortos, forming a budding relationship with a young paladin named Callie as well as friendships with a number of other adventurers.

Orani and Callie later left Absalom around the same time, but it's unknown whether they departed to adventure together or whether they went their separate ways.

## Personality

1/3The long and short of it is that Orani is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky guy. He tries not to worry about tomorrow, instead focusing on the joys of today. Despite the many women he's been with in his life, his true love is the discovery of new experiences. In recent times he's tried to temper his womanizing tendencies, in part due to his responsibilities as a famous adventurer and in part because of Callie's more conservative personality.

Most days when he's not adventuring, he can be found either at the temple of Kurgess in the Ascendant Court for training, or down in the Foreign Quarter and Merchants' Quarter to taste new foods, smell new smells, and feel new things under his fingertips. That last activity is usually associated with the somewhat irresponsible spending of his adventuring money, but the jobs pay well enough that he can afford it. During summers he spends time on the beach, despite his rather abysmal swimming.

Like many followers of Kurgess, he loves a little bit of competition in everything, and constantly seeks to improve himself both physically and mentally. Sometimes he participates in sports events, even ones he has no chance of winning, purely to see how well he does. He prides himself in his combat abilities, but acknowledges that he lacks the raw, physical strength of many others, instead favoring an almost unnatural degree of nimbleness.

In moments of emotional turmoil, Orani sometimes shows a darker side of him as his grip on his own emotions loosens. During these moments he can get surly, disrespectful, or even outright aggressive as the div-taint in his blood reasserts its control. These moments are associated with destructive impulses, either in the form of material damage or outright violence. Sometimes Orani takes things in these states, stealing the belongings of others purely because they do not belong to him. These states don't last too long, a few hours at most, and generally don't get bad enough for Orani to commit a serious crime.

## Goals & Ambitions

Orani's behavior is generally defined by his lack of long-term desires. His only goal in life is generally to enjoy himself from day to day. As a Kurgessan, he mainly spends his time engaging in fleeting competition or adrenaline-inducing activities like mercenary jobs and exploration of caves and ruins. Orani does not profess any sweeping, great ideals or moral guidelines for the world to follow; if put on the spot, his big message will be no more complicated than "be good to each other" and "treat others like you'd want them to treat you".

## Friends/Allies

* **Callie Mirielda:** Orani and Callie met on an adventure in which Orani was quite frankly a little out of his league. Impressed by the paladin's performance and infatuated with her appearance, Orani invited her out, and the two started a friendship. Said friendship eventually developed into mutual attraction, albeit stronger on Orani's side. Callie had doubts, especially since Orani's womanizing was hardly unknown. The tiefling could only promise he would change, but the two of them left the city before this could develop further. Who knows how they are now, if they have even seen each other since leaving?
* **Aurora Winters:** Also known as **Summer Partner** or **Partner-chan**, Orani became acquainted with Aurora while working for her previous master, the Old Man of the Ice Cream. After beating the Amethyst Test and adding said stone to his collection of Kaleidoscopic Jewels, he also became her new boss. The two get along well enough, fighting together in almost perfect sync, though Aurora can only assist him every so often. Orani doesn't like thinking of himself as her boss, preferring to still see her as a partner like when he first met her.
* **The Old Man of the Ice Cream (?):** An enigmatic figure Orani encountered about ten years after the Rovagug incident. The old guy makes a killer ice cream, and has thus far offered fine rewards for those who prove themselves worthy to him. Orani doesn't know much about him, but the rewards tend to outweigh the hassle of the jobs themselves.
* **The Supervillain Squad of Friendship:** Also known as **the SSOF**, the Squad is a group of tiefling women (and a single tiefling Neru) dedicated to no-goodery. While Orani is not acquainted with every single one of their number, he has bizarrely come to count many of them as friends or allies in some way. Orani has yet to be personally faced with any of their evil acts, and there's no knowing how he'll react when he will.