Uriaris Umai

Uriaris Umai

(Yur-ee-arr-is) (Oo-mai)

Eladrin Shadow Sorcerer | ~750 years old

Uriaris is an old eladrin who has been living in Manaris for most of his twilight years. While his appearance retains semblances of elvish grace, it has been muted by the cold of Shadowfell’s touch - his skin is pale like that of a corpse, his eyes are white and sunken into his face, and his body is more gaunt than lithe. He has long silver hair like an elf, but his hairline is receding. One of his long eladrin ears is gone, bitten off in his first encounter with his summoned hell hound. He wears old, rugged clothes and cares little for luxury or fashion. A burn-like scar wraps around his throat like a necklace, and he speaks in a ragged voice.

Early life

An eladrin of House Umai in an eladrin city in the Feywild, young Uriaris was a bold and charismatic child who always radiated with the energy of summer. Throughout his youth, Uri was well known for his beautiful voice. He often starred in lead parts for musicals and plays across the city, and he was often heralded as the ‘Summer’s Song’ among his fans. Uri’s family grew in wealth and stature because of their association with him, but for Uri, no amount of limelight was ever enough. He always yearned for more - more applause, more favor, more power. He reveled in new experiences, and he was always excited to meet new people.

Uri had a strong latent magical ability that was never honed, even though many archmages sought him out and encouraged him to train. Uri was content to bask in their attention and let it boost his ego. He preferred honing his powerful stage presence and his networks of friends instead, whose activities always helped him get ahead in eladrin society. Uri had no particular problem with the idea of becoming a powerful mage. It was socially encouraged for eladrin with strong dispositions for the arcane to practice spellcraft, but Uri was too preoccupied with the limelight to focus on anything like formal training.

As Uriaris became more famous and well known, so grew his penchant for power brokerage and networking. He threw lavish events to cull favor and influence across the eladrin cities of the Feywild, and he was accustomed to sparing no expense when building his family’s reputation. As Uri grew older, his talents naturally led him to oration and politics. He could give rousing speeches and rally people to his point of view with ease, and some eladrin elites began to regard his ambition with wariness. One such eladrin, a playwright and socialite named Sovelis, had been a long-time business partner of Uri’s. He’d written many popular plays with Uri cast in a lead role, and their partnership had been lucrative for a long time. As Uriaris moved into politics, Sovelis began to worry that this partnership was no longer a priority for Uri.

Visitor in the Fey

Uriaris received news one day that a traveler had been taken into custody on the outskirts of the city. The individual was not an eladrin, but a ‘human’ - something Uri had never seen before. Eager to make an acquaintance and perhaps be the one to broker trust with an outsider, Uri sought to visit the human. Those who had captured him, the Relvan family, denied Uri’s request, claiming the traveler was dangerous and needed to be isolated from denizens of the Fey for undisclosed reasons. Uriaris was indignant.

Word quickly reached Sovelis that Uriaris wanted to visit the human prisoner, and Sovelis saw an opportunity. He invited Uri to his residence and offered him a deal: if Uri agreed to star in the next one hundred plays that he wrote, he would find a way to allow Uri to visit the human. Uri tried haggling to seventy five, but Sovelis would not budge. Begrudgingly, Uri agreed - but only on the condition that Sovelis make a show of support when the time came for him to reenter politics. Sovelis, happy to have his lead star still under his thumb, agreed.

Sovelis pulled some strings to get Uriaris a chance at visitation, despite considerable pushback from the Relvan family. Uriaris was not one to retreat when he had made up his mind, and he was too eager to meet a creature he had never met before. Jafi Relvan, the Relvan family elder, attempted to explain to Uri that they had captured a wizard whose abilities were unclear. He revealed that they believed the wizard was responsible for the disappearance of several eladrin, but this only emboldened Uri, who claimed the Relvans now stood in the way of justice. Uri declared that he would be the one to return any hostages that had been taken, and demanded the wizard’s magical containment opened.

The wizard Mulsantir

Relvan finally complied, allowing Uriaris to enter the chamber where the human wizard had been contained by eladrin abjuration magic. Inside, Uriaris met an old man who introduced himself by the name of Mulsantir. Mulsantir thanked Uriaris for coming. The human’s calm demeanor and appearance surprised Uriaris, who expected something more salacious from an extra planar visitor. Uri inquired whether Mulsantir was indeed from another plane. Mulsantir said that he was, and that he had been looking for a way back. Uri asked whether Mulsantir knew of any missing eladrin. The wizard replied that the Feywild was a place where magic gathered in unpredictable ways, and that it sometimes made spell casting a volatile task.

Uriaris was not pleased by this, and demanded the eladrin be returned. Mulsantir continued to ruminate about the nature of the plane he had come to - how magic tended to coalesce in ancient trees or features of the land, but most often living beings. He wondered aloud whether creatures native to the plane understood the degree of their own magical affect if they had never lived anywhere else. It was then that he thanked Uriaris again for bringing him what he needed to find his way home.

Mulsantir finished casting the planeshift spell, which he had been nonverbally preparing since Uriaris had entered the room. He’d been able to do so by using a wellspring of latent magic inside of Uri that Uri had never bothered to hone. It all happened in a matter of seconds - the floor ignited with a bright light, and the spell transported both of them to a snowy field somewhere on the continent of Manaris.

Worse comes to worst

The shock to Uri’s countenance was like nothing he had ever experienced. Snow was a brand new phenomenon, and he hated it instantly. Everything around him was cold and lifeless. The sky was dead like a corpse, the trees were barren, and the world was covered in frozen white matter that chilled him to the bone. He began to hyperventilate, shivering for the first time in his life, uncertain what was happening or where he was. He went into shock as the snow began to freeze through his loose, eladrin garb.

To the wizard Mulsantir’s surprise, the planeshift spell did not conclude. The eladrin he’d used to fuel its casting was beside him in the snow, and the well of magic inside the creature was now erupting in response to the shock of a radically new environment. The spell reignited moments after their entry into Prime, and Uri’s magic caused it to spiral out of the wizard’s control, guiding the two of them even further away from the Feywild than before.

When the spell’s energy finally subsided, the world had grown even darker. The sky was black and full of twisting shadows. The trees were just as barren, even more skeletal and distended than before. Where snow had been falling, pieces of ash flitted through the air in utter silence. There was no sun, no moon, no stars. Uriaris came out of shock to find himself awash in fear and despair.

Mulsantir attempted to explain what had happened, but Uriaris went into panic. He fled across the landscape, screaming, looking for his old friends. This display of noise and movement attracted the attention of a wandering shade, which quickly found Uriaris and attacked him. Mulsantir intervened, destroying the shade with what little magic he had. When the two were alone in the barren wasteland again, the wizard explained what had happened.

Trapped in Shadowfel

Uriaris learned that the wizard Mulsantir was in fact a sorcerer - and that the two of them were very much alike. Mulsantir explained that Uriaris himself was home to a wellspring of magic that had never been tapped, and that Mulsantir had used it to fuel his planeshift spell out of the Feywild. Uri privately wished he had taken more time to hone his magic as the eladrin archmages had recommended. When Uri inquired why he couldn’t also help fuel a journey home, Mulsantir claimed he believed Uri’s inner leyline was spent - the shock of landing in Manaris, which was currently in the middle of an ice age, had caused Uri’s magic to overflow and spill out all at once, which is what caused Mulsantir to lose control of his planeshift spell.

Uri asked why Mulsantir’s own magic was not enough, and the sorcerer was not fully honest - he claimed that in his old age, his wellspring of mana had begun to run dry, which is why he needed Uri to fuel his escape from the Feywild. The truth, unknown to Uri, was that Mulsantir was a hoarder who was addicted to magic. He preferred using the mana of other creatures and planes to power his sorcery, and he kept his own mana very carefully preserved. This is why Mulsantir was exploring the Feywild before he had been apprehended by its natives, who were more skilled at controlling the flow of magic there.

Mulsantir was truthful about one key point, though - that neither of their sorcerous origins were nearly as potent now that they were trapped in Shadowfel. It would be some time, he admitted, before they would be able to find a way home again.

The shadar-kai

The two sorcerers wandered for what seemed like weeks, subsisting on brackish water and fruit that oozed dark blood, finding sparse refuge among hollow trees and forgotten ravines. Mulsantir claimed that he had a plan. He said he needed to find others who might be able to combine forces with them in order to power a new planeshift spell. Uriaris was hopeful at first, but his outlook slowly dissolved into despondence and silent despair. Neither of them could find the strength to wield magic, and Uri didn’t know how to begin with.

One evening it was even darker than usual, and Mulsantir declared he had gathered enough of his own mana to start a small fire. Unknown to either of them, light traveled ten times as far in Shadowfell, and the evening of brief respite they experienced around the warmth of a campfire came at a price. Uriaris awoke the next morning to a hooded figure standing above him, holding a blade to his throat. Mulsantir had already been apprehended, and Uri saw that other hooded figures waited around their encampment, all mounted on skeletal horses. He had no choice but to surrender.

The dark riders took their prisoners across the landscape for what seemed like days. Uriaris caught glimpses of his own captor - it looked like an elf, a pale reflection of himself with iron piercings across its face and cold, narrow eyes. They came to a fortress within a mountain pass, mostly hidden from the black vault of the sky, save for a singular tower that seemed to reach even higher than the surrounding peaks. The captors sneered that they would soon meet the Enchantress.

The enchantress Sithierel

Uriaris and Mulsantir were separated soon after they entered the fortress. Uriaris was imprisoned for some time before he was collected. He was brought into the tower he’d seen from the outside of the city, up a winding dark staircase with no windows or light to guide the way. Several times he slipped in the gloom and nearly plummeted to his death, begrudgingly saved each time by the dark elf who escorted him.

They reached the roof of the tower, which was surrounded by nothing but the black welkin above. In the center of the tower, a black throne and altar were placed, and a lone figure stood beside them. The escort retired, leaving Uri stranded alone with the figure. The figure approached him silently like a shadow, hovering over the onyx of the rooftop. As it came into view, Uri was bewitched by fear and wonder. He could see the features he’d only glimpsed in his captors - pale skin, cold eyes, and an unmistakable elvish countenance. The individual was entrancing in a way he’d never encountered before. She was pale and thin like a corpse, but she radiated with a dark energy that Uri couldn’t describe.

Uri introduced himself, filled with some kind of hope that he’d found someone who might be able to help him find a way home. The spectral woman introduced herself as Sithierel, the Enchantress. She immediately asked about Mulsantir, and Uri explained how they had both come to Shadowfel. She examined Uri, and seeing that he was devoid of magic, concluded that whatever power he might have had was now gone. Uri was stricken to hear that he was of no use to her beyond corpse hauling, and the guard reappeared again to take him away. Before being escorted from the rooftop, Uri demanded to know when he could go home. The Enchantress laughed and told him that no one ever leaves her service.

Climbing the ranks

Uriaris was sent to join a team of shadar-kai who prowled the surrounding lands for bodies and remnants of living things that the enchantress could use to power her dark magic. For many years, he worked with this team and grew adept at handling dead things, dismembering corpses and finding the shallow graves of travelers who had gotten lost in the Shadowfel. He was the one to discover that in some parts of the Fel, wells of shadow magic could produce morphic effects on corpses, causing them to multiply and produce mountains of dead matter. This discovery aided the shadar-kais’ efforts and built political capital for Uri among their ranks.

Uri himself became more like the shadar-kai with each passing day. His vibrant spirit became muted, and his personality became more sarcastic and irreverent, a dark reflection of his previous life in the Feywild. He developed bonds with each of his teammates, rooted in the camaraderie of shared suffering, and then built through mutual respect. Throughout the years, Uri became vaguely aware of a rekindling presence inside of him, though he didn’t immediately realize that it was his sorcerous origin beginning to recharge. It had taken years for the mana to accumulate again, slowed and darkened by the Shadowfel’s dampening effect on magic connected to living creatures.

In the latter years of Uri’s service to the Enchantress, his magic began to blossom again in ways he did not anticipate. Uri learned to animate corpses that were sufficiently intact to help him with his manual labor, and he learned to mold shadow in the morphic areas of the Fel to use offensively when needed. His fellow shadar-kai were impressed by his growth, and many deferred to him and his expertise over time. Uri’s penchant for political growth took a different form as he became adept in soft necromancy and shadow magic, evolving into a leader among the shadar-kai as the last traces of eladrin disappeared. Uri eventually became powerful enough to create shadow creatures of his own, and he became known for a pet hellhound that could smell weakness and death on the air. He named this hound Sammaster.

It was around this time that Sithierel noticed Uri’s development, and she summoned him again to her tower high above the peaks. This time, she treated Uriaris differently - she offered him a position as a leader among her forces, with great authority and a hand-picked team at his disposal. Uriaris agreed, on one condition: he would have access to formal training from the wizards in Sithierel’s service so he could hone his magic. The Enchantress agreed to these terms, but with a warning: if Uri betrayed her, she would kill him and doom his corpse to eternal service in hard labor.

Mulsantir’s return

Mulsantir had escaped the Enchantress’s fortress shortly after capture years ago, a fact that the Enchantress had not revealed to Uri. For all the time Uri had spent in captivity hauling corpses and learning to wield shadow magic, Mulsantir had focused solely on gathering power again. It is not clear what happened to Mulsantir during this time, but at some point along the way, the sorcerer decided that he had all the magic he would ever need in Shadowfel. He learned to amass the life force of other living things, becoming adept at raising corpses, imprisoning dark creatures and building a horde of Fel denizens in his thrall.

When Mulsantir detected Uri’s well of magic growing again after many years, the sorcerer made a return to the Enchantress’s fortress in the mountains. He laid siege with his army of shades and zombies, seeking out the sorcerer he’d left behind to rot. Mulsantir perhaps believed that Uriaris’s sorcerous origin would never replenish its mana, or perhaps he had left Uri behind knowing that someday the eladrin would be ripe again. Either way, Mulsantir broke through the fortress and cornered Sithierel in her tower, right as she and Uriaris were agreeing to his new terms of employment.

The Enchantress was outraged, immediately suspecting that Uriaris had helped orchestrate Mulsantir’s siege on her fortress. She attacked Uri with a silencing curse, believing him to be much more powerful than he was, exclaiming that he would never again practice spellcraft. This curse eroded Uri’s vocal cords, destroying his once beautiful voice forever. Mulsantir soon reached the top of the Enchantress’s tower by piling corpses on top of each other, elevating himself on their backs like a horseman riding a wave of death. Uriaris, silenced by Sithierel’s curse, beheld what had become of the meek old man he remembered from years ago.

Mulsantir had become a powerful necromancer, and Uri watched as he overwhelmed Sithierel with his wave of undead. The zombies immobilized her as the necromancer extracted her life force. Through Sithierel, Mulsantir absorbed the life force of every denizen in her fortress, adding all of it to his own vast well of necromantic power and piling their bodies into his morphing wave of undead. It was in this moment that Uri realized the nature of what he and Mulsantir had both become. The Shadowfel had changed them both. Even hardened by his work with the shadar-kai, Uri was struck by the cruelty of Mulsantir’s magic. He knew that he had to escape the Shadowfel, or it would swallow what little was left of him.

Working for the necromancer

Mulsantir took Uriaris into custody, claiming that together, they would now go on to accomplish great things. Uri still could not speak, but as he rode with Mulsantir on the backs of thousands of undead, he was able to survey the landscape from high above. The necromancer explained that the darkness of Prime’s ice age had created gateways from the Shadowfel to the Prime Material plane, and that he planned to invade it with his army. Mulsantir asked Uriaris if he would serve beside him, offering power and command over a portion of his dread horde when the time came to invade. Uriaris lied and pledged himself to Mulsantir’s service, knowing that he had to find a way out of the necromancer’s grasp.

Mulsantir had built his own fortress in a darker region of the Shadowfel where Uri and his former band of shadar-kai had never dared to venture. Darker parts of Shadowfel had the well-known ability to drain the life out of living creatures through mere exposure, and Uri knew better than to venture into the valleys and passes where the shadows were too dark. But the necromancer’s well of life energy protected them as they traveled. Mulsantir’s undead horde carried them over pits of darkness and through winding canyons etched by jet black rivers, before finally they came upon a mountain. As they drew closer, Uri saw that the mountain was an accumulation of bodies far greater than anything he’d seen working for Sithierel. Mulsantir crowed over his achievement, claiming the Enchantress never stood a chance against his power - and then he thanked Uriaris for leading him to her. Uri could still not speak, but he put the truth together: his growing magic had been a beacon for Mulsantir and his army.

Uriaris was given his own quarters in the castle at the pinnacle of Mulsantir’s mountain of death. After some time in isolation where he was allowed to heal, Uri emerged, his voice raspy and damaged, but functional again. He sought out Mulsantir, who waited for him in the heights of the citadel. Mulsantir assigned Uri a duty similar to what Uri had done for the Enchantress: help him amass power, but this time in preparation for an extra planar invasion. Mulsantir commanded Uri to seek out everything in the wastelands and shadows and kill whatever he encountered so that its life force could be culled by the dread horde. He had a saying that all of his commands came back to: “add it to the dead”.

For an uncertain amount of time, Uriaris complied with the necromancer’s wishes. He knew he had to find a way to escape, and he kept a lookout for portals into Prime on his routes around Shadowfel, but he didn’t know what the portals would even look like. And the thrill of the necromancer’s power began to bewitch him, pushing the voice of concern further away. Uri was no longer employing a few ragged skeletons to move rocks. He had a legion of undead at his command. His hellhound Sammaster was given freedom to hunt and eat whatever it found, and the hound stayed well fed. Uriaris began to learn the shifting lands of Shadowfel and how they changed. He located many encampments and strongholds led by all manner of creatures from across the plane - shades, shadar-kai, vampires, demons, and other fel creatures. Uri oversaw their deaths at the hands of his undead, which were built to absorb life energy and return it to Mulsantir. Killing shades and demons did not bother Uri. In time, even the pleas of shadar-kai no longer moved him.

On one expedition, Uri encountered something new. A band of elves had gotten lost in a dark expanse of forest that covered a distant region of the Fel. The elves were far from home. Their pale skin still radiated with light, and they glowed on the landscape like lanterns from a great distance. When Uri climbed through the trees and approached their encampment, where the elves had foolishly lit a fire like he and Mulsantir had done, he heard something. One of the elves was singing quietly. As Uri stopped and listened to the song, he experienced a rush of memories he’d long forgotten - the plays he’d starred in, the parties he’d thrown, all the elvish wine he’d shared with friends in the summer dusk. The elf’s voice was soft and frail, yet still full of determination, an act of defiance in the face of the yawning darkness all around them. The song struck him, reminding him how far he too had come from home.

Uri’s lapse into memory ended as he realized his legion had surrounded the encampment on its own. He sent his command to each of the undead, ordering them to halt their approach. But the legion was teeming, pushing against his will. It wanted to devour the creatures whose light had attracted them. The undead had been created to devour life, and that purpose was stronger than Uri’s marching orders. Only Sammaster obeyed, sitting patiently as the horde began to move around him.

Uri felt despair rush into his limbs as he tried to stay the horde’s advance, slipping, watching one zombie after the next spill into the encampment, eliciting screams and a scramble for weapons. Uri tried to warn them and cry run! - but his voice constricted, lost forever to Sithierel’s curse. His screams went unheard as the legion snuffed out the campfire, swarming through the trees like locusts before halting again, awaiting his next command.

Escape

Uriaris was beside himself with grief. Awash in guilt and anger, he hastily commanded the horde to eat itself, indifferent to whether it would. He sprinted away through the trees, leaving even Sammaster behind, and he kept running through the trees until his legs would carry him no further. When he was finally alone, he dropped and wept bitterly, unable to forget the things he’d killed and allowed to die.

Uri knew that Mulsantir and his servants would be looking for him. He pushed himself to keep moving, searching desperately for any trace of one of the portals the necromancer spoke of. Uri’s knowledge of the landscape grew more sparse, and his sense of direction was weakened without his connection to the horde. He kept searching, ignoring his growing despair, until finally he came to a black pool in the distant reaches of a wooded canyon. From the inky water, small pieces of white ash drifted upward. One the flecks of ash hit Uri’s face, and it was cool to the touch. He was reminded of the moment long ago when he’d plane shifted into the cold white world, and his heart rushed with excitement.

Uri did not hesitate to enter the pool, which disoriented him as soon as he was submerged. A dim light came from the bottom, and as he swam toward it, he began to feel that he was swimming upwards. With each stroke the temperature got colder, until Uri broke the surface of a freezing pond in a snowy field. Barely able to move his limbs, he scrambled from the icy water, stumbling through the snow and sprinted as fast as he could. A settlement twinkled at the bottom of a hill. Uri could see city walls and a smoke coming from several chimneys. Even in the freezing cold, he felt warmer and closer to home than he had in many years.

Uri came to the city gates where two dwarves were standing guard. He was incoherent, unable to speak clearly through the cold and his cursed voice, and the dwarves watched him with wariness as he tried to beg for entry. Finally, one of the dwarves had had enough, and Uri caught the hilt of a warhammer to the side of the head before dropping unconscious.

In Prime

This is where events and people start to fall more under your purview campaign-wise. Here is a general flow of ideas I have for Uri’s time in Manaris leading up to the present day. Missing pieces are marked in blue.

Interrogation

In Manaris, Uri woke up in chains in the dungeon of a kingdom, surrounded by guards. Uri told them he had escaped a necromancer’s service, and that they all needed to prepare for an invasion. The guards shrugged off his ramblings and left to report the prisoner they’d taken.

Some time later, Uri was visited by a human wizard. The wizard asked Uri in detail about who he was and his experience. Uri explained the portal he’d found and his previous life as an eladrin. When he told the wizard that a sorcerer named Mulsantir transported and trapped them both in Shadowfel, the wizard seemed to recognize the name. He performed a number of magical tests on Uri to learn more about him. The wizard concluded that Shadowfel had become part of Uri to such a degree that it would likely never leave him. He noted that the wellspring of mana inside Uri was powerful - no other sorcerer would have been able to easily channel magic again after such deep exposure to the Fel. Then he stated that Uri’s continued presence in their kingdom would only lead Mulsantir to them, and he asked Uri why they should continue to let him live.

Uri’s mind raced. He went through the facts, recalling everything he knew about Mulsantir. He knew that the sorcerer had used Uri’s magic to fuel his planeshift spell. He also knew that Mulsantir had changed when he saw him again - had he restored his power the way Uri had after years in the Fel? Or had he simply found a new source of magic to fuel his ambitions? Uri claimed that the necromancer’s weakness was that he was always using others’ magic. He said he believed that Mulsantir, while powerful, had been drawn to necromancy because of its disregard for the dignity of living creatures - it was easy for him to steal a creature’s life force and use it for his own ends. Uri claimed that Mulsantir had no real power of his own, even though he’d claimed to be a sorcerer, and that this might be the key to stopping him.

The wizard considered this. Then he thanked Uriaris and left him alone again in the dungeon.

Invasion

Mulsantir tracked Uri to the portal easily. Though the necromancer knew of several existing portals, he decided to use this one for his invasion - and so he could more quickly find his insubordinate eladrin servant. Behind him, a hulking titan made of bodies waited for its master’s command. This was the result of the legion that Uriaris had hastily ordered to eat itself.

At this stage, I see a large conflict brewing that potentially involves a lot of NPCs. I think it’s better for you to decide what happens as far as:

* Mulsantir’s invasion
* The kingdom’s response
* Uri’s level of involvement

Whatever Uri’s level of involvement in this conflict, it’s safe to say that he escapes Mulsantir and has evaded the necromancer’s grasp to the present day.

I like the idea of Uri needing to prove to the kingdom and the wizard that he is trustworthy, especially given his now Fel-touched appearance. Many will think he was the precursor to whatever conflict evolves with Mulsantir, and his appearance will not earn him any favors. I like the idea of him working a menial job in the kingdom’s cemetery as a grave digger, since he has no problems dealing with dead bodies. Some people start to see him as a decent person, while others keep their distance from the ‘dark old elf’ who wanders around the graves. Maybe local kids tell ghost stories about him and rumors spread about his past.

Or maybe Mulsantir overruns the whole kingdom, and it goes down in history as yet another province that fell during the ice age. Maybe Uri escapes and spends his time wandering the frozen world, eventually finding other places where he can take refuge (see Teldarin Forest). The overall scope of these next steps in Uri’s story will depend on how you define the conflict with Mulsantir.

Since this is c. 400 years ago-ish at this point, we will need to set some filler between this time and the time the Gray Garden is founded, at which point we can start molding Uri’s more recent history leading into the campaign. Following are a few pieces I’ve thought of.

Return home

At some point, Uri will want to try and find a way back to the Feywild. His journey to and from Shadowfel does not teach him that time dilation exists between the Fey/Fel and Prime, since he had no temporal reference for Manaris.

When he does find a way back to the Feywild, however, he finds that many centuries have come and gone, and the people who once knew him are no longer living. His changed appearance restricts him from reentering any formal eladrin society, and he is forced to finally lay the first chapters of his life to rest before returning to Talus.

Teldarin Forest

At some point, Uri should visit this region if only to explain the origin of his beloved Staff of Defense. I believe you alluded to the glass this staff is made of possibly being crafted by the elves in that region, so I’m curious whether he will find more connections there.

I like the idea of the people in this region helping Uri find some measure of peace after the conflict he’s been through, maybe by being the ones to help him revisit the Feywild and lay that part of his life to rest. I’ll need to know more about this region to speculate further.

The Grey Garden (c. 200 years ago)

You’ve established that the Grey Garden started around 200 years ago, and that it began as a more noble institution than what it is today. Uri will somehow become involved with the Garden near the organization’s inception to help explain his present involvement in the campaign. It could be an on-and-off arrangement, where he does contract work for periods of time and then leaves on other ventures. There’s flexibility with the relationship.

I like the idea of him discovering over the decades that the Garden is no longer the institution it used to be. He decides to start working to undermine it, since his motivations against necromancy will have fully matured following his last encounter with Mulsantir (see Uri’s character and motivations). I don’t personally know the extent of the Garden’s activities, so the Uri’s character and motivations section may help inform you how Uri will feel.

The following points still need some flesh, which may or may not be informed by other details:

* Mulsantir: this is the core NPC you asked me to create. Mulsantir is still alive in present times, though his location in the multiverse, his long- and short-term motivations, and the extent of his power are up to you to decide. Uri will regard him in a number of ways, mostly negative.
* Uri’s hellhound, Sammaster: Uri tries to summon Sammaster again at one point, an action that will need a compelling reason. Upon being summoned, Sammaster does not recognize his creator, and he bites off Uri’s ear before coming under Uri’s control again. But to inform Uri’s 6th level class feature, he will ultimately redevelop a working relationship with Sammaster. More on that in Uri’s character and motivations.

Uri’s character and motivations

Overview

Uriaris is essentially a good person who has done some bad things and learned from them. He’s lived the full spectrum of uses for one’s charisma and has wielded power over others both responsibly and irresponsibly. He has come full circle in his twilight years, and he finds new value in life because he has been forever changed by his time in Shadowfel.

Perhaps the defining moment for Uri’s character was the encounter with the elves at the end of working for the necromancer. After being warped by Shadowfel for years, this event brought everything back into focus for him. He was reminded of how far he’d come both from home and from himself, and the death of the lost elves at his hands was metaphorically the final loss of his old self to Shadowfel. He was forever changed by the event - ultimately for the better.

Uriaris has a strong aversion to necromancy, and he both hates and fears Mulsantir. He believes that Mulsantir may have once been a good person, but that it is no longer possible to reach that person. He hates the necromancer for several things: for removing him from his home, for killing all of his shadar-kai comrades, and for tempting and corrupting him with dark power. Uri credits Mulsantir for truly introducing him to his own magical affinity, which gives him mixed feelings about the abilities in shadow sorcery that have begun to blossom in his late life. He knows necromantic magic, and he is starting to realize he could learn it in Prime if he wanted. Uri worries about the control he has over this urge, because he remembers the thrill of wielding such power. He cannot forget what it felt like to command a legion of undead.

This is conflicting for Uri, because a big motivation for him is to never allow Talus to come to resemble Shadowfel. Uri remembers the ice age, when portals existed that let things from Shadowfel into what he feels is a ‘middle’ or ‘neutral’ world. He regards the Feywild as a higher plane than Prime, and believes that it will never be what Shadowfel is. This gives him a strange comfort, like the memory of his youth is still protected even though the eladrin in him is all but gone. But Talus is a world that could go either way in Uri’s mind, and that has made him fond and defensive of the good things still in it. Having seen what dark magic can make out of people, including himself, he wants to ensure that he is never again responsible for the kind of suffering that results.

Uri’s journey back to the Feywild helps him finally accept that the eladrin chapter of his life is truly over, even though it has been over for a long time. He is struck by the passage of time between the planes, and the longer he goes without seeing Mulsantir, the more he wonders if the necromancer has aged more rapidly than he has. It gives Uri some hope to think so, but encounters with dark magic - most recently the Garden’s involvement with Ula/Uladra - makes him more paranoid about possible connections to Shadowfel.

Uri doesn’t see himself as a freedom fighter or a hero of the realm because of his desire to preserve it. Nor does he see himself as a people person anymore. He is rather lonely, but he won’t admit it to anyone but Sammaster (part of the reason he summoned Sammaster again years after he left him). Uri has a thick skin, tempered early in life and hardened by years working with Sithierel’s shadar-kai, but some days he looks back on what it was like to be adored by people. He privately misses his singing voice and wishes he could star in one last production. He is angry about discovering the Grey Garden’s corruption, because the sparse relationships he has at this point in his life are almost all with people connected to the organization. He worries about where he will go when shit finally hits the fan - which presents an opening for a new group of friends :)