Varien Keshar

*A young orphaned half-breed whose life took an unexpected turn when he was found carrying a certain potential and aptitude to magic. Uncertain about his future as much as his supposed heritage, Varien seeks only to move on with what he has, such as his skills that he daily seeks to hone and his companions that he never forgets to cherish, all as they try to make a name for themselves, one good deed at the time.*

## Varien Keshar

### Affiliation

House MacArtain, Kingdom of Stormwind, Alliance

## Description

Varien strikes blatantly as an 'accursed' halfbreed with mixed elven and human blood, as distinguishable from his dainty pointy ears. That aside, of course, Varien's youth is also quite clear from a first glance at the man, his rather dark skin showing no signs of aging that might indicate otherwise and his facial features, alongside his golden eyes, give a rather charming look that definitely surpasses that of the common human commoner, perhaps a blessing from his elven genes.

## Personality

Varien is a rather easy going if not somewhat troubled man, though aware that he's not the only one with personal problems and matters to solve. Understanding and open minded, mostly thanks to his equally open minded mentor, Varien usually expresses himself and acts most diligently in the presence of relatively high ranking or unknown figures, only loosening up as he further knows and befriends them, or in the presence of life-long companions and similar.

Unbeknownst to most, and to some degree to himself too, Varien suffers from the consequences of bearing knowledge regarding shadows, suffering, life and demonology. The further he dwells within the dark arts he has been trained in, the more his overall pure soul falls to corruption. On this regard however, currently Varien's reaction to said consequences mostly involves a more aggressive and fierce behavior, especially when empowered by drained energy, shattering soul-sahrds as fuel, harnessing magical flames and commanding his own minions.

## Background

This area is best summarized into small paragraphs, split into different sub-headings for notable portions of their life:

### Childhood

Being born in the Northshire Abbey as an Orphan, Varien was supposed to not have much of an upbringing. Fortunately for himself, probably related to his unknown elven parent, he was blessed with the prospect of a future that was not working the fields or any other profession, humble and respectable as they are, thanks to the innate potential that Drusilla De Salle felt within the young boy.

Such potential was found out to truly exist and was confirmed as he grew up and was further mentored by the aforementioned warlock in the form of minor but visible first manifestations of magical use, more problematic than useful, but for a starting point it pushed the madame to further nurture and teach the boy into a potential warlock himself as she felt investing into his growth wasn't going to be a waste of her time.

He was often made a mockery of due to his exotic look, both to his skin color that was off the norm, and mostly to his ears, that were so sillishly pointy just like an elf. In fact, said ears were often the subject of direct physical bullism, being often tickled, pulled and similar. It was, awkwardly enough, thanks to one such an instance of bullism that Varien met his life-long friends and future companions, Clay and Thorgar, respectively a human and an another human-raised dwarf orphan, that picked his defenses and help him fight back the bullies with more than just words, as in fact a scuffle rose and had to be sedated by the priests with the use of wooden sticks.

From then on, the trio proceeded to live their youth and growth together, sharing their happenings for good and bad and always keeping an eye out for one another.

## Abilities

Being trained in the arts of a Warlock, Varien's abilities currently, given his overall experience, do not come off as a long list but nonetheless range somewhat between Fire and Shadow magic with no use whatsoever of more corruptive spells that involve the use of Fel.

In his Spellbook the list of known spells goes as follows:

* Firebolt
* Fireball
* Fireblast
* Shadowbolt
* Corruption
* Immolate
* Create Healthstone
* Drain Life
* Drain Soul
* Unyielding Resolve
* Curse of Tongues

Aside from the spells, Varien knows how to summon, so far:

* Imp
* Voidwalker

## Home

As part of their agreement with the Dame, Andrea MacArtain, Varien can now claim to have somewhat proper housing in the form of a more than modest room in the Lion's Pride Inn to share alongside his companions. Despite not granting him the freedom to conduct more sinister magic without disturbances and more freely, it still allows him to get a much better level of sleep with some proper beds, and also offers many more services in the form of storage and tastier, albeit not free, food.

## Companions

**Clay McTenneth** - A human Paladin in the making he first met when both were just boys, Varien has built a great amount of respect and trust into Clay, trusting him despite their path-brought differences in their outlook on life and how to approach certain threats.

**Thorgar Ironbrew** - A dwarven Hunter he first met when both were just boys, Varien has learnt to appreciate the goofy dwarf's somewhat limited view of life, summarized in living the moment through alcohol, women and, for some reason, the companionship of some fierce and exotic beasts.

**Iarjaak** - A mischevous Imp, Iarjaak is Varien's second summoned minion and it shows in the dynamic that runs between the two. Aware of the consequences of being too kind and trustful, Varien's summoning ritual was far more aggressive, and so was their blood pact into servitude with a hidden clause written in a smaller form among the other phrases. In general the little Imp does not shine in terms of power not even among his kin, and this turns out with him fearing his new young master twice, worried it might be sacrificed at any time after Varien commented his weakness with "You're just a walking battery."

**Belkrast** - A voidwalker, Belkrast is Varien's first summoned voidwalker, and judging by his attitude, probably his only one thanks to his undying loyalty and potential that he seems to share with the rest of its race. The summoning was handled in two acts, the first the actual ritual that brought the voidwalker forth into Azeroth, and the second act a battle of might and magic until Belkrast was bested by Varien and Iarjaak. Defeated, he then pledged his servitude to Varien upon offer, and now is the half-elven most trusted bodyguard.

## Notes and Trivia

* Varien was created with the concept of starting a brand new character following a similar starting experience that the retail game provides skipping through certain uneventful quests and adding plenty of alternative custom but lore-friendly missions to undertake.