Efink Murderdeath

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* Corrected Infobox; Description & Personality; History; Relationships; Inventory

## Efink Murderdeath

* Character Art
* Battle Mini

### Title(s)

The Farseer
The Dark Oracle
Soothsayer of the Forces of Darkness

## Ability Scores

### CON

16-17 (+3)
10-11 (+0)
10-11 (+0)

### CHA

10-11 (+0)
20-21 (+5)

### Speed

+5
30

## Skills & Proficiencies

### Perception

+5
+10

### Other

Longswords, Shortswords, Shortbows, Longbows

> "*I'm an opportunist at heart, we need to determine who will win this.*"
> ― Efink
>
>

**Efink Murderdeath** is a lieutenant of the forces of darkness who serves as trusted advisor and oracle to Zaul'Nazh, Lord of Shadows. She is played by Amy Vorpahl.

## Description

> "*She is a High Elf. She is a cleric, she's beautiful. As an elven person, it is difficult to find any part of her ugly, so she's pale, everything's pale. Pale skin, pale hair. She found that a little too basic, and realized that when she joined the Dark Lord's forces, a lot of people are scared of wet hair, so she has leaned in and every part of her is wisping, kind of almost Grecian robes that she dangles, they're all wet. Everything's just like, wet all the time, and the hair is in her face, so she's doing he best to look scary but actually is very hot. And when her eyes roll back in her head, it also is hot, so everything's hot. She's also wearing a tiara, and she normally has her bone with her which is a skull that she calls her bone.*"
> ― Amy Vorpahl
>
>

## Background

The daughter of Telmeir the Calm, Efink was born into a level of aristocracy as the heir to Caer Bleddwin and through her high elven nature was chosen to inherit powerful oracular abilities. At some point in her adult life, she was married to Percival, also known as Stalker, the true king of Tiriath and Ranger of the North - an arrangement she agreed to purely to gain power as the future queen and because she enjoyed how much Percival cared about her. It is unknown when Efink began worshiping and devoting much of her life in service to Gogmoth, the God of Evil, but after her marriage was consummated, Efink left to serve Zaul'Nazh, the Lord of Shadows, as a divine oracle in the Bloodkeep of Gorgar, and has not seen her father or husband for possibly hundreds of years.

## Relationships

### **Telmeir the Calm**

Efink's relationship with her father is complicated, mostly due to his incapability or unwillingness to express any kind of true emotion outside of the absolute calm he's known for. His lack of response feeds into a need in Efink to have his approval, which only reinforces how Efink perceives herself through the opinions of those around her. Upon seeing each other for the first time in many years during Volcano of Violence, Telmeir expresses no real emotion or opinion on his daughter's turn to the Forces of Darkness or her abandonment of her marriage, other than to say the crimes against their people would be paid for. When Telmeir inquires into the future of Efink's marriage and if being queen of Tiriath is what she truly wants, Efink in turn inquires if being married to Percival and being queen would make him proud of her - a response Telmeir immediately notes is "desperately sad". Despite this, Efink expresses her love for her father, though she takes his death in stride, and seems to have mostly separated herself from any hope of gaining his approval. The other Lieutenants remark on his lack of emotional response to anything, and reassure Efink that he truly is cold and unfeeling for a father.

### **Percival AKA Stalker**

Almost certainly a strategic political marriage, Efink has no real love for her husband, embarrassed and confused by his rough appearance and lack of civilized manners amongst polite company. Percival's love of the outdoors and extensive knowledge limited to only survival skills clashes with Efink's more refined elven manner and interest in serving Gogmoth, showing that the couple have very little in common. Efink notes that she was particularly into beards during the point in her life she married Percival, partially explaining why she was interested in him in the first place, and that the impetus for their relationship was "one night" spent together. She also tells the other Lieutenants that Percival was the last person she had relations with, though that was hundreds of years ago, indicating the mostly likely length of time since she's seen her husband.

The first time the two are reunited, Efink reveals she constantly carries around divorce papers to serve to Percival, though her hesitation and ultimate decision not to use them fully indicates she carries them as a leveraging power to get what she wants. In contrast, Percival expresses a real sense of love for Efink despite their centuries apart, calling her the prettiest elf he's ever seen, and asking for her to return with him to Tiriath to live together as king and queen. Efink tells the Lieutenants she had hated Percival in the years they were separated, but openly admits his new status as the True King of Tiriath is enough of a source of power and strategic advantage for her to care about what she can gain from him, even if her feelings towards him as her husband haven't changed.

After the battle in Volcano of Violence, Efink rescues Percival from dying in order to have the option of defecting to the Forces of Light and living to fight another day, a choice the other Lieutenants question. When Markus St. Vincent states his disapproval of her willingness to defect, she quickly distracts Percival with a request for a kiss and pushes him off the balcony of the Bloodkeep to his death in order to regain her standing with the group.

### Lilith

Of all the party members, Lilith and Efink are the ones who are already most like friends at the start of the quest. Their multiple conversations with each other throughout the journey show a sense of deep familiarity, from their combined disdain of lower-ranked members of the Forces of Darkness such as Olag and Keldriel, to the winding back-and-forth over Efink's marriage and the decision to divorce Percival. Lilith also frequently encourages Efink to have a better sense of self-worth, and is the loudest voice of persuasion in trying to get Efink to follow through with the divorce. Efink, in return, seems to genuinely enjoy Lilith's endless brood of children, compliments Lilith on raising them to be well-adjusted, decent spiders, and comments that if she had the ability, she would gladly place Lilith on the throne of Gorgar over Zaul'Nazh. In The Tomb of Ultimate Evil, Lilith openly tells Efink that she is her best friend, and laments that she will miss Efink once she replaces the boatman in the Tomb of Ultimate Evil.

## Trivia

* Efink's name is "knife" spelled backwards.
* In The Caged Elf and the Crown, Lilith comments that she "thought [Efink] had left behind Elfinia and that [Efink was] truly knife backwards", indicating Elfinia might have been Efink's original name before entering the service of Gogmoth and Zaul'Nazh.
* She and Leiland are the most obvious parodies of Lord of the Rings characters amongst the player characters. Efink is an inversion of both main Elven female characters - her magical and divinatory powers are similar to Galadriel's, while her father and ex-lover being leaders of the Forces of Light making her similar to Arwen.
	+ There is also a reference by Sistra to "Lyssandra Half-Elven" - the warrior who forced Zaul'Nazh into incorporeal mouth form - a clear parallel to Elrond Half-Elven in Lord of the Rings, putting Telmeir as the second notable Elven warrior in the Forces of Light and implying he possibly also parallels Thranduil, which would make Efink a Legolas analogue as well.

## References

1. ↑ Efink's use of *misty step* in Airship Ambush, a spell she would not have access to either as a Grave Domain Cleric or as part of her High Elf racial magic, implies she took the High Elf-specific Fey Teleportation feat.