Karsa Lendel

Sanbrie (Girlfriend)

**Karsa Lendel** is a human rogue from the city of Dras, a port town on the coast of the Leshen Empire. He grew up working at The Platinum Prince — his parents' casino — but later left home to attend the Raal Island Beauty Competition. It was there that Karsa was abducted, experimented on, and permanently altered by Shalza Hakuho using the ichor of a false hydra. He lost all of his memories and was nearly slain by some of the other competitors, but after Shalza and the hydra's death Karsa was able to leave the island and search for a way to reverse his strange condition.

He was later hired by the elf Prandalt to retrieve the body of X-2, a soulforged, but ultimately abandoned his mission to assist the Victims of Circumstance with infiltrating the S.O.U.L. Foundation and protecting the Blackstone family. Karsa was slain in the process, but was later resurrected by the Archbishop of Argenteus and had his memories restored by the draconic god Bahamut.

## Biography

Karsa's early life was simple and comfortable. He grew up working for his parents at The Platinum Prince, a popular casino in the port town of Dras, and developed a knack for card tricks and games. As a young adult, he met a half-elf woman named Sanbrie and the two eventually started dating. Overall, Karsa's life was happy and peaceful.

One day, a representative from Raal Island visited Dras to recruit contestants for an upcoming competition. A beauty competition, to be precise. Karsa, being a fairly attractive man himself, was approached and offered a trip to Raal Island. Excited about the idea of traveling somewhere new and potentially winning a significant amount of money, Karsa agreed and traveled to Raal to compete.

Once there, he was placed on a team with several other contestants: Paeris Von Iardi, Suzhenae Stratus, Nirvana, Madame De-Lis, Misty, and Rhea Sunshine. The first day was pleasant and enjoyable. Karsa and his teammates were even "photographed" and painted, memorializing the event.

That night, he and some of his teammates walked along the beach and waded in the shallow waters. Karsa eventually wandered off, only to discover a strange cave at the heart of the island. As he tried to investigate, however, he was knocked unconscious and abducted by a woman named Shalza Hakuho. Shalza was one of the hosts for the competition, but had sinister intentions for the benefactors of the event. She had originally intended to abduct some of the sponsors and audience members of the event, but Karsa had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a result, he would be her victim instead.

Shalza proceeded to experiment on Karsa in her makeshift workshop deep within the cave. He was injected with the blood of a false hydra, a monstrous beast with many heads and black, soulless eyes. The false hydra's ability to alter memories of those around it also affected its blood, causing Karsa to loose all of his memories and his teammates to forget his existence. Only when her experiment was a success did Shalza release Karsa and force him to guard the cave, holding his lost memories over him as leverage for his obedience.

Luckily, Karsa's teammates knew something was amiss despite having no memory of him. They nearly killed him, thinking he was an agent of Shalza, but Karsa survived and learned that both Shalza and the false hydra had been slain. The beauty competition was cancelled soon after, and all the contestants were sent home.

Karsa, however, had nowhere to go. He didn't remember his past or his identity, and anyone with answers was either dead or beyond his reach. To survive, Karsa took odd jobs anywhere he could. He proved to have a knack with a blade and enjoyed investigating unsolved mysteries. Soon after leaving Raal, he also discovered a strange ability to manifest shadowy weapons from thin air. His odd powers caused his eyes to bleed dark smoke and his incomplete memories to consume his thoughts, so he used this ability sparingly. Nevertheless, Karsa spent the next several months traveling Thera and searching for answers.

Eventually, Karsa was approached by an elf named Prandalt. Prandalt requested that Karsa retrieve the body of someone named X-2 — a soulforged from the S.O.U.L. Foundation — in exchange for assistance with restoring his lost memories. Karsa readily agreed and traveled to Silverland, where he temporarily joined the Gilded Guard in order to gain information about his quarry. He adopted the alias "Mully" and eventually discovered the whereabouts of X-2 and the Victims of Circumstance within the city of Stonehollow.

Karsa traveled with the Victims of Circumstance to the town of Arbington, where they hoped to restore X-2's inert body with the help of Reynold Blackstone. They ventured deep into the Underdark and discovered a secret laboratory, where Karsa learned what Prandalt's true intentions were for X-2 and the soulforged. He eventually confessed his deception to the others and helped protect them from Prandalt's hired assassins, although he was slain in the process.

The Victims of Circumstance were able to restore X-2 and took Karsa's body to the Archbishop of Argenteus. While the resurrection ritual was being performed, Karsa's soul was approached by Bahamut himself, the draconic god of justice. Karsa answered Bahamut's questions honestly and was rewarded with his lost memories, waking soon after to realize he remembered everything about his past.

After saying farewell to the Victims of Circumstance, Karsa traveled home to Dras, hoping that his family and friends still remembered him.

## Description

### Appearance

Karsa is a human with dark, wavy hair and an attractive physique. Despite the horrors of Raal Island, he managed to escape with very little physical evidence of his ordeal. Only when he summons his psychic blades does dark mist bleed from his eyes and cover him like a shadow. Most of the time, however, Karsa appears normal and healthy. He usually wears plain traveling clothes and a long red cape.

### Personality

Karsa presents himself as friendly and honest, but is actually much more complicated. He is particularly good at disguising the truth and withholding information to protect himself, but he does have a strong sense of morality. His deceit was more out of fear and desperation than a desire to do harm. Karsa feels that the universe has wronged him by allowing the events of Raal Island to occur, and is therefore willing to do whatever it takes to reclaim his old life back.