Estival Helianthus

# Description

Decades after the curse, Estival’s physical form skews somewhere between the sunflower he was sealed away as, and the elf form he held before hand.  The floret of the sunflower holds his face, a golden, chiseled elvish face with yellow irises and red sclera (like a rich sunset).  His body is composed mostly of vines, but very well organized vines: they form facsimiles of arms and legs when the time is needed.  Since his body is now composed of plant matter, Estival’s skill with manipulating plant matter extends to himself: he now “stands” at about ten feet tall.

# Personality

Estival was born and bred in Delirium, where nature rules the roost.  The handful of trips he made to Loctet were usually bad ones, marred by seeing the damage mortal kind was doing to nature.  In addition to this, the mundanity of Loctet bothered him; why was such a beautiful place, Delirium, marred by something like the Shade when such an ugly place, Loctet, was free?  Estival always had darker impulses, but was never guaranteed to fall prey to them.  It was only after the Great Madness (which, in his growing hatred and paranoia, he interpreted as an attack by the mortals of Loctet) that he tipped over the edge, wishing to depopulate Loctet and spread Delirium’s presence over.

His “timeout” as a flower did nothing to make this any better; indeed, being stuck in such an immobile form only served to have him further internalize his feelings to the point he became nigh on impossible to reason with.  His hatred of Loctet and it’s citizens became pathologic; in addition, he began to see himself more as a plant than as a creature of flesh and blood, furthering his misanthropy to pretty much *anything* that wasn’t plant.

# Abilities

Estival was famous as a prodigy of plant magic; his skills only increased when he was sealed in the form of a sunflower as punishment for his assault on Loctet.  Indeed, he was so powerful that, over the course of several decades, he managed to circumvent the curse laid on him by a member of one of the Courts.  While unable to break it, the fact he was able to circumvent it as much as he had is a testament to his skill.

Through the medium of his new body, Estival developed a way to hijack flesh bodies and place them under his control, through the use of specialized seeds that latched onto the brain of the creature.  He could “pilot” these bodies and see through their eyes, all the while the seed feasted off the flesh and drank the blood of the host, turning the host more and more plant-like.

In addition to plant magic, he was also skilled in a variety of offensive magics, which he retained even in his partial plant form.

# History

Estival was born in 1,035 AY in Delirium.  He spend most of his extended youth pursuing his passion for plant magic, which he grew so powerful in that he was tapped by the various Courts to provide his talents.  This included several trips to Loctet, which he grew disillusioned by.  This disillusionment would grow terminal by the time of the Great Madness, in which he found an unmarked, self-sustaining, off the books portal to and fro Loctet.

Estival, having the basics of a plan growing in the back of his mind, found the temptation too hard to resist, and went through.  He planted and cultivated a massive tree to enshrine the portal, keeping it stable.  From here, he put his plan into motion, spreading his bloodthirsty and malicious seeds to start their assault on Loctet.  He would jump back and forth from Delirium to Loctet a lot during this time period.

Eventually he was discovered by the Courts, and decided to flee to Loctet to fully commit to his assault.  It was during this time that King Taranda and Queen Veelva had abdicated and tracked him down however.  A fierce battle ensued, and Estival was mortally wounded after killing Crusene’s forces (as well as fully ensconcing Taranda and Veelva into the tree with their relics).  Estival limped back through the portal, closing it willingly to hide it from the Courts.

As punishment, Estival was trapped in the form of a flower as a form of timeout.  Estival remained in this form for decades, slowly working at the bonds of this form until he could transmute it as he desired.  He lacked the ability to reopen the portal, however…

...until one Valduun Balderk, member of the Dirt Roads and acolyte of Rusesh, seeking more adversaries to break apart Artus, tracked down the portal on Loctet.  Although dormant, all it took was a little elbow grease on her part to reopen it.  Estival soon found his way back through.  And Valduun, seeing that he was still bent towards destruction, left, satisfied her job was done.

Estival has begun his assault on mortal kind again, yet the adventuring party of Team 3.5 seems to be on a collision course with him...