Vercci

*"A man once ripped me from my brother's arms, carved his emblem upon my body and shredded my spirit. He twisted my body until I was something other than human. The same man would come to ask me to buy him time as his pursuits crumbled around him. When I asked him why his life was worth more than mine, he stated that it was a matter of blood-right, that I wouldn't understand...*

*He was right, I didn't understand. No matter how much I cut him, no matter how I examined the man, he seemed to be just the same as me. Perhaps I'll find the answer another day." **- Vercci, during the disbandment of the Maltrate Consortium.***

## History

Vercci remembers only pieces of his former life. A rural landscape, well-shrouded within the forest temple where he and his brothers quietly practiced their art. Almost dance-like, it was past down for generations and believed to allow one to reach enlightenment. It was a simple but peaceful life, and had tragedy not struck, the monster known as Vercci may have never come to be.

Beset by raiders bearing the official seals of the Maltrate Consortium, Vercci's cloister was threatened and forced into servitude. In exchange for their lives, some of the young monks would be taken into slavery. Vercci remembered only the screams as he was ripped away from the embrace of his mentor, dragged away and chained so that his people may survive.

What happened next was horrific. Dragged struggling into an underground chamber in a city he didn't recognize, Vercci was tortured and warped, having his muscles spiced open and retied into a supposedly more flexible form. He had his mind violated by dark magic as his captors tried to make him servile. He and his brothers were to become perfect thralls, and he was almost the same as them. Vercci maintained a tiny seed of his humanity, perhaps one unique among the monks; curiosity. Almost child-like, the core interest in the world around him remained dormant within Vercci after he had been changed.

For some years, Vercci would guard a man who he would only know as his master. This man would only be known as 'master' and would order Vercci to stalk, strike, and kill men who he had no connection to. Although it came of little avail, his minute deviance would lead him to ask questions of the men he would kill. He found that dying men were oddly honest, far different from the stonewalling he received from his master who treated him like an animal. Starved for information, Vercci would also turn to the enslaved demi-humans possessed by his master. They typically only responded in fear, but sometimes he was met with aggression. Vercci determined these strange 'humans' were bad at communicating, perhaps due to a natural inferiority.

Eventually, the Maltrate Consortium would fall under investigation and quickly be dismantled. In an attempt to flee into hiding, Vercci's master ordered Vercci to sacrifice himself to distract the guardsmen surrounding their hideout. Rather than aversion, Vercci was simply confused as to why he should do such a thing. Rather than comply, he let his curiosity take hold and killed his master in cold blood, flaying him alive and foisting him out the window into the street below. The commotion gave Vercci time to escape, and so he would disappear, a nameless and faceless man on the streets of Corovon.

## Appearance

Vercci is a very gaunt figure, his body seeming to have been stretched out almost. His stature is somewhat unsettling due to the natural stillness of his stance, with minimal movement or expression. An almost corpse-like pallor of skin, Vercci is truthfully aberrant among humans. This was of course due to the long period of time spend underground, but the aftereffects of his conditioning have made this appearance somewhat permanent.

His clothing is made of pieces of armor and leather that caught his interest among the workshops of his old master. Most notably, he wears a mask that was initially used to handle smoke, but elected to adorn it with baubles and metal that he found.

## Personality

Seemingly expressionless, the outwardly alien persona of Vercci is mostly due to the destruction of his old personality. With the exception of an intense curiosity to understand the world despite never having the capacity to fully do so, Vercci displays no outward emotion. When emotion does strike him, it is singular and extremely explicit whether that be interest, sorrow or rage. Not properly equipped to handle these emotions, he will simply act how instinct guides him to, leading to responses that seem bizarre or dark.

## Friends

Verci does not have any current friends or acquaintances.

## Enemies

Vercci does not currently have any enemies... for now.

## Aspirations

To learn what makes some men more powerful than others, then become the most powerful he can, so that nothing can stop him from learning.