App for || Tu Shanshu

[vhaidtluin]

Player Information:
Name: Zak
Age: 26
Contact: zakurai
Game Cast: Kon-El tactile_telekinesis & Kurt Wagner fuzzyelf

Character Information:
Name: Dinin Do'Urden (Daermon N'a'shezbaernon)
Canon: The Forgotten Realms
Canon Point: Exile – As he runs from Drizzt in the tunnels.
Age: Probably around 250?
Reference: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dinin_Do%27Urden
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Homeland
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Exile

Setting:

So you're sitting in a bar with friends, or maybe it's the canteen at school, or an idea over a phone call, but whatever it is, a fantasy game is set up. The world is far different from the one you live in, the laws are different as are the races. Beings from your dreams and your nightmares find this realm and others their home. You have dwarves and elves, humans and even dragons. Gods and goddesses are as real as the air you breathe but not all of them are good, where's the fun in that?

The world of Abeir-Toril is pretty much what you would expect from any fantasy setting. Vast expanses of land with small villages with thatched roofs, inns and stables. Cities with castles and the small named races from earlier (though of course there's hundreds more). One massive, noticeable difference would be the technology which is effectively primitive. There's no such thing as television, computers or the internet, so if you want to send a message to someone it would have to be by courier or in person. Electricity isn't a harnessed source of energy in the same way we use it here on Earth and is more likely to come in the form of a spell or natural occurrence than anything else. Modes of transport differ immensely as well, there's no forms of automobiles and things are driven by horses or other pack animals such as rothé or giant lizards. We all know about the term 'Magic Missile' and this is the world it comes from. Magic is very real in Abeir-Toril and comes from the Weave which is controlled by a goddess and there are two kinds of magic, Divine and Arcane, though both come from the Weave, they're completely different. Divine is as the name suggests and comes from the casters deity while Arcane doesn't and the user has to study each spell.

While there is religion on Earth, it differs when you compare it to the vast amount of deities in Abeir-Toril. Each race has their own deity to represent something and they even have tiers from all powerful to the lesser ones. Not only that but a lot of these deities actually present themselves to their worshippers in several ways. Some will speak, some will take physical form in one way or another, some will listen while others will ignore or even play favourites.

Throughout Abeir-Toril's existence there have been many events ranging from the mundane to the catastrophic. Perhaps one of the most important in terms of relating to Dinin (although very distantly) would be the Crown Wars and in understanding these wars (even in the vaguest of ways) would mean, for the most part, understanding the drow.

A ruling clan of sun elves, tried to become the rulers of Miyeritar, another elven realm ruled by dark elves but also occupied by wood elves. The advances were pushed back and eventually war broke out due to the Vyshaan doing raids across the borders and just generally not giving up.

Eventually Ilythiir, the main realm of dark elves, launched an attack in retaliation to Vyshaan taking over Miyeritar. Now the Ilythiiri had actually began to worship the deity Lolth over 1000 years before the Crown Wars actually began. Because of this, there was corruption within the dark elves and this could be seen as the reason for why the Ilythiiri did all the things they did. You also had Wendonai, a demon sent to them by Lolth herself in order to corrupt them even more and gain more worship. Wendonai brought the Ilythiir the Taint, which gives them a cruel and arrogant nature, something that stays with them throughout the years, he did this by mating with them and spreading it through the race.

Lots more fighting happened until eventually it came to an end on the surface. Corellon Larethian, creator of the elves cursed and banished the Ilythiiri, now known as drow, to the Underdark because of what they did and all remaining presence of them was wiped out by other elf races.

Because of this banishment, it meant that the drow now had to establish brand new homes for themselves. Eventually this was successful with drow cities cropping up all around the Underdark, one such city being Menzoberranzan.

When it comes to geography, Menzoberranzan is situated at least two miles below the surface. The city lies in a vast cavern some miles in width and height. Drow houses, especially those of the higher noble families and made out of stalagmites, often made more elaborate with engravings or spells to make parts glow. The drow love things to be beautiful and the biggest statement that can be made is usually with their home. House Do'Urden has less room to make an impact though as their house is set into the cavern wall.

The city is run by a matriarchy, with each noble house ruled by a Matron Mother who is the one that is in complete control and makes every decision to do with their own house. Within the noble families, the social structure tends to be; Matron Mother, Priestesses (mainly her daughters), Weapons Master and Wizard, Patron, Elderboy, Secondboy and then you have the soldiers of the house followed by servants and slaves. Even the Matron Mother has control over this and a soldier can be killed, or even the Patron.

The city is ran, in secret, by the council which consists of the 8 head Houses within Menzoberranzan where they discuss all manner of things to do with the city and it's standing. The council is also headed by all the Matron Mothers of those houses.

Within the social standing of drow, males are clearly the lesser sex and can't obtain much power. There are ways in which males can be looked upon as higher and with more respect in a sense and that's with becoming a Master. Dinin, as well as being an Elderboy, is also a Master of Melee-Magthere, the fighting school that teaches male drow to fight. Another would be to attend Sorcere, but for male drow to be wizards is rare. Because of this rule in society, Dinin has basically reached the highest level of power that he can, especially within his family.

There are around 32, 000 citizens within Menzoberranzan and yet for it being a drow city, only one third of the inhabitants are actually the drow. The rest are the servants made up of other races.

Now the events of the Crown Wars is important as a whole as it set the foundations that have shaped Dinin's life and drow life in general. Since the banishment thousands of years ago, drow have maintained the ideology that their banishment was a punishment based on their success in battle. They believe that the World Above is rightfully theirs as they won it. Dinin might not have been born during the Crown Wars, but it's clear to see that they have had a great impact on his life as his whole culture is based off of what happened during and after them. As such their attitude towards their paler cousins is so strained they take great joy in killing them.

During Dinin's life there's two events which occur that have a massive impact on him and help shape his own world even more (I say his own world because of the mentality that drow have where they're selfish and arrogant) this first to take place is during the birth of his little brother Drizzt. Drow culture dictates that there should only be two male children per family, as Dinin was the second boy, this meant Drizzt would be sacrificed to the goddess Lolth. However, always wanting to be better and having more power, Dinin killed his brother during an attack on a higher noble house. This meant he would be the Elder boy, (and without realising, he'd also spared Drizzt's life) which was one of the highest positions a male could obtain within the family as drow life is ran in a matriarchy.

Something more dramatic would be House Do'Urden (his house) losing Lolth's favour due to Drizzt leaving an elven child alive during a night time camp raid. Because of those actions, it meant that Dinin's home was defenceless and open to attack. The only way to gain favour was to kill Drizzt, which given how good he was at fighting was a problem from the get go, but it was Lolth's words. Dinin would have to deal with either being a houseless male, or dying in a potential attack from a rival drow family so he and his sister Briza were sent out by Matron Malice, his mother, to track Drizzt down in the tunnels surrounding Menzoberranzan.

Personality:
Like most drow, Dinin falls into a mold when it comes to his personality. Most of these shared personality traits have been steeped in culture and society as well as having been passed down through generations, since the drow first became tainted (as mentioned in the setting section).

Dinin show arrogance as easily as it is for everyone to blink and believes that he is above all other races. This also extends out to other drow, especially given that he comes from a relatively high ranked House, so those below him and those not from a noble family get looked down on. Sometimes it even comes to violence, or sadistic actions towards his target of choice. Killing isn't something he sees as wrong and he's ruthless when he does it, there's never really a second thought or any kind of guilt once he's killed someone. Usually if it's not done in sport, then it's to gain power for himself or for House Do'Urden like with the attack on House DeVir.

This kind of attitude is applauded and encouraged by the goddess Lolth, Queen of Spiders and the deity that most drow worship. Dinin worships her though due to the matriarchy it's never as much as drow females who become priestesses of Lolth. It could be that Dinin worships Lolth out of fear, fear from what the females would do or even from fear of what Lolth would do herself. The fact that society and his own life is ruled by a matriarchy is enough to make him resentful towards the females. From his position there is no higher power he can achieve and there's always that hunger for more. The fact that it's been females that have dished out any of his punishments would also be enough to drive him into hating him. Though of course this would be kept a secret and not exactly something he's going to openly talk about, even to other males. Not out in the open anyway, the walls literally have ears.

The fact that he doesn't speak out about his dislike of the matriarchy can mean different things depending on how you look at it. One being that really, Dinin is quite intelligent because he knows when to keep his mouth shut to keep himself alive or that he's a coward. Both are pretty important to how he is as a character. Who is actually going to speak up and say they don't like the fact that the females are running everything, when...the females are actually running everything? It would just mean that you'd be used as a sacrifice to the Spider Queen. Another show of intelligence and cowardice would be during the attack on House DeVir when he distracts his older brother, pretending that someone is coming the other way, making him look before Dinin stabs him in the back. Smart, because his brother never saw it coming and couldn't defend himself, cowardly because we always associate back stabbing as a cowards move. There's also the fact, that during his encounter with Drizzt in the tunnels around Menzoberranzan, instead of attacking his younger brother and killing him, he ran away as he saw his own death.

There's a level of paranoia that comes into play with Dinin and usually it's focussed around his brother, Drizzt. This is because Dinin is afraid his brother might want to take his power and rise up. Although his brother leaves, there's always that fear and paranoia that something is going to happen that means he loses the footing he has within House Do'Urden. Dinin is untrustworthy in many ways, when it comes to people trusting him, or the other way around. Due to drow society and culture, it's difficult to make anything like a friendship as usually one side will betray the other. Dinin will only likely make an alliance if he sees a profit in it for himself and so he's not exactly trusting of other people, believing that he'll be betrayed and killed or someone will find a weakness and exploit it. The killing of his brother also shows that he himself can't exactly be trusted.

Upon arriving on Tu Vishan, he's going to be pissed, there's no doubt about it and even that is an understatement. He'll more than likely be snapping at people, even those that try to help him. His pride will still be there even as he curses about the surface world. Essentially he's going to be dragging his heels and be awkward and generally making life harder for himself, and probably some of the citizens on the shell. Given time he'll be less grouchy. Not by much though. Also the spiel about being In Between life, dreaming and death? Yeah, no thanks. It's not a concept he'll have trouble with, he just won't believe it's happened to him.


Appearance: Height wise, Dinin is about 5'4” tall given that he's a male drow. As a drow, he also has the traditional ebony skin, his hair is white and stops around chin level in a what was more of a stylish cut and easier to handle due to being a warrior. Because drow are still elves, they still appear to be beautiful with a slender build, Dinin is no different even though he's spent years training to be a fighter, his strength isn't as easy to gauge due to his muscles not appearing as defined.
Having spent all of his life underground with little to no light, his are red and will give off a glow from time to time, reason why will be explained in abilities.

Abilities:

Drow are naturally much more agile than most other races.

There's also the power over darkness that as a drow, Dinin has access to. He's able to conjure what is called a Globe of Darkness which is exactly what it sounds like, a ball of impenetrable darkness, no one, not even drow, can see through. It's helpful when it comes to hiding an escape route or just to stop a foe in their tracks. He also has the ability of conjuring faerie fire, a charm that casts the target in purple flames, it causes no harm but it makes the target much easier to see.

Something to tie into the darkness is that Dinin has infrared vision and this is why his eyes are red and will give off a glow. Infrared is an ability all drow have which allows them to see pretty much everything in the Underdark (unless there's invisibility spells or great piwafwi's). In dark places it's an advantage, in telling some expressions it's also helpful. However the massive disadvantage is that sunlight will pretty much blind him or hurt his eyes until he can accustom himself to the brightness. Even the bio-luminescent glow from the turtle in more remote parts of Tu Vishan would be considered too bright (easier to get used to though).

Hearing is something that is more heightened from having to rely on other senses than just sight when in the Underdark.

Levitation can be used with the aide of the House emblem.

Dinin has no need to sleep like all other elves, instead he can fall into what is called Reverie, a meditative state often achieved by finding peace with yourself. It also leaves him completely aware of what's happening around him, in case any one tries to sneak up on him and kill him.

Resistance to magic.

Master swordsman, being male born and no magical talent meant that Dinin was destined to attend Melee-Magthere, the warrior school in Menzoberranzan. There he's learned how to weild many weapons, though he prefers the sword. He can also use a short cross-bow and daggers. He's also got some training in close combat.

Dinin can use drow sign language, which is the use of small gestures by the hand, face and body. It's completely silent and it's own language used by the drow.

Inventory:
1 – Sword
1 – Short hand crossbow
1 – Pouch on belt containing 6 poison tipped arrows
1 – House emblem
4 – Daggers
1 – Greater piwafwi (house emblem embroidered into it)
1 – Medium bag of coins, mostly gold.

The clothes he's wearing. All drenched in magic and wards.

Suite:

Fire Sector – 2 floors. This sector is probably closer to the way Menzoberranzan would look. Except for the flames giving of a brighter light than most places he's used to. The fact that the area is wealthy would probably help him to uh...settle a little quicker. (hahaha no it won't)

In-Character Samples:
Third Person:

The days had been long and the nights had only given him a little relief from his suffering. His eyes were almost always practically shut and he had found himself relying on other senses. It wasn't hard though, he could tell when people were nearby, or he could listen to people talk over the network. But the fact that the nights weren't as dark as he had been hoping for, due to turtles glow, he found that he was usually in a bad mood more so than he had been upon arriving.

He was growing more and more convinced that the Goddess, Lolth, was more angry at him than his House. He had done something to suffer her wrath more than anyone, but it was such a shame that he really couldn't think of anything he had done. It wasn't his fault his brother had become a surface dweller, it wasn't his fault that Drizzt couldn't handle life as a drow. Dinin had done something, that was the only reason he could think of as to why he had been banished to the surface world...of some other realm.

He sat in his room, the lights were out and he had found thick blankets to drape over the windows and act as curtains. Anything he could think of to keep the suite as dark as possible which over all was a more acceptable level, he didn't have to squint for one. Most of his time was now spent listening to the network or even venturing out to try some of the local delicacies, which he admitted weren't as bad as he was expecting them to be.

Network:

[Video]

[Dinin's been here a few days already, he doesn't fully understand the console, thanks to snapping at the kedan, but he's learned the basics. He hasn't replied to other people though, instead he's been working to keep his suite as dark as he can. Opening his eyes to bright light? That sucked. So the video feed is on and really, everything is dark, his eyes are light ever so slightly and his face is shown a little and only because the light from the screen is shining on him. His eyes narrow, as if he's expecting something to happen.]

The world above, or whatever it is they call this place isn't exactly what I expected to happen. But better this than what may have happened back home. Even if it is the surface.

[He's gone quiet again as he looks around at the console. What gets him more than the fact this place is so bright, is that he has to share it with such lesser beings, he hates you all. But he isn't stupid enough to say anything like that when he doesn't exactly know what people are capable of. He's heard stories and he's not willing to find any of his own.]

I don't suppose anyone knows of a decent armoury. [Ugh he's going to have to look into a new sword and a dagger and they're going to be ugly and useless.]