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Character Description:
Tarim is a small slightly built young man with a high
intelligent forehead, fair skin and vivid blue eyes. He has
extremely long and shiny raven-black hair, which he brushes
and/or combs very often. He has a clear tenor voice and a kindly
manner that quickly puts people at ease. He is also a gifted
diplomat ever seeing both sides of any discussion.
He is a little bit vain and always makes sure his hair is
brushed and clean whenever possible and never cuts it shorter than
the bottom of his shoulder blades. He also is very keen about his
clothing matching and being just so. He also has a very distinct
dislike for being dirty or wet. In short he has led an insulated
and protected life and is not really used to hardship despite
being a “barbarian”
He wears a white heavy fur cloak, coat and boots. He wears a
neatly fitted brown leather shirt and pants with a wide black
leather belt tied in the front (no buckle), with a pouch on his
left and right sides. He also has a long wide piece of soft brown
leather that he uses as a scarf or wrap of sorts. He grudgingly
carries a backpack that looks to cause him trouble making him
hunch over a bit while he walks.
His quarterstaff is worn and smooth and is carved very
intricately with figures circling the staff from the top with the
images of events of his life telling a story in pictures. The
dagger he carries has a black bone handle with the pommel carved
into the shape of a raven’s head (it was his mother’s blade).
History:
Tarim was born the youngest child of Hakim Ravenmane; the
Shaman Adept of the Tree Ghost Tribe of the Old Forest and Lyssa a
mysterious woman from another tribe that Hakim had fallen in love
with and married. He was the fourth of their children and his
mother Lyssa died while in childbirth with him, leaving his older
sister most of the responsibility of caring for him and his
brother Aragrym. She was 9 years old at the time.
Tarim was very weak and sickly as an infant, and nearly died
several times. Indeed he has been ill for most of his life. It is
mostly by the power of the Tree Ghost Spirit and his father’s
faith in that spirit that has saved him (and perhaps, too his
older sister Lyrra’s careful ministrations).
Tarim’s father kept a very close watch on him and cared for him
using all the knowledge and magic at his disposal. Many of the
villagers resented this as Uthgar’s motto has always been “only
the strong survive” and Hakim’s deep and abiding love for his son
was highly unusual in the rough life of a barbarian.
Those close to Hakim knew that when his wife died, he changed
greatly. He had been out hunting Orcs with the warriors of the
tribe when Lyssa went into labor with Tarim. She was not due for
some time but some say the stress of her worries for her husband
brought it on. He did not return until 2 days later and by then
she had died. When Hakim looked into the eyes of his 3rd son he
saw his beloved wife’s eyes and has ever sworn that he would die
before letting harm come to him.
The majority of Tarim’s childhood was spent bedridden, a victim
of some illness or another. His sister Lyrra used to open up the
corner of the tent where Tarim lay so that he could look at the
stars when it was too dark to read. Those nights linger in his
memory, looking up at the stars not knowing whether he would live
to see the dawn. Lyrra had spent countless sleepless nights at
Tarim’s bedside tending to the sickly waif. She used to sing him
songs she made up herself, which he always loved. His fondest
memories are looking up in the middle of the night to see his
beloved sisters face illuminated in starlight singing in her soft
sweet voice.
It was immediately noticeable in his childhood that Tarim was
very intelligent and as he grew it became more and more apparent
that he was truly brilliant. When he was 6 years old he was
already reading and trying to write, which was unheard of in his
village. His father tried very hard to keep him challenged
teaching him all the information that he had access to, schooling
him in the Lore of the High Forest and the Tree Ghost Tribe.
When he was 10 years old his tribe had a visitor from afar, a
gray bearded old man with a staff that had come to see his father.
Around the campfire one night Tarim caught the old man’s eye and
the graybeard called him over. In a serious voice but with a
quirky smile the old man told Tarim, “Never stop asking questions
and never believe anything anyone tells you unless you have good
reason, take nothing for granted.” The old man also told him “
your father is a good man learn how to be a man from him, but you
are not to be a shaman. You have too much talent for the Art, that
much I know.” The old man handed him a book and said, “Keep this
secret, for your fellow villagers would not understand why you
must learn the things herein.”
The book was titled “A Primer on Magical Theory: A Spell
Caster’s First Step” and no author was listed. When Tarim looked
up after checking out the book the old man was gone. From that day
that book never left his sight or side he read it so many times
the pages were falling out and he could quote from it easily from
memory. He also found a symbol in the book that matched the
birthmark on his forearm: a circle with seven stars within. As he
read the book he learned that the symbol was Mystra’s and he took
it to mean that he was to follow her. He also learned of the
existence of Azuth, Mystra and the story of how the Goddesses Shar
and Selune brought about the existence of the Weave and it’s
mistress. He absorbed enough to realize that his
destiny lie with the Art and not with Uthgar. He has since
prayed to Mystra for guidance and promised to use whatever
“talent” the old man referred to in her service.
He never discovered the old man’s name and his father for some
reason would not tell him. It was odd but for some reason Tarim
could swear that the book had a mind of it’s own because every
time he read it he found some new obscure passage that explained
some odd point of theory that he was having trouble with.
All through this time Tarim continued to look at the stars
every night. His favorite time was the deep of the night when the
stars are clear and bright. For some reason he felt at peace when
he lay under that vastness his worries quieted and his soul
assuaged.
A few months’ later strange things began to happen around his
family’s lodge. Things began moving around by themselves. Shortly
after this began when he was sick lying in bed Tarim reached out
for a cup of water that he was to weak to get up and fetch for
himself and it floated over as if by an unseen hand. Tarim then
figured out that the “strange happenings” were the manifestations
of sorcerous talent. He knew of this from the book the old man had
given him.
Hakim was able to cover the incidents up with tales of restless
spirits and whatnot keeping Tarim safe from any reprisals or
prejudices from the superstitious villagers.
Gradually Tarim began to be able to control his abilities a bit
better and things settled down. It seemed as Tarim began to
practice his abilities his health improved, and while he still was
not considered hardy by any stretch he stopped getting sick quite
so often and was able to recover more quickly when he did get
sick. Tarim was still by far the weakest male adult of the tribe,
but he was able to use his wits and intelligence to his advantage
enough to gain respect.
Hakim was pushing Tarim hard to follow in his footsteps and to
be a Shaman of the Tree Ghost and a leader of the Village. Tarim
knew it wasn’t to be, though. The words of the old man echoed in
his head every time Hakim talked about Tarim “taking up the
mantle”.
All Tarim wanted was to learn more about arcane magic. It
fascinated him in a way nothing else did. He was drawn to
everything about it, every story, legend and myth in every scroll
and book in the village (which wasn’t many), eventually became
fodder for his obsession with all things arcane. Gradually it
became apparent to his father that Tarim was against becoming a
shaman and Hakim was extremely disappointed in him, the two have
not been speaking much of late.
Tarim has recently learned a few spells, and has worked around
the verbal and somatic components to appear more “shamanistic”.
This allowed him to cast some spells around the village and not
arouse any suspicion or outright outrage. The villagers all assume
that Tarim is following in his father’s footsteps, and as upset as
Hakim is, he would never give Tarim’s secret out, especially since
he has been protecting him all along and would be in just as much
trouble.
Tarim mostly leans on his older brother Aragrym for support
now. Aragrym doesn’t understand the difference between the arcane
and shaman magics and doesn’t much care. Tarim has always looked
up to his older siblings especially Aragrym who is much bigger and
stronger than he is. Aragrym had often been the barrier between
the other village children and him, protecting the “runt” as he
calls him sometimes. The two have a very strong bond and Tarim
would do nearly anything for the “big dummy” as he calls him when
Aragrym calls him a runt.
He loves his sister Lyrra very much they don’t speak very often
because she is married to a hunter now and has her own lodge and
soon a child of her own to worry about. Someday Tarim wants to do
something truly great for Lyrra, because he knows she was forced
to sacrifice her childhood to raise him, though she has never said
anything about it.
Tarim has one other sibling, Caradrym who is the eldest of
Hakim’s children. Caradrym became a druid long ago and only rarely
comes to the village to see them.
After his health improved Tarim spent much of his time
wandering the lands around his village. He has met and made
friends with all manner of creatures learning their languages. His
favorites have always been the Elves and Gnomes and he learned
their languages quickly so that he could speak with them and hear
their tales. Tarim’s humble and courteous nature has won over many
different creatures of the forest. Tarim has a tendency to believe
the best of people because he was raised (admittedly unusually so)
in such a loving home. He has difficulty understanding evil though
he hates it.
Around his 16th year he was out wandering one day and he came
across a party of elves facing off against a group of zombies. An
instinctive revulsion came over Tarim and utterly enraged he threw
bolt after bolt of disruption at the zombies turning the tide for
the elves. Afterwards he looked at his hands in disbelief as the
world swam before his eyes. The elves thanked him profusely and
escorted him back home as the woods are not a safe place and
Tarim’s strength was spent. When Tarim returned to the Village
with the Elven escort he truly went up in the estimation of his
peers. When they related the tale of how he helped them defeat the
zombies a few eyebrows were raised but no one asked any questions
about how he did it. Tarim claimed that the spirit of the Tree
Ghost worked thru him to destroy the zombies and that was good
enough for most everyone in the village.
The village elders accepted this deed as a fulfillment of the
Ritual of the Runehunt and named Tarim a man in the tradition of
the tribe earning his full name of Tarim Ravenmane after his hair
and his father.
Recently Hakim summoned a creature of unknown kind and was
attacked and killed by it when he lost control over it. It escaped
Hakim’s and destroyed a great deal of the village as well as
wounding a number of the village warriors before it ran away into
the forest.
Aragrym and Hakim found the ravaged remains of their father and
immediately set out, grief-stricken, to kill it. Lyrra begged them
to let it go, but they refused saying that their father's blood
cried out from the earth for vengeance, and his spirit would not
rest until the creature was destroyed. They then set out after the
creature with only a quick embrace for their sister and no
assurance that they would ever be back, for they had no idea what
it was they would be facing. |
