Shattered Kingdoms

Forgot to get attributes / score. Age was 103.

I enjoy playing bards, usually. Ixyon was a diabolic bard that had traits of a serial killer. Mostly he preferred to target sorceresses mainly because of how he was raised. With a lack of targets, and not just wanting to change his character on a whim, he became pretty stale to play. Anyways, here's his backstory...

Ixyon was Half-Elven, his mother was an unnamed "Matron" of Ch'zzrym who was overthrown and ousted. She quickly learned that the surface doesn't work like the depths and the first man she tried to order around was a bandit that ended up raping her. This is how Ixyon was conceived. Instead of simply killing him or throwing him to the wolves like any good Deep-Elven mother would do with a mongrel child, she decided to keep Ixyon as a tool. His entire purpose in life was to be a bard to boost his mother's own powers as she was a sorceress herself.

Ixyon's childhood was demented to say the least. His mother was thoroughly insane, following both Sadr and Jinnahra. She believed Thuban was a lie in and of itself and someday it would revert to it's true being, Jinnahra, the former goddess. Due to this, she took great pride in her appearance and acted as a seductress.

During his life, his mother controlled him with fear. As he grew, that got stale so she swapped over to torture. One of her favorite prized possession was a dagger that was "blessed" by Sadr herself. Being fae, it was of course cold iron and left scars that couldn't be healed away. On top of that, Ixyon was tortured with the instrument so much that his own body began to decay. His mother never tortured his legs, face or throat as these were very important. If he was going to be a useful tool, he needed to be able to dance after all. Instead, beneath his armor was a small, black hole that would ever so slowly spread out and cause his body to decay.

When the torture eventually caused Ixyon to snap, that no longer allowed her to control him. His mother moved on to trying to make him completely submissive by lust and charm spells when that failed. Ixyon's mind became so warped he wasn't sure when he was himself or being controlled anymore. Eventually she wore herself out too much and for a brief moment, Ixyon regained his senses. To say he hated his mother was an understatement. Thinking she had him completely broken, she had forgotten to completely subdue him and one of his arms was free. He quickly took the dagger that she loved torturing him so much with and carved out her womb, letting her bleed out. Delirious from thirst and malnourishment, Ixyon drank some of the blood from his mother's corpse before he eventually found his way out of the caves of the Empire's marshlands. He of course ended up in the academy of Teron.

Due to his upbringing, Ixyon hated, yet loved sorcery at the same time, so it broke his heart when he found that he had no choice but to become an actual bard. He was practically groomed for it for fifteen years and to such an extent nothing else would take hold. He had a conundrum at this point. Ixyon was trained to be a puppet, but essentially had no puppeteer to tell him what to do. He felt empty and began to wander, hence the wandering minstrel.

It was then that he came across his first sorceress that truly set his life into motion. She was a spoiled wench, using her spells for her own pleasure and charming whoever she wanted. Despite being diabolic, Ixyon enjoyed playing with women that were like that. It was essentially a win win scenario for him. He would either kill them and take their blood, rejuvenating himself in the process, or lose and essentially find the puppeteer he had always subconsciously longed for.

Later in life, Ixyon met Alira and ended up joining the Crucible of shadows. At first it was purely for power as the abilities gave him ways to keep his mana energized. It was then that he also found that consuming mana and dark energy from corpses also acted just like the blood he consumed on occasion to keep the "curse" at bay. Eventually Alira disappeared and the Crucible went into a state of dormancy. Ixyon was the only Crucible member left and was made Avatar by default.

It was then he met Sabrae, a Deep-Elven bard. He actually grew somewhat close to her as the two performed with each other regularly. It was probably the first time he felt actual concern for anyone but himself and the first time he met a woman he didn't want to viscerally rip apart.

Over the years, characters came and went. Sabrae disappeared. Sorceresses came and went but Ixyon mostly targeted the ones that were domineering and reminded him of his mother. After all, a serial killer has specific requirements. When Alishondra came along, that was when Ixyon grew tired of the Crucible and inducted her into the fold. He then relinquished his position as Avatar and left the Crucible altogether, as he didn't like their rituals very much. Anything that praised Sadr in any capacity, Ixyon began to loathe more and more. After all, Sadr's "blessing" as his mother called it, was the reason he was constantly having to feed on something.

No longer being in the crucible and losing his ability to consume corpses and mana to keep the decay from spreading, his choice of targets became slim. It was then that Ixyon suffered his first death. Upon resurrecting, he found that the spiritual disorientation also weakened his body to an extent that it exacerbated the curse. He then grew tired of it and decided to try to do the right thing by aiding anyone he could. The twitch to kill and diabolic tendencies never went away and he eventually set his sights on getting in Aludra's good graces, often times joking about getting in her robes. Despite that, he was hoping that she would come and smite him on the spot, hoping to provoke her ire. The best he done was an audible "tch" that happened one time she overheard him proclaiming he wanted in her robes out loud to everyone.

Aludra was far more forgiving than he thought and for a few fleeting years felt he could actually get in her good graces and maybe receive what he was longing for. A cure and a new mistress to serve. That of course never happened. Eventually he accepted his fate and decided to just fade away...

Anyways, big thanks to Ronya, Alishondra, Sabrae, Leila, Arandir and Lorain. You all have a good one.

Sabrae's interactions with Ixyon were always enjoyable, and I was interested in seeing where the roleplay would take them as an odd and similarly tortured duo. I coudn't stick with the character for various reasons, though - none to do with anything in game.

Cheers though.

Ixyon was a huge help to young Leila. And, of course, every sorcerer loves a bard.

Miss ya old fart!