Name: Emerin Trintellyn
Race: Human
Height/Weight: 5’8 / 125 lbs.
Age: Appears to be in his low-to-mid twenties.
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Class: Mage
-Specialization(s): N/A
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Appearance: Emerin, or Emri does not look healthy. He hasn’t looked healthy for the last eleven years, and he has a very good reason for it… But we’ll get to that later. The first thing you would notice about the mage is that he is very thin – to a scary point. Next, you would probably notice that his face bears the expression of one who hasn’t slept in well over a week, and is dealing with some amount of pain all the time. Upon looking at his eyes, you would see reflected back at you twin portals to the past; a clear understanding that Emri has seen more than his fair share of everything life has to offer, and that he is very, very tired, no longer excited or worried by what comes before him.

Emri’s hair is a dark gray, straight, and comes down to just above his shoulders. It usually falls in front of his face, but he pays it absolutely no mind. His eyes are a startlingly pure, shining silver, twin points of light that seem to stand out from the rest of his drab appearance; they can fade with his mood, however, almost turning as gray as his hair when he is severely negative. This often leads to his being mistaken for a member of the Silverell family. He has a face that would be considered attractive, were it not always locked in deep thought and covered with a week’s growth of facial hair. Emri wears simple clothes, loose-fitting pants and shirts that are all dull in color, browns and grays and black. Over this, he wears a simple gray robe that has clearly seen better days, but is obviously a favored article.
-Identifying Marks: Emerin’s left shoulder bears a mark in the form of a S with an X over it, the size of a large coin. It is clearly a brand, and something nobody would put on themselves by choice; an ancient mark, it exiles the recipient from both the Elven village of Suruth and the Nitrate forest of Illenia.
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Equipment: Emerin is in possession of an item that many magic-users would kill for; luckily, few know the history of it well enough to actually recognize it on sight. It is the Staff of Vesavius, wielded at one point by the most powerful dark mage in recorded history. Arguably, the staff rightfully belongs to Emri, but that’s a complicated story. The mage is no longer powerful enough to utilize the majority of the staff’s abilities, but merely being in contact with it helps his ailment slightly.

Aside from the staff Emri carries a satchel containing rations, quill and parchment, several spell components for sorcerous work and a small metal figurine resembling a rearing horse; it can be used to summon a phantasmal steed capable of traveling great distances with incredible speed and no rest. The summoned mount may make a single trip, regardless of distance, and then the figurine will require a full week’s time to recharge. Emri tries to reserve it for emergency use only.
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Personality: Emri tries to be a kindhearted individual, standing by his own moral code and helping others if he can. He comes off as a nice, intelligent and witty person, though you will soon find that there is another layer to the mage, underneath the friendly exterior. Below, there is a man who is wrestling with his own inner demons and those of others; a person who has seen horrific things and did not escape unscathed; someone who tries very hard to appear as if nothing is wrong, when the simple act of smiling takes undue effort. The mage has to put up with his own troubled mind, and the remnants of two others as well. It can occasionally seem as if Emri has multiple personalities, for when fragments of another mind begin to intrude upon his thoughts his demeanor and speech can change radically and without warning. The end result is a fragile psyche that has walled itself off from the rest of the world by refusing to become too involved with any situation or person, putting forth a false, cheerful front that says everything is alright. Emerin truly has a kind heart, and the best of intentions towards everyone, and he tries very hard not to let his own problems become an issue for others. Despite his issues, his optimism has kept him going for a long time now, and it may occasionally seem as if the person he’s trying to hide his condition from the most is himself.

When interacting with others, Emerin can be as pleasant and charming as he was in his youth. One thing those who know him value is his honesty, as the mage will rarely speak an untruth; if he does, the intentions behind it are ultimately good. He is very inquisitive, always becoming interested in things he does not know of, and occasionally loses himself in chains of knowledge, embarking on a full-blown quest to find the next piece of the proverbial puzzle (The biggest thorn in his side has always been the Teleportation, inexplicable as it was.).
-Likes: Tasks he can dedicate himself to (and lose himself in) completely, seemingly unsolvable problems, people he can trust enough to let in, magic and its many applications, adventuring, doing the world a service and anything that lets him forget his troubles and actually enjoy life.
-Dislikes: Dark mages, demons, incurable illnesses, ignorant people and having his identity figured out.
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Biography: Emerin Trintellyn has another name. Actually, he has three other names. They are Dakota Adleinter, Dramar Noriestus and Vesavius Coldlintei. Though his mind is undoubtedly Dakota’s, there are enough memories and fragments of thought from the other two that the mage occasionally has to stop and ponder who he really is. This merits some explaining, so I will present you with a truncated version of the events that led to such a person. For Emerin’s full history, please refer to chapters I-III of The Draconian Chronicles.

Vesavius was the first to exist, having lived thousands of years ago during the time when the continents were still being developed; the time when the races were still meeting each other and forming the first alliances and treaties; the time when the gods had a more direct involvement in the events of Therion. He was a brilliant mage, better than any in his age group by leaps and bounds. At the age of fifteen, he could best those who were regarded as accomplished magic-users, and by twenty he was on par with the archmage of Lothlerriem. Sadly, for the world, Vesavius was not a nice individual. He was extremely ambitious, capable of immoral acts without compunction so long as the end result furthered his own designs. The grandest of such designs was something that could only have been accomplished at that period in time, when the gods were still young: Vesavius wanted to usurp the deities of Therion, believed that he could literally grow powerful enough to challenge the gods and live. He never came close to attaining that level of power, though, because he was struck down by those very gods well before his plans had reached fruition. Before he passed from the mortal realm, though, before his dark tower had been sundered and cast down to the depths of a deep, dark chasm opening in the very earth beneath it, he had reached an astonishing level of power for a mortal. He had fully studied and mastered all aspects of magic that were known at that time, and some that were only theoretical. His notes, when found by a team of brave gnomish spelunkers, served to lend a better understanding of the arcane arts to the races of Therion, advancing the use of magic by a decade at the least.

Not being one to be inconvenienced by something as trivial as death, Vesavius had prepared for such an eventuality well. His body was destroyed, but his mind and spirit lived on, wreathed in dark magicks that ensured their survival until the end of time (The components for such a spell are too dreadful to even think about.). He could roam freely about the world, but was unable to interact with anyone or anything save one specific time, such was the design of the spell, and he saved that time for exactly the right moment.

Dakota Adleinter was a very promising young mage, being born some time after the first Draconian war, and roughly sixty years prior to the second. Possessing a raw natural talent for the arcane beyond that which had been seen any time in the past century, he was quickly ushered into training at the Tower of Sorcery on Illenia. At that time, the tower was run by an archmage named Tar’Ellinis, who quickly recognized the potential the boy had, and took him in as a student without question. The only difference between Dakota and the other students was that he hadn’t paid a single coin to attend, and was given several liberties in the ways he could experiment with the flow of magic. The former was a widely-known fact, and the latter was kept hidden for good reason. He did endure some torment for his ‘special treatment’, but he took it in good stride, his warm personality eventually winning most everyone over.

Over time, Dakota’s power grew to the point where he could begin to delve into schools of magic that were not even widely recognized as existing, so few were the number of mages capable of accessing them. One of these schools was that of time. At the age of twenty, Dakota successfully found a way to bend the fabric of space in such a way that he could leapfrog from one point in time to another. Tar’Ellinis forbade him to actually practice any of the spells he was theorizing, but that didn’t stop the curious mage for long. One day, alone in his room, Dakota inscribed his floor, walls and ceiling with intricate runes and successfully cast his spell. He found himself in the future more than two decades later, near an Elven village called Suruth located in the Nitrate forest, in the Northwest section of Illenia at the base of the Teeth. The energies of his spell did not go unnoticed, however, and he was soon set upon by a patrol of Drow that happened to be in the right place at the wrong time. Weakened from the expenditure of energy he had just undergone, the mage was only able to dispatch three of his five adversaries before having to flee or die. The remaining pair of Dark Elves tracked him to Suruth, and his arrival became the event that ignited several raids against the village. Dakota was promptly exiled, but not before meeting a young Elf by the name of Gemini Nightdream, who he would cross paths with again later in life. In exile, and feeling purely miserable for the harm he had caused the innocent Elves, Dakota transported himself back to his own time when he had rested and gathered the proper amount of energy.

The moment the spirit of Vesavius had been waiting for had come at last. He needed a host to inhabit, so that he could once again grow powerful enough to accomplish his ultimate goal. The only problem he faced was that the body he was to take had to be at least as capable as his own had been of dealing with magic. Now, magic-users of that magnitude were few and far between in the history of Therion, and when they did appear they never, ever let their guard down enough to allow an intrusion of the kind the dark mage was planning. Dakota, however, was in such a weak state when he returned to his own time that every single one of the mental defenses mages were trained to keep intact from a young age were down and forgotten. Not one to miss such a prime opportunity, Vesavius pounced immediately when the young mage returned to his room at the Tower, forcing himself into Dakota’s mind and wrestling the younger mage’s spirit for control of the body. Though weak, Dakota was still as sharp and quick as ever. Recognizing what was happening, he enacted a simple spell that required very little energy, separating his mind from his body but keeping his spirit trapped inside. Since Vesavius’ spirit had joined with his own, it too was sealed away from Dakota’s physical form. When Tar’Ellinis found the young mage, his body was lying comatose on the floor of his room, the inscribed walls pouring forth residual arcane energy. There were no signs of life.

Dakota’s body was placed in a solitary room, bare save for a small bed, and he was left there to eventually recover or die; he was beyond the help of the healers within the Tower, because while his spirit was separate from his body, it was not wandering the Astral Plane waiting to be found, but trapped within his corporeal form in a self-imposed exile. The only way help could have come to him would have been if it was an unwilling separation; instead, those who attempted to delve into the young mage’s body and recover his spirit were met with a magical barrier put in place by a mage who knew tricks that weren’t even in the book yet.

Dakota and Vesavius spent many weeks conversing, while locked inside the derelict body. The conclusion was reached that neither could assume control of the body without permission from the other, and clearly, neither was willing to give that permission. As an eternity of nothingness loomed in front of them, they eventually reached a compromise. They would form a new psyche for the body, and both would have a hand in it’s creation. They falsified memories, conjured up a believable past and put in place a set of morals that left the newly created mind as ambitious as Vesavius, kept in check morally by Dakota’s values. They named their creation Dramar Noriestus, and let him wake up. At least now, the body would survive.

Dramar awoke with no knowledge of where he was or why he was there. All he knew was that he was a wandering wizard, traveling from kingdom to kingdom and furthering his own understanding of magic. He knew that he was being detained against his will, and so, finding that his own talent was more so than that of those who were keeping him he teleported out of the Tower. Eventually, Dramar came to return to the Tower and enrolled therein, becoming one of it’s greatest students and graduating with the highest of honors.

The rest, as they say, is history. Dramar eventually reunited the Draconians of Illenia under a common banner by manipulating the council into loaning him a ranger of theirs named Tearik Durut for a quest of the utmost important: reclaiming the Spirit Tear, ancient runeblade wielded by the last Draconian king, Tolarkis Del’A'Mort. It was eventually discovered that Tearik could handle the Tear, because he was in fact descended from the king. After the quest reached it’s end, however, Cain, the god of death appeared and took the runeblade for his own. Thus began the great quest to organize the Draconian armies and march on the god’s sanctuary, reclaim the Tear and slay the evil being. During that time Dramar traveled to the ruins of the Tower of Vesavius, as he had a hunch that he would find something of use there that had not yet been discovered by explorers. What he came across (via subtle mental directions on the part of the dark mage) was Vesavius’ own staff, an artifact that increased his magical powers by a considerable amount and allowed him to regenerate his body back to a young, healthy age. Returning to the Draconian capital of Drakar Tyrith, Dramar set about manipulating the council directly to achieve his own ends, and managed to send the armies to Dragonmount, where Cain was located.

It was during this time that Vesavius’ spirit finally found a way to break through the magical barrier erected by Dakota all those years ago, and assumed control of the body, dumping Dramar’s mind back into the void to meet Dakota and realize everything that had transpired in the past. Vesavius assisted the Draconian armies and the original group of Illenian heroes in the destruction of Cain as a means to help achieve his own desires, and prepared to manipulate the new Draconian king to his will shortly thereafter. However, fighting a god left the dark mage weaker than he had been in a long time, and the mage and wizard trapped within his body utilized this moment of weakness as an opportunity to dispose of the dark one forever. Dakota ripped a hole in the mental prison and dragged Vesavius’ spirit back inside, assuming control of the body as Dramar enacted a spell that destroyed both his spirit and Vesavius’.

Vesavius, however, was not one to relinquish control over the body he had waited so long to possess without a fight, and sent magical energy coursing through the body that fried nerves and damaged the brain. The end result was that Dakota regained control of his body, but the body was heavily damaged. While he was not physically weaker, he was constantly assaulted by severe fits of coughing and sickness, which severely hampered his ability to work magic. His mind had been damaged in such a way that he could not access the highest levels of the schools of magic, and though he has been improving, to this day he is still a far, far cry from the mage he once was. Being unable to delve into the higher levels of magic, he has had to find ways to utilize the energy for spells more efficiently, reinventing ways to cast spells that allow him to perform higher level magic with a lower amount of energy.

Dakota took part in the Demon War, and helped fight the dark hordes back into the Abyss that they came from after Cain had been destroyed. Working with Tearik, Vanz, Gemini, Rauvan and the rest, the war was eventually won. Afterwards, Dakota was tired. Very tired. He no longer desired to take part in the political games of the world, nor did he desire to throw himself into any more continent-changing quests that decided the fate of the world. Being as weak as he was, as damaged, and beginning to feel mentally unbalanced as small pieces of the other two minds that had been trapped in his body began to resurface at strange moments, he decided that it would be best for both him and those he was close to if he ran. So, he ran to Rethlyn, leaving behind a note for his friends explaining his departure and that it would be best to leave him be.

Upon arriving in Ebonhold, the young (In body, only.) mage assumed a new name and identity. The only two possessions from his old life that he kept were his robe and the staff. The staff seems to relieve his affliction slightly, and affords him a measure of protection against magical assaults. Every other one of it’s powers, however, are beyond his reach in his weakened condition. The robe holds sentimental value for the mage, a reminder of his lost home continent and his days in the Tower. In the last ten years, he has made several friends and connections across the continent, and helped several of the kingdoms from time to time with various issues. Though he is no longer capable of the feats he once was, he still possesses more than enough knowledge of the workings of magic to aid those who are. He is on friendly terms with all the races, and travels from city to city making a constant circuit of Rethlyn with no clear goal in mind.

A few curious things to note about the mage are that he hasn’t seemed to age much since the Demon War, and that he also seems to slowly be slipping into insanity. The memories of Dramar and Vesavius continue to assail him from time to time, coming at random intervals and stealing his concentration and focus when they do; he loses himself in the visions, reliving a moment from the past of either. Some of their tendencies also come to the surface, but this only happens rarely. Occasionally, Emerin will draw upon knowledge he gained in the past or a memory of his, only to later realize that the thoughts moving through his head were over five thousands years old, and tinged with malice. As for the aging, it is entirely inexplicable. Whether it is a side effect of Dramar once using the staff to restore his youth, or some bizarre condition having to do with harboring three souls in one body is unknown. If one had to guess Emri’s age, they would probably place it between twenty and twenty-five.

There are few who actually know Emerin’s history, who he is. A handful of the Draconian refugees who used to serve directly under Tearik Del’A'Mort know the mage, and he is almost always guaranteed a warm welcome in any of their major fortresses and settlements. Alea Silverell and a handful of the professors at the Academy are aware of his identity as well, along with a certain student who knows more Illenian history than most. Lastly, Emri Dwarven friend Slate Mythanrail discerned his past long ago, when the two met during an effort to repel raiders making an assault on the forest spirit of Trellyn.

Emri is currently located at the Academy, passing through on his way back from an expedition into Feldred and a failed attempt to map out the region and its inhabitants.