Castellan Stillwind (Chirurgeon)

[Kalimdorei]

Castellan Stillwind's Character Sheet



Castellan is a tall, thin man, with a handsome, if mildly gaunt, face. His hair is dark, worn long to the shoulders, framing his face well. His eyes are ringed with dark circles, as if he slept poorly, the mismatched pair of steely grey and ruby red looking about tiredly, only half-interested in most things.

His pale, nearly skeletal features are most often covered from head to toe. He wore a long, canvas coat, dyed to a cloudy grey color. Its pockets were plentiful and well used by the Chirurgeon, usually clinking or rattling with vials or tins of various alchemical or medical implements. Below, a loose-fitting shirt of white calico was laced up in the chest, the billowy sleeves cinched in at the wrist with leather bracers. Over top the shirt was often a vest of glimmering mithral links, enough to protect him on the battlefield as he did his work. The collar of his coat was high, and a large caduceus symbol was stained onto the canvas in dark black, likely from a stencil.

His armored torso was crossed with two leather bandoliers, the loops of which each holding a vial or flask with different liquids inside - some looked like potions, others had the sickly green tint of acid, or the murky darkness of alchemical oils. His belt was sturdy leather, with many pouches or loops holding many implements and tools. A particularly large scalpel-bladed knife was tucked into an open sheath on one side, the metal glimmering like silver. Its pommel was stamped with that familiar caduceus.

His trousers were sturdy black cloth, the knees reinforced with hardened leather caps, though they were half-tucked into his knee-high boots of brown leather with steel-capped toes and heels. The soles were a tough alchemical material, seeming sturdy and particularly thick, though it gave him an inch or so of added height as a result.

He kept himself orderly, always addressing others with great politeness and care. He wasn't the most empathetic person, his bedside manner more appropriate on the battlefield than at a noble's sickbed, but he was equally sought in either capacity. He seemed to sleep poorly - likely haunted with memories of patients lost over his decade and a half of medical practice.

[Kalimdorei]

This section is no longer applicable, but kept for historical value.

Castellan's Wardrobe

Castellan has several outfits he tries to keep on hand or in his quarters for various situatons.

Jasidin Robes

Castellan is most often seen with this set of clothing. His black robes with grey and red detailings, a black, hooded cloak with a wispy grey underside, comfortable trousers, and sturdy, steel-capped boots.

Formal attire

For those rare times Castellan has a formal gathering or party to attend, his Shiftweave can take on the macabre, but fancy form of a dark grey, buttoned shirt, supported by ribbing of humanoid-looking bones, most similar to a Shirt of Bone, but without its enchantments. A black sash of silk is at his waist, with flared black slacks and supple leather boots below.

Informal attire

When rarely left to his own devices, Castellan sometimes fancies a plainer, comfortable outfit. A loose black tunic with wide sleeves tucks into another black sash as his belt, with flared black trousers of simpler material and sturdy, but comfortable boots of brown leather.

'Simple' clothing

There are times when the necromancer's black clothing draws more attention to him than he would like, and his Shiftweave was made with a less conspicuous outfit in mind for those times. An off-white tunic with elbow-length sleeves, brown linen pants held up by a leather belt, and simple shoes, rather than boots. His pale complexion and thin features somewhat ruin the illusion of normalcy, however.

Formal Jasidin Robes

There are rare holy days celebrating the Ruby Sorceress, and Castellan would wear these robes only on those days. They are similar to his common robes, with a greatly shifted color scheme. His cloak is a ruby red, trimmed in grey with an inky black on the underside. His robes were similarly recolored, with a few more ornate, skull-and-ruby clasps than on his usual robes. Red, loose trousers tuck into the same sort of black boots, the toes shod in steel.

[Kalimdorei]

This section is no longer applicable, but kept for historical value. Update will be provided soon.

The man who would come to be Castellan Stillwind was born of Suel parents. The refugees of the annihilated Suel Imperium have migrated throughout the Flanaess for centuries, from Cauldron to the Free City of Greyhawk, and far beyond. Castellan's parents were born of these people, descendants of Suloise survivors who had rallied behind the great Jasite Cleric, Sassarine, to found the coastal city that would bear her name, to the north of modern Cauldron.

The famous Surabar Spellmason, founder of Redgorge and Cauldron, had struck out from Sassarine to make his name in the Amedio Jungles that surrounded Sassarine on all sides but the west, where the vitriolic Hellfurnaces separated the jungles from the destroyed Suel homeland. Eager to emulate her good friend's prosperity, Kazomagon Lidu, a Jasite Cleric and powerful Necromancer, followed some years later to found her own city, Liduton.

For a while time, Redgorge and Liduton prospered as neighbors - the former founded in the shadow of Cauldron, protected by the great Basalt Bastions raised by Spellmason as a great feat of magic. Meanwhile, Liduton had been founded on the edge of a large, deep lake near the volcano, home to an ancient Kopru necropolis - a burial site of a lost city of the fish-men.

When dark Fiends from the Demonskar rallied to assault Redgorge and Liduton, the two powerful spellcasters took different approaches to defending themselves at the near legendary Battle of Redgorge. While Surabar brought great elemental magics to bear, Kazomagon sought the aid of Wee Jas, and, with her divine magics, raised many of the fallen Koprus from the dead as a mummified army to defend her people.

Perhaps the Witch Goddess took some offense to the defilement of a burial site, or perhaps Kazomagon's view outstretched her reach. For whatever reason, the small army of undead Kopru turned on the mortal defenders of Liduton, slaughtering and, in some cases, devouring them. Only a handful survived the terrible mistake Kazomagon had made, including the ashamed Cleric herself.

In the wake of the Battle of Redgorge, the sorrowful Cleric had been offered a small mercy by her old friend, Surabar. Spellmason hid the woman among the survivors of the great battles, declaring her slain to a vengeful sect of Jasite survivors of Liduton.

Years would pass, and Surabar Spellmason would go on to found Cauldron, continuing to give his friend Kazomagon asylum as she lived out the rest of her life in quiet repentance. Those survivors of Liduton would go on to form the core Jasite faithful that would eventually found the grand Cathedral of the Stern Lady in Cauldron - with Necromancy being a very taboo and, publicly, forbidden art.

Years would pass, and Lidu would die quietly in Cauldron, a woman unknown and purposefully forgotten. Though she died, she was survived by a single heir, and through the generations, her descendants each had but one child - and each would have a distinctive trait inherited from the long-dead Necromancer. Every few generations, magical prowess would sometimes rear its head, though these individuals tended to have rather short lives, each always managed to mother or father one child before their various ends.

Castellan's mother was a relatively ordinary woman. She had the same peculiar eyes of her son, one grey, and one red, and she had an almost natural understanding of the Ancient Suloise language - a language mostly survived in ancient texts, both mundane and magical from the long-felled Imperium. She and her husband were both scholars at Bluecrater Academy, making a modest living assisting the mages in translating such texts to further their understanding.

The pair lived in a small boarding house near the Crater Lake, a somewhat ramshackle place that fit the rather poor neighborhood near the fetid lake that formed the center of the city. Though tragic, it hardly seemed out of place when, one night the building collapsed into rubble.

It wasn't until dawn, until the city guard and officials had learned what had happened. Guardsmen were dispatched, as were clerics of Pelor and Wee Jas, to heal the living, and dispose of the dead, respectively. After a day of sifting through the rubble, things had looked grim. Most of the patrons and management had died, or were found mortally wounded. Some were brought back from the brink, but only a scant few survived.

It was beneath the huddled corpses of his parents over top him, that young Castellan had survived. The boy was no more than two or three years, but he had endured the collapse, sheltered by his parents' last act. For a day and night, the child had sobbed and struggled against impending death, to be smothered beneath the rubble and the bodies of the only people he knew in the world.

He had been found after a volunteer from Bluecrater Academy had used his magic to lift away some of the rubble. Amazingly, he had survived without serious injury, and though he was dehydrated and terrified, he was expected to make a full recovery. That is, until a Cleric of Pelor reached to heal one of his small wounds. The boy howled like a banshee, recoiling in pain and terror.

The cleric was soon joined by several, including the Jasite that had been sent. A small dispute over the boy's fate began: On the one hand, Pelor's followers took the omen as ill - surely, he had been marked by some fell power. The Karuth who had been on scene, however, had noted the boy's unusal eyes, as well as his deceased mother's. He insisted that Castellan's unique properties should be studied and learned of; He should not be damned for something out of his control. In the end, he was reluctantly given stewardship to the Church of Wee Jas, and was, for all intents and purposes, forgotten of by all others.

Castellan was given his name shortly after being taken to the Cathedral. Over the years, it became apparent that his curious 'affliction' had instilled in him (or was it instilled by?) a great, latent talent for magic. Though he had been raised and guided through the strict, almost academy-style ways of the Karuth, it was clear the Priesthood had a somewhat larger problem on their hands with the boy they had hoped to quietly make a priest of Wee Jas, one who would devote his life wholly to the Goddess, solitary and heirless.

When he was a teenager, Castellan had decided that his talents with the arcane should be developed. He politely bowed out of his training as a Cleric before any of his final initiation rites were completed, remaining a pious resident of the Cathedral who tended to the dead, preparing them for cremation or, rarely, burial. The young mage spent the next decade in intense study, growing knowledge of faith from the priesthood, and his magical prowess from more... esoteric magical studies from some of the Church's more powerful arcane attendants and worshippers - Wee Jas was, after all, a goddess of magic, and many potent spellcasters were among her laity.

The man had been groomed into an orderly life, one of quiet politeness, a neatness of self and belongings, with his caretakers hoping to see the young guardian become a devoted tool of the Stern Lady. As he grew, his mild ambition to probe the depths of his potential did as well. It was towards the end of his studious period, that Castellan began having difficulty sleeping or eating much. He didn't care for full meals, typically just nibbling here and there, and his sleep patterns became fitful and restless. His cloistered lifestyle left him pale, his beliefs made him eat little, and, combined with his inadequate sleep, left him gaunt and tired, his eyes somewhat sunken, with dark rings beneath.

He has grown to be of some worry to the Church, especially in his latest years. It was decided that Castellan would be sent out into Cauldron, to spend some time away from the Cathedral, and to exercise his magical potential. He was sent to the Church of St. Cuthbert, to assist one of their own Clerics who was investigating a series of kidnappings in Cauldron. Joined by a local ne'er-do-well with a vested interest in the orphans' return, the trio plumbed the depths of Jzadirune in search of answers. The three grew to be tentative friends as they struggled, shoulder to shoulder, and came to shut down the slaver ring that had taken so many from Cauldron, returning most people back to the surface before they could be sold off to the eldritch beings of the Underdark.

When goblin looters had begun to pillage Cauldron, the trio once again stepped up to investigate, finding another subterranean mazework of tunnels inhabited by Goblins, enthralled by their vampiric Bugbear leader, Drak'thar. With the being staked, the trio returned once more to the surface as triumphant heroes, somewhat richer and more powerful for their experiences in the countless labyrinths that filled the dormant volcano that was Cauldron.

With his growing autonomy from the Church of Wee Jas in Cauldron, Castellan's superiors were somewhat leery of the young man's development, though they left him to continue on his path. He would, after all, either return to them eventually, or die on some adventure...