Name: Visage. Neither knows nor wants another name for himself, though he can and will regularly use aliases on an as-needed basis.
Age: Not certain, although he would guess somewhere around 30.
Race: Changeling.
Profession: “Fixer” – a diplomat/mediator/problem solver of sorts. Visage is well known in Fedimia as the very best negotiator and associate for any venture, even though his identity…and pretty much everything else about him…is unknown. Visage operates merely through a “Poster and Page” system. He has posters explaining his varied services, and beneath each one is a Page boy, paid well for their age and position. The Page keeps track of Visage’s appointments and commitments, and helps customers hire Visage for new commissions. He always appears on the job, does it as well and swiftly as necessary, then vanishes after accepting payment. It is also suspected that this job is merely his “front” job, but that his real income is derived from using his skills and connections to build a trade empire. Such is merely rumor…few except for the Fedimia elite know the truth of this.
Skills/Talents:
Racial: – As a changeling, Visage naturally has the ability to flawless assume the form of other humanoids, even shifting gender if need be (he identifies as/is by birth masculine generally, however).
Profession: Visage is a master of dealing with people. Manipulation, deception, intuition, influence – all of these traits and more are carefully and skillfully honed within his repertoire.
Combat: As an element of both his job and his past, skill in combat plays a large part of Visage’s skill set. He’s made it his business to become at least passable in nearly every school he might need to imitate, but his personal favorite is that of the razor-witted and steady-handed guerilla fighter/saboteur. Poisons, bows, knives, and longswords are his specialties when in humanoid form, although he is a fairly good grappler/brawler as well (though he tries to avoid those kinds of encounters if possible). When in a non-humanoid form, however, he uses whatever natural weapons those forms possess.
Magic: Before he picked up any trade, hones his people-skills, or became a fighter, Visage learned one art – Druidism. As a Druid, he innately possesses the ability to assume the form of any non-humanoid, one of his major tools. Additionally, his is quite skilled in magics relating to the various aspects of nature – plant life, seasons, weather, and animal life. Though many of his spells will overlap with those more focused on traditional elemental magics (such as summoning a snowstorm overlapping with air and ice, or manipulating rocks involving the earth school), his spells revolve around manipulating and replicating natural processes, not synthesizing new and unnatural processes. For example, he is able to cause rocks to heat and melt into magma, but cannot throw a fireball from mid-air. One of his main focuses with these spells is the manipulation of perceptions – shifting shadows and light to conceal himself, scrying, etc.
Additional Spells: As he moved into a more humanoid-oriented life, Visage picked up a few more generic spells to aid his habits. Spells like “Charm Person,” “Aura of Truth,” “Clarity of Mind,” and “Telepathy,” form the core of his most used spells of these schools. These are typically of shorter term and weaker than his primary druidic spells, but they are also generally more subtle when doing a deal in a trade guild’s hallway, serving their purpose to boost his natural charisma.
Standard: Visage possesses very little “standard” gear due to his shifting nature and needs. His weapons typically are the only consistent items. These are 1) a pair of thin longswords, designed and crafted by Dark Elves and passed down through his family since their time of enslavement; 2) a set of six 8-inch knives, designed as multi-purpose tools but with particular focus on throwing (hidden on his body/legs/arms, typically). Additionally, he wears an amulet of what appears to be obsidian and un-polished silver around his neck. The swords are typically worn on his back, with the hilts pointing down towards his hips for more effective quick-draw usage. The knives are positioned to be easily whipped out and thrown in a single motion from any position.
Magical:
1) His clothing. It took him years of work and hundreds of failed trials, but Visage eventually managed to craft a set of clothing that was just as changeable as him. This was done through the somewhat distasteful means of killing and skinning several other changelings who happened to get on his wrong side, then treating their hides and forming them into clothes. With a few runes to bond the clothes to him, they proved able to change at his whim. Once changed, he can take them on and off at will without issue. They can be recalled to his personage if ever lost as if through summoning, and will even meld with his body if he doesn’t need a certain piece.
2) His bow. Enchanted with Druidic power, his bow normally appears nothing more than a short cudgel hanging at his left hip. It is, however, a magically living piece of wood. Upon his will and grasp, the cudgel grows and forms into a full recurve bow. Ammunition is derived by plucking the twigs that spawn along one side of the bow – these twigs grow with a single triplet of leaves at the tail end, and the tip forms a kind of foursquare broadhead. The wood of the bow itself is magical oak, enchanted to be steely hard and durable. This is by far his most valued possession.
3) His amulet. The amulet is the only thing he didn’t craft – rather, he blackmailed it from a wizard. It is a simple amulet of Conceal Magic. It is always passively active, and serves to fend off any unwanted divination about himself, his clothes, or his bow. While used passively, it can merely block the average magic user, or a casual passive effect. If a skilled mage were to focus upon Visage, they could easily overcome the amulet. When he grasps it, he can extent the concealed area to a space about three feet out from his body, aiding in hiding. Again, however, this could not stand up to any focused examination by someone with decent magical skills. Just a way to make his life easier.
Visage is generally a jovial person. He enjoys being around people, and ensures they enjoy being around him. His general attitude revolves around that thought, although it changes with whatever culture/society he is in. That said, on a deeper level Visage’s dynamic and sometimes frighteningly fervent passions begin to become noticeable. His emotions are as changing as his forms – romantic, sensual; violent, bloodthirsty; cold, heartless; tender, compassionate…the list is endless. The one prevailing factor is that these are not wild swings – he is capable of controlling and suppressing his tendencies. They are, however, what drives him. Satisfaction, pleasure, and fulfillment are his simple yet profound goals in life.
Appearance: Visage’s appearance changes as much as anything else about him. Though he will take any form necessary, and more specifically whatever form will most suit his needs, he does tend to favor ones that are strikingly handsome/beautiful. He’s found that this kind of appearance typically enhances his negotiation powers, as well as deception. Clothing will be whatever is befitting, although again with a bent towards finer tastes. His “base” form as a changeling, however, is fairly simple – white skin, white eyes, white hair. His face carries a few scars from less-than-successful encounters with animals early on in his Druidic career. His clothes are darkened hides (still styled as a normal full set of clothing). He stands in this base form at a surprising and imposing 6'3" (essentially just shy of 2 meters), with a lithe but broad build and somewhat long arms and legs. He's well muscled, though not overly so (both because of magic and the fact that if he needs more strength he can use a stronger form).
{Picture is the best I could find for him…most “white eyes” searches turned up horror creatures, so ignore the iris/pupil}
Backstory:
Visage has no clue when or where he was born. He was raised in the home of small-town doctor on Fedimia, who gave him a decent life and presented him with the pair of swords that supposedly came from his real parents and were left with him. He was named Visage at first as a nickname by this father, since he was a changeling and his birth name was unknown. Eventually, however, the name just stuck. Aside from this, nothing of note happened during his childhood, except for the fact that he was generally ostracized due to his appearance. As he grew, the general animosity towards him grew as well. Though he loved his adopted father, he knew when it was time to go. As a teenager, he took what resources he had learned from the local townsfolk and from working his father’s small farm, his swords, and headed into the woods.
He set up for himself a small little home in the wilds, trapping and hunting to make a living. Ferianne, Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt, became his patron deity by default – he wasn’t precisely a good hunter or woodsman at this point in his life, and needed all the help he could get. As time passed, it turned out that he was still disliked by locals – in this case Druids. After two moves of his home territory and two more times being run off by Druids, he finally decided to confront his assailants. They did not see him as a threat, thankfully, otherwise he would have been long dead. Still, he was both an aberration and an interloper, and they gave him a choice – convert permanently to Druidism or leave the wilderness for good.
Visage, of course, decided to join them. Not because he really wanted to be a druid, but because he was a teenager who had just tried to live alone for a year. And hot girls with fit bodies wearing only leaves and leather didn’t make for that bad of company. Enthusiasm, needless to say, was not in short supply for Visage. Years passed, and Visage’s teenage hormone drives gradually were (partially) replaced with a keen mind and deep magical talent. He settled into druidism as his way of life…but, as usual, wanted to change things. He might have been a druid, but he was also a natural born businessman. His stretch of the woods lay between two major cities. The normal road rounded a set of mountains, was beset by bandits, and took two weeks to travel. His woods cut the trip down to a mere five days and were perfectly safe (at least with a Druid escort). Thus, he began doing business on the side, presenting himself as a wily old mountaineer.
Guiding became transporting, and transporting became trading. Soon he was running a successful trade business by himself, and found he liked the money and local influence. A few years and numerous ventures later, Visage was both wealthy and well connected. Still, he was only in the merchant class, and now he was at the age when ambition ruled his thoughts. He pushed himself higher by employing himself as a nobleman’s agent for different people, and once he had built a reputation went into business for himself. The “Poster and Page” system was his own design, and a highly efficient one. Within five years he was ensconced in the upper class aristocracy of Fedimia, regularly interacting even with royalty in many of his jobs. Nothing was beyond his skills, connections, or abilities – nothing too high, or too low.
He pursued not only magic – occasionally going back to his old homestead to commune with nature – but also knowledge. A crucial part of his business was to know everything. The other lands of his world became of interest due to international trade ventures, including Grissom and the history behind the inception of his own race.
With many agents he trained handling his affairs in Fedimia nowadays, Visage had long been considering shifting his attention and expanding his influence to other lands…as well as perhaps land himself a bit of adventure. When the government of Fedimia decided to hire people for an expedition to Grissom, the first name to be circulated among the officials responsible for planning this was the one who had solved so many problems for each of them before – Visage. With a ghostly yet influential trade and service-for-hire empire operating under his authority (commonly known as The United), his connections could certainly be of benefit, as well as his mysterious and myriad talents.
He, of course, graciously accepted.
Thus the adventure has begun.
