 Achates Phoenixdown |
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|---|---|
| Game Information | |
| Race | Blood elf |
| Class | Warlock |
| Guild | House Sunfury |
| Professions | Tailor Herbalist |
| Vital Statistics | |
| Height | 5 feet, 2 inches |
| Build | Slight |
| Hair | Blonde |
| Eyes | Green |
| Personal Information | |
| Alignment | Lawful Neutral |
| Age | 65 |
| Marital Status | Single |
| Pets | Clank (robot squirrel) Treasure (worg pup) |
| Family | Pallas (older brother) Gaius (father, deceased) Beatrice (mother) |
Description[]
As blood elves go Achates is a bit skinnier than normal, paler perhaps in a way that would suggest sickliness of the typical academic too-many-books-too-little-sun type. His hair is the usual pale blond, down midway to his back, usually kept in a loose ponytail, although it is not uncommon to see it falling out around his face. He can be seen wearing a small pair of brass oval glasses, although he takes them off every five seconds to polish them nervously. He also wears a simple necklace made of a soul shard strung on a leather cord, and fiddles with it nervously quite often.
To see him smile, or at least smile without a trace of nervousness, is a rare thing indeed. Near-constantly he looks worried, panicked or somehow distressed; a few of the more unkind orcs have described him as having the look of a rabbit just pulled out of a hat. He often fusses over minor details of his appearance, buttoning and unbuttoning the cuffs on his robes, straightening his hair, polishing his glasses, not out of vanity but out of nervous compulsion. As such he usually comes off as a bit of a dandy (what male blood elves don't really?) but an incompetent one, as his senses of fashion, style, and color are lacking at best.
He seems to constantly be fidgeting with his sleeves, pulling them down; the few times they do ride up it is obvious to see thick scars wrapping around his wrists and snaking up his arms and chest in a spiderweb-like pattern, obviously from some sort of arcane energy. When asked about them he usually refuses to answer point-blank, and if pressed often becomes somewhat hysterical, adamantly professing to be a 'good citizen'.
About[]
Childhood[]
Achates had a relatively simple and quiet childhood. His family was firmly in the middle class, if in the lower middle class, what they didn't have by way of money they made with respect. His mother was always a bit loopy and apparently skipped out on his father shortly after he was born, as he was the younger of the two brothers; there were nasty rumors - most of them true - about a human mage of the Kirin Tor seducing her but his father withstood them and raised his two boys quite well. Achates' father Gaius was a craftsman of a wholly unique High Elven type - a specialty fletcher. While anyone can make an arrow, Gaius' arrows were of the finest quality, but more importantly the arrowtips were engraved with runes connected to various enchantments. As only Gaius knew this special brand of magic and kept it secret from even his sons, his arrows became all the rage with dedicated High Elven hunters, from the one that promised its mark a quick and painless death at first shot to the one that merely stunned its mark and left no painful wound (a favourite of those that only hunted for bragging rights). Achates' older brother Pallas was put in charge of selling specialty arrows in Quel'Thalas as they grew in popularity; as such he took the opportunity to quickly pick up on Common for a larger customer base in the Kirin Tor - and he also didn't mind the opportunity to flirt with everything female and breathing. Achates kept Pallas company on these trips to do mundane chores like keep track of how much money was made and generally keep the cart straightened and tidy.
Adolescence[]
The first rumors of attacks didn't scare the Phoenixdowns away, even though Gaius did note some groups of high elves splintering off to go join Jania Proudmoore's forces or other such operations. They often tried to recruit him, to which he merely laughed, knowing that they just wanted his arrows and not really the man, and that when they got out on the battlefield without an enchanted arrow to fatally poison their enemy they'd be in quite a pickle to say the least. Out of loyalty to Quel'Thalas and to his homeland, Gaius stayed, and so did his children, even though Pallas was reportedly extremely sorry to see some of the prettier girls leave.
Achates had the great fortune to be with his brother when the undead armies hit Quel'Thalas. The call came that the armies had hit their small, suburban town, and they essentially set out just as Arthas and friends were arriving; although they had to ditch the cart full of valuable enchanted arrows behind, they made it through alive. The two brothers left a panicky but okay city, set out for home to find everyone dead, and then turned around to find Quel'Thalas under siege and quickly falling. The only living thing in their hometown that they were able to find was a stray dog that Achates had been feeding out of pity. Noticeably traumatized by coming to find their father and friends dead, Achates argued with his brother until he agreed to take the slightly mangy, off-white wolfish-looking mutt with them. They then turned around and headed back to the disaster that was Quel'Thalas, where a guard recognized them and helped sneak them in for the last of the stock of enchanted arrows that Achates was carrying with him.
Through some miracle the two brothers managed to survive without becoming seperated. The Sunwell's destruction affected them more profoundly than the two would have ever thought; although Pallas did know how to defend himself with a few rudimentary magic spells, Achates didn't know any magic at all. It was hard to tell what part of their apathy was connected with the destruction of the Sunwell and what part of it was connected with their shock and grief. Whatever the case, Achates dutifully began to study the arcane - specifically, the darker side of the arcane - as it was pushed as the Good and Right thing to do in blood elf propoganda; Pallas honed his skills but seemed to be profoundly affected by a few week's worth of arcane-addiction induced paranoia, suddenly seeing conspiracy theories everywhere. As the Necropolis invasion hit and a newly-reconstructed Quel'Thalas took another major hit, Pallas finally couldn't take it anymore, fleeing into the scourge-infested forests. The arrival of the necropolis sparked a mass panic as the more unstable of the blood elves fled in blind terror, hoping in vain to somehow make it through the plaguelands and Alterac mountains to beg for mercy from their cousins in the Hinterlands.
Equally terrified, Achates barely managed to stay in the again-crumbling capital, half compelled because of the fact he wanted to follow the new charismatic blood elf leaders and half compelled by his pet dog which he had loyally dragged along with him through all this mess. The creature was wholly affable save for one trait, and that was its tendency to cry and whine at the Necropolis' ceaseless announcements about death and doom. Most of the time Achates was more than content to try and comfort the creature as best he could and be happily distracted by a large fuzzy huggable beast. It was however the one night when he was wrestling with a perticularly tough problem relating to darker magic, and the Necropolis over the city seemed closer than ever, and Achates was more than frustrated because he was sure his brother would have been able to help him (if only Pallas was there!), when the large fuzzy white dog began to cry and howl in distress. Achates yelled at it; it yowled and cried even more loudly. He yelled even more, and lost his temper... and then suddenly there was silence (indoors, anyway) and Achates suddenly noticed a little purple crystal inbetween his fingers, and his beloved longsuffering dog was dead. Achates has never quite forgiven himself for accidentally killing the devoted little pup, besides setting his outlook on life as resolutely grim this incident set him irrevocably on the path to becoming (and staying) a warlock. He still wears the soul shard of the dog around his neck in a simple necklace.
Recent Events[]
Nowadays Achates can best be described as lost - one very much gets the impression that he let his older brother do the deciding for most of his life and is not comfortable at all with the idea of thinking for himself. As such he tends to latch on to people and follow them blindly. The ideas of the current blood elf administration are all fantastic (never mind that some of them originate with Illidan), if something's faddish he thinks it's hip too. Add to this a sort of Eeyore-like fatalism and Achates is quite simply a rather irritating person to be around. He usually ends up wandering around not with groups of blood elves but simply with whoever he happens to find, and because he's such an eternal pessimist, if an orc or troll say starts making snide insulting comments about blood elves, instead of being insulted, he will instead start agreeing with them - both to feel part of the group, and to reinforce his natural gloom-and-doom. Achates is in essence spineless, something that is very dangerous for a warlock to be. He is completely under the sway of his imp, who insists that their relationship is governed by principles of "business"; his voidwalker, though polite, terrifies him and answers more to his imp than to him; his succubus has him completely under her thumb (or whip, depending on mood?)... well, you get the idea.
Thankfully for him, the current Silverlord that he has pledged his loyalty to is a rather nice fellow who genuinely looks out for him, even if Alkaiser does remain distracted with many other matters most of the time. He has also been scooped up by a certain older, wiser (?) warlock by the name of Zaliron Al'Malite who is intent on teaching him to be a proper warlock, even if that means some minor torture and harassment here and there to make lessons stick.
Current Events[]
After the Silverguard was forcefully disbanded by the Silvermoon government due to accusations of disloyalty, Achates wandered without much purpose for some time; the death of his friend Ysabelle only supported his feelings of panic. However he has found a new set of friends and allies within the halls of House Sunfury, and has settled in quite comfortably there, even if he is now more prone to even more negative thinking and paranoia, especially the idea that anything bad that happens to anyone must be, in some way, his fault.
He has acquired a new pet in the form of a worg puppy, tamed from Blackrock Mountain. The thing is incredibly spoiled, named Treasure, and he is now rarely seen without it, lavishing attention, affection and especially treats upon it.
More Current Events[]
(aka the "I can't be arsed to go back and rewrite that last section, yet need to get caught up as far as roleplay goes" section.)
Settling firmly into being a member of House Sunfury, Achates has found a new set of good friends. Between the orc-style pep talks of the captain of the guard, Skalgrim, and the care and attention of Matriarch Lianthe, Achates has largely flourished, even if still wrestling with the concept of trying to be loyal to the Silvermoon state despite knowledge of what was going on in Outlands. Although now a 'journeyman' warlock, released from his apprenticeship to Zaliron, he still remains somewhat loyal to his former Master and old friends - well, at least up until the point where Zaliron appeared deeply ungrateful for the trouble the group as a whole went through to rescue him.
As of late he has been distinctively happier and more upbeat, finally finding love in Chiela's arms, although between his own natural sappiness and his subconcious mimicry of the fluffy romance novels he reads, it's pretty well agreed that Achates in love is so sweet it makes peoples pancreases hurt.
Married Bliss - and inevitable betrayal[]
Achates eloped with Chiela and was married in a small, quiet ceremony in Ferelas. Since then they have lived in a small cottage near the House Sunfury keep. For the vast majority they have lived happily so far, only worrying about Chiela's health and the new war in Quel'danas.
However, Achates' demons enacted their plan to betray him, and for a period of roughly two weeks the Wrathguard Captain Neoptolemus of the Burning Scimitar inhabited his body. The demon's aim was to gather intelligence for the Burning Legion until he finally revealed himself, taking out as many with him as he could on the top of the Aldor rise. However the demon did not count on how many people cared for Achates, and was quickly defeated. During this time Achates' spirit was captured and tortured, seized in a complicated spell so that his pain fueled the mana forges of Netherstorm. Eventually however he was reunited with his body, mostly due to Chiela's love and devotion.
Now he views his demons with suspicion, at best, and is still deeply shaken by his experiences.
Personal Philosophy[]
Achates is a little wierd when it comes to morals. Specifically, he has completely absorbed what Gakyal has told him is right, mostly because he is quick to cling to someone and follow them unconditionally - it also meshes nicely (a lot more nicely than actually, you know, thinking) with going to fight wherever he's told. He believes that there is some sort of afterlife, and whatever afterlife there is must be a happy one. Therefore he doesn't see killing as horrendous, but more as an act of mercy - it's not slaughter to him as much as it is reuniting families, lovers, and friends. Although he doesn't instigate fights with Alliance - he's far too much of a coward for that! - he gladly runs with the crowd in attacks, and doesn't seem too inclined to spare much of anyone. From his point of view it's completely fine to kill even children (after all, why leave them when you can spare them the pain of grieving a parent? Why not just send them to a swift, gentle death so they can be with their parents again?). Of course - he completely skips over the idea that it may not be neccessary to kill anyone at all - but his justification for that is usually "somebody told me to".
Although he is now almost overly strict with his demons, Gakyal's philosophy still has stuck with him. He has learned to kill without remorse or regret, placing that blame instead on the people who have ordered him to do so. Combined with this is a new sort of viciousness when it comes to defending those he loves - specifically, House Sunfury and especially Chiela.
Adventures & Stories[]
Achates' current adventures are chronicled in the story/journal Business. The exception to the Business log is the in-game time between Children's Week and the disbanding of the Silverguard, which is covered in the story First Corinthians 13:2.
Illustrations[]
Achates casting Hellfire
Achates in his natural habitat - i.e., reading a cheezy romance novel in a pillow fort while his Master Zaliron sighs at having quite possibly one of the worst apprentices ever.
Achates taking his felhunter for WALKIES!
New portrait of Achates, and the player's DeviantArt.