Post by Essien on Mar 17, 2009 13:33:56 GMT -5
Name: Essien Semedi
Class: Black Guard
Rank: 17
History:
Essien is the youngest son of House Semedi, a small but ancient family of Nagarythe. The Semedi have served Malekith from the time of the Sundering, but the house has long been tainted by association with the Cult of Pleasure. Officially, the Semedi venerate Chroesh-- Khaine in his aspect as the Serpent Lord-- but most well-informed Druchii recognize that this is a polite fiction. Whether birthright or curse, the celebration of perverse pleasures has echoed down the ancestral halls in Karond Kar from generation to generation.
Well aware of House Semedi's unorthodox habits, the Witch King might have snuffed them out at any time. The Hag Queens take a dim view of any challenge to the state religion, and few would object if their assassins were unleashed upon a family known, even among the Druchii, for deviance. Instead, Malekith pretends not to recognize the family's shame, accepting, in public, the notion that the Semedi are merely Khainites of a different flavor. Indeed, the King of the Druchii has honored House Semedi by inducting its sons into the ranks of his own Black Guard, and assigning them the most grueling and perilous of tasks so that they might prove their loyalty to him. If the Semedi are slaughtered in the process, well, such is the chance of war; and the Semedi themselves have never been able to deny or challenge a benefactor who protects them from the High Priestesses of Khaine.
Thus House Semedi is doubly cursed: first by the glory of Slaanesh, and second by the Witch King's 'favor.' Like so many before him, Essien's father-- the current Lord Semedi-- has been twisted and destroyed by both. Once a distinguished warrior and noble, the elf that Essien knows is a demented ruin of his former self. Crippled mentally during an encounter with an Asur Archmage, he is now little more than a rutting pig, spilling his seed wherever he may. Essien would kill him in disgust, but it amuses Malekith to maintain the elder's title, even though the management of the House has fallen to his son.
Essien Semedi struggles beneath the burden of this sinister inheritance. He loathes the beast that his father has become, and the family cult that has brutalized so many generations of his line. He hates Malekith with a cold passion for the cruelties visited upon House Semedi under the guise of honor, cruelties that have taken the lives of Essien's elder half-siblings. Most of all, he hates himself for his own dark predilections-- his taste for violence and pain, his need to subject others to his will. Young as he is by Druchii standards, he has been ground down by his hatred and resentment to the sharpness of a blade.
In other words, he is a model Black Guard. As Malekith intended.
Personality & Quirks:
Essien seems cold to the point of dispassion, but this is in fact the rictus of anger. His teeth are set perpetually against a world that holds no true satisfaction, save in those pleasures that he regards as a personal weakness and a blot upon his family's dignity. His icy facade is the product of a constant effort of will, an attempt to contain the wrath that occasionally breaks forth in episodes of brutal violence.
He finds some solace in the revels of the cult, but these pleasures-- so dear and necessary to him-- are always bittersweet. Essien scorns the perversions of Slaanesh even as he enacts them, detests the victims of his pleasures even as he desires them, and privately castigates himself for his inability to resist temptation.
He is seldom merry except in jest, or when under the influence of certain strong potions that he brews for himself and to which he is mildly addicted. When these lighter moods are drug-induced, Essien is perhaps even more dangerous than he is when sour or taciturn.
Class: Black Guard
Rank: 17
History:
Essien is the youngest son of House Semedi, a small but ancient family of Nagarythe. The Semedi have served Malekith from the time of the Sundering, but the house has long been tainted by association with the Cult of Pleasure. Officially, the Semedi venerate Chroesh-- Khaine in his aspect as the Serpent Lord-- but most well-informed Druchii recognize that this is a polite fiction. Whether birthright or curse, the celebration of perverse pleasures has echoed down the ancestral halls in Karond Kar from generation to generation.
Well aware of House Semedi's unorthodox habits, the Witch King might have snuffed them out at any time. The Hag Queens take a dim view of any challenge to the state religion, and few would object if their assassins were unleashed upon a family known, even among the Druchii, for deviance. Instead, Malekith pretends not to recognize the family's shame, accepting, in public, the notion that the Semedi are merely Khainites of a different flavor. Indeed, the King of the Druchii has honored House Semedi by inducting its sons into the ranks of his own Black Guard, and assigning them the most grueling and perilous of tasks so that they might prove their loyalty to him. If the Semedi are slaughtered in the process, well, such is the chance of war; and the Semedi themselves have never been able to deny or challenge a benefactor who protects them from the High Priestesses of Khaine.
Thus House Semedi is doubly cursed: first by the glory of Slaanesh, and second by the Witch King's 'favor.' Like so many before him, Essien's father-- the current Lord Semedi-- has been twisted and destroyed by both. Once a distinguished warrior and noble, the elf that Essien knows is a demented ruin of his former self. Crippled mentally during an encounter with an Asur Archmage, he is now little more than a rutting pig, spilling his seed wherever he may. Essien would kill him in disgust, but it amuses Malekith to maintain the elder's title, even though the management of the House has fallen to his son.
Essien Semedi struggles beneath the burden of this sinister inheritance. He loathes the beast that his father has become, and the family cult that has brutalized so many generations of his line. He hates Malekith with a cold passion for the cruelties visited upon House Semedi under the guise of honor, cruelties that have taken the lives of Essien's elder half-siblings. Most of all, he hates himself for his own dark predilections-- his taste for violence and pain, his need to subject others to his will. Young as he is by Druchii standards, he has been ground down by his hatred and resentment to the sharpness of a blade.
In other words, he is a model Black Guard. As Malekith intended.
Personality & Quirks:
Essien seems cold to the point of dispassion, but this is in fact the rictus of anger. His teeth are set perpetually against a world that holds no true satisfaction, save in those pleasures that he regards as a personal weakness and a blot upon his family's dignity. His icy facade is the product of a constant effort of will, an attempt to contain the wrath that occasionally breaks forth in episodes of brutal violence.
He finds some solace in the revels of the cult, but these pleasures-- so dear and necessary to him-- are always bittersweet. Essien scorns the perversions of Slaanesh even as he enacts them, detests the victims of his pleasures even as he desires them, and privately castigates himself for his inability to resist temptation.
He is seldom merry except in jest, or when under the influence of certain strong potions that he brews for himself and to which he is mildly addicted. When these lighter moods are drug-induced, Essien is perhaps even more dangerous than he is when sour or taciturn.