I wanted Menzaen to be everything my other characters weren't, roleplay wise. I'd explored extensively as Aenail and saw so many awesome areas with a lot of backstory that no one ever uses. So I used it. I'd post the descriptions of stuff I based my role on, but it's from Thar-Acacia and thus off limits. All I can say is to go explore it yourself! Well worth the trip.

That said, I was a Thar-Acacian Drow. I did not hate elves, I did not like the dark, and all in all, I could give a flying #### what alignment you were.

I was sphere Time/Fate and did my best to incorporate it actively into the character. I was a historian, but one who cared as much about the future as the past. I trusted in fate for everything, and blamed both good and ill on it.

Pride was also a major part of Menzaen. I wanted my people to be freed of the shame that put them in Thar-Acacia. Order came above all else.

I wrote my role in a unique fashion. With each entry was a bit of dialogue, and after it came a journal entry. The dialogue moved back in time, and the journal forward, pivoting on the time of my self-imposed Exile (i.e. rolling). First came an outline, which I used as a rough guide. 8 and 9 were never entered.

#1 I am leaving home. I have arrived in Arkham.
#2 I loathe our seclusion. I have joined assassin's guild.
Oaths: Swear it! I never make an oath I can't keep.
#3 Why do you always look at the moon like that? I looked at the moon tonight.
#4 Vakrin admonishes me. I wonder if Vakrin played a part in my departure.
#5 I havn't chosen an art to study, only history. The histories always intrigued me.
#6 Father teaches me to play chess. The Empire is like a living game of chess.
#7 What's outside the walls? I have always looked beyond the immediate.

#8 Vakrin speaks to my parents. What does the future hold for my people?
#9 There is something strange about the child. My earliest memory...




Your description is:
An aura of disquiet emanates from the slender form of a male drow. His face,
though young in appearance, is all hard angles and lines. Two cold eyes of
violet stare unblinkingly, faintly luminescent day or night. The thin line
that is his mouth harbors no traces of mirth, and the pale, bloodless lips
seldom part. A length of stark-white hair sprouts from his crown, pulled
back tightly and knotted into a pony tail with a leather cord. His build is
light, but what muscle is visible is all well-toned, if modest. A pendant of
dazzling blue crystal rests on his chest, in stark contrast with its crude
iron chain.


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#1

"You leave us now?"
"I do."
"Where will you go?"
"Somewhere. Anywhere. Arkham."
"Arkham?"
"Arkham. Why not Arkham?"
"Will you be back?"
"It cannot be foreseen. Time will reveal all."
"Take this, then."
"Where did you find this? It is forbidden. You know that."
"Take it. Please."
"Goodbye, Caezina."
"Goodbye, Menzaen."

It has been two weeks since my self-imposed banishment. No one leaves, no one ever leaves Thar-Acacia. Yet I have left, and it will be years before I return, if I ever do. The security of those walls is lost to me. It is peculiar what things our emotions invest themselves in. Cold walls. Inanimate walls. Dead walls. It is not Caezina for whom I cry, it is the walls. That too will fade, in time. In a hundred years, will I remember those walls? Will the memory distort and blur, until in my mind they are indistinguishable from the crumbling affront to masonry that encircles Arkham?

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#2

"There is a reason for our seclusion. You should have learned that years ago, Menzaen."

"I understand that father, but that is an archaic idea. The world outside has changed, it must have by now. Why must we cower when we can rebuild?"

"We do not cower! The world outside is not fit for us, that does not mean we cower."

"Then why not make the world outside fit for us? We could be masters of the lands, and instead, what are we? Nothings, that's what we are. Recluses for eternity. Vakrin sits up there, in the tower, with his council, day in and day out. Nothing changes, there is no progress. Whenever our ways are questioned, he only points to the tapestries. Those tapestries are ancient irrelevant relics!"

"You are young, Menzaen. You will learn to respect Vakrin for what he is.


The time I have spent with the Assassin's guild will soon mark me for life. The astute observer will know the training that lies behind the fluid grace with which I learn to strike. Interestingly enough, my choice will transform my self-imposed banishment into something more concrete. The arts I have chosen to study have been forbidden for millenia within Thar-Acacia, and if my ways are recognized, nothing will save me from their wrath. Perhaps it is fate that draws me towards a path ever farther from my heritage.

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#3


"Why do you always look at the moon like that?"

"I've always looked at the moon like that, you know that Caezina."

"Yes, but why?"

"Because I like to think about how it is the same moon that our ancestors gazed upon during the Great War. The moon is always there, watching, and she always will be. When I look at her, I feel like I am glimpsing the past--or the future."

"What about the sun? The sun has always been in the sky, and always will be, yet you do not obsess over it."

"The sun does not allow us to look upon her. The moon does."

"Can you believe that there are those of our race who live underground, who have never seen the moon, nor the sun? I would dread to be one of them."

"I try not to believe it."

I watched the moonrise tonight for the first time since I left Thar-Acacia. It was a full moon, red as it rose above the horizen. It is written that a full moon rose over the blood-soaked battlefields after the Great War ended. The texts say it was the first time a red moon rose, and that it symbolizes the slaughter of that day. I wish I had been alive during the war. I'd like to think that things may have been different, that we would not have ran and hid like cowards.
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"Swear it! Swear you'll never leave!"

"Do not throw things at me, Caezina. I will not make a promise I cannot keep."



I took an oath to the Empire, an oath I intend to keep. Though I have never broken an oath before, I feel a strange compulsion to remain loyal to this one. I'm not sure that I could breech it even if it was my desire to. With each passing day, I feel myself grow even more bound to my fate.

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#4
"Child, I have summoned you here for a reason, one that has been looming over you for some time. I trust you know what I speak of."

"I believe I do, Lord Vakrin."

"Then let us keep this to the point. Your rebellion against the traditions of Thar-Acacia is at the very least upsetting. At the worst, you disasterous to our soceity. Some of the council question whether you are able to function in a soceity as structured as ours is. You must make a choice, redeem yourself, or face banishment."

"It is not that Lord, I respect the world we have built for ourselves. I merely wish to extend our sphere unto the rest of the world. Why do we waste ourselves cooped up in towers when the armies of Order should command the respect of entire continents?"

"You are young and rash child. My ultimatum stands."


Often, lately, I have thought back to a meeting with the Order Lord Vakrin several years before my exile. I wonder at times if all was not as it seemed with that ancient man. In retrospect, it almost seems as if he was trying to give me the push, the motivation I needed to leave Thar-Acacia. We are a conservative people, but perhaps there is a reflection of my ambitions within the man that salvaged us so many years ago.

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#5
"You should have chosen a guild a decade ago today. I will not wait much longer, if you disgrace me I will disown you without pause. Know this."

"How could I join a guild when there is so much to study already? I have just now found this tome, it is an ancient text from the first days of our city. It describes in every facet the creation of the anti-magic warriors. By studying it, I hope to find a weak..."

"And what could would it do you? They are out there, beyond the mists, not within our walls."

"Yes...yes...I suppose you are correct, they are beyond the mists."


There is so much history in Thera to absorb, I cannot read fast enough. There are literally eons of history that has passed unnoticed by Thar-Acacia, and there is only so much time in a day. By the time I have tended to my duties as an Imperial Citizen, there is only so much studying I can do. There is a great lyceum here that I owe a visit still...I am just as interested in the world's past as I am in moulding its future.
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"Chess is the game of politicians, if an imperfect one. Each piece has a value, and importance, and a limited range of uses. Some, more limited to others. A chessmaster understands when and what to sacrifice on the path to victory. A good politician is the same. First there are the pawns, extremely limited and equally expendable..."


My father once told me that politics are like a game of chess, that each person has an intrinsic worth that corresponds with their range of usefulness. Never have I felt that to be more true than now, as I hold the rank of Elite Imperial Shadow. I have encountered several pawns that will require sacrificing in order to tame this wild country. Beyond the pawns, there are also rooks and bishops which must be manipulated delicately, sacrificed only in the most dire necessity. Soon, perhaps, there will be a King, requiring the most delicate touch of all...
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|898hp| |791mv| |civilized| |12 AM| |waning| role read 1
Subject: What lies beyond those walls/The memory visions return
Added Sun Aug 3 10:50:10 2003 at level 51:
"Father, what's beyond those walls?"

"The mists that guard us, you should know that. Have you been neglecting your studies?"

"I know that, but what is beyond the mists? I know, the mountains, but what is beyond the mountains?"

"I don't know Menzaen, more mountains, I'm sure. Why does it matter? Who's putting these questions into your head?"

"No one is putting these questions into my head, father."


The unbeckoned memory visions which I had grown so accustomed to have finally
returned to me. It is peculiar that one can grow so familiar with such an eldritch
event. What held true then still holds now: I have always looked beyond the
immediate, beyond the present, beyond the obvious...What was once merely a
matter of curiousity has grown into something much more deadly. As I now ponder
what lies beyond the immediate, I realize that I am on dangerous ground. I have
known for some time that I would replace Yanacek as Shadow Lord, but it is
only now that I make the preperations for this vital step. It was the words of
the divine Khasotholas that have motivated my preperations, when he spoke, "Then
why are you not Shadow Lord, Menzaen?"



I have faltered in my faith. I must trust in my fate to guide me through
this endeavor.