Ikosul

Ikosul's appearance largely follows the pattern of magi fashions, favouring loose long fitting robes that do not hinder the gestures and motions of the art of magic, but even then there is a unique style and substance to the way sorcerers and wizards present themselves, usually telling of the way they work the world to their will.

The deep blood-red robes Ikosul wears do their best to cover every inch of skin, the cuffs and hem flowing over worn leather boots and well detailed copper backed bracers, till little can be seen of booted feet of black-gloved hands. Over this the sorcerer wears a black hooded mantle that when belted gives his garb the volume of a those of a monk or priest with the heavy folds of the hood thick over the shoulders. Over this garb are an assortment of necklaces and trinkets, with the bulges of more hidden beneath the fold of cloth. Oddly, the sorcerer wears only two silver rings, over his sable gloves.

Standing out from the rest of his costume, and sometimes more than even his face is the face with which his enemies are acquainted; his copper war mask that lies, when not worn, on its tether about his neck, so even when in a peaceable mood the angry visage looks over all. The finely crafted folds of burnished metal give of the gleam of something given exquisite care even over the many scars and dents of battles long fought. The face of copper is lacking in most of features that give others ease, its inhumanity plain in the warm metal.

Ikosul himself has a face that could have easily been formed by a blacksmith or stonemason, given its perpetually sour expression and fixed umber eyes. The half elf has long sandy-blonde hair tied in a braid that disappears into the fold of his robes. His beard that graces only his cheeks without joining about the mouth is also braided in two shorter tails than hang over his chest. The sorcerer bears two scars, one over the tip of his left eyebrow and another hanging down from his bottom lip, the very tip of his right ear is missing, giving him a more human appearance from the right angles.

Born and raised in the River Kingdom of Daggermark, Ikosul spent his early youth an outcast and a street urchin after both his parents died at the hands of their feuding families, each one believing that interbreeding was a sinful and criminal assault on their bloodlines. This was the first time his dual lineage took a tragic toll on his life, but far from the last. The next years were dark and starved of joy with little more than dim hope of a better future keeping Ikosul going.

It was at the age of thirteen that Ikosul first used magic, unaware that it was his human mother's heritage that put the power of fire in his veins, and with the corpse of a mugger lying smouldering at his feet there was nothing but a brightening sense of joy overcoming the youth. For the first time since his memory began he felt the master of his own fate, and would be damned if he would take a step back from that. Everything denied by his harsh youth would be taken back; power, wealth, joy, every luxury he could wrestle back from the world that had seen him suffer would be his.

In the years that followed Ikosul worked across the River Kingdoms, unwilling to bend his newfound freedom to any school or order of magic, taking the harsher path of mastering the flame on his own. He put his talents to work as a mercenary sorcerer, hired for the unique brand of destruction and mayhem his fire wrought. Through this he found he was well accustomed to killing and worse, perhaps more so that he would let himself believe at the time. Before long offhand work with small time contracts grew dull and unfulfilling for his lust for power, and in what was perhaps a rash step Ikosul formed his own mercenary company with many of the contacts he had made working the mercenary scene. They were the Whores of Perdition, a band of murders, killers and thieves of every talent and persuasion, and for decades they navigated the blurry line between hired enforcer and bandit, a muddy area in the River Kingdoms especially.

If there is one thing that can be certain about working with unsavoury sorts, it is that there will come a point where someone's greed outmatches expectation or understanding and whether it is yours or another's it will always have the same result; betrayal. Ikosul will say little of this part of his life, but the results are plain. The Whores of Perdition are gone, with most members dead and the few remaining scattered across the River Kingdoms and beyond. Ikosul left the region, heading into Brevoy in search of better prospects, robbed of almost every coin he had all that remains is the unerring desire for wealth and power, and any opportunity to retake his manifest destiny, with more than a few enemies left in his wake.

Since the circumstances of his parentage, Ikosul has a deep hatred for both Humans and Elves, as well as any overt or overzealous devotion to family, lineage, race or culture. An outcast of both lines, he refuses to be held account to his past and loathes others who do. For him there is only the moment, and the promise of tomorrow, and there in no sense in anything else.

Ikosul killed his first person at a young age, and has killed many more people and monsters since, developing a talent for it. But more than just a talent, he finds he is comfortable with things most others would balk at, a trait that became increasingly useful as a mercenary. Yet the apathy displayed at the death and suffering at others is only found behind the copper war mask the sorcerer wears in combat. Many of the Whores of Perdition would joke whether it was a flood of tears or a wicked and twisted smile the sorcerer hid while he killed, but none live who know. Regardless the sorcerer donning his mask is a sign that violence is more than likely to ensue.