 About Niru EtriganStats:
Male half-elf (chelaxian) cleric of Gozreh (separatist) 1 NG Medium humanoid (elf, human) Init +1; Senses low-light vision, Perception +5 DEFENSE
Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +5, +2 vs. enchantment spells and effects OFFENSE
Domain Power Spell-Like Abilities Lightning Arc
STATISTICS
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 11 Feats Simple Weapon Proficiency, Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Spell Focus (Conjuration) Traits Colonist, Focused Mind Skills Diplomacy +9 , Knowledge (Religion) +5 , Perception +5 , Profession (Sailor) +7 , Sense Motive +7 Languages Common, Elven, Polyglot
Background:
All Niru can remember of his mother is a quicksilver sense of charm and menace. She was a Ekujae elf who only called herself Thistle, and spoke little of where she came from. Nikodimus Etrigan found her as he was supervising the unloading of and Aspis consortium affiliated ship in Bloodcove. Apparently a recently escaped slave, she was hiding in the cargo hold. The crew was ready to return her to her captors for a finder’s fee when she made a bold offer. Staring down the man in charge she declared she would faithfully enter into ten years of indentured servitude with Aspis, if then be set free. Almost anyone else making such an offer would be laughed at and summarily clubbed into unconsciousness, but this elf was different. She radiated confidence and intensity. Niru’s father was a man whose life heretofore was a series of calculated risks, here he took another one and took her on as his servant.
Quickly she became his most important asset. She was a messenger, spy, advisor and negotiating partner. As a servant elf she was often ignored by those around her she had an uncanny capacity to read people and situations. Together they knit together an efficient network of traders, smugglers and spies working closely with the Ijo tribesmen in the area between Bloodcove and Crown’s End. A few years into their association their relationship bore fruit in the form of the young Niru. The birth of a child to a servant elicited little more than shrugs from most. It was latter reported to him by his father’s closest associates that Nikodimus himself had profoundly mixed feelings about the matter, which he covered up by asserting that in time Niru would be another valuable asset. Ten years to the day after they met Thistle deposited the six year old Niru in front of his father and declared her debt paid, she was leaving. Niko was too stunned to stop her from walking out the door and vanishing into the jungle. For a while things went on as they had before. Niru’s father was mostly distant and as he grew up he spent much of his time working amongst the Ijo employed by his father, their easy manner amid all the troubles in Sargava was comforting and inspiring to him. As he grew into adolescence Niru’s father began to change. He started slipping in his business operations and became increasingly obsessed with religion, eventually fixating on Gozreh and the Eye of Abendengo. He would talk in an increasingly disjointed fashion about “piercing the veil” and “seeing the heart” of things. It was sat this time that he seemingly began to notice his son for the first time, at last taking note of his reflective nature. He pulled Niru away from consortium related operations and sent him to live with a handful of devout followers of Gozreh. Niru had very mixed feelings. They seemed harsh and dour, profoundly unlike the Bonuwat tribesmen with whom he felt at home. Never the less he found himself moved by the power of nature around him and he applied himself to studying the ways of Gozreh. Just when he began to feel the stirrings of divine potency within he received news that his father had gone. Fully in the grip of his religious obsession Niko had declared that the Eye was the most important event in modern history and that he must recover one of the masks worn by the orginal Storm Kindlers to try and understand it. He departed with a small group of second wave Storm Kindlers to the Sodden Lands. Now a young adult, Niru traveled to the capital to confer with his only remaining relative, his father’s half-brother Benitus, himself a long time Aspis operative. Benitus immediately laid the blame with Thistle declaring she had somehow driven his father mad. He gave the young Niru a small sack of gold as an inheritance, saying his father was certainly dead or as good as, and offered him a job with his company. He warned him to stay away from the Sodden Lands and his mother but was unsuprised when Niru instead arranged passage with the Bonuwat to Jula. In the end Niru found terror and fear and near death in the Sodden Lands but never saw his father. What he did find was an abandoned inn, fruitlessly fortified against attack by his father and associates, the door smashed into splinters. Inside there were no valuables, just meaningless papers and personal affects scattered about. The goz mask so ardently sought was there, cloven in two pieces. The only thing of value he did find was a journal belonging to his father. Only partially intact it contained long ranting passages that seemed to confirm his uncle’s impression. It seemed his father believed that Thistle was sending him messages and portents from wherever she had vanished into the jungle. It was never clear to what end. Unmoored from his life and distraught he continued traveling with the little money he had left. Following the stirrings of a divine yearning in his heart he traveled to Varisia to learn about Desna in the land that venerated her. The free spirited church of Desna was fascinating and liberating to him but it lacked the gravitas he found in Gozreh’s connection to his homeland. Increasingly he thought on the faith of the Bonuwat. Their faith in Shimye-Magalla became more and more compelling. He resolved to return home and follow his faith in that fusion wherever it led, certain that his troubled homeland needed the answers it could provide. He spent the last of his gold to board one final ship home. Hoping to find his uncle and tell him about what he has found about his father, and hoping to show the faithful of Gozreh what he has learned in Varisia. He feels the people of Sargava are trapped by a dark vision of the past, and that Desna made one with Gozreh offers a future tied to the land they love but free from the chains of tyranny and the cycle of violence. His last communication from his uncle in the capital was disturbing, stories of his father’s old network disintegrating, operatives behaving strangely. Bentius clearly blames Thistle, and has balefully declared his intention to end the problem. Niru affects a mild demeanor and endeavors to always be conciliatory and approachable. Having spent much of his childhood among the Ijo he has learned to wear the easy smile of the Bonuwat tribesmen, but underneath there are flashes of his mother’s intensity and his father’s calculation. Having been on board the ship since Magnimar he has had plenty of time to converse with the gnome Gelik Aberwhinge, often spending hours on end in discussions of religion, philosophy, history and politics. Niru has not had the opportunity to be as well informed as he would like, but he is a good listener and the two have gotten along well. His knowledge of sailing and sympathetic ear have also struck a chord with Alton Devers who has taken the opportunity to unburden himself of some of his resentments towards the captain. He is very much the sort to have private conversations aimed at repairing frayed relationships and soothing perceived slights. Niru has taken an interest in the welfare of his fellow half-elf Aeyrs Mavato, attempting to make her feel welcome and inquiring after her health without wanting to seem as though he was prying into her business. He is also strongly interested in Ieana’s scholarly pursuits but again does not want to be rude, hoping that his patience and respect for scholarship will be we rewarded with insight.
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