So, essentially, I've constructed an Alchemist. Rather, a "Reanimator" but he wasn't always such a bad guy. That said, here's his story:
City of residence: Logas
Occupation: Mortician
Crime: Crimes against nature, Desecration, Grave robbing, Kidnapping, Murder.
Himmler Stroud was once a proclaimed Alchemist, an Apothecary, for the city-state, Logas. That was, until a chance meeting with an unknown individual sparked his interest in the wiles of horrific thoughts and practices. Primarily, he switched his tastes to, at first, a light hearted study of the average elven body. Primarily, he took an interest in the structure of women.
Himmler, being the elf that he is, once had an elven wife, whom he had married and loved dearingly for almost 2 centuries. So long was his time spent with her that the local area, awash in his friends and customers, knew very well of their love and kindness. Unfortunately, as with all good things, the end game, albeit abruptly. Himmler's wife, Sazilya, was killed by an undetermined poison.
In that moment of her death, Himmler buried her corpse and planted a tree directly above her corpse, and placed no grave stone. He was, unfortunately, not capable of ever getting over her time with him, and exposed her resting place with his frequent visits.
Originally, Himmler further developed his skills in Alchemy, and began by finding the antitoxin for his lover's fatal poison, which he found to be particularly, though not coincedintally, fatal towards Elves.
Himmler began his studies toward the poisons antidote by conducting experiments on Logas's prisoners. Particularly half-elves, as they were slightly less vulnerable than true elves, and mostly because the poison had almost no effect on humans and the other races. He was never able to test it on a Drow, but he consistently considered conducting a test on one of the loathsome kind. A fleeting thought, however.
Upon discovering his deepening talent for Alchemy, Himmler sequestered himself from people, talked less, and fell into a deep, dark depression, and frequently found himself destroying his work and sobbing relentlessly over his recent loss. It wasn't a month before he was approached by a wandering man whom the locals had never seen before. It was, when this happened, that only a few days later, Himmler had packed his things and left Logas.
Himmler's visitor had teased him, for unknown reasons, about the possibility of returning his late wife. In this regard, he presented him with a bundle of formulae papers, torn from a book with black pages with the text written in white. On said pages, were the early workings, but the man mysteriously disappeared just as soon as he'd made the trade, having sown his seeds of internal destruction for the poor Himmler Stroud.
As aforementioned, he took his first steps lightly towards the art of necromantic liquids slowly. At first, he made diagrams of the Elven body, based on his memories. They unfortunately weren't enough, and as a result, he happened along the news of yet another death of an Elf in Logas. It was... surprising.
Given that, Himmler realized, almost as soon as the townsfolk did, that there was a serial killer within Logas that was targeting elves. Only a few miles away from the city, Himmler decided that he was presented with an opportunity. What he lacked in combat prowess, he made up for it in future planning, and so, with his lengthy lifespan, he found a good plan.
The killer would do 2 things. Be both sent to prison for his wrongdoings, and... provide him with research material.
Himmler received, over the course of a year of murders within Logas, the bodies of 4 elves. He also received other bodies of little consequence which he tended to borishly, but he mostly wanted his hands on the corpses of the elves. A pattern that revealed itself immediately was that the killer only ever claimed the lives of elven women, and always with the same poison. Before long, this realization caused the majority of the elven population to flee. It wasn't long after, 2 more elven women, that the killer attempted to poison a half elf who curtly shrugged off the poison and killed his assailant, robbing Himmler of both his revenge and his bodies.
With only 6 corpses Himmler properly discovered many things about the elven body, but these corpses were all well preserved and... well. They left a lot to the imagination, as far as what really happened to the body was concerned. Himmler made, in his notes, the statement that necromancy, despite his good intent in the long run, was an alluring thing with many benefits.
It wasn't long before Himmler abducted his first corpse from the cemetary. Another elf, mind you, but he wouldn't dare touch the grave of his late wife. Comparitively, he learned much, if not more, from the long-dead corpse, but only because of his vivid understanding of the well restored ones. The differences were night and day, and all the more clear to him.
Upon carefully looking into the differences, and carefully tweaking his potions, Himmler gave his first attempt at bringing a corpse back to life. To put things simply, it wasn't a perfect success...
The thing that he had created was, simply put, a regular zombie. Nothing special. A simple, simple zombie. Himmler had just committed an act against nature.
Himmler didn't stop there, of course, and proceeded to perfect his art of necromancy, losing sight of his goal for a moment, but then, after he'd conducted enough experiments, looked into the final pages of the book. The ultimate result that he'd expected, was to dig up her remains and return everything to normal that had been with her, but... even after removing her from her grave, in her perfectly preserved state, he couldn't bring her back to life.
Consistently afterwards he tried and failed, over and over and over again, becoming slightly less sane and more reckless each and every time.
Another week, and his zombies returned to the grounds with a battered and unconscious elf, and it was then that his madness finally overcame his good sense.
She had her eyes
It was this very thought that caused him to become the very murderer that he hated. If he couldn't bring her back, he'd make... another her. He even had the killer to imitate.
Long story short I'm just curious if he seems like a good bad guy. Essentially, he's potentially redeemable, I would imagine, and his "Story" is capable of being found by the players if they ask around the city about him, or happen to hear of him as the person who found the cure to counteract the poison.