Zasheir

Zasheir is a young person who has approached the Arboretum for mysterious reasons that keep changing. The initial story was him being recruited by the Federation, but rumors spread that he was here to poison others under an anonymous identity. Everywhere he seems to walk, the dead follow suit to the point where people swear he’s practicing necromancy, but with no proof he has stayed out of sight and out of mind of others. Whatever the reason, he pays particular attention to the Omnichapel if you manage to follow him.

Zasheir

Relatives	Tree Stump (Mother)
Marital Status	Single
Date of Birth	116 PR
Place of Birth	Ostrom
Species	Protector Aasimar
Height	6'1"
Weight	Coming

Description

Zasheir is most Identifiable by the cyan hair he has. The hair is messy however and the color has been shifting lighter due to the sand in his hair. Otherwise, he wears casual civilian desert clothes while walking around. Standing a little higher than 6', He wears a turtleneck that is grey with a cyan trim to hold, robes that are quite old with a little bit of a burnt look to them and no religious symbols, tanned gloves with leather wrappings to cover the hands, a skirt that is a darker cyan with a light blue trim, some baggy black pants that is tucked into his cloth wrapped shoes that have lightened in color with how much usage it’s gotten. He doesn’t carry a lot with him that can be seen. There is a messenger bag on his left hip that his left hand often rests on with a few extra compartments to hold all of his oddities and a pouch of potions on the right of various sorts.

Manners

Zasheir often keeps stoic body language, but an easy way to read him if he’s not paying attention, is the placement of the hands, and how close they are relatively to accessible items on him. He keeps the voice in a neutral state so often, it’s rare for him to change tone. With watchful eyes of those he sees, It’s clear that he has a purpose, knows what he wants, and will leave you on the ground, if you pose a threat to him. With very little tolerance for oppression, he plots constantly about how to bring those who wish to do evil down using his skills as an excellent reader at body language. Words are often carefully chosen to prevent hinting at threats and promises, only shooting his shot if he is confident. He would much rather strike in the back with little warning than deal with someone who causes the problems face to face. Zasheir also hates seeing those in pain and distress caused by someone else, because it means he failed to prevent it from happening in the first place. He will often give up his own resources or deny them the help they want for the other person’s best benefit. He is protective of his past, often dropping his voice to a dangerous whisper before saying something to the effect of “That wasn’t here nor there.” Slipping his neutral mask back on, he acts like nothing is wrong and continues on with whatever he was doing, but always is looking for a sign that other people are not who they say they are. His favorite times are at dusk and dawn, because that is when most of his targets are not paying attention to what is around them.

Background

Zasheir’s earliest memory is in a dark alley walking around aimlessly trying to find any recognition of who his parents are. This 4 year old was often found wandering the alleys of Ostrom trying to find any sign that could be his parents and scraps of anything to survive. He only has a crumpled piece of paper with a name. A young half orc saw the desperation in Zasheir’s eyes and adopted him. Tree Stump didn’t see Zasheir as broken because he didn’t have a family. Rather Zasheir is the son she never had. Zasheir learns soon after that a sweet tongue gets people to talk to him more along with his calm expression. This enables him to sweet talk people for discounts, or the bitter lie gets him out of danger. Tree Stump was always poor, but that doesn’t stop her from getting Zasheir to learn what he is interested in. Alchemy is a fascination Zasheir was always interested in despite the gloomy environment he lived in. He wanted to open his own shop for sanctuary against the unruly crime that is common in Ostrom. Not even the sweetest tongue however could protect himself from what he lost. It was a late night even for 10 year old Zasheir to be staying up when 12:00 rings, then 1… and 2. It was odd that his mother wasn’t back yet, so he decided to go looking for her. At the door, he finds a stone that is well worn that he hadn’t seen before. It’s a deep red oval with stars in the form of a constellation. He spends 3 days searching for his mother, but he discovers nothing since no one will talk to him. With the little coin he has, he ends up on the streets, and starts gambling out of desperation. One urchin by the name of Ioner sees this, and takes pity on him. He shows Zasheir different ways of gambling, knowing how much to put in, and whether or not the opportunity is too good to be true. Zasheir quickly became Ioner’s partner in crime with how well Zasheir could silently signal a winnable vs losing hand based purely on the facial expressions, and people began to suspect that Ioner was cheating. They could not figure out that Zasheir was the one who gave these signals, allowing the kenku to steamroll many card games. With the coin split he earned, he used the only information he learns is that Tree Stump is a skilled warrior heading west to fight something. He gathered the little supplies he had, got his Kenku best friend Iomer to come with him and began the navigation west. He didn’t want to leave and thought about those who couldn’t make it out every day while travelling. It’s a morning like any other. By morning, what I really mean is that the horizon is black with a small gradient of orange. The breakfast was minimal, but what can you expect when dealing with a dessert?

Ioner and I have a symbiotic relationship for this harsh landscape: I get us moving in a straight line while he finds today’s necessities. There was something blurry moving in the distance, but neither of us could figure out what it was.The wind is blowing into our backs like someone is pushing a metal sheet onto my back, and the sand is moving with the wind, scraping us by as we continue to travel. The sun is starting to peek on the horizon, and we are trying to get as far as possible before the heat really comes. Ioner notices how the sand is moving faster, but won’t say what he fears. I look behind me, and I get blasted with so much sand I can’t see what is ahead of me. A few minutes of clearing my eyes out from that dumb mistake later, I look around, and I can’t find Iomer, the one person who got us to head in the right direction. I can do nothing but keep moving forward. I have to find Iomer. I may not have the time to find him, but I refuse to leave the one person who has gotten me this far.

It didn’t take long for Zasheir to run out of food and water and found himself collapsing from exhaustion. Certain this is the end, he makes his final offering to Lathander. The sun rose for him the next day however and he’s still here. That night, it had rained pretty bad which his body soaked up enough to keep him alive and bless him with divine power. He could now create his own water, so while he’s still on a timer, he could last much longer. After a month of traveling Zasheir arrives in Ira's Bend, and immediately starts looking for work. He had shown his adept skills for an alchemist and managed to become a guild member of Selune’s Apothecary. He focused these skills to make remedial potions. Life had stabilized, but he couldn’t leave to search for Ioner, because of the lack of information on where to go. A few years go by and Zasheir is approached by someone from the Federation who is attempting to recruit him. After the pitch, Zasheir considers it, but ultimately declines. He also realized that he would be used for malicious purposes, which didn’t suit well for him. He refused anymore letters sent to him by the Federation. He realized however he has extra power he wouldn’t normally have. He kept this a secret due to already being different. He used this to secretly help those who might be injured, but he refused to show his identity. In 135 PR the demon incursions had kept getting more frequent. He starts taking refuges in the temple he helps run. His life had become completely swamped. His day job was working at the guild, and his night was tending to the refugees. They left him in charge since he had divine power. It all became too much to bear for him however. He wanted to get to the source of the problem. He heard through the grapevine that the main point that the demons were attacking from was in the west side of Pteris at the Arboretum. He finally got the push he needed to leave when the temple couldn’t take anymore refugees, which broke his heart. He left the charge to the next best leader and headed off

Knacks and Attacks

Zasheir will rarely show his prowess to others, mostly out of fear of being thought of differently. In fact he doesn’t derive from one magical source, but two. Most of the time, it derives right from his own personality of needing to protect others and destroying the wicked. Occasionally, his holy symbol that is usually tucked underneath the turtle begins to glow an iridescent orange. He also seems to have an innate ability to create torchlight on whatever he touches at will, but it’s rare for him to use it since he typically walks around at night with no light.