sterngaze | character info (Reply)

STATISTICS

Liem Talbott

FULL NAME

OC (Pathfinder RPG)

CANON

120+ (physically in his mid-20s)

AGE

Male

GENDER

Dhampir

SPECIES

Inquisitor 10

CLASS

kenoslogs, PSLs

ACTIVE

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

VISUAL: Liem is 5'8" with a lean, athletic build. His hair is short, brown, swept back from his face, and greying prematurely at the temples. He has an aquiline nose and an ashen complexion, and always looks at least a little bit tired. He is often seen in sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat. Liem otherwise dresses in tailored, highly professional attire suited to the locale he's in, favouring blue, black, and gold. He is also quite fond of jewellery.
FEATURES: Pale blue eyes with black sclera, slightly pointed ears, and a brand shaped like a key on the palm of his right hand. Liem also casts no shadow.
AURAL: Liem's speaking voice is a pleasant tenor: sober and even, with an accent that in Earth terms sounds convincingly Italian. Think Andrea Bocelli. He rarely ever shouts and doesn't rush his words.
OLFACTORY: He usually smells faintly of soap and other personal care products, favouring warm, spicy and woody scents with top notes of citrus. Beneath this, his natural scent is strangely cool and sharp, like chilled earth and winter fog.
DEMEANOUR: Generally steady, dutiful, and politely formal; he becomes especially formal when he's made uncomfortable, crossing the line over into stiff. Pragmatic, and self-sacrificing to a fault. He sometimes displays a rather dry, deadpan sense of humour.

PERSONALITY

Liem is first and foremost a dutiful man, one who takes responsibility seriously and expects others to do the same. He values order in his life and in his surroundings, becoming irritable when faced with unexpected obstacles because of someone else's negligence or disorganization, and is rarely found idle when there is something that needs to be done. Years of being scrutinized twice as closely as any of his fully-human peers have led Liem to strive obsessively to meet the expectations placed on him, willingly sacrificing rest and leisure rather than risk falling short. As a result, he is most often found keeping busy with tasks that require his attention, and will go out of his way to find ways in which to make himself useful if he's spent too long without anything further to accomplish.

In his day-to-day life, Liem is a courteous and amicable man with a dry sense of humour, though he tends to maintain a level of formality which can seem excessive in certain situations. He is deliberate in both word and deed, having been raised in the most formal and austere of environments—the church of Abadar, which values order and justice over love, art, freedom, or pity. That being the case, his manner can at times lack warmth, as he learned in his formative years that it's better to seem aloof than to speak rashly in excitement or anger. Formality is the crutch that he falls back on when circumstances confuse or upset him, making him stuffier to be around the less at ease he is.

ABILITIES & SKILLS

SENSES

As a dhampir, Liem's senses are keener than those of a normal human man. He can see in dim light, such as that of dusk or the light of a full moon, as easily as someone in a well-lit room. He also has the ability to see in complete darkness within 60 feet of him.

NEGATIVE ENERGY AFFINITY

Although he is a living creature, Liem reacts to positive and negative energy as if he were undead. In his home setting, this means that magic meant to heal living people hurts him, but magic meant to bolster undead creatures heals him.

RESIST LEVEL DRAIN

Liem suffers no noticeable ill-effects from abilities which drain the energy of living creatures (such as the life-stealing kiss of a succubus). He can still be killed if he suffers enough such attacks within the span of a single day, but isn't weakened up until the point that he dies.

UNDEAD RESISTANCE

As a half-vampire, Liem's partially-undead physiology makes him resistant (but not immune) to diseases and attempts to influence his mind.

WEAPON & ARMOR PROFICIENCIES

Liem is trained in the use of various types of armour and a range of weapons including daggers, bows, and crossbows. He specializes in the use of a crossbow, and is capable of shooting into melee without risking injury to his allies.

MONSTER LORE

As an inquisitor trained to hunt enemies of the faith, Liem is well-versed in the strengths and weaknesses of many potential foes from his homeland, be they human or otherwise.

STERN GAZE

Two of an inquisitor's main tools are their ability to intimidate the guilty and to discern when people are being dishonest. Liem is well-practised at both.

DETECT ALIGNMENT

An ability he can use to detect the nearby presence of either good, evil, law, or chaos.

TRACK

Liem is a trained survivalist, with a specialty in locating and following signs of a creature's passage.

DOMAIN ABILITIES

Liem derives some of his abilities from the concept of travel, which is within Abadar's areas of concern. He has a faster walking speed than normal, and is able to draw on the power of his domain to move briefly through difficult terrain without penalty, or to teleport short distances.

JUDGEMENT

An ability which Liem can call upon to temporarily increase his effectiveness and utility in combat. It can be used for a number of different purposes, ranging from increasing his damage or accuracy to providing protection against physical or magical attack.

BANE

Liem can use this ability to make his weapon significantly more accurate and effective against a specific type of creature for a short time.

DISCERN LIES

An ability which allows Liem to magically detect when someone is telling a lie.

SPELLCASTING

Liem knows a number of different spells which Abadar grants him the power to cast. A full list of his spells and abilities is noted in the Expanded Abilities comment at the bottom of this journal entry.

HISTORY

content warnings: death in childbirth, child neglect & abuse, spiritual abuse, spoilers for the War for the Crown adventure path

short summary:
Liem was orphaned shortly after birth, and was raised by his abusive uncle and then by the Abadaran church. He was ordained as a priest, but he eventually became an inquisitor to hunt his vampire father. Recently he swore himself into Princess Eutropia's service and participated in a civil war to decide the next ruler of Taldor. After working for months in support of the princess, he was killed at the end of a difficult mission.

full background:
Liem's life began in 4597 AR in Oppara, the opulent capital city of the ancient Taldan Empire. He was an orphan almost since birth; his wasted mother died soon after he took his first breaths, and his vampire father had already abandoned his wife not long after his own death and Liem's subsequent conception. Liem and his older sister, Petra, were taken in by their uncle Williem, who had been caring for his sister during her pregnancy. Resenting both children for their father's actions, he raised them only grudgingly, often taking his anger out on both of them, but especially Liem. His sister escaped as soon as she was able, leaving to pursue an apprenticeship around the time that Liem turned eight.

Liem lived alone with his uncle for almost two years, until Williem sent him away to the Church of Abadar, the god of law and commerce. There Liem was both comprehensively educated and sternly disciplined, instilling faith and obedience into him alongside the knowledge he would need to function in society. During this time, he was stringently forbidden to indulge in any behaviour that was judged to stem from his vampire heritage, and came to endure far stricter scrutiny than any of his fellow acolytes. Obsessed with meeting these standards and proving himself worthwhile, Liem became his own harshest critic, and through merit alone worked his way into the ranks of the priesthood.

Still, there remained those within the church who viewed him as an interloper. After years of itinerant service that led him to various outlying regions, a series of "promotions" saw Liem overseeing inquisitor work in Oppara. He managed to unknowingly attract the notice of his vampire father, who began trying to seduce Liem into his service. Eventually, after his father made Liem's lover into vampire spawn, he transitioned from desk work to field work under the inquisitor branch, intent on scrubbing out his father's evil with his own hands.

Then, in late winter of 4718 AR, his work led him into the service of Lady Martella Lotheed, and her secret support of Princess Eutropia's bid for the throne—along with fellow agents Rhain, Drifa, and Juliana. After saving Lady Martella's life in the wake of the Taldan Emperor's assassination, Liem and his companions officially swore themselves into the princess's service and began undertaking covert missions to strengthen the princess's position in a civil war which would decide Taldor's next ruler.

A few months into this work, after helping the princess to reclaim the imperial summer palace and its surrounding county as her base of operations, Liem and his companions were sent on a mission to the town of Yanmass. The journey there was long, and the mission itself taxing, but eventually the town's loyalty was secured and the group was ready to head back to the palace—along with the princess's newly-discovered brother, recently brought back from the dead after 20 long years. As they were leaving the city, however, they were attacked by a psychopomp intent on reclaiming the prince's soul, and Liem was killed in the ensuing battle.

character info

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