Claude
Eternal Claude Mori-Mori
"The undead are not mindless. If you could only hear what I do. The sadness you'd feel..."Claude Mori-Mori is the son of Morigor’s current director, Malcolm Mori-Mori. His birth marked the return of the worst plague to befall Morigor: the Evernight. When Claude was denied his inheritance as a result of the Evernight’s return, he was left to quell the enraged ghouls. The Twilight Isles heard only the harrowing screams of undead that had been twisted and transformed, but Claude heard cries for help. Having come into his own as the newest wielder of Dirge, the Lich's Lament, Claude now wields the spade against those he once called family. Perhaps one day he may proudly lead Daybreak in his father’s stead.- Claude Mori-Mori
Mental characteristics
Personal history
A New Millennium
Show SpoilerIn 5571, the Twilight Isles looked as though it would finally heave a sigh of relief upon Claude’s birth. When news of an infant Mori-Mori reached the rest of Daybreak, centuries of anticipation following the death of Jaydes Mori-Mori and the rise of Evernight began to fade. Finally, the Twilight Isles would have a sense of direction once again. But the curse of the Evernight though feeble without Jaydes, never truly left, and upon hearing of Claude's birth, Evenfall, Daybreak's neighboring rival nation, empowered the nearly-dead Evernight and cast Daybreak into tormenting darkness.
Fearing for his son’s life, Malcolm Mori-Mori sent for Ophion Khadebraixen III, an old and trusted friend, to raise eleven-year-old Claude in the nearby Twilight Town. Though Malcolm intended for Claude to forego his inheritance and instead live as an average boy, Ophion saw potential began teaching Claude to wield Dirge.
Tales of the Dead
Show spoiler
As a child, Claude grew up hearing the dead. Though ties to undeath were expected among the Mori-Mori, Claude lacked his family’s natural authority over undead. Instead, the deceased would speak through him, whispering to him tales both ordinary and grand as they awaited passage to the beyond. The path to reincarnation, Claude found, was a slow descent into amnesia; once beloved memories became naught but a passing thought. The more Claude grew to know these souls, the less they knew of themselves. By the time Claude could recite the stories of their lives by heart, they’d all but forgotten who he was. Souls awaiting reincarnation were mere husks of the people they used to be, and that was an ugly truth Claude hated.
Claude loved their stories, and he sought to immortalize them. Journals meant to hold his personal studies were instead repurposed for countless lost souls. Claude kept a library of their lives detailing each soul’s memories and the emotions attached to them. Just before souls would pass on, Claude would summon them and read their life stories in memory of them. When Claude came of age, he had long since become recognized as a friend of the deceased, and the young man proudly walked an odd line between life and death.
Mental Trauma
Claude’s life was shaped by Ophion’s vampirism. When Claude was a child, he witnessed Ophion rip into the throat of a wild boar, a sight that left the boy terrified of his adoptive father. Wracked with shame, Ophion fasted in order to practice restraint. But the longer he fasted, the harder impulses were to control. Even the most minor of open wounds made it hard for him to focus. Ultimately, Ophion was forced to let Claude’s fear of him fade with time.
Claude rediscovered Ophion’s vampirism at the age of 21 when he opened the dragonborn’s coffin by happenstance and found that Ophion’s fangs had been torn out. Ophion had finally had enough. The initial shock faded, but the lasting effects of this are part of why Claude and Ophion have a strong relationship. Though still scarred by Ophion’s vampirism, Claude took care of Ophion while the fangs regrew, understanding that Ophion did mean to protect him.
Before the circumstances surrounding capital punishment were changed—a move that allowed Ophion to hunt criminals sentenced to death—it was Claude’s blood that Ophion lived on once his fangs regrew. Ever since, the two have remained as close as family.
"'The blood of nobles is the richest', he says. And then he'll realize what came out of his mouth and shrink in shame. It doesn't bother me."- Claude Mori-Mori
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
To Claude, the Evernight is an unforgivable crime.
The Twilight Isles relies on a delicate balance of life and death, something the Mori-Mori’s have trodden upon with grace and care for centuries. Claude couldn’t care less about his family name. He instead sees the true taboo in the indiscriminate destruction that the Evernight inflicts upon the Isles and its undead. Their words—formerly a gentle lull in Claude’s ears—have become a cacophony of screams of anguish and horror. Though they feel and sense, they cannot control, and the dead lash out indiscriminately. The dead have become monsters trapped in rotting bodies, doomed to watch themselves hack down their brethren. They call out for help, but none hear them.
None except Claude, who answers with seething, expressionless rage.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
"He could be the happiest he's ever been, but it'll never show. Understanding him is like knowing another language entirely, but I love him all the same."Claude’s most recognizable trait is his lack of expression, a side-effect caused by his divinity. He has emotions like any other, but never will they show on his face. Because of this, Claude is socially awkward and doesn’t often talk to strangers unless Ophion is near him. In fact, most who cross paths with Claude often note that he is averse to speaking and prefers non-verbal communication.- Ophion III, Claude's Retainer
Comments