Lansel of Goliel
The Avarish Necromancer, The Great Naldhist Lansel
A famous Avarish Naldhist who lived during the Time of Enlightment and wrote down accounts of his various trips over the Hedge into the Deathless Garden and what he found there. His records are generally considered to be reliable as he also taught students how to reach the Garden and they recorded similier experiences.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
As a young man, Lansel was small and rather short, and as he grew older he became more decrepid, loosing weight and forming a hunched posture. He was physically weak, though he often wandered great distences in his youth. As he aged, his skin became pale and thin, and people often said he looked skeletal.
Facial Features
Lansel had long matted hair and beard which started red, but turned white quickly. His once sparkling green eyes got paler too, and bloodshot from bad sleep.
Physical quirks
His students discribed him as having one eye slightly closed, and a tremer in his lips.
Apparel & Accessories
Generally, he disliked finery, and wore a rough black robe -- the color black to anchor him to the living, and a large bag of scrolls to write down his observations. He always kept with him firebark inscense and whisky.
Specialized Equipment
Over the years, Lansel collected many talismens to protect him, such as his cloak pin which he made from the bones of a slaughtered nisscat carved with divine runes to mark him as a member of the dead, while he also carried a thorn from the Hedge for protection against evil spirits, and a vial of living blood to keep him in the land of the living.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Lansel's family is unknown, and he first appears as a student at the Avarish Academy of Magic. There, he took a special fascination in the study of death and it's function. His peers write about how he often visited the deathbed of the elderly or the wounded to be with them in their final moments and try to follow them into the garden. As a young man, Lansel traveled all the way to Priat, a trip that took five years, and studied local buriel traditions from the places he passed, writing them down in his many journals. His objective during that time was to follow the dead into the garden and discover what rituals were best for a peaceful transition between the worlds. He frequently found his travels hindered by deathly spirits and began to realize that the garden contained more than simply dead mortals, but beings of all kinds, some benign, and others harmful. Upon returning to Avaron, he began to document these creatures and started teaching the Academy. After several near diseasters, he was obliged to leave the school and traveled south to live in a castle where he could conduct experiements away from civilization with a select group of students.
Sexuality
Lansel never married, nor had any children, and some speculate that Naldhic Decay may have caused infirtility. Whether true or not, he never had any romantic partners, and seemed dedicated to his work.
Education
As a student for seven years in the Academy of Magic, Lansel learned general magic before narrowing his focus to necromancy, however his studies continued in Priat and during his travels, where he learned different methods of divination and ritual spellcraft.
Employment
Lansel spent a decade as a teacher at the Academy before being asked to leave for the safety of the school. However, the king of Avaron regognized him as a member of the Avarish Order of Mages and asked him to find the spirit of the king's great ancestor, Aeo. Lansel searched for a year and found him, acting as a medium for the king to consult his ancestor. In payment, he was given a castle in the south and resources to continue his studies. He faded from society after that, but continued keeping journals which were brought back to the Academy after his death.
Accomplishments & Achievements
As a student, Lansel was considered to be one of the brightest and was presented to the court at his graduation. He was offered a post among the king's retunue, but refused for he wanted the freedom to study necromancy. In Priat, he was received well and asked to speak to the Prottic Mages on Nadlhism. His welcome faded, and he returned to Avaron to become a teacher before eventually serving the king as a necromancer.
Failures & Embarrassments
Despite his groundbreaking discoveries, Lansel's practices were often dangerous. In his early years, he had not yet perfected the rituals to protect himself while crossing over and was often attacked by melevolent spirits, who, on a few occasions crossed back to the mortal realm with him, becoming a danger to his students. In Priat, one Crossing resulted in twelve loose demons who destroyed the tower and had to be hunted down. This was a major factor in his choice to leave the city shortly after. Though his securty wards improved, accidents still happened, and during one Communal Crossing with his students, one of the students was trapped in the garden and lost her anchor to the living. After this, he disappeared into exile. The cumulative effect of his many journeys eventually cought up with him and he began to suffer bouts of severe pain where his body was pulled back and forth between the realms, as well as breaks from reality. Eventually, he crossed over into the garden and never returned.
Mental Trauma
The many things he saw on his journeys left their mark of Lansel, and he was often discribed by peers as hyper vigilent and with a seeming thoughtless attitude towards maintaining his own life.
Intellectual Characteristics
Lansel was known for his dogged persistence. When he didn't understand something, he devoted all his attention to it until he had mastered it. He could devote years of his life to a seemingly impossible question, venture deeper into places unexplored, and an unkanny knack for escaping alive.
Morality & Philosophy
Lansel was primarily driven by his own curiousity.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Lansel was always driven by his hunger for knowladge, often sacrificing safety and sanity in persuit of that goal.
Vices & Personality flaws
Later in life, Lansel was known to indulge in alcohal.
Current Location
Conditions
Ethnicity
Other Ethnicities/Cultures
Life
11822
11910
88 years old
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
Sex
Male
Gender
Man
Presentation
Masculine
Eyes
Green
Hair
Long, Auburn
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale skinned
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Appears in...
