Asher Crane

Asher Crane

Asher grew up in the city of Greenwitch with his father Marwyn Crane, a sagely human professor and magic practitioner. Elowyn Haell, his elven mother did not stay with his father during Asher's childhood, but she too was blessed with magical gifts and was a practicing alchemist. From a young age Asher learned that his home life was very uncommon. Human children would often call him a halfbreed or mule, and tease him because of his parents separation; while elves around his age would avoid him altogether. This would drive Asher to ask his father about why his mother had left, a subject his father would often create a myriad of excuses for. For Marwyn, life was difficult enough, he didn’t need Asher to grow up resenting his mother. Neither he nor Asher expected she would ever return, but eventually they would be proven wrong.
Asher's mother had come for him, as he was of a suitable age and mentality to begin learning the ancestral ways of her elven family. Although it had been all he'd ever wanted, elation over his mother's return would quickly turn to disappointment. To Asher, her demeanor was far colder and more distant than the woman he needed her to be. She looked at him like an inconvenience; as if she was merely obligated to acknowledge Asher as her son. No matter how hard Asher studied and trained, she was never impressed. After a time, Asher learned to shoot a bow just as well as the elven children, who at their age had still failed to master their own emotions. They too refused to acknowledge Asher's skill, citing his prowess as mere overcompensation for his lack of naturally gifted abilities. It came to no surprise then when after Asher had completed his training that his mother left home again; but this time she didn't leave before telling him why. In her own words, it was because: "Humans grow old, and then they die. Your father will die, and then you too will die, and so I have to move on."
A messenger from the League of Arcane Study eventually came for Marwyn, informing him of new work and opportunities back in the capital of Matlunn. A much older Asher had already become his father’s apprentice, and in moving to the city the two were offered provisions for each of them begin their own research endeavors. Asher loved to work within the city, but he found it unfulfilling. Even though he had the chance to flourish on his own merit, those people whom he wished prove himself to were either too distant or simply out of the social reach of his current station. Asher’s interest in self validation drove him to begin exploration to the fringes of magical theory, to things the public still considered heretical or superstitious. In particular, he became fascinated by dead end research papers from discredited Doktors about the nature of the soul, theoretical parallel planes of existence, and the creatures within them. In his mind, he believed if he could prove these supernatural claims that the thunderclap of his achievement would carry cross the entire world. He would become "one of the greats", and no one would be able to deny his accomplishments any longer. Eventually Asher’s prodding into the supernatural forced his path to cross with Doktor Tarvin Aurelia, a man whose lifetime of work could be cited in nearly every subject Asher had become obsessed with. The two of them clearly shared a passion for the unobtainable, as Tarvin too was in search of an ancient tome said to be written by the first peoples of Galea. The Doktor eventually took Asher as his pupil, and as a role model he was the first person to support Asher's hypotheses. Although the name and work of Asher Crane would go on to be discredited, he would eventually find the evidence he was looking for.

Physical Description

Body Features

Average sized but very well-built for a half-elf. He appears scrappy and not well taken care of most of the time. Asher has tanned skin and long wavy weathered hair from his time spent on the road.

Facial Features

At first glance you could assume Asher to be a young and physically attractive human despite being half-blooded elf. This is in part an intentional deception by Asher, who keeps his hair and beard trimmed in styles fashionable among humans. He uses alchemical glimmer often to make his ears appear much rounder than a typical half-elves, but his sharp facial features give away his mixed parentage upon closer inspection.

Physical quirks

Asher travels in the appearance of a human due to the contempt he feels towards elves, hiding his elven features by use of alchemical glimmers. For this same reason he allows his facial hair to grow out as to never be confused for an elf.

Apparel & Accessories

Asher is often seen traveling without a weapon, but has been known to wield a large composite bow of peculiar design and unknown origin.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

As a sponsored field researcher for the League of Arcane Study, Asher Crane spent a year on the road investigating various claims of occult and paranormal activity. While on the trail of a yet unidentified cult of evil spirit worshipers, Asher had managed to steal one of their ritual tomes. The book itself was written in a undocumented language. With his knowledge of linguistics, Asher managed to copy what he found in the tome into his own spellbook, doing so despite the heretical implications. Among the books profane contents was a summoning spell which required an unfeasible large quantity of the casters own blood as a spell component. From the cultists notes, Asher had learned about the type of entities these cultists were expecting to encounter, and about their plan to aid one of these creatures into crossing over to the material plane. Their summoning ritual included a binding spell which required the "true name" of one of these entities to be cast. The cultists believed by including the name of the summoned creature in the spell, they would gain control over it, and this cult had already gathered the name of one such entity. Written in the same undocumented language as the rest of the tome, Asher was able to transcribe the name as "Agrias". Asher trailed the cult until the day they would attempt their ritual, determined not to intervene until he had seen the culmination of their efforts. The ritual took place in a musty basement in a long abandoned windmill. To Asher's surprise he saw the cult members join together in a strange communion which served to amplify the power of their ritual. The cost of the spell was exacted upon the cultists, leaving all of them drained and weakened. However, their spell was successful. They had summoned an forth a shadowy entity into that basement, but no cultist remained standing to bind it. The bloodthirsty thing immediately attacked the cult, dispatching its members and leaving behind a grim arrangement of their corpses. To his horror, Asher realized that the bodies had been moved to spell out his own name in the hieroglyphics used in the cultists tome. On top of this, he could feel that the entity was aware of his exact presence, despite being hidden by illusion magic. Asher knew the only way for him to escape with his life would be to complete the cultists ritual and bind the entity. By using the name which he had transcribed earlier, he was successful in stopping the entity's attack before it could kill him, but the binding came at a cost Asher did not yet understand. Agrias, as the thing was called, agreed to yield to Asher's authority on the condition that he would return to them their wings; and despite not understanding the nature of this demand, he'd agreed.
The years following that event were like a living hell for Asher. He became plagued by a number of chaotic incidents which he believed Agrias to be responsible for. The looming sense of dread that Asher felt in that basement had never subsided, and seemed to be heightened in the moments before he would go to sleep; being constantly haunted by the sensation of feeling of icy cold fingers clenched around his heart. Asher's spellcasting ability was also affected, as using his usual repertoire of conjuration spells now came with strange repercussions: the smell of brimstone, small fiendish alterations to his creature summons, and sometimes arcane failure resulting in small burns appearing on Asher's body. It was during this stressful period in Asher's life that he'd submitted his thesis on extraplanar entities to the League. It was immediately rejected on principal, on the basis that his work appeared to be the ramblings of a madman. Asher's sanity at this time had already been called into question after he was discovered to be speaking to himself while supposedly alone in his study. This lead to Asher's previous work being discredited, and eventually to his dismissal from the League.
Asher disappeared from the public eye for some time, reemerging years later after a personal research trip to the continent of Latria. He returned to the League to submit a series of photographs which supposedly depicted evidence of many of the claims he'd made in his original thesis, which was met with some measure of validation.
Some time later, Asher found himself in the barony of Jyari Khadesh in the Sunlands. During this time Khadesh had been near fatally wounded. The city of Baj'Surat was searching for a successor to take the role of Sultan during these trying times, and by chance Asher found himself supporting the claim of man named Zorros, who was said to be a Prince of the far off land of Andora, located across the Scalding Sea.
After being embroiled in the civil war which had occurred when nearly half of the baronies attempted to secede from the Kingdom of Rendeh, Asher found himself as a political target for both sides of the conflict. Asher has since disappeared, but is rumored to be located in Andora, using his knowledge of demonology to deal with the rampant problems allegedly plaguing that region.

Education

Asher has trained both in Greenwitch and in Matlunn; first as a ranger under the guidance of the high elves, and second as a alchemist under his mother.
At the League of Arcane Study, Asher studied under the tutelage of Marwyn Crane. Asher's research into parallel planes of existence was later sponsored by Dr. Tarvin Aurelia.

Employment

Asher worked as an alchemist and field researcher for the League of Arcane Study before his dismissal. Asher now works independently as a traveling scholar and adventurer.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Despite having already been discredited by the League of Arcane Study, one year later Asher returned to Matlunn with irrefutable evidence in favour of his rejected thesis. As the story goes: during the year of his absence Asher had discovered another realm of existence parallel to their own located on the continent of Latria. Asher submitted to the League picture evidence of his claims, a series of photographs taken with a phosphorous camera box which showed a number of strange and alien entities that were all previously undocumented by the League. Of much greater historical value was a photograph which depicted a supposed living Ascora, a fabled member of the original species from which all other species are meant to be derived from. With this new evidence at his disposal, Asher is currently working on a revision of his original thesis.
During the recent civil war, Asher's represented the secessionist baronies during the summit that occurred outside the city of Blackwarren, and was able to successfully negotiate a temporary ceasefire by bringing to light a much larger threat that faced both sides: the return of the Lich Acererak and the spread of his undead minions across Rendeh.

Failures & Embarrassments

Asher studied hard under his father as a scholar and eventually became a licensed practitioner and a researcher of for the League of Arcane Study, gaining access to a vast library of knowledge privy to only a select few. Wanting to make a name for himself, Asher studied in fields his peers believed to be either a dead end or of a taboo nature. Asher eventually found himself being barred and discredited from the League after submitting a thesis which described hellish extraplanar entities: a heretical document which explored the nature of the soul and used himself as the test subject of a number of immoral experiments. Asher eventually found himself in an insane asylum, although any recounting on the details on that incident by any party has been shaky at best.
During the recent civil war, Asher's involvement with the leaders of the secessionist baronies has marked him as an enemy of the kingdom of Rendeh, and has since lost the trust of even his secessionist allies.
In Asher's mind, his greatest failure was allowing his mother to die before proving to her that his life's work had value.

Mental Trauma

The pain of abandonment by his elven mother is ever present in Asher, compounded by a general distaste of elvenkind. As a half-elf who was rejected by his elven counterparts, Asher has grown to despise elves for their their prideful nature and for their immortal youth; something which he believes has lead elves into adopting antisocial and sometimes even sociopathic tendencies.

Morality & Philosophy

Asher feels a need to compensate for the evil he unwittingly unleashed upon the world. “Never Stop Moving Forward” is the attitude that he's adopted which drives him to do good by others. While typically not an overly generous, kind or even caring caring person, Asher believes that as long as makes an attempt to leave the world a better place each day, regardless of the outcome, he will continue to pay off the "debt" he carries on his soul.

Taboos

Asher is afraid of being socially ostracized, especially from the people whom he respects. Having immersed himself in the forbidden knowledge of demonology and necromancy, Asher fears what repercussions he would face if the true nature of his work was discovered.
Asher has always been keenly afraid of death. He views himself as having been denied his mother's immortality by being born a half-elf. Beyond his archetypal fears; he believes that his tampering with dark powers and concepts has corrupted his soul, dooming his afterlife to an eternity in some forsaken hellscape. To that end, Asher believes that his eidolon is simply waiting for the moment of his death to carry him to whatever grim fate awaits him; the Faustian price of their partnership.

A discredited half-elven paranormal researcher. After becoming frustrated by a lack of recognition and respect he felt he deserved, he took his studies too far and unleashed something evil unto himself.

Current Location

Unknown, Andora presumed.

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Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Gender

Male

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Brown

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Tanned

Height

5'11"

Weight

195

Known Languages

He speaks Common, Elvish, Dwarvish, Infernal, and Undercommon. He can read all written languages.