Ezathiel

Ezathiel Ezzy
Status	Active
Race	Elothean
Gender	Male
Guild	Empath
Instance	Prime

Description

You see Ezathiel Karanea of the House of the Steel Dove, an Elothean.

He has an oval face, slightly pointed ears, sullenly glowing blue-white eyes and a small nose. His blue-black hair is shoulder length and straight, and is worn pulled up in a topknot. He has fair skin and a lean build.

He is average height for an Elothean.

A carved ruby cradled within a silver web rests on his forehead, just above his eyes.

He is an adult.

He has a long narrow mustache that droops to either side of the mouth on his upper lip and a long thin beard.

He has a tattoo of a brightly glowing unicorn prancing in the ocean surf on his neck.

He is in good shape.

He is wearing a dust-covered agouti rat, a white-plumed captain's hat of fine black felt, a bright steel eyebrow ring with a small chain dangling a rainbow sapphire, a black silk tie with silver pinstripes, a deeply hooded silverweave cloak stitched with swirling platinum clouds, a tiny white dove charm, a Bone Mender "Off-duty" button, a storm-grey linen shirt with an upright collar, a shapeless pink squirrel adorned with tiny glass berries that is stuck to the upper arm, a snake charm, a silver and moonstone ring, a sophisticated tyrium wedding band with voilynes wrapped around a frost opal, an intricate blue gold shesegri ring interspersed with sirenstone beads, a light spidersilk hip pouch stitched with a dragon ouroboros, a light spidersilk hip pouch stitched with a dragon ouroboros, a little bone-white lunchbox painted with the portrait of Keogath, a little black lunchbox painted with the portrait of a Gnome, some dark grey linen trousers and some ankle-high grey leather boots with silver clasps.

My Story

As It Was Told to Me

As it has been told to me by my adoptive aunt, Glorina, my parents were very successful traders. Their business often carried them between Horse Clan, Shard, and Leth Deriel, and much of that work brought them into contact with the House of the Steel Dove. It was there that they became fast friends with Glorina, an experienced Elothean Empath in service to the House. She would often watch over me while my parents were away on business. I remember none of this myself. I know it only because she later told me the story.

The Traders

The Journey From Which They Never Returned

When I was only eight months old, my parents departed on business in Leth Deriel. They did not return when they were expected. Concerned, Glorina contacted the Traders' Guild in Shard and asked that their disappearance be investigated. Their caravan was eventually discovered along the Southern Trade Route, ransacked and abandoned. My parents were found dead beside it. Bandits were believed responsible, but despite an intensive investigation by the Traders' Guild, no culprits were ever found. In time, the investigation ended and the books were closed. Their estate was placed in trust for me until I came of age. Glorina offered to adopt me. And so the woman who had once watched over me in my parents' absence became the woman who raised me as her own.

The Southern Trade Route

A Son of the Steel Dove

I grew up within the House of the Steel Dove. For a young Elothean boy, it was quite a place to learn about the world. The House was responsible for training Paladins and Barbarians, warriors who might one day be hand-picked by the Ferdahl to serve the interests of Ilithi and Shard. I was hardly one of those warriors. Instead, I spent my younger years performing whatever small duties were given to me. I cleaned. I polished armor. I helped where I was needed. Most importantly, I watched. I watched the discipline of the Paladins and the powerful codes of honor and service they lived by. I watched the Barbarians and their tremendous strength. And slowly I began asking questions about where I belonged among all of it. Around the age of fifteen, I began asking another question as well. Why did I not look like the other Elothean boys around me? That was when Glorina finally told me the truth of my parents, their deaths, and the life they had left behind for me.

House of the Steel Dove

The Woman I Chose to Follow

Of all the influences surrounding me within the House, however, the one that affected me most was Glorina herself. I watched her work as an Empath. I watched her willingly take the wounds of others upon herself. I watched the remarkable magics granted through Hodierna. More than anything, I watched the tenderness with which Glorina treated those who came before her. Race did not matter. Creed did not matter. Guild did not matter. Someone was hurt, and she helped them. The Paladins had shown me honor. The Barbarians had shown me strength. Glorina showed me compassion. That was the path I wanted.

Glorina

A Prayer to Hodierna

Together, Glorina and I said a small prayer to Hodierna. We asked that she lead me in the ways of an Empath and that she guide Glorina as she became my mentor. And so it began. There was a brief visitation in the night, one that left within me the first stirrings of the innate magic that would become part of my life. What followed was not a single miraculous transformation but years of work. Glorina taught me. I studied. I practiced. I learned what it meant not merely to possess the abilities of an Empath, but to accept the responsibility that came with them.

A Prayer to Hodierna

Following the Empath's Path

The years of training beneath Glorina's guidance shaped me into the Elothean I would eventually become. Once I had spent so much of my life watching her heal others. In time, she began watching me. I learned to take wounds upon myself. I learned the magics of my guild. I learned that kindness without action accomplishes very little, and that healing often asks something of the healer as well. Through work and time, I began creating a life of my own.

Learning the Empath's Path

What My Parents Left Behind

When I came of age, the estate my parents had left in trust passed to me. Among it was a home in Shard and a considerable amount of coin. Material comfort cannot replace parents one never had the chance to know. Yet the passing years softened something in me. There was work to be done. There was a life to live. And there was Glorina. She had been such a good mother to me that eventually the sharpness of what I had lost gave way to gratitude for everything I had been given. I could not change what happened on the Southern Trade Route. I could decide what I would do with the life that remained.

Home in Shard

One Last Goodbye

There was to be one final great sadness. Glorina lived to a ripe old age. By then she had spent a lifetime healing others, serving the House of the Steel Dove, raising a child who had not been born to her, and guiding that child into an Empath in his own right. She felt her work was complete. In time, she gave her spirit to Urrem'tier. And once again, I knew loneliness. For a while there was simply an empty place where she had always been. But I did not wallow. Glorina would not have stood for that.

Glorina's Farewell

Present

So I went to work. I traveled throughout Ilithi, and Shard in particular, offering my skills as an Empath wherever they were needed. That is more or less where you find me today. I try to live with kindness, generosity, friendliness, and a willingness to help those around me. I try to serve something larger than my own self-interest. I do not always succeed. But I try. When I heal another person, I carry something Glorina taught me. When I serve Ilithi, I remember the House that raised me. And when I travel the roads once walked by my parents, I remember two Traders whose journey ended before I ever had the chance to know them. My life belongs to me now, but it was shaped by all of them. My parents. Glorina. The House of the Steel Dove. I hope that the way I live honors what each of them gave me. And so my adventure continues.

Ezathiel Karanea

Milestones

Vows to Jolean

There are moments in a life that mark not where we have been, but whom we have chosen to walk beside. In the 5th month of Uthmor the Giant, in the year of the Silver Unicorn, 455, I stood with Jolean, a Human Paladin of Crossing, and affirmed my vows before the gods. After a childhood shaped by loss, I had learned that family is not always determined by blood. Sometimes it is given to us. Sometimes we find it. And sometimes, we choose it. You affirmed your vows to Jolean the Human Paladin of Crossing, before the gods in the 5th month of Uthmor the Giant in the year of the Silver Unicorn, 455.

House of the Steel Dove

House of the Steel Dove Ezathiel was raised within the House of the Steel Dove following the deaths of his parents and the decision of Glorina, an Empath in service to the House, to adopt him. Although surrounded during his youth by the Paladins and Barbarians trained there, Ezathiel ultimately followed Glorina's path and became an Empath. The House remains central to his identity, and he carries its lessons of honor, service, discipline, and responsibility into his work throughout Ilithi.

House of the Steel Dove

Immortal

Hodierna Ezathiel's path as an Empath began with a prayer shared with his adoptive mother and mentor, Glorina, asking Hodierna to guide him in the ways of healing. Her influence remains closely tied to Ezathiel's understanding of compassion, healing, and service to others.

Hodierna

Notable Possessions

White-Plumed Captain's Hat A fine black felt captain's hat decorated with a white plume has become one of Ezathiel's most recognizable pieces of attire. Forehead Ruby A carved ruby cradled within a delicate silver web rests above his eyes. Wedding Band Ezathiel wears a sophisticated tyrium wedding band with voilynes wrapped around a frost opal. The Lunchboxes For reasons perhaps best left unexplained, Ezathiel carries both a bone-white lunchbox painted with the portrait of Keogath and a black lunchbox painted with the portrait of a Gnome.

A Few Personal Effects

Story by Ezzy, and artwork by Lexxa.