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OOC: Alright, as promised:
My Escher Meta-Thread. This will take us from childhood, through to what he& #39;s doing now as Strahd& #39;s sometimes-lover.
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My Escher Meta-Thread. This will take us from childhood, through to what he& #39;s doing now as Strahd& #39;s sometimes-lover.
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Escher was born to an elvish noble family in Waterdeep. His family life, at best, can be described as & #39;unconventional& #39;. He was the fourth son, and his mother had been desperately hoping to have a daughter by now.
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His father gone at the time of his birth, Escher& #39;s mother decided that there was no reason Escher couldn& #39;t be the daughter she& #39;d been waiting for, and so she decided to raise Escher to be a young lady. As can be expected, that didn& #39;t really go over well with his father.
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Escher was raised in a war of lifestyles between his parents, his mother subjecting him to the things young noble girls should be doing and his father trying to train him into a young warrior. None of these interested, though, his passion lying in the family library.
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Satisfied that Escher was doing something they could both agree on, his parents agreed to let Escher study the arcane. The very briefly pushed him towards bardic study before letting him attend Eltorchul Academy. The subjects offered, however, did not meet Escher& #39;s interests.
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Escher& #39;s spark of intrigue regarding the dark art of necromancy was kindled by his finding an old grimoire tucked away in the Advanced Studies portion of his school& #39;s library. Sensing that he wouldn& #39;t be allowed to borrow this book, he spirited it out covertly.
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Escher became engulfed in his new studies, so much so that his parents began to worry for his health as he shut himself away to practice his craft. It wasn& #39;t long before Escher& #39;s parents decided enough was enough.
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In a rare moment of Escher leaving the tome unguarded, his mother discovered what her son had been studying. His father burned the book and any research he could find regarding it in Escher& #39;s room, thinking that this would free his son of the dark influence.
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Unbeknownst to the couple, Escher had inscribed arcane sigils of protection into the book, making the fire lash out. The ensuing blaze consumed their family home, leaving nothing of the structure or it& #39;s contents save the tome and a few charred bits of bone.
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Following this incident, Escher fled Waterdeep, knowing he would be held responsible for the destruction and the deaths of his family and the staff of his childhood home. He took to the life of adventuring, always watching for more knowledge like what was in his tome.
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In the twelfth year of his wandering, he meet and befriended a dwarf who had known his father in life. Of course, he kept the truth of his family& #39;s demise a secret. He knew it would turn his only ally against him.
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Stories of a house that moved through time drove the pair to the woods, and they entered the Durst House. In this canon, it acts as a doorway between the Prime Material and the Domains of Dread, displaced from time and moving between the Prime planes.
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Within the house, Escher discovered the existence of Strahd, and was bemused by his denying the Dursts, though Escher believed that he very well could& #39;ve given them what they wanted. He set his mind to meeting this so-called & #39;Ancient& #39;.
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In the bowels of the house& #39;s dungeon, away from the eyes of his dwarf friend and two others they had met within the house, Escher slew a third individual they had met in sacrifice to the shadows that demanded one must die. To his companions, he claimed self-defense.
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After their escape, the group made its way to the Village of Barovia. The true nature of the human pair they& #39;d met in the house came to the forefront. The only thing worse than their lust for wine was their lust for violence.
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The pair, against the advisement of Escher and his dwarf friend, took the wife of the burgomaster as a hostage, demanding money and supplies for her life. Even after receiving the ransom, they killed the woman in the town square.
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It wasn& #39;t so much the woman& #39;s death that angered Escher as it was the fact that his warnings to the men went unheeded. Once the town was well out of sight, he called a small swarm of undead animals to his side as further warning against disobeying his instructions.
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It was this that proved to be his undoing, as the pair began to conspire against him while his ally began to distance himself. When Escher split from the group outside of Vallaki to practice his magic alone, the dwarf didn& #39;t follow when the humans did.
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The struggle between Escher and his former party members was brief, the undead he& #39;d raised for practice quickly killing one of them while he barely survived the struggle with the other. With a knife, he mutilated both until the adrenaline finally faded.
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The display did not go unseen. After the scene they had made in the Village, eyes had been on them. Strahd had placed watchers over them, and Escher& #39;s desperate fight to survive had drawn his interest. He offered arcane knowledge untold in return for Escher& #39;s loyalty.
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Twenty years later, Escher enjoys his undeath. He moves back and forth between two cabins, where he conducts his magical experiments, and the Castle, where he devotes his mind to studies of magical theory.
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Escher hides his bloodlust and fascination with death beneath the facade of the young noble his parents tried to cultivate. In battle, he relies more on his magic than his vampiric strength and drops the charm of his social mask.
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Currently, Escher has recently exhausted his ravenous studies of Strahd& #39;s library, and he& #39;s grown tired of the bleakness of Barovia. He& #39;s looking for escape, either to one of the neighboring domains or to somewhere completely new. And he will use every advantage he can find.
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This concludes my Escher Meta-Thread, based solely on the two games I an currently running, with minor changes because those are a little more customized. Thank you fir reading, and I hope you enjoyed!
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