Korimenlokjorerons/Eyes of Arvins/Highway Robber

•   Name: Korimenlokjorerons (Thergerim = Lord of Lizards). He typically refers to himself as “Kori”.
•   Gender: Male
•   Age: 46
•   Race: Psyrpent
•   Tribe: Eyes of Defense
•   Occupation: Highway Robber/Mercenary/Assassin/Thief /Spy
•   Title: Eye of Death

•   Overview
Korimenlokjorerons is a Psyrpent seeking to elevate himself by any means necessary – he believes that the world exists to for him and him alone. He has had a series of dangerous and dirty occupations throughout his life, and lacks any compunction about anything, so long as there is something for him in the deal.

•   Appearance

Height
1 Ped, 2 Fores, 1 Palmspan, 3 Nailsbreadths, 3 Grains.

Weight
1 Pygge, 8 Hebs, 1 Od, 4 Mut..

Eye Colour
Gnastheen.

Physical Appearance
If you could look under the heavy herne-green robes and hood covering Korimenlokjorerons, you would see thick sognastheen-green scales broken occasionally by thin vertical stripes of xazure-blue. His gnastheen eyes are bright and cunning, and his scaly lips are often drawn away from fierce korwyn-gold-coloured fangs in a predatory leer. He is broad shouldered and lean-muscled, making him strong like any psyrpent (though not as strong as a Claw). His claws, while worthy weapons, are often covered in thickly padded leather gloves due to his dislike for being seen (“Better heard than seen”). He has a tail that is 1 Ped, 1 Fore, 3 Nailsbreadths, and 4 Grains in length, with the usual spray of spikes at the end; he tries to keep it covered with his robes and will curl it near his feet when he isn’t walking, but a tail of this size is not always easy to hide.

As for what people can typically see, he wears voluminous, heavy herne-green robes (which are excellent camaflouge in many environments) with a hood, the train of the robes often covering as much of his tail as he can manage, though it is rare to have it fully concealed. He has no armour, trusting to his thick robes and scales to keep him protected from small attacks (if he ever comes under attack by so many heavily armed opponents that he cannot fend them off, something has gone terribly awry with his plans, whatever those may be at the time). He is plain and spartan, eschewing trinkets and such except when they are needed. On a thick belt around his waist on the exterior of his robes are several small pouches which contain parchment and ink (for communication), money, and anything else he deems necessary to have at the time.

If forced to fight, Kori will drop his robes and engage in his leather tunic and breeches. He is careful to avoid anything that might lead to conflict in daylight, and if he does reveal himself, he usually makes certain that whoever saw him does not survive the encounter.

•   Personality
Kori has a few simple tenets that direct his life:

1. “Better Heard Than Seen”: the holy writ of his guild is one he upholds with great care, and it is reflected in his clothing, his social habits (or the lack thereof) and his strategy of dealing with enemies.
2. “What’s Mine is Mine, and What’s Yours is also Mine”: Kori understands the ideas of property, but he doesn’t care about them. What he needs he takes, whether it involves dealing, bartering, blackmailing, stealing or killing to acquire it. There is not enough to go around, so there is no reason that he should be the one who must go short.
3. “Life is just another Commodity”: the Living have value so long as they serve his ends. If they do not…than he doesn’t care.

Kori has little temper to speak of. He does not anger easily, nor is he easily distracted from what he wants, but this single-mindedness also produces tunnel-vision and can cause him to overlook details.
He is certainly both vain and proud, sometimes believing himself more cunning than he really is and expecting others to recognize this.
Korimenlokjorerons has taken his current name for himself because in his heart of hearts, Kori believes he will one day rule a great deal of people from the shadows, but this will require his accumulating great power, and it drives much of what he does.

•   Strengths and Weaknesses
46 years of experience in a variety of bloody and ruthless trades makes Kori a force to be reckoned with, especially if he has become directly hostile to someone. But there are two sides to every coin:

Strengths

1. Great physical strength: being a Psyrpent is advantageous, and years on the road fighting, sneaking, and traveling have cut him into a lean and strong individual. He not as strong as his Claw relatives, but he is on par with a strong orc.

2. Natural Armour: The scales of a Psyrpent provide natural protection from simple attacks.

3. Focus: He is utterly relentless and ruthless in pursuit of a task or prey.

4. Assassin's training: He's not the most skilled assassin...but he is good enough. He doesn't usually use his training to make a living though, it's typically used to remove barriers to his personal goals.

Weaknesses

1. Sight: Being a psyrpent, and a former member of the Eyes, he wears heavy robes and a dark hood which he rarely removes. This is a deterrent to his sight, especially during the day: at night he will sometimes draw the hood back, if few or no people are nearby, and the shadows are thick.

2. Communication: Being a psyrpent, he lacks the capability of speech, and must use other methods - usually pen and parchment - in order to communicate. At night or at longer distances, this can be problematic.

3. Tunnel-vision: His tenacity sometimes causes him to lose awareness, both of his immediate present surroundings and future consequences.

4. Shunned: He has to get food and shelter the hard way sometimes, as his species is often barely tolerated at best.

•   History
Born into the Eye of Arvins caste at Tsor-Magair, young Ssor took well to his station in life amongst the fiercely competitive Eyes. He became stealthy and crafty, thirsty for the power of knowledge. At age 22, he was coming along nicely when something happened.
There was a particular member of the Eyes of Defense that Ssor did not like: he was the “assistant” of the Guildmaster. Ssor had shown promise already and was confident that if he could remove the assistant, he would be selected to take the assistant’s place…and that might one day lead to his being elevated to Guildmaster himself. But as things stood at the moment, there was little doubt as to who the next Guildmaster would be.

Ssor one day had what appeared to be a great stroke of luck. He discovered a Hand, from the Coin guild, smuggling out a magical crystal – a very good crystal. He took the crystal but did not turn him in to the Home guild…he let the psyrpent off with a warning and a veiled threat, and hatched a plan to propel himself up the ladder of power.
He took the crystal and hid it in the belongings of the Guildmaster’s assistant. He had little doubt that a search for the crystal would occur when the intended receiver did not get it…and he had no doubt that the Home guild would do a very thorough search to find the thief. When they did find it, Ssor would be asked to fill the now-vacant position.

When the search was made, the crystal was not found. In fact, with a little inquiry he discovered that a Hand from the Coin guild was reported missing and the suspected thief.
Ssor was puzzled. Why hadn’t the Home guild found the crystal with the assistant? Were there two crystals? If there were two, why hadn’t he discovered the second in with the missing Coin psyrpent?

He stayed out of the way…until approached by the assistant to the Guildmaster. The assistant informed him (a little superiorly) that the Guildmaster wanted the crystal recovered and the traitorous psyrpent dealt with, and he believed that Ssor was the right psyrpent for the job.
The young psyrpent, seeing a chance to raise himself in the esteem of the Guildmaster, accepted the mission to recover the stolen crystal.

He went to the south, first to Nyermersys, and then on further south to Ximax, guessing that the Hand had taken it there to fetch a high price for its magical value.
Ssor soon knew that his species was often shunned, and he was familiar with the beliefs of his own people with other species. But the exposure to it all left a hardening affect on him. Rather than trade with others, sleep in their inns, or buy their food, he stole from them. He slept in the wilds, and more than once killed a lone traveler for his money and food. If he could get nothing on the roads and became desperate, he would then dress heavily and buy food with stolen money.

He found the Hand, in Ximax. But the shock he received was devastating. The Hand glibly informed him that he didn’t have the crystal: he had been given food and money by the assistant to the Guildmaster and sent south, with a message for Ssor when he arrived: he would not be welcome at home.

Ssor saw his downfall: the one he had tried to supplant had somehow found the crystal and divined its source, then sent Ssor on a wild chase. Most likely, it would now be Ssor who would be implicated in the theft…he was an exile.

He killed the Hand and struck north, uncertain of what to do next. He wanted revenge, but that was not possible right now. He would need power, skills he did not yet possess.
In a moment of great pride, he changed his name to Korimenlokjorerons – Lord of Lizards, in the Dwarven tongue – a promise to himself to rule one day. He would have his place in the Psyrpent world again, someday, somehow, but he goes by the name Kori to the world at large.

He spent several years on the roads, thieving and robbing. In desperation to eat and stay alive in the cold months, he even joined a gang of highway robbers. It was difficult to make himself understood, and for a time they were wary (and they never fully trusted the snake-man), but he proved an addition. They attacked many bands of travelers, some armed some not. Kori proved his ability to appear in the camp at night and cut throats, or lie next to the roadside and surprise men into a terrified panic, or even leap from a rock and bring down horse and rider with claws and teeth. Seven years of such a life turned him into a lean, fierce psyrpent without remorse or regard for others.

He eventually tired of the life though. Seven years of acquiring goods and money, but never spending, set him well off enough that he left the highway gang and traveled to Carabrand.

He made his way in with a member of the Assassin’s Guild, though it required a considerable amount of his small fortune to convince the human to teach him. He already had a talent for staying hidden, to use the shadows to his advantage, but now he trained with an older, experienced assassin. “Better Heard than Seen.” If this was the true mandate of his kind, he would master it better than any psyrpent before him.

He was cunning and ruthless, and another seven years molded him into an experienced assassin. But he wanted to expand his knowledge and skill, and asked his teacher for more.

”Nothing more I can give you” replied the human flatly. It had been difficult to teach his lizard student, and many a time he wondered if it had been worth it. But he had learned well. He was not the best of assassins, but only time and experience would make him better with his current skills.
Unless…

“You could go to the Kar-ii.”

Kori asked, via parchment and ink, What do you mean?

”The best assassin in Sarvonia is nothing compared to the Kasumarii” explained the older man. “They’re in the north. We trade students with them sometimes.” He took a piece of parchment and wrote a short, concise letter and handed it to Kori. “There. A ship leaves at the end of the week. Show them that when you arrive.”

Kori took the letter and traveled to Guldor…but encountered resistance when he revealed the parchment. He was a pysrpent…his species told very much against him.

He was eventually, and grudgingly, allowed to be trained by Korenjaans on the basis of the letter. Nine years of hard training in the cold environment took their toll on him. He was never well liked and always held in contempt; he suffered physically from the environment; his speech impairment often worked against him.
Yet, despite it all, he became what he wanted to become. He was ranked a seasoned duskblade when he left Guldor. Unable to take the cold, or the continued (and sometimes) malicious harassment of some of the Kar-ii, he returned to the south and has spent a year here...looking for more power. As of late his thoughts have turned to magic, though he has yet to be schooled in any way.

•   Weapons
- He keeps a set of Jhé'vai Daggers strapped to his forearms, hidden in the billowy sleeves of his robe.
- A short sword, his preferred fighting weapon when encountering sword wielding opponents.
•   Belongings
Beyond his clothes, money and weapons, he keeps little with him.

I have always wanted to create an evil, nasty character, with vague ideas of world-domination and an ego to match...this character has been waiting for quite a long time to be brought out, even before my very first one, but I didn't feel ready then. I hope you like him... evil

Sincerely,
Morcaanan