Sariel

And all of the previous post is a preamble to several backstories / epilogues that I wrote for characters I could play in D&D. It was real fun stringing their tales together...and accidentally picking angelic names for all of them.  

First up is Sariel, who is both first chronologically and who I'm currently playing in Jae's intro campaign. They are real inspired by Emet-Selch and I tried to bury blatantly stuff as many references as I can into the two short text: 

A very long time ago, before even reaching adulthood, Sariel left their home forest and traveled the lands. They met a curious human adventurer that defied all they've heard about the human race's inadequacies. The two quickly became the dearest of friends as they traveled together. But all journeys have their ends, and Sariel reluctantly bid their friend farewell as they returned home for their adulthood ceremony, promising to visit the friend's hometown afterwards. But when Sariel made good on this promise, what they found was not their friend's radiant smile but a town destroyed by war and their friend's corpse amongst other townspeople hung as a warning.

Sariel doesn't recall how they returned to their home, or much of what transpired in those hundreds of years since. Time passed by in a daze reading the vast collection of elfin literature. Most days filled with quiet despair and many nights with smoldering rage. Humans are indeed short sighted, malformed creatures that destroy everything good in misguided pursuits of empty goals.

The darkness dwelling in Sariel attracted the attention of an otherworldly fiend. They really didn't pay much attention to which demon it was, nor what the demon required of them to form a pact. None of this mattered since they will just spend the rest of their long lifespans in quiet isolation of the forest.

But as the end of Sariel's life actually approaches, it is clear that there remains the tiniest spark of hope in their chest that cannot be ignored. Hope that there are other humans like their friend, that there are good in humanity like their friend has made them believe in their youth. Sariel decides to set out on one last adventure to test this hope.

…

Sariel transformes themselves into an archlich to watch over the ruins of Conyberry. They cast an illusion so that from the outside it maintains the appearance of the ruins, but from the inside the village is reanimated as Raph described it from his childhood, now more than 700 years past. All the villagers that Raph described has been faithfully recreated, going about their daily lives. Sariel struggled only with Raph himself, creating and destroying the shade of his dearest friend every so often as his mood swings from unbearable longing and the chilling clarity that the shade cannot replace Raph no matter how identical in appearance and lifelike in its gestures and habits. But the few moments that they manage to fool themselves is worth it.