Secret Origins: Cuyir Vercopa

 Everyone has a different method for creating a character for Dungeons and Dragons. Some people start with a class they'd like to play and roll from there. Some build the most powerful guy they can so they can do some damage. A friend of mine starts with a name and builds the character around that.

 I like to build from the ground up. I figure out who this person IS, long before I get to what he can do. Even after I have most of the broad strokes down, I like to get into his head a little, rearrange the furniture. In the spirit of doing just that, today we're taking a look at one of the biographies I wrote.

Join me after the jump for the who of:

Cuyir Vercopa
Shadar-Kai, Male
Invoker of Loviatar, Goddess of Pain
5'13", 134 lbs
Language: Common, Dwarven, Deep Speech
Region: East Rift
Lineage: Unknown

    In the Underdark, below the Gnollwatch mountains, lies the city of T’lindhet. A city of the Drow, a race whose unparalleled cruelty and arrogance is well known. There, as in so many of the dark elven settlements, many peoples are kept as slaves. Prominent amongst these are the Shadar-Kai, a Deep Speech name meaning “The Broken People.” With pale gray skin and dark eyes, we bitter fey stand as a twisted mirror image to our captors. Born in darkness, allowed no family, and given no names.

    The Drow believe our name apt, that we are broken to their will. This is not so. The Shadar-Kai maintain tradition, and an oral history is passed down. Our suffering, it is said, is sacrament to Loviatar. Sweet Mistress of Pain. And just as we pay into that coffer, we shall be granted the power to return it tenfold. Many of my people serve under The Willing Whip, and I am no different.

    During my imprisonment I was called boy or wretch, sometimes fool, but most often simply slave. Soon, I would kill my captors and slip my bonds, but my first true act of aggression was the taking of a name. Cuyir Vercopa. In the Deep Speech, the tongue of my people, it means The Will To Exist.

    Emerging from the Underchasm, traveling by night I made my way to Delzimmer, often called the Gateway to East Rift. My hope was that like many gateways, it too could serve as an exit. Now I travel inflicting the will of my goddess both upon those who deserve it and those who crave it.

“Wherever a whip is, there is Loviatar. Fear her -and yet long for her.”