Desmond

Character Sheet

Portrait

Backstory

We never knew the term Genasi until my brother and I moved into the city, and to this day I still have never seen another of our kind. Our kin are unknown to us. We were found washed up on the edge of a great river out in the Infinite Steppe, a vast grassland far to the west. The wilds of the river should have taken our tiny lives, but we seemed to have a natural affinity to the aquatic elements. A small community of humans, gnomes and a mix of other races adopted us and raised us as their own. As we grew, we learned to live off of the land and found our passions in life. I became invested with the never-ending world and the wealth of knowledge it could teach me while my brother, Mason, was curious in how the natural world worked and became a master of the art of alchemy and herb lore.

As time passed and we grew into adulthood, we began to realize how different we were from the others. These people would always be our family, but there was a whole world to explore and we had questions about who we really were. The village elder gave us her blessings, and provided us with a leather pouch that contained a few tiny gems. We were told that the outside world considered gemstones and other precious metals to be valuable, and that we would need to trade using these sort of objects in order to survive. We left the small community nearly 3 years ago, traveling for weeks through the grassland and then through the hills and forests until we finally found our way to civilization.

When you live among small huts, caves, trees and the wilds for your entire life, the first time seeing a large city was a daunting experience. There were structures larger than some of the tallest trees I’ve ever seen. When we first entered the city, the guards were cautious of us. They said that they had never seen someone of our kind, and they were suspicious that we could be dangerous. Although the guards saw danger, the inhabitants of the city saw wonder and was intrigued by the unknown. The attention we initially received was ill received to us in the beginning, as we were unused to having so many strangers constantly aware of our presence. In the beginning days we would explore the city, learning the culture that our primitive minds had never experienced; however, in the evenings we would leave the city and return to the nature that we felt more comfortable with.

Although the many experiences the city could offer us was exciting, we began to grow weary that our quest for knowledge of our cultural identity would be stumped from progression. It was then that we caught the eye of a user of the arcane arts, Vitus Ravifort, a studious type that hailed from the libraries of the city and studied the stars and worlds beyond. The knowledge of our presence had reached his ears, and he sought us out. It was Vitus who told us of our heritage, and of the term Genasi. We learned that we were decedents of a powerful race from another plane of existence, a bastard between a mortal and a genie. Our kind were considered to be rare in this world, but the hope that we may not be alone was the drive that we needed.

We quickly realized that we could not survive on the small amount of currently our village elder had given us, and if we wanted to succeed in life we would need to work hard to obtain our goals. For some time we worked under Vitus, exchanging our services and willingness to help the old scholar in his research for food and lodging. My brother was interested in the vast amounts of knowledge in the library, although I was more eager to explore the city and connect with the community. Over time, we were able to save up enough money to rent a small shop within the business commons. Using my brother’s talents in his various trade skills, and my lore over nature, we opened a storefront that sold potions, tonics, and a variety of other components and oddities. We named the store The Aquatic Concoction.

My brother does well in maintaining the store, and we’ve have a decent business flow over this last year. Mason seems content in spending his time on the business, but I can’t help but to feel trapped in the city. During the day I often spend my time outside of the city, collecting ingredients and searching for new and rare sights. The world intrigues me, and I can’t help but feel there has to be more to life than spending it trapped inside of a shop. We hoped creating a business would secure us financially and allow us to make a new home, and to hopefully one day find another of our race. However, it’s been over a year now and we still are no closer to our original goals.

I’m glad my brother is happy, and I aim on seeking out the rarest of ingredients to help the business out, but I can’t stay here for much longer. There is so much of the world to see, so much to explore, and other Genasi to discover.