Zethras Gremorrow Character Bio

Zethras ‘Zeth’ Gremorrow

25, human male turned kin, cult leader, former court mage

Appearance- Zethras looks different in the beginning compared to how he looks after being infused with the mark of L'Deibo. At first, he is tall and emaciated-looking with a sunken-in face with , corpselike eyes, and oily black kelp-like hair. He carries himself like a typical evil mage- slightly hunched back, dramatic hand gestures. Afterward, he fills out more and gains decent musculature, a handsome face, his hair becomes flowing instead of mangy, and his body language is much more confident.

He wears fancy robes as a cult leader and carries a large, evil-looking staff.

Eye color TBD.

Personality- paranoid, compelling, eccentric, obsessive, manic

Abilities- Zethras starts off the story as a mage of little renown and talent. He has a minor specialization in dark magic but has no real talent beyond a beginner level. Poor skills in alchemy. In spite of these traits, he is intelligent and insightful beyond what is expected of him. Knowledgeable about demons and occultism, but initially not things to do with the outer gods beyond knowing a few whispers here and there.

After Emla infuses him with the mark of L’Deibo, Zethras will begin to morph into a kin of the outer gods. His physique will improve, his talents at magic will unlock, and he gains an inhuman sexual appendage along with powers related to Emla and her abilities. His cock transfers the mark of Emlaalth'kir after claiming a woman as his own, transforming the woman's womb into an extension of Emla's. This allows the woman to have monster children. Biologically they're not Emla's but spiritually they are, and any children from this union view Emla as their 'greater' mother.

Although not something he's aware of, Zethras is a surprisingly motivational speaker and can be very convincing which will help him with his activities as a cult leader. This will bloom as his charisma develops.

Motivation- Zethras has no motivation at the beginning, he is living one day at a time with only his dreams to look forward to. He is filled with spite and hatred for everyone around him, often losing himself in violent delusions for those he hates. If anything, his only motivation is to become more powerful and gain respect- but beneath that, it's more that he wants a place to belong.

When Emla finally reaches out to him, he is given direction and after some convincing he follows her commands and begins to worship her. After they meet, Emla becomes his motivation for everything. Everything he does is to better her life and help her survive. She gave him a purpose, power, and endless love, and in return he promises to make her into a powerful god.

Interests- Zethras has always been interested in gathering forbidden knowledge. He thirsts for it, collecting ancient tomes wherever he can find them in attempts to further his magic. Thus far his pursuits never went anywhere but he still enjoys reading about arcane lore or anything else he could get his hands on. He has interest in occultism and demonology, along with conspiracy theories and alternate history.

History- Zethras was born to a random family somewhere in the Tior province. As a child born with a degree of magical talent, he was taken from his parents and raised at the Magicademy. He had low marks throughout his schooling there, and was often bullied and teased by the other children. There was a formative experience when he was ten years old where he was bullied into going in the forbidden section of the Magicademy's library. Strangely, it wasn't as guarded as he would've thought it would be, and he helped himself to all sorts of strange books while he was there. Rather than scaring him like the kids wanted it to, Zethras actually started spending more and more of his time among the dark grimoires and the dusty shelves of the forbidden section. He did this for the next eight years until he finished the primary schooling component of the Magicademy, upon which he was faced with an unexpected shock.

He was told he would not be allowed to advance to the college program. The reason was simple. Even despite having eight years to make something of himself from taking in all that forbidden knowledge, Zethras's grades and general magic power never increased as a result of his dabbling. As something of a ironic joke, the forbidden section isn't actually forbidden. It's not even that heavily monitored. It's meant to root out students who have potential in the dark arts and foster their ambitions. The fact that he had so long to polish himself and still have nothing come of it exposed his potential and made his teachers believe that there was no merit to allowing Zethras Gremorrow to continue his schooling.

Devastated and humiliated, Zethras thankfully avoided the debt which the Magicademy saddles its not-graduating students with since he at least made it through basic schooling. He was told to leave Mithimere, however, and he was thrust out of the only city he'd ever known and told to make a living for himself. Times were hard after that, and he wandered west into Rhoivan. He tried adventuring for a while only to discover he didn't have a knack for it. He was fired from working at an apothecary because of the quality of his potions, and there were probably some more places he failed at, with each one increasing his discontentment and frustration at the world.

Eventually he found his way to Hollobell, a city on the edge of swampy Drerland. Something about it seemed right to him and he decided to stick around, since it's not like he had many other prospects at the time. When looking for a job, Zethras found an opportunity with a very low ranking local lord, Baldwin Grovewick of House Grovewick. Lord Baldwin was looking for a new court mage, and Zethras applied for the position and was granted it. He was twenty-two at the time and he's been working there for three years. What little fondness he had for Hollobell has faded in the years since, and his job turned out to be much worse than he imagined.

Lord Baldwin was a disgusting man who behaved like he had more power than he actually did. He enjoyed bullying the weak and ordering others around, particularly Zethras, who he constantly complained about and ridiculed on a daily basis over his lack of skills. Zethras swallowed back his pride and allowed this to happen because it took him so long to find a place where he could actually get by, even if his Lord treated him more like a court jester than a mage. Lord Baldwin also funded some of Zethras's magical research, if only because seeing him fail was amusing.

The only solace Zethras has in his life is when he falls asleep he has vivid dreams where a recurring woman appears to him. She is beautiful, even if she never appears the same way twice, and though he can never remember much of what they talk about, they're enough to keep him going.

The beginning of the story will see Zethras starting off with one of these dreams, a recollection of his first time in the forbidden section only the woman is there with him. She is comforting and reassuring him, even as the job version of himself expresses his doubts knowing what kind of person he will grow up to be. He wakes and like normally can't remember much of it, and we'd see a day through his eyes as he is treated harshly by Lord Baldwin, made to run errands like a servant, before he wound up at his favorite magical bookstore.

Things would go strange here, as the seller is replaced by a mysterious young girl (Nia in diguise) who asks a lot of leading questions and appears to know far more about him than she lets on, quoting his desire for power and respect. Hints he should check the shelves and see if anything catches his eye. She's gone the next time he looks, but he feels a supernatural presence in the shop and is overcome with nostalgia for his days of sneaking around the library.

He comes across a very obviously placed magic tome which calls out to him in a voice he recognizes. With no shop keep in sight, Zethras steals the book and brings it back to his chambers and begins to pour over it- his mind filling with arcane knowledge. He feels like a kid again, only the book in question is more potent and powerful than anything back at the Magicademy. It takes him a few weeks to fully process everything inside the book, which is essentially a beginners guide to outer god-related topics.

We see a montage of sorts of Zethras reading the book on and off, things slowly becoming strange in his life as he does. He hears whispers, voices in his head, he sleeps less, becomes more paranoid and even more withdrawn than he already is, typical things of that nature. He also starts to feel a small calling toward the swamp- small enough that he can ignore it for now.

Things reach a boiling point after Zethras has a bad experience with Lord Baldwin, who has noticed his servant's mental decline. He gets taunted and laughed at by the court before his pay and research expenses are cut, saying it's not like he'd ever produced anything of note anyway. This causes Zethras to see hallucinations of himself slaughtering the Lord, but he lowers his head and swallows his pride before accepting his lot. He is dismissed.

Zethras goes back to his chamber and is in a horrible mood, destroying some of his things before making his way to the book where he angrily blames the thing for his troubles. You were supposed to make me stronger, teach me secrets, and so on. As his anger increases, the book speaks to him in the clearest voice yet, this time Zethras recognizes the gentle and soothing voice from his dreams. It comforts him, saying everything will be alright and that he'll have everything he ever wanted.

You will have power and the respect you've always craved, but your true heart's desire shall be fulfilled as well. She knows how badly he wants somewhere to belong and promises he will find it by her side.

He's pretty far gone mentally but is self-aware of that fact and asks if any of this is even real. Madness is only a transitional stage between normalcy and understanding. You will either understand, or you won't. That remains to be seen, but she believes in him. Zethras asks how they might be together and he is told that he must accept this entity as his new god and prove his worth by offering a sacrifice in the name of Emlaalth'kir. A moment's hesitation strikes him as he struggles with the thought, asking what sort of sacrifice. She claims that he already knows.

It'll be dangerous. That's why it's called proving your worth, silly. Show your resolve and kill in my name, and you shall know where to find me. He accepts and details of how to make the sacrifice are flooded into his mind painfully and is told he must do so tonight or not at all. There's no time to prepare, he begs for more assistance but she assures him he doesn't need it. Become who you were meant to be.

Later that night after he's wrestled with his doubts the whole day, Zethras has a plan of action and he sneaks around the manor to slip in an alchemical sleeping gas into Lord Baldwin's chambers, interrupting him in the middle of some violent sex thing with unfortunate Drerlander women. Zethras wears a plague mask for this scene and he starts preparing the ritual, even if he has more doubts. There will be a couple of comedic roadblocks, like Zethras is weak and can't move the sacrifice onto the circle and his attempts to drag him there ruin the sigil. Eventually Lord Baldwin would become half awake, believing this to be a dream yet correctly assuming this is Zethras under the mask. As things continue to go wrong, Lord Baldwin would continue mocking him about how he can't even murder someone right.

These comments would push Zethras further, doubling his resolve no matter how many screw ups he makes along the way. He begins the ritual and after saying all the words and all that junk he drives the dagger down- only to miss. He gets laughed at, which is a fatal mistake. The second time pierces the heart and only now does the sacrifice understand he wasn't dreaming. Zethras would then be given confirmation that he'd proved himself worthy of his new god and more information would flash through his mind, revealing to him the location he needs to go- a remote region in Drerland. After, there would be a comedy of errors as he tries to escape the site of his crime and get away.

From there, things happen like I've already detailed. He goes through with a journey he was unprepared for, hiking for weeks in a blur and narrowly avoiding dangerous swamp threats before making his way to the as of yet unnamed land where Emla dwells in a palace beneath a swampy lake. Zethras is then suddenly thrust into the surprisingly sexual life of a burgeoning cult leader, pledging himself to Emla and aspiring to build her a cult and protect her from anything that might cause her harm. His body mutates from an infusion of her essence and he is tasked with breeding Emla an army.

As he grows more comfortable in his role, he goes from being a loser to an accomplished dark mage as well as a captivating leader. There will be sparks of his brilliance early on- moments where his silver tongue and dramatic speaking is shown to surprise others. As will be mentioned in her bio, Emla is kind, idealistic, and even a little shy, so she defaults to Zethras for most leadership decisions and trusts him to act on her behalf and speak with her best interests.

With his other loves, Zethras is dominant but kind. He has to maintain appearances for the cultists so he maintains an authoritative persona- but he's not above rousing them to do what needs to be done. A balance will need to be struck so it's more comedic when he motivates his followers to do manual labor and things like that versus coming off as manipulative. He will presumably be himself with the upper echelon of the cult, Emla, the maids, and any other outer gods/kin that get roped into the cult down the line.

As a father, Zethras grows pleased with his growing family even if it takes some getting used to. Many of his monstrous children will not be sentient and function more as pets and many will be sent to the Veil of Dreams, but he'll show love for these just as he does with his more sentient offspring. He will be a loving father overall, but his personality towards them depends on who's around. Essentially I mean that in front of the cult he will be very serious about them, treating them like tools to serve Emla's purposes, even if the kids know better than that. Also pretty much all of the important children will have human intelligence from the get go, allowing for more interesting interactions.