Basic info, personality, and history

[willnotflinch]

Name: Seregil í Korit
Canon: Nightrunner (the series by Lynn Flewelling)
Age: In his 60s. However, his race ages slowly so his physical age is in his early to mid 20s.

World: In a nutshell, Seregil is from a medieval fantasy world. He's originally from-- well, that would be telling too much. What's important is that he lives in Skala, which is ruled by a warrior Queen (it's a requirement that she wield a sword and lead her armies). They're frequently at war with Plenimar, a country across the sea, and employ a secret organization to work for them. Seregil belongs to said organization so he gets up to some pretty shady things both for that and on the side (for fun).

Personality: (It's a little disjointed as I shortened it.)

Seregil is playful. He’s frequently joking around and enjoys teasing people. His pranks aren’t always benevolent and his humor can have a distinct edge to it. He's also outgoing and a charmer. He has a way of getting people to talk to him. He can make “friends” with someone quickly, although in reality he has few friendships. But for all his extraversion, Seregil is a loner. He has no problem making superficial connections but the deeper ones prove elusive-- mainly because he will do everything he can to avoid them. Despite all his social skills, sharing his own thoughts, feelings, and especially his past, is a nearly impossible task for him.

After all the hardships he’s suffered, Seregil was tempted to kill himself many times and if it weren't for his inner strength and resilience he would be dead. It wasn’t only his strength that saw him through but his courage. Seregil makes full use of the element of surprise and trickery but that doesn’t detract from his bravery. He will charge into battle and risk his own life with no complaint. Whatever fear he experiences he contains and doesn’t let it affect him.

Unless he counts you as a true friend (and even that is no guarantee), Seregil will not hesitate to lie. He has stated that he only uses the truth as a last resort. But he won’t stop at prevaricating, there are few things he won’t do in order to accomplish his goals. He has no issue with manipulating other’s emotions. On the job, he can essentially turn off his empathy. In one of the contradictions of his personality, he’s proven himself to be generous, especially to people who remind him of himself. Some of this is another method of manipulation, as that person may prove useful later, but in other cases he gave people gold or used some of his own influence on their behalf when there was no chance of them being of use.

He may be free with his money but Seregil is possessive of his loved ones. He always wants to be the center of their affection and loathes sharing it. An important note is that Seregil’s jealousy extends only to emotional attachment.

Seregil is a quick learner. He is smart, cunning, and creative. He’s able to think on his feet and even while half conscious. He’s thought himself out of a dangerous situation more than once. While he thrives and spontaneously coming up with tactics, long term strategy is something that eludes him although he can do it when needed.

For all his brains and talents, Seregil is emotionally incompetent. He refuses introspection. Instead of confronting his past and personal struggles, he ignores them and represses his feelings. Seregil developed this method of coping with his emotions early in life. He hasn’t yet realized that this is a terrible way to cope and will only bite him in the ass, as it has in the past.

Seregil is a curious soul. He recognizes that however much he knows and however long he lives, there will always be something to learn. He finds that thought to be a comfort as he has a thirst for knowledge, no matter how mundane. Rivaling this thirst is his need for stimulation. If he doesn’t have a challenging job lined up he will complain of boredom. He’s not content to sit idly by with his nose buried in a book all day. He needs action to keep satisfied.

Perhaps surprisingly, Seregil is religious in his own way. He doesn’t visit temples often. He does, however, pray during his heists and while he’s concerned for his loved ones and himself. He’s also superstitious, as he’s demonstrated several times by breaking a wooden sword when he accidentally cuts Alec (citing that the sword that draws a friend’s blood is cursed) and by refusing to speak the name of a dark god.

History:

Seregil is an Aurënfaie. The race looks like humans except they have a slender build, dark hair, and light eyes. While they don’t have pointy ears they can be distinguished at a glance by those who know how to tell them apart. Aurënfaie can live long lives, assuming they reach old age, as most do since violent crime is uncommon among them. The maximum life span is around 500 years with around 400 being more common.

Seregil’s mother died giving birth to him. His father was the khirnari (leader) of the clan. Seregil and his father never saw eye to eye and he grew up feeling he was a disappointment. At 22 (still a teen by our reckoning) he met Ilar, nearly a grown man from another clan. Playing his part in a conspiracy, he seduced Seregil and encouraged him to refine the skills that would come in handy as a thief. During a diplomatic negotiation that Seregil’s father was leading, Ilar sent Seregil to rob another khirnari with the assurance that the documents he retrieved would help his father. It was a set up meant to embarrass his father. It went wrong when Seregil panicked and killed a man.

Ilar escaped and all of the conspirators but one were sentenced to death. Seregil was exiled. He went to the royal court in Skala, as a distant relation to the queen. He went through several different positions, each ending in failure due to Seregil’s temper. The last straw came when the Princess Royal discovered him in a compromising position with her brother. Cut off from the royal court, Seregil once again lost his purpose.

At this point the wizard Nysander took him in as an apprentice. Eager to prove himself, Seregil threw himself into his magical training. The old wizard treated him as though he was his son, and in many ways Nysander was the father Seregil never had. Unfortunately, Seregil soon proved to have a magical resistance or allergy. Simple spells went disastrously wrong. Eventually the wizard was forced to end the apprenticeship for Seregil’s safety.

Devastated, Seregil left the wizard and lost contact with him for several years. What he did during this time is largely a mystery but whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty. For a time he fell in with thieves and assassins but there too he met with disappointment. When it came to survival he was on his own.

His luck changed when, starving and beaten, he met Micum Cavish. They formed a friendship that would last for over two decades. Seregil returned with Micum to Nysander and it was at this point that the wizard inducted them into a secret organization known as the Watchers, who looked after the welfare of Skala and the Queen. For around twenty years the two went on missions for Nysander, sometimes together sometimes separately. At this point Seregil settled in Rhíminee, the capital of Skala, and established two separate identities—one as the rakish, foppish Lord Seregil and the other as the Rhíminee Cat, a thief employed by many nobles to steal incriminating letters, and deliver tokens, among other things. As the Rhíminee Cat, he was able to relay important information to Nysander.

Seregil’s exploits were not confined to Rhíminee, or even to Skala. His travels to took him all over and he cultivated various disguises. In his late fifties, while on a mission for Nysander, he was caught and thrown in a dungeon. In his cell was a sixteen year old boy, Alec. Convincing Alec to stay on as his new apprentice, Seregil took him along on his mission to spy on the Duke Mardus of Plenimar (a country at war with Skala). Seregil stole from Mardus a seemingly innocuous wooden disk. Unknown to him, the apparently worthless object was in fact a powerful magical object in disguise. The theft was soon discovered and they fled for their lives.

Seregil wore the wooden disk on a necklace, not realizing it was warping his soul. He wrestled with nightmares, visions, and urges to kill everyone in sight, including Alec. The situation came to a head while staying at an inn. Seregil woke to something inhuman inside his room and fought with it. Hearing the struggle Alec came in to check on him. Mistaking his friend for his assailant, Seregil attacked him. Through a stroke of luck Alec pulled the wooden disk from Seregil’s chest. The Aurënfaie immediately lost consciousness. Only then did Alec notice that the wooden disk left a wound on Seregil’s chest. Alec barely got him back to Nysander in time. After purifying Seregil, Nysander refused to tell much about the disk except for the obvious—that it was a dark artifact that could have killed Seregil or worse.

Once he recovered, Seregil introduced Alec to his double life in Rhíminee. They first stayed at the Cockerel inn, which Seregil owned and secretly lived in when he wasn’t playing his part as Lord Seregil. While there he went on various jobs as the Rhíminee Cat, all the while teaching Alec their trade. Some time later a letter was forged that implicated Seregil of treason. Before he could settle the issue, he was arrested and Alec and Micum had to clear his name on their own (with some of his help later, once he temporarily switched bodies with someone). Exposing the people who tried to have him killed, Seregil and Alec uncovered a plot to usurp the throne.

Several weeks later Nysander sent Seregil on a secretive mission related to the wooden disk but he refused to say much more, swearing him to secrecy and revealing that if Seregil said anything to anyone Nysander would have to kill them. Trusting his mentor, Seregil retrieved a crown from a sacrificial site. On his return he received no explanation and tension grew between the wizard and his former apprentice.

Meanwhile Seregil and Alec did jobs together. Soon Seregil had fallen in love with the younger man but stubbornly refused to mention it, fearing it would be too exploitive. They stumbled upon a spy passing on information to the Plenimar. What they didn’t know was that the spy was in communication with Mardus, who had followed them to Rhíminee to get back the wooden disk. They found a map to the sewers, which they checked out and found the grates had been tampered with and reported their findings. But just when Seregil was about to confront the spy, the man was killed in an “accident.” Thwarted, they were back at square one.

Seregil searched for more information. When he returned he found the Cockerel had been trashed. Inside were the mutilated corpses of the people who ran the inn in his absence, people he had known for twenty years. Spotting Alec’s bloody sword, he followed bloody footprints leading to his bed expecting to find his friend’s corpse. Instead he found Alec’s dagger and a lock of his hair. In his grief, Seregil set the inn on fire.

At the same time the wizards had been attacked and the magical artifacts Seregil recovered had been taken. Despite their warning, Mardus had struck from the sewers. Seregil raced to see Nysander, who had been gravely injured. Through what little the wizard said he discovered Mardus would be at this location at a certain time several weeks away. Presumably that was where they were taking Alec. With nothing more to go on, and assured that Nysander would join them later when he was better, Seregil and left with Micum immediately.

When they arrived they found Nysander waiting for them thanks to magical transportation. He explained that Mardus was going to use the artifacts he’d stolen, along with many others, to assemble a helm that when worn would make him the vessel of the dark god Seriamaius. Instead of preventing him from assembling the helm, they would allow him to do so as only then could the helm be destroyed forever.

While waiting for Mardus, Alec escaped. When he and Seregil they found each other Alec kissed him and stopped just short of confessing his love. Recognizing that this wasn’t the time and they still had much to accomplish, Seregil did not pursue the matter and brought his friend back to Nysander and Micum.

When Mardus arrived to reassemble the artifact they saw that he had over a hundred men with him. Undaunted, they attacked and by a quirk of fate were joined by Micum’s daughter, Beka, and the soldiers under her command. Once the helm was assembled Seregil attacked Mardus and killed him. He handed the helm to Nysander and turned to retrieve his sword from where it had fallen during the fight. When he turned back Nysander had put on the helm. The wizard urged Seregil to strike the helm and kill him, explaining that this was the only way and that if Seregil didn’t kill him now he would be possessed by Seriamaius. Horrified but bound by his oath, Seregil killed him and destroyed the helm before it could warp the wizard’s mind.

By killing Nysander Seregil killed part of himself. Vowing to never return to Rhíminee, Alec and Seregil lived with Micum for some months. Unable to feel anything, Seregil drifted through life, a far cry from the talkative, enthusiastic man he had been. His kiss with Alec was ignored.

Early one morning Seregil left, never intending to return and with the half formed idea of taking his life. Realizing what he’d done, Alec went after him. Knocking Seregil over and yelling at him, Alec managed to bring Seregil’s suppressed emotions to the surface. Overwhelmed, Seregil confessed his guilt and that he couldn’t stay at Micum’s house anymore. Alec told him that he would leave with him and told him he loved him and this time his kiss was returned.

Two days later they left Skala together. At first they had the intention of going to the neighboring country Mycena as spies to the Skalan queen but it soon became clear that Seregil just wanted to put as much space between them and Skala as possible. To get by they hunted, sang, spied, and, when necessary, stole.

Much more happened after that but that was his canonpoint for the app and there are four more books.