Sinomi Sii

Sinomi Sii by Sinomi Sii

Sinomi Sii is a Drangonari Pale Master, the founder and leader of Turiva Ilnuru, and a Master of the Violet Order of the Skull.

Early Years

Grantir Born in Grantir, Sinomi was a rather typical Drangonari, until he fell in love with a ghost elf slave named Levena. Despite their best efforts to keep it secret, his family discovered it and sent her away. Distraught, Sinomi followed her only to find her killed by Shaahesk. He had no means to bring her back. Angry with his family, with Grantir traditions, with the Shaahesk, and with the gods for being either unwilling or unable to help, he left Grantir.

The Road to Mikona As he had traveled occasionally with his family on business to Le'Or, that is where he first went. Here the effect of his lost love became apparent in his study of necromancy, and he also began to learn more about the ways of the larger world. In order to learn more of the world and more of necromancy, he left for Elysia and from there frequented Ferrell for a time. Sinomi took a liking to alchemy and herbalism and joined the AKN, where he would eventually become a High Apprentice before somewhat abandoning those studies. It was in Ferrell that he met Dralix of the Ebony Order of the Moon and learned much about Andrinor's Trust and the many mage orders. He finally moved to Mikona to learn more about such things and to become more involved with the Ebony Order.

Steelcasting Sinomi participated in the First Scaled Gauntlet, a series of organized duels, in Ferrell. Although the duels were focused on melee prowess, rather than arcane combat, Sinomi was still disappointed with his result, as he fell rather quickly to the then-young Shaahesk Rhissaerk Jalesh. This failure led Sinomi to pursue for some time martial skills, particularly the use of various weapons, and the art of steelcasting, in which a mage learns to cast arcane magic while wearing heavy army and carrying a shield. Once already quite proficient in the art, Sinomi would receive further instruction to hone his skills from the well-known steelcaster Tiras and then Crunk Steelcaster himself. Besides acquiring these new skills himself, Sinomi's interest seemed to begin a renewed general interest in the art that had not been widely seen since the days of Crunk and his students Tiras and Lochlyn.

Pale Mastery Sinomi's interest in necromancy led him to learn the basics of pale mastery. While learning martial skills and steelcasting, Sinomi's main focus always remained on the pale art. His progress in it led Sinomi to consider more immediate and radical ways to obtain various advantages of undeath. While researching various possibilities, he found an ancient necromantic tome that described, among other things, one necromancer's attempt to graft an undead limb to his own body. Following the ritual described in the tome and relying on his own knowledge of necromancy and pale mastery, Sinomi performed a ritual in which he removed his own left arm and grafted a suitably prepared undead arm in its place. As his old arm still retains necromantic power as a result of the ritual, Sinomi keeps it close to him at all times. Eventually other necromancers or pale masters would undergo similar changes, either by a ritual like Sinomi's, or as a more ~natural~ development, such as in the case of the infamous Isamu. As Sinomi's mastery of the pale art would only increase with time, his body continued to undergo further changes, whether by natural development or more direct means, and Sinomi would become more and more like the undead.

Ebony Years

The Ebony Order Sinomi was eventually admitted to the Ebony Order by Archmage Vanyankaya del'Trion. Quickly proving to be a quite active and capable member mage, Sinomi was soon promoted to Great Mage of Internal Affairs, a position he would hold for a Gnomish year. The position of Archmage was eventually passed from Vanya to Sand. Some time after becoming Archmage, however, Sand left the Order for an extended period, leaving internal matters to his Great Mage of Internal Affairs, Sinomi, and external matters to his Great Mage of Relations, Dralix. The position of Great Mage of Arms, previously held by Sand, was still vacant, as were most of the Senior Mage positions. This basically left Sinomi with nearly all the responsibilities of a de facto Archmage.

Turiva Ilnuru In this time, in order to organize his teaching of many students of pale mastery, and to do so both without causing any unnecessary attention for the Ebony Order as well as to hopefully find additional allies or recruits for the Ebony Order, Sinomi founded a school of pale mastery called Turiva Ilnuru (which, in Drangonari, means Masters of Undeath), which since its founding has been the preeminent training ground for pale masters, and did indeed help to bring many recruits to the Ebony Order for some time

Damar Ogdem Before Sinomi joined the Ebony Order, Damar - the second Archmage of the Order, following Cyprian - had already turned over the position of Archmage to Vanya. From then on, Damar entered the background of the Order, seldom even seen in the Order's robes. Over time, Sinomi came to believe that Damar often acted with only his own approval and seldom in concert with the Ebony Order as a whole, and so Sinomi became suspicious of Damar.

Turmoil in the Order Fulfilling his responsibilities to the Ebony Order proved especially difficult given the tenuous, unofficial status of his de facto position and the vacancies in the Order's other leadership roles. A younger mage named Micah Elizabeth Ormane, however, had been acting as Senior Mage of Elysia and was eventually promoted to Great Mage of Arms. Sinomi had also been promoted to represent the Ebony Order with a seat on the High Mage Council, along with Sand and Dralix (by this time, Damar had been appointed Moderator of the Council). Sinomi's suspicion of Damar only increased when Sinomi joined the Council, but this suspicion resulted in disagreements with Dralix and Micah, who had once been Damar's own apprentice. This conflict began to cause tension within the Order.

The High Mage Council Sinomi's suspicion of Damar came to a head when Sinomi believed that Damar's actions as Moderator were contrary to the good of the Ebony Order. Sinomi then hatched an ultimately doomed and rash political scheme to have Damar removed as Moderator. Before the plan could come to fruition, Arlin Everwine - new Archmage of the Ashen Order of the Stars - betrayed the plans to the entire Council. At the time, Angadarians were at war with Andrinor and the mages of his Trust. Arlin purportedly gained information that the Angadarians wished to see Damar removed as Moderator as a necessary step in their larger plans of attack on the Trust. Although this never proved to be true, it was at the time an unfortunate stroke to Sinomi (Sinomi believes that the fact that he is Drangonari likely made it easier for the Council to suspect him).

A New Order When news of Sinomi's plan against Damar was leaked, Sand removed Sinomi from the Council. It also became apparent to Sand that the Order could no longer afford to continue without an active Archmage, and he soon announced Micah as the next Archmage. Sinomi endeavored to rebuild his relationships with Damar, Dralix and Micah, but after much discussion Sinomi learned the cause of his suspicions of Damar. Damar, along with others, had long been planning to rebuild the Gold Order, and had been doing so from inside the Ebony Order. Soon after the Council matter and the change in Archmage, Damar and Dralix, as well as several others, left for the Gold Order.

A New Turmoil Micah soon demoted Sinomi from the position of Great Mage and made her dislike of his school quite explicit. She additionally made it clear that she was not too fond of Ebony mages having any dedications outside the Order - a rather new and stricter policy for Ebony mages. Turmoil brewed again, especially once she began to force Ebony mages to give up altogether their pursuit of pale mastery under Sinomi's teaching.

Recent Years

Whispers in the Darkness As the Ebony Order fractured, Sinomi began to notice the shadows and darkness calling to him, and his dreams spoke to him. Soon, Micah announced an impending absence from the Ebony Order and hinted at changes to come. Seeing an opportunity to once again take a leadership role within the Ebony Order, Sinomi suggested that the Order learn from past mistakes and not allow the Order to be without an Archmage for any extended time. He therefore proposed that he should become Archmage. Meanwhile, the shadows and darkness continued to call out to Sinomi. Soon, he would learn that the Violet Order was not non-existent, that it was thriving in the Underdark, and that it was now reaching into the Overlight and calling to Sinomi.

The End of Ebony As it became clear that Micah would prevent Sinomi from taking over leadership of the Ebony Order once again, and as Sinomi began to communicate with the Archmage of the Violet Order, Sinomi began to become resigned to the fact that he and the Ebony Order were growing apart. In his mind, Sinomi began to leave the Ebony Order behind. Then if there was still any doubt about his place in the Order, the doubt became certainty when he received a letter from Micah notifying him of his expulsion from the Ebony Order. Once again, then, Sinomi felt free to master his arts as he chose, and despite being Orderless for a brief time, Andrinor saw it fit to allow Sinomi to retain the mark of Andrinor's Trust. Then soon a summons would come, and Sinomi, along with many others, including other Ebony mages who wished to leave the Ebony Order, met The Master - the Violet Order Archmage - in the High Temple of Andrinor in Visimontium and joined the Violet Order, an Order in which they would be free to pursue power and master their arts however they pleased.

Damar Attacks The Violet Order Archmage invited the High Mage Council to meet him and discuss the Violet Order. Almost immediately, Damar began to direct several verbal jabs at Sinomi. Neither Sinomi nor The Master was goaded into a fight, however, and The Master answered many questions about his Order. Then, after clenching his jaw for a while as The Master spoke, Damar spoke up. He all but called The Master a liar and announced that he would tell everyone present, including the Violet Order Archmage, what he knew about the Violet Order. As Sinomi found this humorous, Damar said to him, "Silence Sinomi, before your wings find their place on my mantle." As Sinomi replied that he had heard that threat before, Damar rose out of his chair, crossed the room, and attacked Sinomi. Spell battle raged between Damar and Sinomi, and Sinomi was the victor.

Ebony Attacks Not long after, the Ebony Order announced that Oorayv had taken over the mantle of Ebony Archmage. Desiring to see if peace was possible with the Ebony Order under new leadership, Sinomi went to meet with Oorayv. Sinomi quickly came to believe, however, that not much had changed in the Ebony Order with a change in Archmage. After disappearing from the discussion, Oorayv tracked down Sinomi with a few other Ebony mages and attacked him by surprise. Although Sinomi would fall in the battle, he did so only after the new Ebony Archmage had fallen as well. The conflict between Sinomi and the remainder of the Ebony Order has since cooled off, but relations are far from amicable.

Turiva Ilnuru Grows Most of the mages forced to choose between Ebony and Turiva Ilnuru in the end chose to stay with Turiva Ilnuru, and so most joined the Violet Order as well. The Ebony restrictions proved to be a blessing in disguise for the new Violet Order, as they helped demonstrate that mages who wished for freedom in their pursuit of power would best fit in with the Violet Order. And, in the end, Turiva Ilnuru had lost very little in the conflict with the Ebony Order. The influence of Turiva Ilnuru has continued to grow and their name has become well-known among the undead, as well as among their enemies.

The Philosophy of Sinomi Sii

The Value of Existence The most important thing to any being is its existence. All else of value is worthless if the being ceases to exist. Existence is thus the only thing of intrinsic value to any being - the only thing valuable in itself. It is the very thing upon which everything else of value is dependent. The most valuable instrumental goods are therefore those that protect a being's existence. As no being's existence is entirely safe so long as anyone or anything can end its existence, power, freedom, and self-improvement are the most important things to cultivate. The ultimate goal, to put it another way, is total self-sufficiency - to be able to depend entirely on oneself for everything, including one's continued existence.

Achieving Self-Sufficiency Fundamental to achieving this self-sufficiency is understanding life and death, particularly what can end life and cause death. Living beings can cease to exist for many reasons: severe trauma, poison, disease, or mere aging, for example. A certain class of beings, namely the undead, do not suffer from these weaknesses. They are unaffected by severe trauma, poison, disease, aging and so on, and can often shrug off many attacks to their body, whether the attack be physical, magical, or otherwise elemental. Nor do they need to eat, sleep, or breathe. They are also immune to necromancy, one of the most potent means of causing death to the living.

Of course, there are disadvantages to undeath as well. The undead are vulnerable to divine and positive energy, often suffer from cravings, such as for blood, and can be controlled, repulsed or even destroyed by sufficiently powerful clerics. Thus, those who seek total self-sufficiency are unlikely to desire undeath, unless they can become some of the most powerful undead, such as liches. For the rest, the dark art of pale mastery provides a means by which to achieve many of the advantages of undeath without also taking on its disadvantages. The pale master's deep study of necromancy and undeath and his bond with undead leads to acquiring many of those advantages. True masters of the art can be difficult to distinguish from the undead as they come ever closer to achieving total self-sufficiency.