PCs:Sinomi Sii

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Sinomi Sii is a Drangonari Pale Master.

Sinomi Sii

Race: Drangonari

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Grantir

Age: unknown

Known Affiliations: Deathless Master and Senior Mage of Verloghokbol, Violet Order of the Skull (was once Master Necromancer; founding member of Overlight Branch) High Apprentice, The Guild for Advancement of Knowledge in Nature

Known Former Affiliations: Malwa Turole, Turiva Ilnuru Great Mage of Internal Affairs and Member of the High Mage Council, Ebony Order of the Moon

Appearance: Usually quite dusty and dirty, and often accompanied by a variety of smells that remind of crypts and corpses. Left arm is an undead graft. Skin/scales are brownish green and somewhat desiccated. Yellow, slitted, reptilian eyes are the only visible features of his real face, which is always covered by a skull mask that can be difficult to distinguish as a mask. Desiccated wings rise from his back.

Player Info / Contact: Avlis Profile

Important Note

Per Avlis wiki policy, everything written on this IC wiki page is totally In Character and available for public consumption. What is written here can be used In Game by any and all characters. The following historical account reflects Sinomi Sii's point of view, but I have tried to avoid controversial or inflammatory statements while still getting his point of view across. If I haven't avoided such statements enough, and you edit this page, please note your edit and the reason. Please note the rules for editing disputes.

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. An Artifact Discovered The Bones of Antimodes: Under threat by a dracolich, the authorities of Mikona called together a band of adventurers for aid. Eager to learn more about such a creature, Sinomi joined the defense and aided the city in discovering the bones of Antimodes in order to prevent the city’s possible destruction by the dracolich. Among the eventually-defeated dracolich’s hoard of treasure, Sinomi found a “Mask of Death” – a skull helm of considerable necromantic power. Sinomi was seldom seen without that mask from then on, until he later constructed a similar helm even more to his liking. 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. Sinomi Sii - Pale Master, Steelcaster 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 eventually left Sinomi with nearly all the responsibilities of a de facto Archmage. Known Ebony Exploits Zevarion: As Le’Or came under attack by minions of Zevarion, who was successfully weakening the Seal of Ages that imprisoned him in Zelvan Dur, the Ebony Order manipulated events in order to play a crucial role in the re-imprisonment of Zevarion and the re-admitting of Zal to be Zevarion’s eternal jail-keeper. As a result, in return for their aid, the ban on the Ebony Order in Le’Or was lifted, thereby allowing the Ebony mages greater freedom in T’Nanshi, which was becoming particularly important given the matter of the lich Lobera, who was operating from below Le’Or itself. In addition, Sinomi recovered from the shards of the Seal of Ages a gem which could for a short time grant him true sight, thereby minimizing the weakness of a necromancer being unable to use the arcane spells of divination. The Gentleman: During the time that the Gentleman, or the Woargshadeugh, ravaged southern Negaria, Sinomi had several encounters with the creature. A former Great Mage of the Ebony Order, V’Heress, returned from an absence only to be seen in league with the Order of the Shadow and the Gentleman. The Gentleman and V’Heress were eventually defeated, but Sand lead an expedition into the Hole where the Gentleman had been imprisoned before being destroyed. From this Hole those present, including Sinomi, discovered Woargshadeughstaves, magical staves created from residue of the Gentleman. Residue all over Negaria would later turn into such staves as well. Sinomi rarely carried any other staff after that day. Sinomi Sii - Great Mage of Internal Affairs and HMC member, Ebony Order of the Moon The Artifacts of Najera: A lich by the name of Lobera was in possession of an amulet and a staff, together known as the Artifacts of Najera. With these artifacts, Lobera was practically invulnerable. In order to defeat Lobera and gain the artifacts for safe keeping the Orders of Andrinor’s Trust worked together to create the The Hammer of Lithandiel using part of the flesh from the lich Sorvanok, under the idea that this hammer could be used to defeat Lobera. The Ebony Order played its part in this as well, in particular by supplying the lich skin that was used in the forging of the hammer. Sinomi was present in the ruined tower in the roots of Le’Or where Lobera was finally defeated by all the Orders working together. Many powerful magic bracers from the era of the original mage orders were discovered, and Sinomi became the possessor of the lone set of bracers once associated with the long-gone Violet Order – perhaps an omen of events that would come to pass. Rumors The following entries are based upon persistent rumors. The claims are not verified. Yal'Drea: As part of the conditions to join the Ebony Order, Sinomi was required to demonstrate his resourcefulness by aiding the Order in a certain matter concerning Yal'Drea, an elder vampire of the Rift in Ferrell. Yal'Drea was one of the first vampires created by Se'Fassu, the vampire inadvertently released into the world by followers of Gorethar when they dug too far below the temple they had built there, thus exposing an opening to the plane of shadow. The vampires used this fissure and their access to the negative energy plane to create rifts beneath the temple that gave them great strength and regenerative powers, but the Gorethites eventually sealed the temple, which kept the vampires contained. Yal'Drea wished to no longer be contained and sought help from various members of the Ebony Order. Sinomi collected numerous ingredients that were required, including some incredibly rare ingredients that required special means to procure, such as essences of lightning, a lammasu head, and a greater gorgon scale. Sinomi completed this task and was soon admitted to the Order. He then joined the effort completely to free Yal'Drea, and the Order was eventually successful. It is rumored that the powerful, necromantic boots worn by Sinomi were rewarded to him by Yal'Drea for his part in freeing her. Se’Fassu: Over time, the magical seal that resided over the ancient Rift temple in Ferrell weakened, and Se’Fassu, in control of the Rift, began sending his undead minions forth from the ruins, in particular to bring “the long night” to the land. The High Mage Council decided to perform a Rite of Closure to forever seal the Rift. Frustrated by being continually compelled to aid in the destruction of undead powers or in the imprisonment of necromancers and so on, Sinomi endeavored to see that there would be a different outcome in this case. Working with Se’Fassu’s general, Lar'Keston, and eventually with Se’Fassu himself, Sinomi and other Ebony mages worked to secure a secret means for Se’Fassu to avoid his own destruction in the event that the Rift was successfully destroyed. The aim was not to counteract the actions of the High Mage Council, which were simply to close the Rift, but rather to prevent Se'Fassu's incidental destruction in the process. The alliance proved successful, as Se’Fassu was saved when the Rift was closed. Some rumors attribute these actions to Turiva Ilnuru, but those rumors must be false, as Turiva Ilnuru did not yet exist at the time of the closing of the Rift. The Ebony Order and several of its former members have also denied involvement. The Mistress: A war was taking place in the deep of the Underdark, and a demoness referred to only as The Mistress, with her undead and demon army, had apparently defeated the Spider Queen, Kah’xithaeri’nayass. The Mistress was once a Nanshi woman once destroyed by worshippers of Dru'el, who she continued to hate even two-thousand years after their act of murder. However, the Dru'elites inadvertently freed her, and her soul was converted into a demon's form. However, unable to take any physical form for long, she reached out through her Vasharan allies and by other supernatural means for Sinomi’s help in order to overcome this limitation and make her move to become a true Demon-Goddess of the underdark. Sinomi, with the help of trusted allies, gathered remains of her earlier physical form and supplied the rest from other suitable sources. He then performed a ritual by which he was able to restore the Mistress to a physical form. In return for his aid, the Mistress caused wings to sprout on Sinomi’s back where most Drangonari had been missing them for ages since the defeat of the Avariel. The Mistress’s thirst for revenge was too great for her own good. She quickly and rashly lead an assault against the Dru’elites before solidifying her power and was finally defeated when an Avatar of Dru’el was summoned to aid in the battle against her and her forces. (More is told of these events in the story of Le'Athyed'Dru'El.) Other rumors persist regarding Sinomi's acquisition of wings. One of the most notable is that he gave up his soul to a demon in exchange for them. Another is that they were attached by Sinomi himself after various experiments with demons, sinister bats, and other strange rituals. Sinomi Sii - Founder of Turiva Ilnuru Turiva Ilnuru 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 quickly became 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 believed that the fact that he was 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.

Violet Years

Sinomi Sii - Master Necromancer of the Violet Order of the Skull 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. Micah had left for the Red Order of the Flame. 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 cooled off, but relations remained 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 continued to grow and their name became well-known among the undead, as well as among their enemies.

Turiva Ilnuru Years

The timeline of Turiva Ilnuru overlaps with the Ebony Years and the Violet Years (for the end of Turiva Ilnuru, see the Final Years below). The following entries are based upon rumors of the activities of Turiva Ilnuru during those years and are not verified. Making Enemies, Making Allies During the initial years of Turiva Ilnuru, much effort was spent on the protection of undead and the discouraging of crypt invaders, undead destroyers, and so on. This lead to several conflicts with undead-destroying organizations such as the monks of the Order of the Dragon and a special Dagathite group, the Keepers of the Cycle. Such skirmishes were not the main purpose of Turiva Ilnuru, however. Although Turiva Ilnuru did generally promote respect for undead and their places of rest (or unrest), the effort spent to promote this message and to protect undead, including the baser, mindless undead, was a means to an end. The purpose was to establish a reputation of being friends to the undead and enemies of their enemies in order to attract the attention of and eventually establish alliances with more powerful and intelligent factions of undead. As time would tell, the strategy proved successful. Nise The activities of Turiva Ilnuru attracted the attention of the dracolich Nise, Headmaster of the Order of the Shadow, confined to the lost river canyon. Nise wished to strengthen his position in order to better fend off the frequent incursions into the canyon, and also wished to break the magical seal that was confining him there. Research was begun on the seal, and in the meantime Turiva Ilnuru began by supplying Nise with large amounts of ingredients for the construction of bone golems, as well as a means to strengthen the golems beyond their usual quality. However, while Turiva Ilnuru anticipated Nise's construction of his army of bone golems using the ingredients they had supplied, the Order of the Dragon announced Nise's defeat. Although his destruction was announced, Nise was in truth banished to the shadow plane and prevented from returning to Avlis. Nise's own master had once been the Woargshadeugh, who had himself once been brought to Avlis from the shadow plane. Turiva Ilnuru thus sought the means by which that was accomplished so that the same could be done for Nise. In the meantime, a suitable dragon skeleton was procured in order to be the next vessel for Nise (despite the efforts of the Order of the Dragon to prevent the vessel from being acquired), while ingredients for the ritual were gathered as their need was revealed. Eventually the complete details of the means for returning Nise were discovered. Nevertheless, Turiva Ilnuru's plans were once again foiled by the Order of the Dragon (with the aid of the Ivory Order of the Sun), but this time in a rather unusual way: the monks completed Turiva Ilnuru's task themselves, albeit inadvertently. Not content with having simply banished Nise to the shadow plane, the Order of the Dragon entered the shadow plane to utterly destroy Nise, thus ensuring that he could never return to Avlis. On his own plane, however, Nise was far more powerful than the monks expected. They may have all perished there had Grandmaster Jade not sacrificed his own life to allow the rest to escape. Nevertheless, the actions of the monks allowed Nise to escape the shadow plane and return to Avlis - this time no longer confined to the lost river canyon. Despite his weakened and vulnerable state, Nise avoided destruction and fled to Deglos. Dranuhl Turiva Ilnuru also caught the attention of the Deglosian vampire lord, Dranuhl, with whom they would have a working relationship for many years. In particular, when Nise was inadvertently returned to Avlis by the Order of the Dragon, Dranuhl's bride, Ursula, was also released from the plane of shadow. As with Nise, however, she was weak and vulnerable. Turiva Ilnuru thus aided Ursula in regaining her strength. Turiva Ilnuru also performed a ritual with Dranuhl that summoned Nise from hiding and strengthened him, but also gave Dranuhl a measure of control over him, thus compelling Nise to serve Dranuhl against his will. Yalyn'do One of the more mysterious stories surrounding Turiva Ilnuru concerns Yalyn'do, the Queen of the Forest of Midnight. Rumor has it that Turiva Ilnuru was contacted by the Queen to arrange personal contact between her and Maleki. As Maleki could not come to Avlis and the Queen could not leave the forest, this was no small request. Turiva Ilnuru sought the help of the Malekite vampiress Merlissa, whose lair is in an old temple to Maleki deep in a cave near Bachwood, M'Chek, and the ogre priest of Maleki, Ulor, in the Maleki temple in eastern M'Chek. Merlissa provided useful information in return for a favor, but the contents of both the information and the favor are unknown. Ulor agreed to teach Turiva Ilnuru a complicated and dangerous ritual to contact Maleki in exchange for limbospheres from the gnomes occupying Tollgaroth's former lair outside Mikona. Once the limbospheres were gathered, along with the ingredients for the ritual, contact was made with a servant of Maleki through Ulor's ritual. This demon servant, who was in direct contact with Maleki, was escorted to the Queen. It is unknown what the Queen's desire was and whether it was met. Rumor has it that she wished to produce offspring with Maleki, but this, too, is unconfirmed. The rumors of this story end there. Mertas Venetor A death knight named Kasaam who resided inside a crypt in the old Roseberry Woods of Ferrell contacted Turiva Ilnuru concerning a threat to his crypt. An organization known as Mertas Venetor was destroying the inhabitants of crypts across southern Negaria - but moreover they were defiling and cursing the crypts with unholy rituals. Kasaam did not wish to see this happen to his own lair. Turiva Ilnuru agreed to investigate and, if necessary, destroy Mertas Venetor. As Mertas Venetor desecrated more and more crypts, Turiva Ilnuru grew closer and closer to discovering their pattern of attacks and finding them. Turiva Ilnuru nearly prevented Mertas Venetor from defiling a crypt beneath the old iron mine in the Warrens of M'Chek and destroyed many of their forces, including the attack's leader, named Chuja. This half-elf mage, Chuja, explained that she worked for someone named Uongo and was a direct descendant of Ofik, a legendary Deglosian vampire hunter, and through him was a direct descendant of Sharaf, the founder of Mertas Venetor. (It may have been this incident that forced the powerful vampiress Dorannia to leave this crypt in the old iron mines of the Warrens, which had long been her lair. It is said that Turiva Ilnuru aided Dorannia in establishing a new home elsewhere, but this claim is based upon rumors and is not verified.) Especially from that point on, Mertas Venetor also began attempts to destroy Turiva Ilnuru, in order to wipe out this obstacle to their desecrations. Several encounters later, it was always Turiva Ilnuru left standing, although in the lost river canyon the strength of the Mertas Venetor force required that Turiva Ilnuru receive help from D'Arc of the Order of the Shadow. The trail eventually lead to Deglos and to the vampire lord Dranuhl. Dranuhl's forces had tangled with Mertas Venetor before, but Dranuhl's guards had been badly battered by Uongo, the Mertas Venetor leader. Also wishing Mertas Venetor destroyed, Dranuhl revealed to Turiva Ilnuru a means to create an elaborate portal to take them to the lair of Mertas Venetor. The construction of the portal required several rare and specially prepared ingredients, but once constructed it did the job as expected. After traveling through the portal, Turiva Ilnuru fought a bloody battle through the forces of Mertas Venetor that occupied their lair. Eventually they faced Uongo himself. Uongo revealed that he was actually Sharaf himself and revealed the truth of Mertas Venetor's purpose. Uongo was a vampire himself and had been struggling to bring all other factions of undead under his own control. Those that refused to join him were destroyed. Needless to say, most had been refusing. He made a similar offer to Turiva Ilnuru. Deciding to maintain allegiances with Dranuhl and Nise, who had both become enemies of Uongo, Turiva Ilnuru attacked and successfully destroyed Uongo, once and for all. In return for the destruction of Uongo and Mertas Venetor, Dranuhl gratefully agreed to make his own personal warriors available to Turiva Ilnuru should they require it. Kasaam, who had initially brought the problem of Mertas Venetor to the attention of Turiva Ilnuru was also grateful to have been spared and thus rewarded Turiva Ilnuru greatly. Sinomi is said to have received a ring of great power that magically enhances one's intelligence. It is rumored that no ring like it exists, and that it was thereafter bound to Sinomi's soul. The Pale Art Throughout its entire history, the primary goal and activity of Turiva Ilnuru was the practice and advancement of pale mastery. It is believed that over the course of his life, Sinomi personally instructed somewhere between forty or fifty persons in the pale art. Perhaps at least a dozen students advanced under his teaching to the point where their bodies could accept changes such as an undead graft, like Sinomi had done so many years before. Several became true deathless masters, and several eventually went on to teach students of their own. While the world has seen the occasional pale master here and there with no connection to Sinomi, it is believed by some that nearly all pale masters can somehow trace their practice of the pale art back to Sinomi.

Death

The Violet Order Upon its resurfacing in the Overlight, the Violet Order became stagnant as its Archmage, The Master, put little time or energy into leadership. Among all the Masters, only Sinomi managed to recruit more mages to the Order. Eventually succumbing to pressure from the Overlight mages, The Master named another in his place during his temporary but indefinite leave of absence from the Order. Citing "tradition" rather than relying upon merit, he named the current Master Executioner, Karrek Asen, as acting Archmage of the Overlight branch. This unconscientious decision proved to unravel all that had so far been accomplished. Violet Principles Ignored The distinguishing mark of the Violet Order was to be as follows: "The Violet Order of the Skull supports and encourages freedom and individuality in the use of arcane magic for whatever purposes a mage desires. The Order also supports and encourages mastery over arcane magic and whatever other arts or methods a mage desires to master. A Violet mage's goals and methods are his or hers to choose and pursue without interference; the mage need not be concerned about restrictions and constraints placed upon him or her by others. In no other Order of Andrinor's Trust will a mage find such dedication to freedom and the pursuit of mastery as in the Violet Order of the Skull." When the High Mage Council announced the expulsion of Sinomi and all remaining members of Turiva Ilnuru from the Violet Order and the Trust, Karrek, desiring a seat on the Council himself, eschewed the principles of the Violet Order, betrayed its mages, and went along with the Council's decision, thereby expelling Turiva Ilnuru Violet mages from the Order and the Trust. The Master, despite stating that he cared not at all for the Trust or the High Mage Council, also cared no longer for the state of the Overlight Violets, and thus did nothing to reverse Karrek's actions. Like the Ebony before it, the Violet Order fractured as mages were forced to choose between the Order and their study of pale mastery. Only two mages, Eloril and Dameon, chose the Violet Order over Turiva Ilnuru, the latter later gaining a seat on the Council as well. War of Words A campaign began in the court of public opinion in which Sinomi argued that, contrary to the charges by the High Mage Council, neither he nor Turiva Ilnuru had acted in any way against Andrinor or the Trust. Sinomi charged the Council with abusing their authority in order to pursue their personal agendas and that it was they who were harming Andrinor's Trust. The effort had a great effect at first as mages throughout the Trust protested the manner in which the Council had handled the decree against Turiva Ilnuru, but the protests were eventually silenced by the Archmages. In the end, the Council was not deterred from pursuing its actions against Turiva Ilnuru. The Hunt The hunt commenced. Ferrell made a deal with the High Mage Council, and later Elysia aided the hunt in its own way as well. Several Trust mages registered for licenses to hunt the members of Turiva Ilnuru in M’Chek. There were casualties on both sides. Despite the fact that Sinomi was weakened due to lacking the Mark of Andrinor's Trust (which at that time still meant that the highest circles of magic were barred from him), he managed to kill many of his hunters, including Archmage Fergus of the White Order (the leader of the "hunt"), Amand of Ebony (once a student of Sinomi's a long time prior to these events), Grace Dane-Unuldur of Gold, and Thalarian of Blue. All perished quickly to Sinomi's spell prowess, but all were later returned to life. Sinomi was also felled by Damar as well as by Archmage Aerill and Miette of the Blue Order, but each time he returned from the Abyss. Nevertheless, the forced visitations to the Abyss so close to one another in time began to take their toll upon Sinomi's soul. The Death of Sinomi Sii One day during the hunt, Sinomi entered the old Dagath crypt near Westshore, but did not walk out. Sinomi had been conducting research inside the crypt, and as he was making his way out he encountered two mages accompanied by two adamantium golems. The mages were Thalarian of the Blue Order and Robert Wallace of the Ashen, and both were prepared for battle – apparently they had arrived looking specifically for Sinomi, having somehow divined his presence there. Thalarian was all business – other than referring to Sinomi as “old friend” – as he claimed that he was a mere pawn and was bound to serve and carry out the Council’s decree, but Robert seemed to delight in the prospect of what was coming. Discussion did not last long. Sinomi covered himself in darkness to confuse the golems, and summoned a lich to his aid. A Bigby hand – a spell that had apparently become his nemesis, as it had been used against him often – held him in place, however, and he was not in range of the two mages to breach their protections. He was bombarded with ice storms and lightning and could not maintain enough mantles to ward them off. He was killed, with Thalarian delivering the final blow. Sinomi's corpse was later discovered by some of his former students, and they spirited it away. His soul was forced to the Abyss and did not return, and would not return even when others called it. Why this was the case remained a mystery. At the time, it was believed that, as eventually happens with everyone, it was Sinomi's time to die. It was rumored that his spirit was transformed into that of a Tanar’ri and that he fought in the Blood War against the devils, but that was later proved mistaken. The End of Turiva Ilnuru Soon after Sinomi's death, the High Mage Council declared victory and an end to the hunt. However, members of Turiva Ilnuru were banned from the Orders of the Trust, from Visimontium, from all properties related to the Trust, and from any Trust-sponsored events. Nevertheless, without its founder and leader, Turiva Ilnuru was no more.

During Death

Mention in Elysia Curiously, just over seven months after the death of Sinomi (by Gnomish calendars), Lt. General Alazmi Alxicus, Commanding Officer of Le'Megen T'Elysia, announced the banishment of Sinomi (and two others) from Elysia for "actions against the City of Elysia and conspiring with enemies of the city and common good." Although no public information is available concerning the specific reasons for the banishment (i.e. the actions and the conspiring), perhaps it is no coincidence that it came shortly after the darkness from the Forest of Midnight began to spread and during a time when Elysia was under attack by Moreanne Tanasi (who was later reportedly defeated during a full assault upon the city). But that is just a guess. (Nearly two Gnomish years later Sinomi's banishment was removed.)

Return from Death

Sinomi's Return Approximately one gnomish year after his death, Sinomi Sii returned from death, appearing in Mikona, outside the city gates. Several Trust mages - Miette and Oorayv in particular - continued where they had left off so long before, attacking immediately. There was also much confusion about his status in Mikona and M'Chek. Some even thought that he was undead, or a demon, or a body possessed by a demon. He willingly submitted to the Mikona Guard until his status could be confirmed, and was then soon released. Some time later, he was engaged in combat in the wilderness of northwest M'Chek with a Red Order mage named Vintrinia, one of the Archmages of that Order at the time. Sinomi was the victor, Vintrinia was dead. According to Sinomi's account of the encounter, the attack was provoked by slander from the Red mage. Other accounts may differ. Whatever the cause, the result was banishment from M'Chek for Sinomi, who blamed the Trust's influence on Mikonan authorities for the ruling. Although the banishment order was later overturned, finding little left for him in southern Negaria, Sinomi began to travel far away, for longer and longer lengths of time, until his journeys finally took him beyond the prime material plane. Occasional rumors of sightings of Sinomi in southern Negaria nonetheless occurred from time to time. Rumors About Ulaire Some time after the death of Sinomi some being or creature or person, called Ulaire, and with an identical appearance to Sinomi, began to be sighted here and there, and various nefarious deeds were attributed to him. His own story is told elsewhere. Some rumors hold that Ulaire simply was Sinomi, a pseudonym taken by Sinomi in order to confuse any who would seek him out. Other rumors hold that Ulaire was the name of some sort of creature that was occupying the body of Sinomi while his spirit was trapped in the Abyss. Yet other rumors hold that while Ulaire and Sinomi were in some sense one, they were in another sense two - perhaps the mind of Sinomi had broken into two. Whatever the case, perhaps only Sinomi knows the truth, or perhaps no one does. Rumors About The Return Besides the rumors associated with Ulaire, other rumors are told regarding the details of Sinomi's return, whether it had anything to do with Ulaire or not. One rumor is that Sinomi was indeed trapped in the Abyss for a gnomish year. As for his escape, it either simply took him that long to force or find his way out, or, as other rumors tell it, he eventually made a deal, perhaps with Maleki, or perhaps with the demon lord Kimonictinus. Other rumors say not that a deal was made, but that he was favored by one of the deities. Many rumors include the claim that by returning, however it was accomplished, Sinomi defied Dagath in doing so.

Second Life

Return to the Violet Order Upon hearing that Karrek was no longer acting Archmage of the Overlight Branch of the Violet Order, Sinomi contacted the Order to speak with The Master, who had returned to his position as sole Archmage. He soon met with The Master who said that he had wanted Sinomi to be part of the Order originally and that his mind had not changed. After two and a half years by Gnomish calendars, Sinomi was once again a member of the Violet Order, and was soon after granted the title of Deathless Master, representing his unprecedented and unequaled mastery of the Pale Art. Not long after that he also took the position of Senior Mage of Verloghokbol.

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. A Note From the Planes The contents of a letter from Sinomi to an unknown party, the beginning and end unreadable, and apparently sent during Sinomi's extensive planar travels after his return from the Abyss are included below: "But enough of the past. I have encountered some interesting ideas on the planes, which I share with you now before I depart once again. There are two factions on the planes that have caught my attention: the dustmen and the bleak cabal. The nihilistic members of the bleak cabal believe that there is no objective, ultimate meaning. To anything. There is no higher purpose. Things just are. People searching for meaning are wasting their lives searching for something that does not exist. The only meaning that makes any sense is the meaning we make for ourselves. If any search for meaning is to make sense, it is an internal search. Some find that this view that all is ultimately pointless leads to a deep sense of futility and melancholy. I on the other hand find the idea liberating. The dustmen are a faction that has quite good relations with sentient, free-willed undead. According to them the concepts of life and death are misguided. There is only existence. If anything, if we must use the words "life" and "death", then we are all dead. Everyone, on every plane, even on prime worlds. Some are perhaps more dead than others. Primes are perhaps just newer to death than planars and petitioners and the like. Those called "undead" are the purest, purged of passions and senses. The credo of the dustmen could perhaps be stated: "Respect Death, and don't ever treat it like a servant." Their goal is to attain true death, but they also believe that one mustn't rush through any state of existence to get there. I find something congenial about this view, but it also quite fatalistic, which is less liberating than the view of the bleak cabal. In any case, both views seem worthy of attention."

Opinions

This section is for other players to write in what their characters think of Sinomi. Please do not post anonymously. I will reformat, edit, correct spelling, etc., but not change content, unless the content violates Avlis wiki policy. Note that as part of that policy everything written on this IC wiki page is totally In Character and available for public consumption. What is written here can be used In Game by any and all characters.

Ramiz's Outlook: When Ramiz traveled down to Southern Avlis, on assignment from his school and to see the world, he was amazed at what he found. He did not expect his brother to be so far from the things his parents had told him of Sinomi. Ramiz always viewed what happened to Levena as the reason for what he views as Sinomi's downfall. She's the reason why he left him and his family, left Grantir, and why he tried to push aside all emotions in life. He once asked, "What kind of a person would I myself become if something so horrible had happened to me?" After hearing about the death of his brother in Mikona, he wept for many hours in the arms of his love. He prays that Sinomi finds, in death, all that he had given up in life.