Sinomi Sii - Volume 2

Sinomi Sii Vol. 2

Sinomi Sii is a Drangonari Pale Master. Over the course of his existence, he has been: the founder and leader of Turiva Ilnuru; a Great Mage of Internal Affairs and member of the High Mage Council for the Ebony Order of the Moon; a Master Necromancer, Deathless Master, and Senior Mage of Verloghokbol for the Violet Order of the Skull.

Turiva Ilnuru Years

The timeline of Turiva Ilnuru overlaps with the Ebony Years and the Violet Years (see Sinomi Sii, Vol. 1; 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 is not known - it is believed that, as eventually happens with everyone, it was Sinomi's time to die. It is rumored that his spirit was transformed into that of a Tanar'ri and that he fought in the Blood War against the devils, but this is not confirmed.

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.

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.

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.