Azala
Pronunciation: ah-ZAHL-ah
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| Age | 330 |
| Birth Year | NRC 200 |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Common Elf |
| Homeland | Glassy Woods |
Physical Description
Beautiful, even by elven standards, and without the typical femininity that male elves can sometimes possess, Azala can seduce women by glances, even before he talks to them. While his muscle tone isn’t vast, by any means, he does keep in shape. His elven heritage also helps him in this respect.
His hair is short, although he has let some areas grow out, and has braided them. His light green eyes are quite striking, although typical in color by elf standards, they are, like his looks, far from ‘typical’.
| Height | 5’10” | Hair Color | Blond |
| Weight | 168lbs | Eye Color | Light Green |
| Build | Athletic | Skin Color | Fair |
Clothing and Armor
Azala’s garb is rather human in fashion, as he spends so much time amongst them. He wears a lose fitting white shirt with a brown fitted vest over it. His pants are a pair of dark green breeches, not extremely tight or loose. For boots, he has a pair of knee-high leather boots. On his wrists are a pair of leather bracers. Over his clothes Azala wears a cloak to protect him from the elements. He also wears a dark green elven style cap with a pointed brim with silver embellishments.
Weapon DescriptionAzala carries an elven steel broadsword strapped across his back. It’s simple and elegant in elven design. A typical long sword, made of a not too typical metal. The sword length is a little over three feet, although it just barely makes it out of the bastard sword category. The handle of the sword isn’t taped, although the hilt is coiled to ensure a better grip on the handle.
| Class | Shamanist Fighter |
| Occupation | Traveler |
| Weapons | Elven Steel Broadsword |
| Armor | Elven Steel Chain Hauberk |
| Equipment | Traveling gear; pack, bedroll, extra clothes, waterskin, compass, belt knife |
| Horse | No |
| Magic System | Shamanism |
| Special Summon | Kraken |
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Abilities
His shamanist abilities are very much like those of an elder common elf, though his affiliation to water magic is much higher then any other elemental so he’s strongest summoning water spells. To the most part uses shamanism, his magic isn’t on par with Seri’s though his water comes the closest. Because he spent time with dark elves he knows how to summon dark spirits, though he hasn’t ever called upon their power.
Physically, he’s all around average for a male common elf, has decent endurance as he traveled for so long. He has survival skills for camping but not a total survival expert as he has lived with humans for most of his life.
PersonalityHe sees all races are equal more or less, he believes each race has an advantage another might not. A bit cynical at times and usually not serious. Despite his seemingly carefree attitude, he has a serious side that he shows when he has to. He also has a serious case of wanderlust and has traveled most of his life. Humans seem to interest him the most.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Quotes: “When you stare down death, it’s a good idea to poke him in the eye.”, “Women...are so capricious...”, “Don’t give me that look! I invented that look!”
HistoryAzala was first born to Thaer and Aranni, common elves of the Glassy Woods. Like most elves, he was trained in shamanism from the moment he was cognizant. Ten years after his birth, his sister Sera was born. Aranni was an incredible beauty, even among elves. Her beauty, combined with Thaer's handsome and masculine features mixed almost perfectly in their son, while Sera took much after her mother. In the years to come, Azala chose to take the path of the fighter, while Sera became a ranger. However, Azala was incredibly curious of the outside world, while Sera was content to live a sylvan life. At the tender age of 60, Azala made his first venture into the human world, much to the chagrin of his parents.
Azala met humans with wide-eyed wonder and curiosity, unlike most elves. He never allowed elven arrogance to cloud his view and drew the conclusion that despite short lifespans and no connection to the spirits, humans were not all that different from elves. He decided to remain among humans and research their society so he could try and bring humans and elves closer together.
Azala had been out in the world for thirteen years when his journey joined him with a female adventurer with just as much wanderlust as he. Her name was Cayla, she was twenty, and her beauty rivaled his. While their relationship was innocent and platonic for the first few months, he slowly began to fall for her—though for his people, the time it took to wed her was incredibly short. Within a year and a half of innocent courting, Azala and Cayla wed. They began their lives together with the hopes of having children like any other couple. Azala, in his naïveté, believed that he could accept the fate of her dying many years before he. Things never worked out as they hoped.
Within a year of their marriage, Cayla joyously discovered she was pregnant. Three months later, a miscarriage. They believed it was bad luck at first, and they tried again a few months later. Cayla miscarried again. After five childless years, they accepted that they would remain that way. Cayla could carry a pregnancy no longer that the first trimester, and Azala believed they were cursed. While her infertility jaded both Azala and Cayla, they remained together. As the decades wore on, Cayla’s age showed, while Azala remained as youthful as ever. Time was beginning to prove his foolish youthful hopes wrong.
As she passed fifty, she had become bitter with him. She cursed his youth, and it wounded him deeply. It broke his heart to see her wither away, then lash out at him with so much venom, but he couldn’t stand to leave her. At the age of sixty-one, Cayla passed away. Azala buried her and sold their home, then tried to put as much distance between her and him as he could.
He returned to the Glassy Woods after her death, but only briefly. His family had no idea that he had married a human, and when he told him, they were ashamed. However, he wasn’t going to accept their shame. After his unwelcomed return, he quickly left for Raiden. After he had passed the worst phase of mourning, he picked up his research again, and began to notice new women. Though he still missed his wife, he was easily seduced by an attractive barmaid in Raiden and took her to bed. The next morning, he left her, but a cycle had begun. Azala started sleeping with many women—which was quite easy with his good looks. However, in the beginning, he intended to start relationships with most, but he always began recalling his wife and feared suffering the same way again. A few of the ones he stayed with became pregnant, but as soon as he heard the word, he was long gone. He feared what he assumed to be his curse, and he didn't want to see a woman suffering the heartbreak of losing a child. In time, he skipped the relationship aspect all together, and spent no more than a few weeks at most with a lover, of which he had many.
Several years after leaving one woman, he passed her way again and found that she had bore his child. This changed his mind about the curse he had feared so much with Cayla. He offered to help raise the child, but she didn’t wish to tie him down without actually loving him. She was more than capable of bearing the burden of the single mother, and sent Azala on his way.
In NRC 427, Azala traveled to the Mirror Forest, where he was surprised to meet a high elf, as well as a woman of half-common elf and half-dark elf blood. The high elf was Seri, a high elf who had left her forest to gain information of the outside world. The mixed-blood elf was Mia, a young woman from the forests of Kanon. Seri was tutoring some of the children of the Mirror Forest in shamanism, and took Mia and Azala as students as well, and inspired them to make contracts with king spirits as she had done. Azala found himself strongly attracted to Seri, however, he quickly took Mia to bed. Mia was quite casual about sex, and it didn’t bother her in the least that there was to be no further relationship. Azala became more attracted to Seri the longer he took lessons from her, but she never seemed to catch his subtle hints. All too soon, Seri decided to leave. She parted ways with Azala, but left with Mia as a guardian. Azala was ready to cut ties with her, and continued on the same path he had left behind outside the forest. However, he found that Seri remained on his mind as the one that got away.
The next forty-odd years had Azala traveling across Lodoss, and occasionally visiting home. His family was still a little ill at ease after his marriage to a human, and he “neglected” to tell them of his affairs with human women across Lodoss. He became somewhat of a pariah to his tribe, but he didn’t let it bother him. He spent his time trying to teach them the virtues of humans, instead of allowing them to dwell on the short-comings. Many of his teachings fell on deaf ears, but a few younger elves took interest. In this time, Azala prepared to make his first spirit contract, after being inspired by Seri. Having a strong affinity for water, he chose Kraken. To make this contract, he would have to enter the sea. He went to Raiden, then with a breathing spell from Undine, he walked into the ocean. He met the king water elemental in his domain and his will was tested. Kraken found him worthy and granted the contract.
It was during one of his homestays when the War of the Demon God broke out. Demons plagued Lodoss, and Azala took an active role in guarding his forest. News of the destruction of the Mirror Forest came to the Glassy Woods through spirits and refugees. Azala wanted to help the dying forest, but he was needed too desperately at home. At the war’s end, Azala went to the Mirror Forest and helped it heal alongside many other elves.
What he saw in the aftermath impressed him. Humans and dwarves had both come to the aid of the Mirror Forest, and he witnessed the elves of this forest change. They accepted the help of what they had considered lesser races, and actually became friends with them. Humans and elves worked side by side in cleansing the forest. In the end, the elves refused to raise the protective barrier that once protected the forest and kept open contacts with the locals and dwarves. In the years to come, many half-elf children would be born. Azala took the new teachings of the Mirror Forest elves to heart, as they learned what he had believed for so many years.
Filled with new hope for elven kind, Azala continued traveling. Little changed from the last few decades, and Seri still haunted him, but he still kept up his lustful ways with human women. He tried to venture into the Forest of No Return several times while he was in the region, but he could never find the way into Talnora. On a trip home, Azala’s parents informed him he had a visitor, who was staying with his sister. It turned out it was his old friend Mia, whom he had crossed paths with several times through both of their travels in the last few decades. However, when he arrived at Sera’s home, he was shocked to find his sister and best friend entangled. In his shock, he chased Mia off, half in jest and half in surprise at her audacity.
Thirty years after the War of the Demon God, the War of Heroes broke out. Azala originally wanted to stay neutral, as he had no interest in seeing his darker cousins slain, but in time, he found himself gravitating toward Valis's side. However, Azala never participated in battle. After the war, he found himself traveling less diligently and returned home to the Glassy Woods two years later. There, he wrote a tome documenting his experiences and sharing his philosophy. It took several years to write it all and compile his notes. When he finished, he left it with his elven brethren and left again. He was determined to find Seri this time, and went straight to the Forest of No Return.
This time, he found the entrance to Talnora and was greeted by a helpful ranger who led him straight to Seri. She was happy to see him, and he confessed his feelings for her. With his confession, Seri finally took notice of him as a potential lover, but it took a little more work to break through her asexual elven nature. He finally succeeded, and was rewarded. Azala remained with Seri in the Forest of No Return for several months, but the stagnant life of the high elves began to bore him. He asked Seri to leave with him, but she wasn’t interested and offered to let him go on his own, and that her door was always open to him. Azala was frustrated, but she didn’t seem to understand why. He left to continue his wandering ways.
Since leaving Seri, Azala has continued his usual seducing ways, although he is now spending more time devoted to the new avenues that are opening up in Lodoss. Traveling new paths and burning old bridges, it’s only a matter of time before one the flames of the past manage to catch up to him...
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