Enkai

Runed Helm Trinkets Collect enough of these and you may be able to spell out messages to your clanmates! 475

Enkai Fear the creature that dwells in the darkest depths... that threatens to surface and your soul to keep." - Erna Grcić

Memento Mori Generation 1 Fortuna Caeca Est guarded | restive | compelled

Memento mori (Latin: "remember that you have to die") is the medieval Latin Christian theory and practice of reflection on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. Memento mori has been an important part of ascetic disciplines as a means of perfecting the character by cultivating detachment and other virtues, and by turning the attention towards the immortality of the soul and the afterlife. This curse would be traced down his lineage. All Moros' children were destined to die, like any dragon. But they would be given a second chance. It was up to the children if they would accept the bargain.

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In the sunlit shadows, the Maren splash and play.
Flotsam Town bobs merrily, and the tide rolls on away.
But in the deeps lie dangers that only Tidelord knows.
Dive not below the sunlight, or you may ne'er grow old.

Hatchling rhymes can make things sound worse then they are, of course, in a bid to keep unprepared youngsters from straying. But there was still truth in them - the deeps were dangerous. Clans that chose to make their home in Leviathan Trench or near the Spiral Keep had to fend off beasts that could contend with even Guardians for size and ferocity. Just the weight of too much water was dangerous; it had been enough to keep the Undertides secluded for ages. No, Enkai knew, he had no business so far underneath the surface.

It called to him anyway.

He resisted for a time, fleeing to solid Earth, but the ocean deeps still called. He had to know what was down there. Some in his clan dug; he would swim. Enkai sought a transformation to the form best able to handle the pressure, and dove. Each trip took him deeper, seeking something he could not define. More experienced travelers tried to warn him, and he listened to each, assiduously cataloguing every hazard and warning sign they described before returning to dive once more.

If Tidelord had really been able to prophesy, then some parts of the future must already be written. Perhaps he was doomed, fated to seek...whatever it was that he felt compelled to find. Perhaps it was his death calling. If so, it found him. He never speaks about what hazard of the deep had left him, skeletal and strange, bound to his new companion. He will only say, "It happened below the light. Let it stay in the dark."

His geist is a spirit of the many dead zones to be found in the abyss. Pockets of hyper-saline brine, deoxygenated eddies, hydrothermal vents smoking with heat and chemical poisons - one wrong tail-stroke can be your last. With Dead Zone at his side, Enkai is proof against these exotic but mundane threats. This is fortunate, as these environs often seem to host the feature this newly-minted Necromancer is seeking: Avernian Gates.

No longer undirected, Enkai has set himself to map a region of the Underworld, with its associated Gates, that few other Memento Mori can reach. His tail and wings sweep slowly, but are deceptively efficient, while his mind is chary of the slightest change in physical or ghostly conditions. He is now a more formidable explorer than he was before - but set against even greater hazards, Enkai has no illusions about his ultimate mortality.

Given the risks of such solo exploration, even members of his Krewe sometimes wonder what drives him. Acheron is grateful for a watchful eye against any potential Shade incursions from this largely unknown quarter, but it's clear Enkai is not driven by the same cause, however useful his data might be. Ksenia is a fellow Necromancer with a penchant for exploration, and enjoys swapping notes on the rare occasions when Enkai is landbound...but "joy" seems the wrong word for Enkai himself.

In truth, he has no answer for them, and seldom cares to try. Some dragons are hatched for the wind and the waves. Enkai was hatched for the secrets that lay hidden underneath.

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