Character Bio: Mahilk

Hey, I’m Mahilk, I guess. I’m a Kalashtar born in the walled city Aleaak, in the Leigland Mountains of Hounhilian. I lived there basically my whole childhood. People there kinda keep to themselves, I mean communicating primarily by telepathy kinda isolated us whether we liked it or not. Which I guess for a lot of Kalashtar, especially the religious elders and stuff, is ideal. Everyone’s pretty focused on spiritual purity--they center their lives around it. I guess I do too, or at least I did for a while.

Ever since I was young I’ve been trained to be really spiritual and mentally strong. That’s kinda just how we’re brought up--kids meditate and fast, they don’t need to play make believe and dice like the kids of other races. I was a pretty standard kid, I had a fair amount of friends, was good at my studies and stuff. I liked my community, loved my family. Even though we only left the city occasionally (usually just for retreats on the mountain), we didn’t really travel far. We didn’t need to, and I didn’t particularly care to.

When I got older, I started studying to be a grave cleric. I worshipped the gods of the grave, namely Hades, who guarded the divide between life and death. I studied and practiced magic all day, I practically locked myself in my room for months, I was obsessed. I started to realize that I also had a special kind of insight, most likely from my quori spirit, that allowed me to see signs everywhere. Sometimes it was an odd formation of the clouds, or the patterns people stood in in the marketplace, other times it was more like a premonition. I’m still trying to develop this skill, but I really want to use it to find truth--about people, magic, and the gods. I think a lot of Yon’ver’s problems just come from like ignorance and being unaware of the true nature of things, you know?

Well, my life kinda shifted last Marpenoth. It was the height of the spiritual season for the Kalashtar, and so we were having a lot of long ceremonies and stuff. Just by coincidence, three of the high elders dropped dead within a ten day span, basically from old age. But after each one died, I had these extremely vivid visions of them in the Fiendish Planes. I was shocked--these high elders must have done something incredibly awful to end up there, and so I ran to tell the Kalashtar leaders. Even with my good standing and all the detail I provided, they couldn’t believe me, and yelled at me calling me a heretic and ordering me to leave Alaeek or they would send others after me. That night, I gathered my things, put my gerbil Bones on my shoulder, and left.

Since then, I’ve been travelling around Yon’ver, working as a fortune teller to make a bit of money while I try to learn the truth about people and politics. I really want to get rid of corruption wherever possible, hopefully so people aren’t blindsided by these leaders who claim to be all light and music when they’re actually fire and darkness. Maybe someday I’ll be reconciled to my city but I don’t really mind being exiled--I have everything I need on my back and inn rooms from village to village to keep me warm. And on days when I’m not so lucky, I’m content making some friends along the way and going to sleep under the stars.