Character 50 - Neela Kevikov

The Harrow. This week we’ve let it reflect on everything we do, from figuring out how it works in our games to making our character based off a harrow reading. Our wise, but not ultra-charismatic, Varisian from Ustalav got not only her random background rolls but her harrow reading before she was born. Working to put all that information together was no easy task.

Picking a class was also a bit of a challenge. With a high wisdom being her only truly defining stat our choices were limited. The third card in her harrow reading being the carnival and representing illusions and false dreams screamed oracle. However, the lack of charisma meant she couldn’t even cast spells as an oracle. Looking through the deities I found Chucaro, the Maiden of Haze and Whimsy. This deity of dreams and hallucinations I thought fit that card well and so I went with cleric.

Neela Kevikov

Ardis, once the largest city in all of Ustalav. Although Neela Kevikov is too young to remember those days of grandeur, her parents were teens when Ardis made its decline. Once a city of artists, poets, authors, and the elite of society, all of that began to fall when the Eunuch Prince moved the capital almost a decade and a half before Neela was born.

The Kevikov’s were not themselves what one would call inspired artists or elite. Her mother was an adventurer, but not for long when she settled down in Ardis, pregnant with her now-dead lover’s child. Her father, in love with her mother since they were kids, married her regardless of her condition and treated the now fatherless half-elf baby as his own. For his part, Neela’s father was fine wood worker. His furniture was especially sought after, but more for its utility than its artistic beauty.

Neela was the last of four children borne by her mother. Her half-elf brother, and the twins, a boy and a girl, born to Neela’s father all came before her. Unlike the other children, Neela was born with a deformity, twisting her body in ways that made her rather unpleasant to the eyes. Despite this she was shown love and her parents allowed her to foster whatever skills she wished.

Neela was enamored of the tales of the artists of old. She made attempts at every art form in which she could find a tutor. Although not abysmal, her lack of a way with words meant being the next great author, playwright, or poet was not in her future. Like her father she did have a way with her hands, though and this translated well to paintings and drawings. Neela especially had a talent for optical illusions, her pieces often changed appearances depending on how you looked at them.

The once prosperous region of Ardeal, of which Ardis is the capital, is currently ruled by the vicious Countess Solismina Venacdahlia. Many of the other nobles of the area follow in their countesses’ footsteps of harsh and cruel rule. Although art was once the corner stone of Ardis and this Ardeal, it is now seen as frivolous. Many hate it because it reminds them of a better time, but that is not true of all.

Neela’s art, along with her deformity, saw her rejected and ridiculed time and again. It wasn’t until a young Baron took Neela in and became her patron that she got to truly discover her art form. The Baron spoke of the heyday of Ardis that his father and grandfather were alive for; although he spoke of it more as a fond memory than a distant tale. He sought to bring some of that back into his own life, and paid for Neela to draw and paint for him.

In the beginning the arrangement went well. The Baron would display her works and even take her to parties to show her off. It wasn’t until years into the patron-artist relationship that Neela learned her benefactor’s dark secret. He didn’t wish to bring back the artistic values of his ancestors, he was a vampire who had lived through it and sought to relive his own past. She would never tell him she knew but she kept producing pieces for him as her mentor.

When she turned seventeen Neela began having horrible nightmares. Her paintings showed things that she wished no one to see. To her the illusions became the reality, and in some cases events she drew began to come to pass. Her parent’s secreted her away from their home and brought her to a small monastery in the countryside. The multi-denominational sisters sought communion with their individual gods before reaching the conclusion that a divine power was reaching out to the young artist.

Neela lived in the monastery for two years. Although her mentor treated her well, he was still a being of gluttony that needed to live of the life force of others. Once she was away from his evil the messages in her dreams came through much clearer. She was chosen by the Empyreal Lord Chucaro, who saw in her art a way to lift the mists from the eyes of mortals. He wished her now to paint for him, and show her work to the world.

Finally at home in her own skin as a cleric of the Maiden of Haze and Whimsy, Neela looks to strike out into the world. She understands that being an undead creature makes him a blight, but she still looks upon her time with her patron fondly. For now, however, there are dreams to be interpreted and painted onto the canvas of the world.

A cleric of the god of hallucinations and mists, I present to you Neela Kevikov. What would you have done with these stats? What class would you have picked? How would you have interpreted each card in the reading?

Like Neela the CRB seeks to bring you truth from the illusion. If you’ve broken through the mists and veils and found your gaming inspiration, please consider becoming a contributor to my Patreon. If you’d like to see what else the CRB is up to, join me on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and Twitter. My inbox is open on all venues.