Taro Sorim

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• Vital Stats

  • Name: Taro Sorim
  • Gender: Male
  • Played by: toasterpip
  • Race: Pinara Itaraka
  • Class: Teller, Elemental Guardian of Earth
  • Alignment: Neutral Good
  • Age: 66 (equivalent to about 25-30)
  • Size: Tall.
  • Body Type: Average
  • Height: 10'
  • Weight: 900 lbs
  • Complexion: White
  • Hair: Chestnut
  • Eyes: Purple
  • Handedness: Right
  • Scars: None visible
  • Personality: Friendly but can be distant at times
  • Mannerisms: Grand, sweeping gestures. A born storyteller
  • Likes: Good stories, good company, good food
  • Dislikes: heights, strip mines, very warm places

• Description

  Standing 10 feet even, Taro is looked up to by most everyone he meets. That said, he's average height for his species. Resembling a polar bear in facial structure and fur consistency, his build is far more human. A short tail is usually tucked under his clothing, so it appears he doesn't really have one.
  
  Taro's race, the Pinara Itaraka, evolved on a world without magic. As such, they have an 'allergy' to magical energies: when exposed at proximity, their cellular structure degrades, quite painfully. Were a Pinara Itaraka exposed to high enough concentrations of magic energy for long enough, they would effectively 'melt' into a puddle of various organic liquids.
  
  Taro usually wears a earth-toned tunic with a sash, charcoal pants, and simple black shoes. For jewelry, he wears a heavy gold chain with a large, uncut sapphire hung from it around his neck and an amulet depicting a phoenix from a more delicate silver chain besides. Over his left shoulder floats an ornate but sturdy-looking pauldron with a green gem in it. It is the 'storage' form of his armour, which deploys into a heavy-looking set of floating plates that can move around and clamp together for optimal protection, as directed by the armour's 'spirit', an intelligence that communicates with Taro to offer advice and knowledge. The armour can also 'climb off' him, becoming a roughly doglike assemblage of plates, to explore on its own for limited periods.
  Taro usually carries a large rucksack with a bedroll tied to the bottom, and a long wooden staff with an ornate head at one end - his Teller's ceremonial staff.
  
  He has two sets of abilities: Telempathy and Earth Guardianship.
  Telempathy: Taro was born with this power, and it determined that he would be, from childhood, trained as a Teller. Telempathy is the ability to read and project emotion. It also gives Taro near-perfect memory by virtue of where the structures are located in his brain. This ability allows him to know what people are feeling, when someone is lying, even guess at intentions. He can also project emotions, usually over an area with exponentially-diminishing effect. For example, he could project calm to a crowd, but the effectiveness would be halved at ten feet, halved again at twenty, and so on. He can also focus on a single person, but he requires great concentration to do so.
  Earth Guardianship: Taro's people are connected to an extradimensional quartet of beings that the Pinara Itaraka refer to (translated) as 'Dragons'. They aren't Dragons in the sense of most mythologies, but their power, projected into our realm, translates as manifestations of the four 'classical' elements: Earth, Water, Wind, Fire. These Dragons choose a Guardian to act as a conduit of their power, and there is only ever one of each element at a time. Taro, as Guardian of Earth, has abilities related to the element: he can sense and manipulate minerals, is able to assume a 'stone form' in which he becomes a living mass of whatever rock he is touching when assuming the form, and can 'attune' himself to whatever world he is on, lessening the degrading effects of magic from that world on his body and giving him innate sense of the 'health' of areas he's in.

• Biography

  Born on Laratia to a section of the Pinara Itaraka race cut off from the main starfaring society by a stardrive accident and stranded on a world with several other races and magic, Taro's destiny was marked almost from birth by his telempathic powers.
  
  Like all Pinara Itaraka on Laratia, his childhood was spent in the Northern Reaches, the ice cap of the planet, where magic is usually weakest. However, instead of playing and experiencing the world like most children, he was kept seperate, taught the ways of being a Teller. Years spent studying stories until he could recite them from memory, lessons in politics and diplomacy, survival training, etc. His formative years were filled with hard study and training to use his telempathy.
  
  As an adult, Taro filled the role of Teller well. Wandering Laratia, gathering stories and news to bring back to his people, aiding in diplomatic negotiations when asked, learning all he could.
  
  About twelve years ago, he came across a Vegaian named Bukanaga and a pair of Graath (common name Wolven), and set off on a journey to stop the war shaking the world at the time. Not long into the quest, a fight with another Vegaian (who are a race of very powerful spellcasters) resulted in the loss of the male Graath, Wyllo. After that, the group went their seperate ways, disheartened.
  A season (about 4 months) or so later, Taro's people were visited by a group of spacefaring people, among whom were members of the original Pinara Itaraka that the Laratian group had been seperated from. He was discovered as the new Guardian of Earth, the power having transferred from the previous one. Given the armour, his power truly unlocked, and he spent the next few cycles combatting the rampaging Graath armies, though at best he could defend only the Northern Reaches.
  
  Two years ago (by Common accounting) Bukan reappeared with a discovery that gave hope to Taro and the other Graath member of the original party, Byrch. It seemed the spell that was cast to 'kill' Wyllo all that time ago had instead acted as a portal, casting the Graath male across the stars to another world. Taro, having lost nearly everything but his power by this time, volunteered to be cast across the void as well in search of Wyllo. He suspected he would be most likely to survive the journey and the search thereafter.
  And so he came into the network of worlds most folk know as their universe. Laratia was not part of it, and so was effectively unknown. He has spent the last two years searching, tracking leads, and now stays on Silverion Island, the last place he could find evidence of Wyllo's presence, and where he eventually returned. They have spent the last while catching up on lost time.
  
  Taro also met a new mate on Silverion, Sapphire Rose, and fathered twins by her: Ankar Deelo and Luna Bell Rose. Sapphire and Luna are currently away, and Ankar has unfortunately passed away as a result of a massive spell being cast over Silverion. Ankar didn't share his father's resistance to magic from the Guardian powers and was too young to have built up even a slight natural resistance, and had a cellular structure collapse from the concentration of magic. Even though it was a healing spell.
  
  Later, after Sapphire had disappeared and eventually it was discovered she had died, Taro found the will to move on. He is currently courting Phyllis Firebrand.