Stein

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Stein Tidsen

Early Years (Really Early)

Stein Tidsen was born in 35 BI to Odessan farmers in a small village in the Pwelldyn Valley. During his

formative years on the farm in the midst of a large family, he was constantly consumed with the events

of the day as the War of the Prophets played out. His oldest and favorite sister taught him to read

which only fed his thrist for news. While War or the Prophet was over, the Alexandraian Crusade began

and he eagerly enlisted in the Alexian army at the age of 16. After some basic training his newly trained

regiment was presented their swords by Alexandria herself when she was passing through the army’s

training academy for inspection. Stein was stationed a remote mountain outpost garrison. Over two

years there he saw only occasional skirmishes with Servitor races. Again keen to study recent events

he knew that Alexandria had obtained the Omnity in 18 BI. In 17 BI the outpost was overrun late in the

Crusade by an overwhelming number of fleeing orcs. The exact date of the battle is lost in time, but

it was likely only a few days after the martyrdom. Stein survived the battle with a few others and fled

though the underground escape passage with hundreds of enraged orcs on their heels. After a few days

the orcs hand hunted down all of the survivors except Stein who that had cornered in a high mountain

pass. Seeing no other options Stein made a desperate prayer to Alexandria, not knowing much about

what the Omnity was and unaware of the martyrdom and ascension. After that he jumped from the

pass 1000s of feet toward a small lake below. That last thing he remembers or saw clearly was that

water as he crashed into it.

Recent Years

Stein woke up in that same dry lake bed unharmed in the year 1389 FI. At first all he could tell was that

he was nearly blind and still afraid of the orcs on his trail. He can see to roughly 30 feet, day or night,

before things become a cloud haze of visions into another time. Closer in, occasionally he can see things

as they were sometime in the past. By concentrating and silently praying he discovered the ability to

manifest the past condition to the present, basically creating a spell. He discovered the valuable nature

of this ability to effect healing almost immediately as he eased some of the wounds he sustained in the

battle with the orcs.

Soon after making his way back to civilization he began to understand his new situation, especially as he

had to learn the evolution in the language over the last 14 centuries. Discovering that Alexandrianism

was now a religion, he quickly made his way to the first church he could. The clerics took him in

suspecting something unusual in him by his speech and cloudy eyes. With the help of the local clerics he

began to suspect somewhat deeper of his condition, and after performing a few more manifestations or

spells, they accompanied him to the seat of the regional episcopacy. His life became a series of moving

from one episcopacy to another as the church tried to make some sense of his condition. During all

these travels he took to studying at the libraries of each of the regional seats. He primarily focused

on history- motivated to catch up on the intervening year and gain some sort of understanding of the

present.

Stein struggles mightily with his purpose in life. Having seen Alexandria briefly as a mortal living woman,

fatigued from the war efforts, lines of worry covering her face, and recovering from small wounds,

he has trouble thinking of her as the perfect divine goddess as defined by some of the testimonials

and the Alexandrian Orthodoxy cannons. He even wrestles with the downright blasphemous thought

that Alexandria, being rather new to goddesshood, didn’t quite have the hang of answering prayers

yet and his whole predicament and condition is some divine on-the-job training blunder. That said he

occasionally “sees” very vague hints of direction in his shifting vision that could be interpreted as divine

indications of what he is to do. He has followed enough of the visions and accomplished enough deeds

helping needy individuals and wrought enough spells to have some faith that whatever the origin of his

predicament, he is an oracle of Alexandria. Indeed he was ordained somewhat begrudgingly by Arch-

Warden Ardrell Mathrew himself (before his death) as an Oracle.

The treatment he gets as an Oracle among the lay worshippers and younger clerics annoys him, as he

sees that he has done little to deserve such gratitude. His visions are mostly focused on the past, and

at best the near future, but hardly the foundations of prophecy and he fears disappointing the believers

as well. Stein is also vaguely disturbed at the depth of control the church has over the life and politics

of the modern world. Stein’s history of actually having seen the Goddess give him credit with many

followers and makes him perceived as a threat to some senior members of the Orthodoxy who are

threatened by any changes in their well established system. His borderline blasphemous attitudes, but

official sanctioned status as an Oracle made their position even more difficult.

Recently the conflict has become more pitched. Stein walked into the grandiose new chapel under

construction and observed the new mural being painted on the ceiling. Though the height was at

the limit of his normal vision he saw very clearly the portion containing Alexandria and saw that it did

not match his memory. Thinking the suddenly clear view, he made a point to mention to the painter

unequivocally that the Goddess’s hair was a much darker hue. The artist was pleased to comply,

but the new Arch-warden, Marrwyn Collar, soon noticed the change which directly contradicted her

previous direction to make the Goddess’s hair more golden blonde (and like her own). Exasperated

at the nuisance Stein (unknowingly to him) caused her, she muttered to herself “what can I do to rid

of this irritant.” Unfortunately for Stein, one of the other ambitious Warden heard her comment and

arranged for a teleportation spell on Stein to move him far away when he lifted his shield in the quarters

before the morning exercises. Upon hearing of Stein’s disappearance for the proudly serving Warden,

the Arch-Warden is in the difficult position of either publicly admonishing him and leaving herself with

one fewer ally or taking no note and allow rumor to spread about her methods and intentions. Either

way the Warden has traded a mostly-harmless annoyance for a political problem that can only make

the already tense political situation in the Orthodoxy even worse. Not to mention a bit of guilt as she

silently offered a prayer to Alexandria to see to Stein’s safety.

Meanwhile Stein found himself suddenly deep in a forest of a strange land, not knowing why or who

sent him, but with an unsettling suspicion about the Arch-Warden. The meddling Warden at least had

the good nature to attach is backpack to the shield filled with rations and supplies, but no coin. Stein

managed to wander his way out of the forest to farmstead before he starved, but not knowing the

language he was driven off. Switching to the ancient aspect of the threefold aspect, he managed to

make himself look less threatening and has been able to trade healing services or disease curing services

for food as he moved from village to village, finally arriving at a small town. He has managed to pick-up

a few words of the local tongue, mostly “heal, cure, room, food, and ale.”

Personality

Once a cheerful and enthusiastic young man, Stein became a bit of a dark brooding curmudgeon after

his loss of vision. As he has gotten used to it over the last 12 years he has begun to suppress the

brooding nature most of the time, and even let a bit of ironic optimism slips through as he has learned

to live with his condition and expand his powers. Underneath that, much of his training a leisure time as

a soldier forms a steady core of his personality.

Appearance

Stein appears as a hearty tall (6’2”) human man of 30 years (12 years of wandering modern, age 18

in the past). He has short-cropped military-style brown hair and a reasonably maintained soldier’s

physique. He usually tries to be clean-shaven, but as he travels more he is finding that a pain and of

time shorts a short unkept beard. His most notable feature is of course his eyes which are a milky white

with no pupil or iris. He is taken to using the threefold aspect spell and often appears as a younger adult

version of himself or the elderly version of himself as suits his purpose and mood. As he wanders his

new surroundings he has often taken the very old visage to appear more harmless and credible as a faith

healer and thus improve his odds of acquiring shelter and food in exchange for magics.

Equipment

Stein is never without his long sword, issued to him by Alexandria herself. The magical blade per

standard issue at the time of the Alexandrian Crusade is enchanted and infused with alchemical silver

and cold wrought iron in the steel matrix that retains its strength while giving it better effectiveness

against underworldly creatures (mitigates half of the damage reduction of cold-wrought and alchemical

silver vulnerable creatures).

He usually carries a faded brown leather backpack where he has his original tabard from service in

the Crusade. He acquired a newer set of banded mail and a sturdy helm which he was wearing when he

teleported. Since the clouded vision occurred, he’s started to prefer a tower shield as it protects him

better from archers he can’t see.

He wears a holy symbol of Alexandria which helps him to focus and channel his spells, but is not

required for him to do so.


SPOILER: Stein's Character Sheet (Pathfinder)