Gilgamesh Ahmazel

[Paladin Dave]

(Note: the h in Ahmazel is said in the Middle Eastern pronunciation, and thus is pronounced like a hacking sound, or the ch in German)

(Another note: The first entry is going to be low in detail, as Gilgamesh is a mysterious character who usually does not even show his face. This entry will be all that a player's character should know about him. The second entry will include his entire story.)

Age: Unknown. His voice is kind and gentle, but somewhat raspy, so people tend to guess that he is more old than young.

Height: 5'8''

Weight: Unknown. He does not look heavily built, but he wears so much clothing that nothing about him can really be determined.

Face: His true facial features, save for a pair of dark green, gentle, sad eyes, are all hidden. He wears a steel mask, forged into the shape of a romanesque face. Its cheekbones are rigid and pronounced, and the nose his large, hard, and angular. Lines are etched around the eyes to simulate a brow and forehead, and a neutral, emotionless set of lips are shaped into the area above his mouth. Nostril holes were poked into the nose, but it is too difficult to see any sort of skin that's outside of his nasal passages, even upon very close inspection.

The rest of the mask is featureless and resembles a bald head; it covers all of Gilgamesh's head, and is almost more of a helmet than anything.

Clothing: Gilgamesh's outfit is simple, but not of poor quality. He wears silver gauntlets over black leather gloves, with intricate designs carved all over the plates, and they disappear up into a navy blue coat. Under this coat is some kind of black clothing, though little of it shows, and a molded leather jerkin. On his legs are a pair of black leather leggings, and some tight, perfect-fitting boots made from a flexible leather.

Weapons: On the belt that holds his coat around his waist, Gilgamesh wears a rapier. Inside his coat is an ingeniusly designed hand crossbow, built to fold up so that it can be hidden easily. A set of locks and tiny latches built into the crossbow hold it together once unfolded. The bolts are small, and more likely to wound than kill. He also keeps a set of vials and extra bolts in pouches on his belt. Inside the viles are various paralyzing and sleeping chemicals that he can coat his weapons with. None are lethal or permanent, and the longest his most potent alchemical poisons last is 4 hours, with an hour-long period of limited functionality.

Other equipment: People often wonder where Gilgamesh gets his plethera of tools. He has climbing gear for scaling walls(a great concern to cynical citizens), he always has a full pouch of crossbow bolts, he has grappling hooks, and various other survival/escape items that no one knows the origins of.

Personality and history: Little is known about Gilgamesh. He is something of an urban legend to some, but most who know his name believe him to be a good-intentioned, if not unorthodox, vigilante. He is most often seen preventing crimes in the cities, leaving the vicinity of a home where a basket of food or other useful gifts have been left on the doorstep, or otherwise offering help to those in need. While some guards and town garrisons don't trust him, he tries his best to work within the law, and is a favorite informant of some open-minded law enforcers.

All who meet him and can get him to stop and talk, or find him trying to do the same when they are in distress, can tell you that Gilgamesh is a kind man who wouldn't hurt a soul unless he absolutely had to. He's strange, and his getup is unnerving, but his actions, eloquent tongue, and pure heart almost always win people over.

No one knows why, but he never shows anyone what he looks like. He does not eat or drink in peoples' presence, nor does he seem to ever be seriously wounded in scraps against criminals who prey upon the weak. When he takes even a light wound, he never stays to talk to those he rescued or assisted. Some say he is a criminal who seeks to redeem a guilty conscience or throw attention away from his true identity. Some say he has some kind of plague, and doesn't want to spread it. Others suggest he is malformed, and ashamed of his appearance. Many have claimed evidence to support these views, but none are ever really believed. Gilgamesh Ahmazel remains a mystery to Peria.

 

[Paladin Dave]

SPOILER WARNING! The History of Gilgamesh Ahmazel

Gilgamesh Simeon Ahmazel was the son of a well-to-do merchant who mostly travelled with pearl caravans. He often brought Gilgamesh along when he was going somewhere safe, but exotic compared to the town that the family lived in. Originally, the family was of Sal Kadedinese descent(hism other was Perian, but Master Ahmazel was born of a family that immigrated. Supposedly, Gilgamesh's grandfather was indeed a spy, but retired and went into the trading business in Peria), and so they stuck out ever so slightly among the Perians.

Gilgamesh's father, Simeon, later gave him control of the caravan he had developed over the years, and Gilgamesh enjoyed getting to live out on the road while his aging parents lived happily at home. But disaster struck one day, later in Gilgamesh's life.

Simeon Ahmazel had died just a year before, and on the return to their hometown, Gilgamesh found a Necromancer in the town graveyard. The merchant had his rapier onhand as his only defense, but it proved to be little good against the skeletons and zombies that made up the Necromancer's entourage. While few in number, the merchant had no hope of repelling them, so he ran off to alert the authorities, whom he knew could handle this small-time disturbance. But while he was in the prime of his life, the Necromancer somehow managed to catch up to him. With the servants left behind, Gilgamesh faced the evil mage one on one.

The Necromancer's ceremonial dagger did not seem like a match for Gilgamesh's fine Perian rapier, but Gilgamesh did not count on the still living sorcerer to use offensive spells. Just when he thought he was about to kill the vile Necromancer, the heretic cast a spell meant to kill Gilgamesh. But before he could complete it, the merchant's rapier embedded itself in his heart, cutting him off.

But Gilgamesh was not unharmed. The negative energy from the spell was still released, though uncontrolled, and seeped into Gilgamesh's body. While his mind was unharmed, and he still lived through the process, his body was horribly malformed.

Gilgamesh's once naturally tanned skin was a mottled gray, and his thick black hair fell out completely and all at once. The skin toughened and became almost like a carapace, with barely-covered muscle still visible around his joints. His eyelids were gone or fused open; it cannot be sure. But now, Gilgamesh's hazel eyes were a deep, dark green, with sunken, dark flesh around it. To add to his gaunt, skeletal appearance, Gilgamesh's exterior nose virtually shrank away, leaving only a pair of slitted nostrils over a bump above his mouth. And his mouth! His teeth had grown longer, but not sharper, and his jaw warped to make room for them. He now perpetually wore a long face. His lips fused to the gum, virtually making it so that he had none, but he learned after a few weeks to make difficult sounds like "f" and "v" with his tongue and teeth alone. His posture and shape changed little, though he seemed to thin out a little bit.

After his transformation, Gilgamesh was ignored by the guards who eventually found the wandering undead in the graveyard. He was left for dead out in the field, thought to have been killed by the Necromancer, though he was only unconscious. A funeral was planned for the merchant, with no viewing for the malformed body. Mysteriously, it must have escaped the night before the buriel, for Gilgamesh was no longer in his coffin when morning came. ... Nor were several of his old posessions and a decent some of money from the Ahmazel estate, his elderly mother reported.


At the age of 27, Gilgamesh was made into a malformed monster, though he had once been of fair body. He might have attempted suicide if, of all people, a man who was once one of the dreaded Perian Inquisitors took him in one night. The Inquisition had been disbanned for the most part, with much, much less power to those few who remained, and the old cleric had sympathy for Gilgamesh's story. The kindly aged man left a footprint in Gilgamesh's heart that would change him forever.


Almost 15 years later, Gilgamesh has showed no sign of physical change from aging. He still looks like a gaunt and fiendish creature, but he quickly took to hiding that behind clothing and a mask, comissioned entirely by letter and anonymous pay. He has a secret "lair" somewhere in the Perian capital, where he keeps a stockpile of his supplies, and has connections with vendors and craftsmen all over the Empire. Only one or two per major town or city, but enough to keep him fed and equipped for his crusade to do good.

The former Inquisitor's kindness inspired Gilgamesh, to the poin where he vowed to always do what was right, uphold the weak, and protect those less fortunate than he. This Inquisitor had served out of devotion to the cause of protecting Christians, and so Gilgamesh took up his legacy, though he served in secret, and outside the bounds of the law.

Gilgamesh is kind and gentle, even to his opponents, and will usually try his hardest to do as little damage as possible to even the most heinous of criminals. Because he fears no one will ever accept him, despite his good deeds, he is quite content to serve in secret and not risk himself in deep personal relationships with people.



Effects of transformation: Gilgamesh's taint has virtually stopped all aging. He can still die of grief and from wounds and sickness, almost like an Elf, but he will not die of old age. He is virtually preserved in a state of pseudo-life, in which his body still functions and requires food, water, and sleep, but it is toughened against the harshness of the outside world. His eyes do not require him to blink(and he cannot, so that's lucky for him!), and he is able to make up for almost all of the seeming problems caused by his transformation; save an ugly visage, of course. Only clothing can hide that.