Kabuto was born into a large family of some of the kindest and most playful family members that you could ever ask for! His twelve older siblings were all incredibly talented, mastering all the skills that you would need to live in modern day. From using a bow, finding lost treasure, to turning into a tiger and shredding an unsuspecting foe! Yes, these skills and more belong to the elusive and famous Del’Torro Druid family in the city of Shuka. A city hidden in the leaves of the largest forest on Korvaire. The Del’Torro family has helped protect the Shea Anore Forest (the forest of Suma) for generations upon generations, every member of their lineage a battle hardened and wise Druid. That was, until one oddly cold and moonless harvest festival night, when Kabuto Del’Torro was born, witnessed by a hand full of close friends.




The young elf shared many of the family traits, brilliant red hair, Siberian bright blue eyes, and adorable baby elf-ears, but on this harvest festival on the birthing tree, the forest was quiet. Which was odd, as a forest is seldom quiet, but particularly odd for the birth of a druid baby, as the forest always rejoices with song and blooming flowers when a new druid is born. The quiet of the forest would attach itself to Kabuto and follow him around like his shadow, for the rest of his life. The cold stillness felt like an omen to the rest of the druids who were there to witness the birth. When first born, he was as still and quiet as the night air. As the Druids began to bow their heads in a ritual farewell, a wolf howled in the distance, and a strange cold darkness swept into the room like a cloud of smoke. A single black raven flew through the scene, dropping a single black feather. As the feather slowly drift downward and landed on the child Kabuto let out a sudden cry as color flashed into his face and eyes. The story of Kabuto’s birth was never shared with anyone outside the circle of people who were present that day and was nearly never shared with him either.




Kabuto was not born a druid, and it didn’t take long for the large and very surprised family to discover this! With plenty of love to go around, Kabuto was never what a Druid might call “neglected”. But growing up with a bunch of druids isn’t the cute plushie experience you might imagine a woodland tale to be made of. Though Druids can be wonderful nurturing creatures, this nurturing may look awful to someone who was not born with tools needed to survive “natural nurturing”. Kabuto quickly learned the many downside to growing up the baby of a family of druids. They play rough, whether with claws, teeth, fangs, beaks, or fins, the sibling of a druid is going to get a little beat up along the way. The constant scratching, being picked up by the back of the neck, and clawing isn’t even the worst of it! Druids smell BAD. Druids in their animal form sometime adapt the behaviors of animals a little TOO much when it comes to where it is okay to use the bathroom, when you can shift in and out of animal form, you don’t notice it so much, heck, you might even prefer it. But in the heart of a druidic den, a normal person would feel faint from nothing more than the smell. Along with smell and an outstanding lack of cleanliness, you will also find a lot of blood, bones, and animal “pieces”. As Dinner with a druid’s family tends to be a hemophobes (fear of blood) worst nightmare, it’s impact on the arguably normal Kabuto, was surprisingly minimal. Fortifying his courage was a sort of cold apathy, keeping his feelings at a distance like the black hound at the tree line.




Poor Kabuto was the only non-Druid (except for Cousin Tony, but no one talks about him). Growing up with a bunch of wild animals may sound fun to you, but trust Kabuto on this one, it's not all that it seems. Living in a house with older siblings with magical powers and the ability to turn into animals was awful. Kabuto desperately wanted to gain his druidic ability for the longest time, but that day never came, instead he lived a distant and quite life among his amazing siblings, who were more than happy to show off their amazing abilities to their awe-struck little brother. Never being able to keep up with them when they go into all the crazy places they go and have all the same fun adventures weighed on him constantly.




Another sad feature of Kabuto's life is that he never got to learn the one language that all his relatives spoke in, druidic (the secret language of the druids, hidden from the rest of the non-druidic world). To make matters worse, Kabuto’s parent almost exclusively knew Druidic. Everything from I love you, to “how was your day?” was almost always said in a language he wasn’t allowed to hear. Kabuto made it his goal to learn this secret language despite his family’s strict adherence to his ignorance. Druidic parents can be pretentious sometime about what leagues their children learn, but this was excessive. Great grandma and Great Grandpa Del’Torro were Druid supremacist, which explains their distinct lack in his life, and shamed the family for keeping him in the pack, rather than sending him to an orphanage. Camilla, Kabuto’s closest sister once started to sneak and teach him Druidic when everyone went to sleep, but as some Druids are more nocturnal than others, stalking the darkness like the black dog that watched from the moonless night, this was stopped quickly, and she was punished.




Camilla more than most of her siblings had a passionate desire to be “good”, so she did continue to teach Kabuto many words in Druidic, time became enough of an enemy that she was not able to complete his training. Along with this lack of druidic communication, he also missed out on a lot of life lessons that are naturally acquired through growing up as a Druid. From proper appreciation of a kill, to regard for life at all levels of the totem pole, Kabuto just missed out on a few things. Kabuto's parents weren't bad parents, but they were also not really equipped to support the needs that a non-druid would have. Growing up quiet and in the shadows of magical animals that were faster, stronger, and often smarter than you, can be a pretty terrible experience for a child. But in time Kabuto became desensitized to being outshone, and often forgotten about. The experience of living in a pack where you did not belong hardened him and taught him lessons in its on sort of way. That along with the brutal “normal” dinner habits that a druid pack has when sharing a meal (of whatever animal they brought back from a hunt, often still alive) he became a strange kid. The hundreds of slaughtered animal meals brought into the den, day in and day out had a callusing effect on him. Though the prey was never people (as there were rules against this), they were usually something that a druid could turn into, so Kabuto felt a lot of conflict about what appeared to be a type cannibalism from his family. Smells, and sights that would horrify a normal child. Kabuto came to figure: “This is just what growing up must be like”. The colder and darker side of Kabuto made his life less painful. Dulling his fears and easing his worries. He began to feel somewhat like there was two sides of him, one weaker, afraid, and kind, one cold, quiet, and dangerous, like the glowing red eyes seen through the trees at night. Kabuto spent a lot of time wondering which side was better, or if they were equal in their own sort of way?




Our story is not about a druid, instead just a normal man who never quite fits in, no matter where he goes. In Elven society, he is often heckled for looking like a human, and in human society he wasn’t accepted either, due to his long ears and sharp eyes. But the story of Kabuto doesn’t end with a hopeless depressed child! (instead it ends with a hopeless depressed adult!) Enough complaining about living with a bunch of animals! Our story is instead about a skilled sorcerer who is desperately trying to find his place in the world and make up for his mistakes. Kabuto's first sign of magic showed up when he got into a fit of rage when one of his sisters had stolen his bit of food for what seemed like the hundredth time that week, and since she could easily shift in and out of quick animal forms, Kabuto didn't have a chance at catching up, but when fire shot from his eyes and properly toasted that bit of chicken he had been nibbling on, and his shell shocked sister, his family rejoiced that he had finally gained his druidic power! Except… Druid’s don’t really do fire, at least not at first…




With his parents, he took a small trip to the main city in Suma and a few very understanding wizards quickly discovered that Kabuto was special after all! Not like the droves of druids he was related to (in Kabuto's experience, there are too many druids in this world, and they are quite common) instead he was a "Sorcerer" a person naturally gifted with magic. Though the wizards were understanding, there was a bit of bite in their explanation. Later Kabuto would find out that this is because Wizards had to work very hard to control the arcane arts, but sorcerers’ sort of just mastered it by being alive. When he finally met up with other Sorcerers like himself, he found them to be a sort of pretentious bunch who lied constantly. Growing up in a family where everyone seems to have the wisdom to know when you’re lying, helped Kabuto to become an expert, but he didn’t like when other people did it. Self-absorbed and power hungry, Kabuto didn’t blend in much with the other Sorcerers, preferring his family slightly more. Even though sometimes he felt like a black sheep or the black hound that is watching, out of place with a bunch of wild animals, there was still something comforting about the love and concern they always seemed to show. This did not sit well with Kabuto’s darker side, but he loved it none the less.
However, at the age when most of his sibling started working in “the family business”, Kabuto was not allowed to join… So, he instead joined a sort of “courier service” working closely with someone named “Frankie the Fish” who happened to be very good friends with Tony, who no one talked about. Kabuto rose through the ranks of the courier system and eventually found himself deep within the criminal underworld in Suma, as the two seemed to be connected. While bright and cheery, Kabuto found that he knack for being in the shadows, decent magical prowess, and most ironically and importantly, a complete disregard for living things, he fit in quite well. Learned from an early age, the dead body of something that looks like any of your family members, isn't so odd, blood, guts, gore, creatures being shredded alive in front of you, that's just like Druid Christmas! Kabuto became an experienced spy and was an upstanding member of his shadowy community! Sometimes running jobs for Suma, then Thrane, then an evil wizard, then a homeless beggar! Kabuto’s life wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows however… Eventually Kabuto found himself hunting down forest creatures, which is where things headed south for him.




On one particularly cold night, while out on mission for a few gold coins, Kabuto hunted down and quickly dispatched a highly wanted creature who had been causing a lot of trouble for some local bandits. Never one to question the morality of the person paying for his time, Kabuto did what he had trained to do, quickly and quietly. The terrible creature was difficult to catch, dodging his attacks left and right, but in the end, Kabuto’s spells caught up with the creature, whose last expression was not one of fright, but of confusion. Hardly taking time to ponder the creatures mismatched expression he went to go claim the body, only to find that it was not a random monster after all, but instead, a young druid. His sister Camilla lay dead in his arms. Kabuto felt a rush of many different emotion, rage, regret, thrill, embarrassment, accomplishment... Emotions were strangers to him, their sudden presence had been a bit of a shock. He sat there staring at her lifeless body. The air felt cold. He slowly looked up, as one tear fell from his left eye, to see a black dog with matted up, disheveled fur, and glowing red eyes staring at him from a foot away. It turned and walked away. Kabuto collected his bounty from the bandits, who thanked him whole heartedly, and he left them to their work. He later buried his sister, left Suma, and never turned back. The dark hound walked at his heel. Never telling his family or friends, who would live in terror that their two youngest cubs would never come home again. As Kabuto reached the edge of the forest, the hound faded when the first light of dawn broke through the clearing of trees. A warm wind blew against his skin, almost trying to pull him back into the forest, but he knew that he could never go back, so he trekked on. He did not stop until he found a place that did not remind him of anything. A city, scarce on trees and wild animals. The city of Flamekeep was just want he needed. An Inn busy with adventurers and locals was the first place he found to call home, and he stayed there for many years. Kabuto found work with the Golden Lotus, which had quite the presence in Thrane. Never wanting for money, he lived a quiet life that felt empty. Kabuto became colder even still for several years before his life changed became even stranger.




Apathy could only fight back his other emotions for so long… Wracked with guilt and depression, he sought to end it. Flinging himself off a mountain just north of Thrane, he attempted to kill himself. On his way down, he smiled for a moment, or maybe a lifetime. This was okay, death wasn’t so bad, though he may be leaping into an eternity of black and unknowable infinity, this was how it should be. The wind cut at his face, it whistled in his ears. As he neared the jagged rocks below, he slowly closed his eyes. As he hit the ground, it felt like he had dove into an icy lake. The cold shocked him and his eyes flew open as black smoke swirled past his face. The smoke quickly cleared, and he found himself standing in a dark room, dim light was constant across the beautiful architecture of the columns that went on either side of where he stood, everything beyond them pure darkness. He was cold. As he turned and looked down the walkway he stood upon, his vision became hazy and he heard a loud ringing in his ears. He saw a woman cloaked in darkness, the faint outline of a feathery cloak on her frame. She sat upon a stone throne with a tall back that reached up into the darkness. She was sitting back on the throne, angled off to the left, her arm rested on the on the cold stone of the armrest. It seemed as if black smoke constantly rolled off her.




The woman turned slowly and looked into his eyes. His vision became clear, the room was silent. Her face was pale, her eyes as black as the edges of the room. “Hm.” she says, lightly arching one eyebrow, her skin was smooth. She slowly raised her hand, it seemed to draw shadow from everywhere and nowhere into her grasp, and she quickly throws it directly at Kabuto. It flies nearly instantly at him, smoke flying off of it as it took shape into a blade just before it plunged into his chest. Kabuto flew back from the impact, smoke unfurling around him clouding his vision until he only saw darkness. Suddenly he was standing upon the jagged rocks at the base of the mountain. The breeze brushed gently across his face. He held a dagger in his hand, it was a made of one solid piece of a smooth, blackened metal with no handle. It was cool to the touch.
The next pond Kabuto passed showed him that he had come back to life a little different than how he had left it. A shadow of his former self, though the forest was bursting with color all around him, he stood crooked and dark, like a dying tree. Like the visage of the dark lady, he was clothed in darkness, a single blade, black eyes, and hair, all that was left that resembled his family was a slight tinge of red to his skin. Since then he has found that killing undead creatures is the only joy he gets from life, and the company of some friends who didn't resemble druids in the least, would be a good distraction.




Kabuto grew in stature with the Golden Lotus branch in Thrane even despite his lack of passion for his work. Most important to him, his strategy for killing had changed, where he would kill with little to no information about his victim before, he now took a much more personal approach. Sometimes this would give him helpful insight, other times painful realizations of the darkness that he was a part of. In the end however, death comes for us all, whether quickly by his hand, or by someone else’s.