Marken
Star of the Archive Marken
"What are you up to, Marken?" - The Crew of the WilliamMarken is a new demiurge on the cosmic scene. As far as loremasters know, he is the second mortal to complete an apotheosis and ascend to divinity.
Divine Domains
- Knowledge. As the current patron of the Archive, Marken values the fair dissemination of knowledge with careful control over sensitive information. His priests, how few they may be, help collect forgotten information to analyze and hunt down those who abuse it.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Marken's divine symbol is a pack, sachel, or backpack overfilled with scrolls, parchement, and quills.
Tenets of Faith
Marken's cult is still in its infancy, so he has few devoted followers and few tenets. Most find his rules simple:
- Encourage learning, both for the self and for others.
- When in doubt, ask for help.
- Study many topics -- insights can be gleaned with different methods of thought.
- Be wary of dangerous knowledge. Some things are better left unknown.
Holidays
The birth of the mortal Marken is a minor holiday except amongst his cult.
Divine Goals & Aspirations
Marken's goal is to protect the Celestial Archive, now that it's more accessible by interplanar beings. He wants to categorize knowledge by risk of knowing and deploy securities to prevent dangerous information from falling into unprepared or improper hands.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Marken was born in the spring of year 194 AR in the southern Eno colonies. specifically the town of Riverside. When he was a very young child, he and his sister were subjected to the dangerous dragonmarking rituals. While his magical nature changed for it, his sister's was virtually destroyed. The ritual was illegal at the time and, when a neighbor reported it, he and his sister were made wards of the state of Eno.
When he began his schooling, it was clear that he was an intelligent child. The Stoa educator that oversaw his tutelage wrote to the Iritian colleges, who took him in as a live-in student. There, he learned everything he could.
After about thirty years of schooling, Marken was fully graduated as an Iritian-certified scribe, archaeologist, arcanist, and ĉielogist. An Iritian adventuring party found a method to explore the previously unexplored planes and wanted an academic guide, so they hired him to aid.
Marken was a valued member of the crew, but the planes are a dangerous place to travel. Over the course of the adventure, everyone but Marken succumbed to some threat or danger. When Marken was alone, he retreated to the Celestial Library. There, he sequestered himself and began a journey of learning that would grant him great insight on planar matters. According to Marken, he was on a path of apotheosis under Corserei, but the enlightenment was interrupted when he learned of a world-shattering prophesy. Unable to comprehend it, he resorted to asking the demiurge Toas for aid.
Toas betrayed Marken by giving him the knowledge, for Toas took almost all of the learning he achieved away as a price. Expelled back into the Prime Material (with only about five real years passing), Marken was a shell of the bright academic he once was. He understood the nature of the prophesy, but now lacked any power to bring forth the ideal ending.
Marken went back to his home country of Eno, where he found a band of adventurers who could fulfill the terms of the prophesy in his stead. He tried to guide them, but he knew that he could not personally see the resolution. After unlocking two planar anchors (one allowed access to the ethereal, faelands, and shadowfell; the other allowed access to the inner planes), he found the second anchor under siege by aberrant forces. The celestial spirits would be able to repel them, but it would take time to collect the forces needed. With the help of his companion Doenraz, Marken fought against the aberrants to buy time until the spirits could counterattack. This resulted in both Marken and Doenraz dying, but their sacrifice was not for folly. The celestial spirits reinforced the anchor's power and the aberrants were repelled.
Marken, now dead, had his spirit reside in the Celestial Library for his afterlife. There, with the threat of the prophesy off of his shoulders, he learned about Toas's sinister actions against the multiverse by allying with the aberrants. He parlayed with the demiurge Nonan and learned of a way to take Toas's divine spark away and succeed him as the demiurge of the archive.
After the prophesy resolved, Marken reached out to the adventuring band whom he helped before to ask for aid with Toas. They were not fond of Toas themselves, so they eagerly agreed to help siege his domain and assault him while Marken would perform the ritual. It was a grueling fight, but the mental constructs of Toas were rend asunder and Marken stole the spark.
Under the guidance of Corserei, Marken utilized the spark to resume his apotheosis and replace Toas as the demiurge of the Archive. He was put under Kara in the celestial hierarchy.
Gender Identity
Male
Sexuality
Asexual
Education
Mental Trauma
Marken has a fear of dragons and has deep emotional scars from the cohorts lost in the planes.
Social
Family Ties
While the mortal Marken did have a family, their identities are largely unknown. Many suspect that the demiurge Marken removed the knowledge from the world to protect them.
Relationships
History
Marken was a member of the Archive, partially lead by the demiurge Toas. When Marken needed assistance in understanding a prophesy he was given, Toas gave him insight in exchange. The deal was obfuscated, though, and Toas ended up collecting a few decades of memory from Marken. Marken loathed this exchange and, now burdened with a prophesy he was unable to fulfill, set himself upon a path to recruit others to aid him. In the year 247, Marken died and his spirit was sent to the Celestial Library. There, his spirit plotted to dismantle Toas and remove the demiurge of his divine spark. Using the same adventurers Marken recruited to resolve the prophesy, he laid siege on Toas's plane and took the divine spark for himself. Once he had a divine spark, Marken used it to achieve an apotheosis and ascend into Toas's place.
Divine Classification
Demiurge
Alignment
Neutral Good
Current Location
Species
Realm
Church/Cult
Honorary & Occupational Titles
The Archaeologist
Year of Birth
194 AR
94 Years old
Circumstances of Death
Marken sacrificed himself to protect the second anchor from interlopers.
Birthplace
Eno Colonies, Hillit
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
The Celestial Library
Gender
Male
Eyes
When mortal, his eyes were green. Now divine, they are gold.
Hair
Black and gold hair, often in dreadlocks.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
A deep brown-tan with golden flecks.
Height
5.6 fl (about 5'7")
Weight
8.78 ki (about 137 lbs)
Aligned Organization
- Common
- Celestial
- Deep Speech
- Elvish
- Minotaur
Comments