Name: Sjig-Nak
Race, Gender, and Class: Ratman Ratman-Ogre Fusion. Male. Fleshmaster.
Academy/Kingdom: Glazetop
Physical Description: Above the waist Sjig is a somewhat scrawny (even more so then normal) build. His fur is his pride and vanity, sleek and black. He wears a pair of spectacles without glass in them and a beat up wizards hat with stars and moons crudely painted on. Both of which are purely to "increase his wizardlyness". Although he rarely wears anything else he does own several robes of similar quality to his hat that he breaks out on particularly fancy occasions. Sjig is almost always on the move, when he has nothing else to do he is wringing his hands, straightening his whiskers, and grooming his fur. Below Sjigs waist his body merges into the fleshy abomination that is Nak.
Nak is crossbreed monstrosity, combining the size and strength of an ogre with the sharpened claws, acute senses, and skittish reflexes of a ratman. Weighing in at 600 pounds and nine feet tall when on two feet Nak is a monstrous mountain of meat and muscle that stands head and shoulders above even his own kin. Arms and legs the size of barrels end in wickedly sharp claws. Atop a hunched torso lays an almost hairless and relatively small rat shaped head, lines of drool drip past fetid teeth in it's protruding maw. Nak is equally comfortable ambling along on two feet or dropping down to all four, switching between the modes of transport depending on random inclination, necessary speed, or, most commonly, at the whims of Sjig. Nak typically wears ether nothing, or a loincloth, instead it normally trusts in it's scant fur and tough hide For special occasions Sjig might force Nak into some poor fitting and ill fated article of clothing. Pants, maybe a shirt, once even a quickly tailored (and expensive!) suit, but generally doesn't bother, as they all inevitably end up shredded, soiled, or both in short order. Nak is generally a lazy creature, when not eating it spends most of it's time sleeping. Sjig is fused slightly below the apex of Naks hunched back.
Mental Description: Sjig is is a excited and energetic creature by nature, often speaking so fast as to be hard to understand. Ever since his fusion with Nak his physiology has changed, leaving him without need to eat and greatly reducing his need for sleep, only taking a few hours nap once every couple of days. His is naturally a strange mixture of coward and foolhardy. Generally he thinks so highly of his own abilities, both mentally and physically, that he assumes that everything will go right for him and he has no chance of failure. However, when something does go wrong or when he is faced with something scary enough that even his own over inflated sense of self worth can't overcome he is quick to become quite cowardly, fleeing from any issue. Although he does not have issues working under someone and easily accepts the authority of anyone who he thinks of as more powerful (magically, physically, or politically, depending on the situation) then himself, it's in his nature to test and prod his superiors. Creating small disloyalties and problems practically unconsciously. Those who are less powerful them him he merely thinks of as tools to use to achieve his aims, rarely if ever considering their own wants and needs as people.
Nak is mainly a creature of instinct. His two main drives are to eat and to sleep, which he typically does fifteen to twenty hours a day. He can react violently when denied ether of these two urges. He cares little for others and will in most cases ignore them, or sometimes destroy them with a casual strike of his clawed hands if they annoy him. He's learned to obey Sjig in general, not only is a mental battle for control over their shared body both incredibly stressful and unlikely to be successful for him, but since his fusion with Sjig his quality of life in general (as measured by amount of torturous 'training' along with quantity of food available) has greatly increased.
Sjig-Nak has a shared nervous system that allows them both to control their combined body, although each is a bit clumsy with the parts that were originally from the other one. Naks complete indifference to Sjigs scrawny frame leaves means he practically never bothers with what it's doing, and unless Nak is being uncooperative Sjig will simply give Nak mental commands about what to do with his parts, a faster and more precise method the Sjig moving Naks body on his own. When ether one is asleep the other assumes full (if clumsy) command of the body. Sjig-Nak have two brains, and normally their thoughts and urges stay separate. In rare times (normally of great stress) some trick of their bizarre bodies can emerge, briefly causing their minds to partially sync with each other. The effects of this vary on a case by case basis. Sometimes Nak shows flashes of brilliance as his mind is elevated to Sjigs level, sometimes they enter a feeding frenzy as Naks natural urge to eat overwhelms Sjig (leading to Sjig having to vomit up most of the food his system can no longer process the next day), sometimes they can enter a frenzy of anger and break any objects or people who catch their eye.
Backstory: Long ago Sjig was a promising young rat man mage-slave apprentice. Toiling for his master in the hellish fleshpits of Karkaden city he learned the various mysteries and skills needed by a fleshsmith and mage. After finally achieving the rank of master and on the eve of moving from his masters factory to go and start his own an incident. Whether by accident or some the dark design of some jealous rival he slipped and fell off a walkway above a series of experimentation vats, cracking his head on the way down, he fell unconscious (or possibly dead) into a vat holding a mutant crossbreed undergoing radical long term destabilization experiments. Some strange combination of Sjigs own magic, the already existing mixture of rat and monster, and the experiments being run on the creature produced a radical and unique result. Weeks later (Sjig's old master was notably uncaring to happenings outside of his own studies, and failed to even realize the disappearance of his just graduated student, and had not yet gotten around to securing another apprentice, thus there was no one to notice Sjigs disappearance) Sjig and the monster awoke, their bodies and minds tangled together, but somehow still both sane and distinct. In their panic they broke out of the vat and ran amok calming down after their escape Sjig found himself attached to a monster, and Nak found himself attached to a scrawny nerd. At first Sjig-Nak wore large cloaks to disguise themselves as merely master and slave mount, however, once he was established as a mage on his own Sjig spread the true knowledge of his condition among the mage community. He tried to pass it of as a successful experiment, only telling his old master the truth when the old rat figured out the loss of one of his vats and the contents of it. Sjig purchased the vat and Nak from his old master at an exorbitant price to keep him from demanding Naks return or telling others of what happened. Rumors swirled around Sjig-Nak for a time, and he became briefly popular among fleshsmiths as an oddity. Although his condition most normal attempts to completely map out what had happened and how to recreate it and he was quick to avoid any who pondered on perhaps using autopsy to get to the depths of his biology, and so eventually interest in him as a subject faded.
Primary Skill: Fleshcraft: From breeding, to magical induced growth, to surgery or magical genetic manipulation. Sjig-Nak main area of expertise in the creation and use of monsters. (I'm not sure if this is too "narrow" a skill for a school of magic, if it is, something like biological manipulation in general, or, from the given schools at the start, possibly nature magic would fit?)
Secondary Skill: Dark magic: An important secondary area of study for any would be monster creator. Not only are dark magics important to weave into some of the more unholy creations of the craft, but the ability to dissemble a ravaging creation gone wrong with destructive magic can not be underestimated.
Tertiary Skills: Doctoring: Although his area of expertise is in the improvement of living things, not sustaining them as they are, his wide knowledge on a variety of biological systems does aid him when it comes to tending to the wounded or sick.
Alchemy: Various herbs and magical concoctions are needed to keep creations alive and in check, in his studies Sjig has picked up a smattering of knowledge about all sorts of other useful applications of various regents.
Signature: Possibly Nak fits here? Otherwise, Sjigs trademarked oversized man catcher, sized for Naks use, when you need to hold down even small dragons by the neck, nothing else will do!
Submission: After long years of working his craft and testing the limits of his creations Sjigs entry into the silver challace was... Himself! Or, more properly Nak. Already an impressive specimen before their fusion, Sjig has worked long and hard to insure that his new life partner is up for the task of staying alive, something most mutant makers only have as a tertiary concern at most. Naks system has been supercharged with all of Sjigs skill. He's not far stronger then he was at first after the fusion, able to lift his own weight easily over his head and his body regenerates damage at a frankly alarming rate, wounds closing at a pace visible to the naked eye. Internally most of his organs are reinforced and many of them have doubles or more to offer redundancy in case of failure or grievous injury.
Equipment: Nak carries a trunk on his back which unfolds into a small mobile lab for Sjig, basic academical, magical ingredients, and surgical tools are stored within, just in case Sjig needs emergency access. It also holds their clothing and an emergency supply of food. Nak carries an oversized mancatcher, used when Sjig forced him to capture a beast in a less then lethal manner for later experimentation.
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Topic: The Expedition Arcane [ded] (Read 44305 times)