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Ines
Life only has value when Lolth wills it
Name: Ines
Gender: Female
Class: Bard
Alignment: Neutral Evil
A third (or fourth) daughter to the family line was seen as auspicious and Kiama even used her connections to entreat a priestess to preside over Tsa’nez’s naming. M’carr was apparently greatly relieved by her birth, another daughter cemented his social standing more firmly as a desirable husband to keep. In her early childhood, Tsa’nez saw very little of her mother and most of her early life and education was arranged by her father. They were not high class enough to afford tutors, but her father enrolled her in basic military training, taught her to read, and write along with the general emotional education of all drow children: who to hate and when. Despite this apparently close relationship, all Tsa’nez could really say about her father is that he was exceptionally skilled at knowing exactly what other people wanted him to say. He was generally cruel and distant and bullied his youngest daughter into compliance without many others around for her to retaliate against him with. She adored her mother in comparison, who she saw as a distant object of admiration whose praise was to be fought for with every breath.
Tsa’nez found her closest relationship with her paternal uncle, her fathers older brother Jaelryn. An unmarried worldly drow engaged in lucrative trade with the surface, he seemed to enjoy spoiling his niece with gifts that would enrage her father. It was he that noticed Tsa’nez’s unusual talent for languages, and taught her the common surface tongue along with gifting her what smattering of exotic books might hold her interest. She also had her first interactions with other races at this time, meeting a few of her uncles trading partners at gatherings were excellent chances to practice speaking unaccented common.
When Tsa’nez was ten, her mother had another child, a boy they named Tebor. A son was a devastating blow to her fathers auspicious streak, and the child was even more neglected then Tsa’nez herself. With her father and uncles encouragement, Tsa’nez was urged to make her younger brother miserable any chance she got, a task she took with relish due to the approval it gained her. She was her brother's greatest teacher, playmate, companion and bully, and Tsa’nez would be hard pressed to answer if she was certain her brother loved or loathed her. Presumably both.
It was already clear that while Tsa’nez was not an abnormal drow (as her decreased sister was presumed to be), she had already engaged in her first kill and assisted her father in a few slaving operations and raids near the surface. However, she still lacked a level of cunning bloodlust that could propel her up the pecking order. She was too distracted by her own interests to truly apply herself to the game of politics emerging in her teenage years, but she was clearly loyal to Lolth and not a great embarrassment to her family, so mostly coasted without notice.
As she grew older, her bond with her uncle deepened and she began assisting more and more with his business. Several times her uncle had suggested that his niece join his merchant business as a career, a move her father saw as an unfettered attempt to acquire a blood related female heir without going through the risks of marriage. Her brother had been married off young due to his fathers reputation, and Mi’carr clearly feared if his brother monopolized his youngest daughter, he would have no further children to use to maintain his own social status. Kiama did not seem interested in other children at the time, and it may be she would look for another husband with the next.
Tsa’nez was not sure what happened next, but she had her suspicions. It came to pass that her uncle was accused of trafficking banned religious books, and a few of them were found among Tsa’nez’s possessions. Her uncle was to be executed and his assets seized by the state, but between her mothers influence in the church and a few unknown bribes, Tsa’nez was granted a trial to prove her loyalty to Lolth and her innocence in this crime. Her brother and father testified on her behalf, noting the girl's piety and the lack of evidence that she had ever denounced Lolth or even seen the books. Drow courts are not known for their investigations or leniency on the youth, but her mother stepped in and noted that the girl was educated and could speak common, was an intelligent asset to the state, and could be given a dangerous mission to prove her loyalty if she wished to remain in Menzoberranzan. If not she could be executed anytime.
So Tsa’nez was given the task of heading to the surface to search for a drow spy who had lost contact with his handlers, with swift orders she was to return with him, his head, or she would never regain any of her former social standing.
Being young and uncommonly educated in common and uplander social customs in comparison to her peers, Tsa’nez found her way to a city and managed to establish herself relatively well in a short amount of time. She found it easiest to integrate herself with the various criminal groups of the city she came to call home, places where the skills of someone who knew how to open a locked door or listen on a lookout could be useful. It’s also where she found Euron Bast, a violin playing old crime lord who Tsa’nez became quickly obsessed with.
She couldn’t really say why. It was just, the surface world with its libraries and plays and bright blue skies, was quickly having an effect on her. There was no longer any need to limit her interest, as a hunter hunting a spy, she should learn everything she could. And that was how, by accident she swore, Tsa’nez fell into a great and all consuming obsession with music.
After stealing Euron’s violin a few times and refusing to return it unless paid greater and greater sums, the old man finally caught wise and offered to teach the damn girl if she’d just leave him alone. This began a flourishing years-long criminal partnership. He was the one who came up with the nickname “Ines” and helped her understand how to work in the uplander criminal world. For a few years Ines made her living helping Euron’s gang, and racking up an impressive list of petty crimes while she tried to keep tabs on where her missing spy could have gone.
A “tolerant” drow is a bit of an oxymoron, but Ines was good at biting her tongue when around surface elves and humans, smirking her way through all kinds of treatment. She took the rather practical view that it wasn’t her responsibility to personally punish every elf for her people's sake, that would happen… one day and she would help - praise Lolth! - but it didn’t have to be now, and she had more interesting things to do than worry about lesser races or betraying bastards. They had created such music, and they existed in such a bright beautiful world it was easier to…forgive? Forget? So Ines was able to maintain cordial relationships with even a few high elves, though she inwardly found them distasteful.
Selendine Drow were another matter entirely. All of Ines’ hard won tolerance went out the window. It was one thing for the elves of the surface to have betrayed Lolth and her people, they were sick jealous weaklings, rotten to their core. It was in their nature, and couldn’t be helped. For one of Lolth’s own children, her own people to turn their back on the underdark and drow society as a whole? To Ines there could be nothing more unforgivable. They had to pay with their lives.
So the first time she met another Drow on the surface and her red eyes met silver? Well she ended up in jail the next week with a murder charge. She lost track of Euron after that, lost track of her leads on the spy she was hunting, and by the time she’d managed to get out of prison, there was an Illithid ship in the sky above her.
Gender: Female
Class: Bard
Alignment: Neutral Evil
+ Backstory
Tsa’nez Vrinn was born to Mi’carr and Kiama Vrinn. Her mother was a low ranking official in the church of Lolth, a cousin of a noble house who dealt mostly with acquisitions, land holdings and other minor managerial tasks. Her father was the younger son of a merchant family, known for his good looks and extremely passive temperament. She had two older sisters, one who had long been sent as an initiate to the priestess and the other who worked directly under her mother. There had been a child before them, but nobody ever spoke of her.A third (or fourth) daughter to the family line was seen as auspicious and Kiama even used her connections to entreat a priestess to preside over Tsa’nez’s naming. M’carr was apparently greatly relieved by her birth, another daughter cemented his social standing more firmly as a desirable husband to keep. In her early childhood, Tsa’nez saw very little of her mother and most of her early life and education was arranged by her father. They were not high class enough to afford tutors, but her father enrolled her in basic military training, taught her to read, and write along with the general emotional education of all drow children: who to hate and when. Despite this apparently close relationship, all Tsa’nez could really say about her father is that he was exceptionally skilled at knowing exactly what other people wanted him to say. He was generally cruel and distant and bullied his youngest daughter into compliance without many others around for her to retaliate against him with. She adored her mother in comparison, who she saw as a distant object of admiration whose praise was to be fought for with every breath.
Tsa’nez found her closest relationship with her paternal uncle, her fathers older brother Jaelryn. An unmarried worldly drow engaged in lucrative trade with the surface, he seemed to enjoy spoiling his niece with gifts that would enrage her father. It was he that noticed Tsa’nez’s unusual talent for languages, and taught her the common surface tongue along with gifting her what smattering of exotic books might hold her interest. She also had her first interactions with other races at this time, meeting a few of her uncles trading partners at gatherings were excellent chances to practice speaking unaccented common.
When Tsa’nez was ten, her mother had another child, a boy they named Tebor. A son was a devastating blow to her fathers auspicious streak, and the child was even more neglected then Tsa’nez herself. With her father and uncles encouragement, Tsa’nez was urged to make her younger brother miserable any chance she got, a task she took with relish due to the approval it gained her. She was her brother's greatest teacher, playmate, companion and bully, and Tsa’nez would be hard pressed to answer if she was certain her brother loved or loathed her. Presumably both.
It was already clear that while Tsa’nez was not an abnormal drow (as her decreased sister was presumed to be), she had already engaged in her first kill and assisted her father in a few slaving operations and raids near the surface. However, she still lacked a level of cunning bloodlust that could propel her up the pecking order. She was too distracted by her own interests to truly apply herself to the game of politics emerging in her teenage years, but she was clearly loyal to Lolth and not a great embarrassment to her family, so mostly coasted without notice.
As she grew older, her bond with her uncle deepened and she began assisting more and more with his business. Several times her uncle had suggested that his niece join his merchant business as a career, a move her father saw as an unfettered attempt to acquire a blood related female heir without going through the risks of marriage. Her brother had been married off young due to his fathers reputation, and Mi’carr clearly feared if his brother monopolized his youngest daughter, he would have no further children to use to maintain his own social status. Kiama did not seem interested in other children at the time, and it may be she would look for another husband with the next.
Tsa’nez was not sure what happened next, but she had her suspicions. It came to pass that her uncle was accused of trafficking banned religious books, and a few of them were found among Tsa’nez’s possessions. Her uncle was to be executed and his assets seized by the state, but between her mothers influence in the church and a few unknown bribes, Tsa’nez was granted a trial to prove her loyalty to Lolth and her innocence in this crime. Her brother and father testified on her behalf, noting the girl's piety and the lack of evidence that she had ever denounced Lolth or even seen the books. Drow courts are not known for their investigations or leniency on the youth, but her mother stepped in and noted that the girl was educated and could speak common, was an intelligent asset to the state, and could be given a dangerous mission to prove her loyalty if she wished to remain in Menzoberranzan. If not she could be executed anytime.
So Tsa’nez was given the task of heading to the surface to search for a drow spy who had lost contact with his handlers, with swift orders she was to return with him, his head, or she would never regain any of her former social standing.
Being young and uncommonly educated in common and uplander social customs in comparison to her peers, Tsa’nez found her way to a city and managed to establish herself relatively well in a short amount of time. She found it easiest to integrate herself with the various criminal groups of the city she came to call home, places where the skills of someone who knew how to open a locked door or listen on a lookout could be useful. It’s also where she found Euron Bast, a violin playing old crime lord who Tsa’nez became quickly obsessed with.
She couldn’t really say why. It was just, the surface world with its libraries and plays and bright blue skies, was quickly having an effect on her. There was no longer any need to limit her interest, as a hunter hunting a spy, she should learn everything she could. And that was how, by accident she swore, Tsa’nez fell into a great and all consuming obsession with music.
After stealing Euron’s violin a few times and refusing to return it unless paid greater and greater sums, the old man finally caught wise and offered to teach the damn girl if she’d just leave him alone. This began a flourishing years-long criminal partnership. He was the one who came up with the nickname “Ines” and helped her understand how to work in the uplander criminal world. For a few years Ines made her living helping Euron’s gang, and racking up an impressive list of petty crimes while she tried to keep tabs on where her missing spy could have gone.
A “tolerant” drow is a bit of an oxymoron, but Ines was good at biting her tongue when around surface elves and humans, smirking her way through all kinds of treatment. She took the rather practical view that it wasn’t her responsibility to personally punish every elf for her people's sake, that would happen… one day and she would help - praise Lolth! - but it didn’t have to be now, and she had more interesting things to do than worry about lesser races or betraying bastards. They had created such music, and they existed in such a bright beautiful world it was easier to…forgive? Forget? So Ines was able to maintain cordial relationships with even a few high elves, though she inwardly found them distasteful.
Selendine Drow were another matter entirely. All of Ines’ hard won tolerance went out the window. It was one thing for the elves of the surface to have betrayed Lolth and her people, they were sick jealous weaklings, rotten to their core. It was in their nature, and couldn’t be helped. For one of Lolth’s own children, her own people to turn their back on the underdark and drow society as a whole? To Ines there could be nothing more unforgivable. They had to pay with their lives.
So the first time she met another Drow on the surface and her red eyes met silver? Well she ended up in jail the next week with a murder charge. She lost track of Euron after that, lost track of her leads on the spy she was hunting, and by the time she’d managed to get out of prison, there was an Illithid ship in the sky above her.
Name PLAYERNAME TIMEZONE ### DISCORD USERNAME PB PBNAME • CODE
