Kyornill Dhalmorzza, Agent of Shadow

Born to a Drow mother in the Underdark city of Chaulssin, Kyornill was snatched away as an infant by his father and taken to a hidden temple of Vhaeraun within the city. There his father inspected the child closely under the watchful eye of the clergy. He ran his powerful, clawed fingertips along Kyornill's newborn flesh and looking for signs of which parent the child had taken after. The child screamed as the claws scraped him, but the scrape revealed exactly what his father wished to find: a translucent scale beneath the surface. Kyornill was born no mere Drow, but a Zar'ithra.

Touched by the bloodline of a shadow dragon, Kyornill would be raised as a citizen of Chaulssin, rather than a slave like his mother. He was brought up in the noble house of his Patron Father, Dhalmorzza. There he enjoyed a life of excess, but was not merely pampered; in house Dhalmorzza one was constantly tested.

As Kyor grew he was trained to read magical texts, which came surprisingly natural to him along with the draconic language. He also learned to wield a sword, along with a range of magical devices. Though he had a natural affinity towards all that he was taught, should Kyor fail a lesson he would be punished. The severity of punishment depended upon the magnitude of the failure. Misspell a word while scribing a scroll? He would scribe that scroll again and again until his fingers were calloused. Miss a parry with his rapier? He would be beaten as a lesson to not leave himself open to attack again. Greater mistakes could result in punishments including torture and broken bones, but Kyor was clever enough to avoid those accidents.

By the time he reached sixteen, Kyornill had shown a natural affinity for sorcery like many of his kin - but his desire was to pursue wizardy instead. For one as clever as him, the flexibility of a spellbook could prove a deadly asset he reckoned. He'd become adequately trained with the blade, and his natural finesse made him a decent opponent, but his passion was not for dueling. Instead he channeled those dexterous movements into moving quietly and unseen in the shadows of the Underdark, and casting his magic by surprise.

His affinity for the shadows drew the attention of the Jaezred Chaulssin; the secretive ruling elite of Chaulssin, and an order of assassins bent on foiling Lolth's slavery of the Underdark.

Kyornil was inducted into the Jaezred Chaulssin as an Eighth Blade; an entry level member. A position he would not have the opportunity to outgrow. Under their tutelage he had learned to hone his talents of stealth and manipulation.

By twenty years of age he was asked to make his first kill; a young male that served Lolth in secret and sent information about the city of Chaulssin to the drow houses elsewhere in the Underdark. This traitor to Chaulssin was to die mysteriously enough that no one was certain who killed him - but publicly enough that anyone could suspect what crime he had committed.

It was afternoon when the treacherous spider-kisser was enjoying a goblet of green wine at the tavern. Kyor pretended to be a drunk patron and drew the male's attention by speaking loudly of a Vhaeraunian plot to assault a nearby house and execute its females. His loose lips drew the treacherous spider-kisser to sit beside him, pour Kyornill a goblet of green wine, and pretend to be interested. Kyor hid his grin as the spider entered his web, and he continued to tell misinformation about the plot. Kyor drank his green wine, but so too did the spider-kisser. Unbeknownst to the traitor, however, Kyornill was not drunk - and had only had a potion of ironguts to drink, ensuring he would get no drunker. All the while, the spider-kisser himself grew more and more belligerent listening to Kyor's tale, thinking himself a hero for gathering all of this information of a plot to foil his foul goddess. By the time the third bottle of green wine was set out, the spider-kisser was too drunk to notice Kyor slipping a lethal dose of black widow's venom into his drink. It took only a short while longer of stringing the traitor along when Kyor saw him beginning to cough. Kyor dropped his drunken facade and simply smiled. He placed a note in the spider-kisser's hand as he began coughing and choking violently. Leaving the traitor to die, Kyor slipped out into the darkness of the city.

Word spread quickly around the city of the violent choking death of the young male drow. Of his mysterious companion at the bar. And of the note found in his hand: "A spider's kiss is for those who kiss spiders."

The Jaezred Chaulssin were pleased. Kyor's comfort in magic, stealth, and deception made him a perfect candidate for their next task. He would act as a spy - both in the Underdark, and on the surface. His first duty was to spend the next few years gaining a few eyes and ears above Chaulssin, in a place the surface dwellers called the Silver Marches.

Kyornill had grown into fine specimen of a Drow; taller than typical, skin of pure darkness, flowing black hair, an athletic build from his years of acrobatics that came along with sword fighting and stealth training, not to mention he grew in a more fiendishly handsome creature than even the average elf or drow. These were fine qualities in the Underdark, born of his shadow dragon blood, which made him very popular among female drow - but risky qualities on the surface where being invisible might have been of greater value to him. Kyornill. Nevertheless, the Jaezred Chaulssin felt Kyornill had the right qualities for the role, and it was up to his resourcefulness to make it work.

Kyor wore clothing that fully covered his face and body while traveling on the surface - not such a strange look of course, given the freezing cold and snowy weather of the Silver Marches. He used his disguise to get close to adventurers and travelers, and listened closely to their accents to learn to speak more like them when he wished it. He trained his ear to become a far more valuable tool than ever before during these next few ears.

As Kyor learned to speak like the surface dwellers, and grew comfortable speaking both common and elven around them, he made it his goal to befriend them. He would join them on jobs, earn their trust. Eventually, a few - particularly females - he would reveal his identity to. He formed bonds with those who trusted him, and began using this to gather information about the surface. Females were certainly his weakness, however. More than once the scorn of a slighted lover resulted in Kyor needing to lay low for a while - lest village guards find the supposedly lustful drow that had been making his way through the bedrooms of local women.

A bit of experience under his belt, and a few close calls survived, Kyor returned to the Underdark five years since he had left. In his late twenties now, he was still young for a drow. He would not be promoted to Seventh Blade so young, but he had earned the respect of his superiors and would be rewarded. The only reward he wished was access to a special library of magic; one containing research on tapping into the shadow weave.

For the next several decades Kyor continued his trips between the Underdark and Silver Marches, each time being rewarded with more lore from the archives on shadow magic. As his talents are knowledge grew, he knew he would soon be promoted to Seventh Blade. But, as mentioned, that would never occur. It was during a trip to the surface that Kyor made camp one night during a particularly violent snowstorm. Jarringly he awoke from reverie in a sweat; extreme heat overtaking his body. He ripped his clothing off quickly and sprang from his tent to find he was in an unfamiliar desert. A most horrible dream still repeating in his mind...

Cadia and Sol's Hope were something of a culture shock to Kyor. To say he was "welcome" might be an overstatement, but he quickly learned that he was not killed on sight as a drow. His time in the Silver Marches had prepared him well to be around humans, elves, and other non-drow. He was able to attend the academy and learn from other mages as peers, regardless of their race. He was able to walk around town freely, even if he received the occasional glare for his drow skin - or quizzical look for his exceptional appearance for a drow. He was encouraged to find lodging down in the Undervillage, which did not bother him much but made clear that he was not completely free here.

For some time he stayed at a room in the Moonlight Tavern, where he was able to meet locals and learn of work. He'd earn some coin doing light enchanting or translation work, which he used to pay for rarer texts and scrolls at the Academy on the surface, and eventually saved enough to buy himself an apartment in the Undervillage.

Over the next forty years Kyor worked on amassing a collection of useful texts to pick up his research where it left off back in Chaulssin. His desire to tap into the shadow weave for his magic had not wavered. He enlisted the aid of two fiendish familiars as well - first his imp, Xegek, who became a reluctant companion on his many adventures to come, and second, a young Hellcat named Twilight, which guarded his home and became uniquely affectionate for one of its kind.

He was able to grow a small fortune of gold by making the right connections around town, continuing his enchantment work, and taking up a hobby of tinkering and creating interesting items - both magical and at times mechanical. But his old ways as a member of the Jaezred Chaulssin had not been abandoned. Kyornill was trained to be a spy, and a spy is always looking for new ways to gather information. In recent years it became Kyor's dream to open a cornerclub in the Undervillage; it would serve the purpose of being a place he would enjoy spending his time like he had back home in Chaulssin, but also a place where others would come to spend time, do business, meet lovers, and conduct other activities that Kyor would keep his eyes and ears on. And at last, the Dhalmorzza Cornerclub is open in the Sol's Hope Undervillage. Now the young Zar'ithra was just over 120 years of age, and his true adventures in this strange new world would begin.