Shaarku

Basics
IG Name: Shaarku

Class: Necromancer (Reaper)

Race: Asura

College: Synergetics

Affiliations/Profession: Priory Consultant, College of Synergetics, Surgeon, Professor in Necro-medical Philosophy and Application

Description
As an asura, his stature is considered diminutive by most metrics. However, for his kin he is exceptionally tall and lanky. Gaunt would be another word to describe him. His most notable features lend him an almost corpse-like appearance to some. Both ears are tattered from injuries incurred through his lifetime. His skin is an ashen gray with symmetrical, chalky white stripes that travel from his forehead to the base of his spine and down his arms stopping short at his wrists. His expression is generally one of muted disapproval, even if it's unintentional. This is due to the positioning of his brow, his 'catfish mouth' as some have called it, and a snubbed nose that many have thought to be in a permanent state of wrinkling.

Shaarku's voice lends itself to being a professor quite well. A low, bassy drone that often drips with veiled and backhanded compliments.

He was emotionally distant in the past, as any good asura would be when engrossed in the magics and professions he engages in. Stoic to a fault, it is rare (but not impossible) for him to crack a smile or make a joke. Luckily his marriage to Sky Captain Jayhawk, someone with a more fiery personality, has thawed his demeanor to an extent. Even in outbursts of anger or happiness Shaarku does his best to remain levelheaded lest the situation spiral into the chaotic depths of spontaneity.

Early Life
Curious and precocious as any good progeny should be, Shaarku was submitted to the usual rigors of early childhood amongst Asuran society. Educational benchmarks, numerous collaborative projects to promote a 'krewe-oriented state of mind', aptitude tests, and being grounded for breaching some lab protocol or another. His parental units were not especially noteworthy, although one of his grandparents (as other, more nuclear families would call them) happened to be a researcher of- and adherent to- the great necro-golemancer, Oola and her philosophy regarding blending golemancy with the necromantic arts. Following his death, Shaarku took up interest in necromancy as well, but with a more practical bent focused on medicine.

A Turn For the Worse
Tragedy would soon strike the necromancer-to-be, as his parents perished in a lab fire when he was but 10 years old. Eyewitness accounts to the local Peacemaker authority describe a progeny running back into the flame-engulfed building, to egress minutes later holding an unconscious infant in his arms: his sister Kyew. Thanks to his already burgeoning knowledge of first-responder training, he succeeded in resuscitating the sibling from the smoke inhalation. The laboratory, serving as both domicile and research station, was considered a complete loss.

Homeless and orphaned, Shaarku and Kyew were taken into the custody of Progeny Protective Services. With his parental units' marital contract expired upon death, there were no provisions for caretakers. However, a couple of minor patents in golemic structural repair tools and a small inheritance attached would keep the two out of destitution. In a brief court case wherein the young male pursued litigation against P.P.S. to maintain custody of his sibling, he had to complete several classes in childcare and an examination to succeed.

Upon obtaining clearance to become sole guardian of Kyew, he needed to obtain work in order to feed the two of them and keep a roof over their heads. Having leveraged his deceased parents' krewe during the court proceedings, Shaarku had to pay minimal (by Rata Sum's standards) rent to use a small section of their warehouse to live in. He was not able to negotiate rent to be factored into his pay to work for them, and his repeated applications for financial assistance would be caught in the usual bureaucratic web of asuran society. Still, Shaarku did his very best to keep Kyew safe and healthy while also working.

Collegiate Education
Shaarku entered the College of Synergetics, citing a curiosity for the "moral conundrum of necro-medical practices and practical application of 'life-force' in the operating room" in his application paper. Like most asura who enter a college that agrees with their goals and personality, Shaarku made a strong presence in his class. Eventually in every semester his grades would dip, as he still needed to work and take care of his sibling, as she had grown into a precocious and highly energetic progeny with a prodigious propensity for the mesmeric arts and an incredibly short attention span.

"If you didn't handicap yourself with acting as surrogate parental unit to your sister, I imagine you would be brawling for top marks in every course." Was a comment made by his collegiate advisor. Taking this as a challenge, the student redoubled his efforts, even going so far as to volunteer for experimental cortico-stimulants as a paid test subject. He would need every hour of the day, and he could not afford to waste the four hours a night he would spend sleeping being unconscious. Unfortunately some of the side effects included extended periods of irritability and impaired tactile sensory function. While the latter he recovered from later in life, most who first meet him without context may conjecture that he still suffers from the former.

What time he did spend with Kyew was often spent aiding her with classwork geared for progeny, reading stories that she would then (as best as a fledgling, untrained mesmer could) project and act out, and keeping her out of trouble. Many a meeting with exasperated teachers involving her hijinks would sometimes tax his already burdened schedule. Still, they were close, with the younger being able to understand the nature of their situation rather well, after a fashion.

Shaarku pushed his examination scores into the fifteenth-percentile with his added 'boost' of stimulant, and in an amphetamine-induced hallucination (he had been many, many hours without sleep) created his first patented invention: a plasticized, mobile conjurant based on the infamous 'blood fiend' that necromancers were known for. With this, a necromancer could create several of these, attune them to their summoning capability, and have instantaneous access to an intravenous supply of blood for triage and standard surgical needs. Regardless of how it was conceived, Shaarku graduated the College of Synergetics with this creation and found himself financially buoyed by it.

Post-Graduate Years
Without the yoke of professors and deadlines, Shaarku began to further explore necromancy. He preferred the theoretical, not employing any until he had an exact understanding of whatever spell or ritual he was undertaking or creating. When he traveled, Kyew would sometimes accompany him. She would have shirked her homework if he wasn't there, anyway, so Shaarku didn't really mind as long as she didn't get herself into serious trouble.

In one such trip, he was approached by a snowy white furred charr who went by the name of Stag. The two of them hit it off, with Shaarku finding himself impressed by her general knowledge of his various fields. Kyew found a friend in her as well, another patient and quiet mind similar to her brother's (except FUZZY, according to the mesmer).

The intervening time saw him expand his knowledge greatly, oftentimes visiting the Priory for their records and consulting on matters of necro-medicine and ritual identification. While Kyew remained gregarious as ever under his supervision, Shaarku was seemingly in a permanent state of burnout.

The pair would continue running into Stag, eventually leading to Shaarku considering her the closest thing to a friend he had, outside of acquaintances and colleagues in his field. She would even take Kyew off his hands as he went about his business wherever they ran into each other.

A World Imperiled
During the lead-up to the creation of The Pact, Shaarku was requested again by the Priory to consult, this time on the Risen and their place in necromancy. Kyew would be left in the care of Stag while he aided in what he thought would be a short tenure as an expert in nercomancy and an adjunct medical professor to fresh members of the Priory looking to heal the wounded from the increasingly frequent battles with the Orrian undead.

Soon The Pact would be forged, and the Priory would mobilize every resource they had to Terzetto Bay for the creation of Fort Trinity and the impending invasion of Orr. With his expertise in surgery and magic being known, the Priory needed scholars like Shaarku to aid the Pact forces against the dangers of an entire continent suffused by the necromantic will of the Elder Dragon, Zhaitan. The last thing that his sibling would hear of him before his departure would be a letter written with sentiment and trepidation.

The Invasion of Orr and Zhaitan's Destruction
Shaarku's first posting was, as with most Pact members, Fort Trinity. His first brush with mortality was the very real chance that he and his patients would become Risen by the end of the siege Zhaitan had set upon the fort in its early days of completion. His patented plasticized blood fiends were hastily retrofitted with crude weapons on their tendrils and managed to save a small percentage of those he and the other soldiers able to fight could protect.

With the repulsion of the attack on Fort Trinity by the mysterious orb brought by Priory scholars, Shaarku felt it prudent to immediately engage in arms training. With staves at first, then with a greatsword of all weapons. Techniques and movements were simple to memorize, but to perform them was a different story. He would still rely more on improvisation and minion-focused necromancy to survive as the war went on.

Eventually he was stationed in Malchor's Leap, where he worked alongside researchers to determine just how the Risen were connected to Zhaitan and possibly sever that connection. Draconic power was far beyond the scope of the Pact to understand at that time, and the efforts were quickly abandoned and diverted to ensuring the local shrines and temples to the gods would not revert into their hostile states. The area's history intrigued him, especially for the sculptor whom the region was named for. Shaarku would write to little sister as time and safety would permit.

Updates ceased when he was moved with the bulk of Pact forces into the Cursed Shore, for the final assault on the City of Arah and Zhaitan. It would be here that the Elder Dragon would be slain, and while Shaarku was assigned a tertiary (at best) mission with a large squad of Pact soldiers, he did participate in the final battle. It is not something he enjoys talking about.

For several years after, Shaarku remained in Orr without resuming communication with his sibling. Any inquiries into this would be met with a trademark scowl and well-crafted half truths.

Current Day
His return from Orr to civilization at large was unceremonious, even if it had been years since he first left with the Pact. With unnatural serendipity he found himself contacted by Stag once more, who urged him to visit his sibling. The reunion was tearful and on Kyew's end, filled briefly with well deserved righteous fury. Considering she had thought him dead for years, the elder sibling was not about to make excuses. Shaarku would come to learn she was being trained to protect herself, and him if necessary. Stag was a charr after all, progeny should learn to fight.

Eventually, Shaarku would come to live in the village as the resident physician and surgeon.

Relationships Within the Stray
Shaarku keeps nearly all of the citizens of the township and The Stray at arm's length, often coming off as brusque or even contemptuous. Naturally, his demeanor softens when his sibling comes around.

He is also in a marital contract with Sky Captain Jayhawk. The two of them may appear to have a tepid marriage at first blush, but their genius and their "red oni, blue oni" matchup reinforces their passion. The professor definitely has 'mellowed out' a bit since the marriage began, becoming much more prone to banter and (to Jayhawk's benefit) romance.