Cianán
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Name: Cianán of Erin Epithet: Keeper of the Dead Apparent Age: Nearly 30, sometimes mistaken for a teenage boy Gender: Male-identified eunuch Species: Risen Jackdaw Occupation: Spiritual guide, Necromancer Favorite Color: A bright, cheerful yellow, especially set against darker colors Favorite Food: Long ago, he had a sweet tooth Likes: The scent of the earth after a long rain Dislikes: Loneliness, Unkind assumptions Best Traits: Generous, Humble, Friendly Worst Traits: Overly trusting, Permissive, Pacifism makes him slow to act |
"How precious to me are your thoughts, how vast is the sum of them!"
Appearance
Cianán is short and small of frame, the sort of man who to some, at a glance, isn't even assumed to be a man. A eunuch from birth, he didn't develop the same as other boys through his teen years, and is very used to being seen as different. He is calm, articulate, and quite practiced at explaining himself. For all his humility, he is not insecure. He has the bearing of someone who is very comfortable with himself.
He is also very slender. Under careful scrutiny, he seems almost dangerously underweight. The reason for that is the same reason why his body is cold, why his eyes don't blink unless he remembers to, and why, if you put an ear to his chest, you'll never hear his heartbeat. Cianán is dead.
Many of the Risen Dead chafe at the word "undead" or any other descriptor of its kind. Cianán on the other hand is neither prideful nor deluded – and in his case, there's no room for denial. He, like any Necromancer, has a "death-like aura" that even mortals can identify on a subconscious level. It's especially remarkable that in spite of this, his kind-hearted and welcoming nature still manages to put people at ease.
Keepers of the Dead
Cianán knows a great deal about the human body, and of the sciences of death and the soul. He spent his teens and adulthood as a mortal studying anatomy and medicine, which gave him a decent head-start in his centuries-long study of Necromancy.
His magics can't fill a decayed tooth, or undo a bone fracture, or otherwise seamlessly heal injuries, but he can diagnose maladies with stunning accuracy, even the trickiest and sneakiest sorts. He can control the body's functions to induce sleep or coma, relax or tense muscles, dampen pain, and even urge the bodies tissues to knit back together, all of which, in tandem, make it easier to keep people alive through a surgical procedure.
These powers could obviously be abused in the wrong hands, but that's why Cianán and his ilk guarded them so tightly. The Keepers of the Dead were gentle scholars with rigid ethics and internal laws, particularly when it came to their interactions with mortals.
All the Keepers were concerned with the well-being of mortals, or at least willing to follow laws writ with their well-being in mind. Many relied on mortals for shelter or appointed themselves as the unseen guardians of particular communities, but few were as friendly and sociable as Cianán. He was as bookish as any Necromancer, but had none of the shyness his kind were so known for. Clergy or layman, Risen or Fae, mortal or ghost, Cianán was relentlessly neighborly.
Out of Touch
Today, Cianán's peers are no more. The Necromancy found in the modern world has taken on a cruel reputation, and those who weild it are nothing like the mystics of Cianán's day.
As for the "Why"s and "How"s, that's a bit of a mystery to Cianán. In the early 1300s, he was tricked, cornered, and captured by inquisitors, religious zealots that thought him a demon. A stake was driven through his heart, and for 700 years, he was held onto as an obscure, morbid Catholic relic.
Now freed from his slumber, Cianán is left to fend for himself in a strange and vast city. Surrounded by massive towers and bright lights, with little ability to speak the same language as most of its inhabitants, getting his bearings and figuring out what to do next is an uphill battle. But Cianán is an optimist. The burden and beauty of being immortal is learning to adjust to, and embrace a changing world.
Hopefully, in time, he'll better understand just how the future shook out the way it did, and what became of the ones he loved.
Connections
Ashley — "A brilliant young woman! But... To be perfectly honest, her lack of control worries me."