Isiesi

Information

Character Full Name: Isiesi [Ih-s-yes-ee] Ilana Toloni

Character In-Game Name: Isiesi

Association(s): Silvermoon, Sin'sholai

Race: Sin'dorei

Class: Priestess

Age: 147

Sex: Female

Hair: Rich Gold

Eyes: Typical Fel tainted Green

Weight: 140 (Approximately)

Height: 6'1 (Approximately---that is to say, she's known to be over six feet, and under six and a half)

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Appearance

Robes, typically o=f the red or golden persuasion. Occasionally white.

Other: Tends toward ornamentation. Assorted forms of earrings/necklace/bracelet/anklet/armlet and so on are not strange sights on Isiesi. Some being items kept to feed her addiction, some being symbols of her coveted suffering, some just being there to look pretty.

She is lightly scarred, practically everywhere other than her face (which she's preserved for obvious reasons... it is a rather remarkable face, after all). It takes close inspect to see the lighter lines etched over her frame, but they're there. It is also relatively easy to tell the difference between the self inflicted wounds, carefully healed over, and once that may simply be a result of wear and tear on her body. Either way, her healing seems slightly imperfect. Her skin is a largely constant, golden tanned shade---where she has healed it always remains slightly lighter.

Personality

Zealous. Anything that catches her attention as a worthy cause for her time is pursued with zeal that members of 'lesser' races often find disconcerting. Perhaps fortunate then that she's found a distraction that will likely endure until the end of her blissfully miserable life.

She is a priestess and at least very good at behaving in a manner that makes her a priestess. Always in whatever it is she's into for the sake of guiding the wills of others to a rightful cause---and that, regardless of what she's doing, is always properly eternal suffering at the end of the day. She is charismatic in a manner that is aimed to draw in learners and converts. Her character and will have a subtly powerful air to them.

This meaning even when she is not outright preaching to her fellow Sin'dorei to lead them to the suffering that will cleanse them, if one is not careful there is a decidedly steamroller-esque capacity to interacting with her. One may very well not intend to agree with her, until they agreed with her.

History

Before Blood Elves were Blood Elves, there was Isiesi. There was Isiesi, there was her status as a priestess of light, and their was the world volatile. Her youth is of little to no regard---essentially, she grew as and to-be-Blood-Elf did. Showing talent necessary to priestesshood, she grew as and High Elf priestess would. Then the 'issues' began.

Isiesi is a rather stark example of just why the Sin'dorei deserved, karma style, what they got. Isiesi exhibited properties either necessary or tandem with being a priestess---as leaders of faith, their wills seem to typically outstrip others in certain ways. They have the necessary charisma and force of will to stay those who would hear them on a particular path. Be it praise of a deity, smiting of some evilness, or some other cause requiring leaders of faith rather than force.

Isiesi was very into the Light as a guide. More into the Light itself than perhaps the sort of things the Light might teach---rather, the fact that the Light responded was proof enough that a course of action was justifiable. This, at the time, was not entirely flawed. And she was rather appreciated as a zealous up-and-coming, especially since she constantly demonstrated that her abilities lie more in the guidance of beings than in calling the light to her in any way. Nothing was wrong, just yet. The wiser among those surrounding her cited the inclination for her zeal to take a wrong turn. So powerfully did she assert herself to beliefs, that a belief in even slightly the wrong direction could gather hazardous momentum before it could be squelched.

She never got the chance, really, to cause these sorts of problems.

Isiesi also bathed in the power of the Sunwell. She believed in none of the humble regard of many Light priests (at the time, largely a shared Human/Dwarf/High Elf persuasion) but rather held that the Light so favored them that taking in and utilizing as much of its power as possible was the best way to honor it. She became, in this thread of her life, a capable healer. And inclined to glowing all of the time. Slightly-mythized rumor says that Isiesi was quite a bit paler in those days, and that her hair was darker.

Her now deep golden hair apparently began to bleach due to her wanton...healing. Her skin tanning from a dove's white over time. Again, it was hard to accuse her of any particular wrong doing---she even did things that some considered vestiges of greatness. Healing grave wounds, mass healings. Things that most priestly sorts could do, but possess restraint enough to know not to when there simply is no cause.

Pouring out light to heal ten lightly battered soldiers and invigorate them simply isn't necessary. All of them would have healed in time, and were out of danger entirely. That was never the point with Isiesi---it wasn't so much a should factor as a could factor. She was quietly addicted to the rush of using the light, would look for excuses, and had a knack for convincing others to do so as well. Her overzealous use could not even have been possible were it not for the magic affinity of her kind, and constantly taking in energy from their beloved Sunwell.

And then, the Sunwell was destroyed.

She began to 'slip' even before it was destroyed. Her 'greatest' moments were born of frenzy brought on by uncanny foresight---it struck her that as the Undead ravaged their people and lands, it would make sense to any foe to find a means of crippling what allowed them to put up so much a defense as they had. They had to protect the Sunwell. It is uncertain then, with her likely pouring blessings and healing light onto anyone who could hold a weapon, how exactly she survived. It was more than likely dumb luck.

People die in wars. Even more people die in slaughters, by right of the name. But there are survivors, and surviving is as random as death but seems too fortunate to warrant talking about. She survived, despite feverish and then frantic actions as the Sunwell came near to falling. It did fall though, and Isiesi's mental 'slipping'---she considers herself entirely sane, and has a moderately good argument for it---was accented by the agony of mana withdrawal.

She didn't know what to do. There had never been an ailment that she couldn't either heal with an outpouring of Light, or wasn't able to be healed and was thus in itself a judgment of the Light. Earning a blessing on the afflicted party and observers regardless, to honor the Light's decision to take a life. She couldn't heal her own agony though, and the fall from whatever grace there might have been was instant.

She despised the fact that fel energies became an apparent alternative. She resisted her hunger for as long as she could, through intense meditation---that lasted two days, apparently, after fel energy dawned on her as something to sate her need. Then she partook in the desperation move that many of her surviving kind did. Lost in desperation and nearly brought down by addiction, her precise whereabouts for a time are difficult to know.

She resurfaced, though, once she had respectable control over her need. That is to say, she could remain sane so long as she fed just like any other Sin'dorei. Her beliefs had not changed, however. She is a zealot, and not the sort in any regard to spare herself from judgment. A powerful disdain quickly flourished, leveled at herself and her kind. One would assume that being so unstable and self loathing, she'd have ended her own life. It just never quite happened, though it was likely an explored possibility.

She found an alternative. Somehow in her mind, the rush of wanton Light usage being replaced by the agony of need made sense. The Light had wanted her to feel its greatness, and use it for little-to-no reason when she had the energy reserves to do so without any consequence other than furthered dependancy. That was the will of the Light, for this to happen. In Isiesi's mind... she and those who were allies to her kind were favored. Obviously.

Why? Well, it's obvious. Obvious to her.

So now that suffering was what her faith called her to, she was going to do just that. She was going to suffer. And she was going to do it well, and she was going to encourage others to suffer as well. They were disgusting to her, tainted by fel energies---but they had to, so they could live, so they could suffer more. And the more taint, the more suffering was needed. It was a vicious cycle that she either didn't see or didn't care that it didn't make sense.

Why else would something like this happen other than to teach them? (Vaguely, one might feel pity for her on that note... maybe the subtle lack of sanity was brought on by not being able to understand their fate. But then, she was already unstable. So maybe she would've just found a better way to be crazy in the long run anyway. Addicts are like that.)

Her cycle, for a time, was simple. Rest, meditate (starve herself for a long as possible), crazed fel binge, one process or another of self harm justified by her now much more muted ability to heal (if she could heal herself after one form of self mutilation or another, then the light appreciated her actions), going about trying to convince other Sin'dorei that only if they chose to suffer more would their power somehow return them, followed by rest when she exhausted herself.

Then, someone fixed the Sunwell.

Someone fixed the Sunwell, and Isiesi nearly starved herself. She meditated on it for a full day and a half, thanking the Light for giving her race another chance. That wasn't what happened, but she didn't care what had happened---that's what the Light had done for them, and explanation wasn't really required. Eventually, on the edge of starvation, she partook in the energies of the new Sunwell. Only after she'd properly suffered to honor it.

Now, with eyes still green with fel taint and a mind twisted in various direction, she spends her time handing out pamphlets and looking for students. Her state stabilized by a steady flow of mana, she sees now as the perfect opportunity to encourage all members of her race to suffer fully and properly---if they suffer enough when their hunger is met, then there will be no cause to be starved again. They should demonstrate that they've learned their lesson.

In her handouts, she even has detailed instructions on how to maximize momentary discomfort, and ways to make sure it does not kill the sufferer but instead only makes them suffer a great deal. Instructions on how to make one who refuses to suffer, suffer. Instructions on how to heal without dulling pain. That sort of thing. She appears to have put a great deal of thought into it.

[Character side note: Isiesi is meant to insinuate corruption of various forms---she's fel corrupt, and has personality traits that lean toward the shadow-spirit/will bending capacities of priests. However, she is not an example of the arbitrarily dubbed 'shadow priest'. Rather, she can either be seen as a Holy priest who's gone horribly wrong, or a priest centering upon discipline who's discipline is about as twisted as they come. In any case, life factors seem to have given her a disposition toward both healing proficiency (though of course without any pain dulling effects) and pure single minded mental galvanization. A twisted mind, but not a weak one.]