Zunizi is a big tough barbarian gal who has escaped the tribal life for a life in the city! She's plagued by spirits, but she is trying to change this into an advantage. She's reserved and doesn't show her emotions much, but she will protect you with her life if she considers you her friend!

I, the player, allow other DM’s to use Characters and/or Elements from my background as story points in their quests: Always! (Do ask about clarifications if needed!)

Click here for her Dicecloud!

Credits:

Token: @ZeparVI

Confident | Loyal | Focused

Ambitious | Honest

Reserved | Tactless | Stubborn

When one thinks of a half-orc, most think of brutes with little thinking capacity. While Zunizi may not be the brightest, she definitely isn't a mindless brute. She is a calculating barbarian, always keeping an eye on her allies on the battlefield. As a half-orc coming from a tribe, she knows that living in a tribe has its benefits. Therefore she knows how to play in a team. This comes in handy when adventuring, a job she has taken on to pay the bills. She'll never leave an ally on the battlefield by themselves, and if she's particularly close to said ally, she will do anything to protect her friend from harm. A friend with Zunizi, is a friend for life.

Zunizi knows she is strong as a half-orc, which is something she takes great pride in. However, sometimes she forgets that her physical strength isn’t going to be able to take her everywhere she wants, but it’s hard to convince her of that when she has made her mind up. She’s incredibly stubborn, specifically in her own goals.

While she does have a certain imposing presence when it comes to social interactions, Zunizi isn't very eloquent. In fact, because of the actions of her tribe, Zunizi is not eager to speak or share her thoughts with others. This is worse with strangers, leading her to not speak at all unless spoken to in most situations. With friends, she opens up a little, but not by much. When she talks, Zunizi has a tendency to be straightforward. While this means she is very honest, she can come off as rude. This also means that in the rare moments that Zunizi talks, she's generally more intimidating rather than persuasive.

IC goals

- Learn about spirits in general, and how to guide said spirits to the afterlife

- Learn the ways of the Lumivaaran life, since this is different from tribal living

- Become friends with a few people - she misses having people around her

- Find out why the spirits are drawn to her in particular. Is this because of a higher purpose, dumb luck or a curse?

OOC goals

- Become more comfortable with a martial class, specifically a more defender type

- Perhaps do a Shadowfell / Astral Plane / Ethereal Plane type storyline, or go on quests that are spirit themed

- Have fun playing as a lower level character again

- Do a cleric multiclass for some fun utility

Player goals

I'd love to do a storyline with Zunizi meeting her tribe again. This will most likely go badly. I'd also love to do a storyline based on spirits, and maybe she can go to Arborea to meet her deity!

Reason for becoming an adventurer

"Lumivaara want money. I want to know about spirits, so I learn in Lumivaara. If I live in Lumivaara, I need money. So I am adventurer to get money."

Outside forces

The following traits have been added to this character through events, special effects, story related reasons, or other happenstance, and shouldn't be seen as an available standard for the race:

- none yet!

TL;DR

Born in a nomadic clan of orcs and half-orcs, travelling at the border of Ilyas and Dengal, Zunizi grew up living the barbarian life. However, from a young age, she had contacts with spirits from the departed, which her tribe members just found odd. Because of this, Zunizi wasn't taken seriously, even called cursed at some point. But when the tribe entered war with a goblin clan, Zunizi showed her tribe members that she wasn't cursed, but that she actually had a connection to spirits. This put her in high ranks again. However, Zunizi wanted to know more about the spirits, specifically how to help them cross over and why they were drawn to her in the first place. So she went to the Crystal College of Lumivaara to find answers, taking up adventuring at the Adventurer's Guild to earn herself some money.

The Cursed Child

Peace and quiet was something that this barbarian never experienced. Zunizi was born in a nomadic clan of orcs and half-orcs at the border of Ilyas and Dengal. It was a time of war. Orcs and goblins never really got along well, and war was the inevitable result. As a child of two half-orcs, Zunizi was trained to be a barbarian just like the rest of her family. While she was good at swinging a greataxe, she quickly found herself being different than the rest.

A lot of children have imaginary friends, especially when they don’t have any peers. But to Zunizi, her imaginary friends were plentiful and very real. Sometimes, it was an old wizard. The other time, it was a young goblin. Frequently, they were fellow half-orcs. Truth be told, Zunizi never actually saw her friends, but as a child she had great imagination. Zunizi loved to talk to her friends, which attracted weird glances from her tribe members. Laughs were shared as they mocked the little half-orc for talking to air. Others were scared that the child was secretly a changeling, talking to invisible fairies. Because of this, Zunizi got the nomer “the Cursed”.

Because Zunizi was labelled as cursed, most members did their best to avoid the child completely. A cursed child, or even a changeling, was something they did not want to have in their tribe at all, and by ignoring it, the orcs and half-orcs hoped that the changeling would go away on its own. It was fair to say that, while the tribe knew about changelings existing, they also weren't the most informed about fey in general. This was before the first Surge happened, a time where fey were known to exist, but only sporadically encountered in the Material Plane compared to how the situation is now.

Others, namely those closest to Gruumsh, did their best to re-educate Zunizi in the ways of their god, teaching her that the Ruiner would grant them bountiful hunts if they all just followed his ways. One of the commandments was to ruin, conquer and kill. However, Zunizi realised something. Killing meant more spirits, and that meant more visions. If she was already plagued by them, why would she want more? And if she were no half-orc, but a 'changeling', why would Gruumsh still give them plenty of food after she was born? There was something that didn't add up, but she was afraid to admit it loudly.

As the years went by, the others of the tribe became ruthless. The 'changeling' wouldn’t go away on its own, so they decided to effectively indoctrinate Zunizi. The young girl, who already was sceptical, was put through exhausting rites and rituals. She received ritualistic scarring, extensive training to provoke her rages, and got a tattoo on her back that she never wanted in the first place. After all, the weak needed to be crushed by the strong, and that was exactly what her tribe members were doing. They were crushing her will to be different, forcing her to be one of the tribe. While this definitely changed Zunizi, it wasn't in the way they wanted. She learned to shut off all her emotions. She became reserved, only complying to stop the rituals. But the idea of doing this all for a god like Gruumsh disgusted her.

A wind of change

A few years later, when Zunizi was in her teenage years, she got visits from the spirits again. Truth be told, she frequently got visions, but this time, the messages had changed:

“War. Blood. Pain.”

Where previous conversations were incoherent, this time the message was crystal clear: there was something coming, something bad. But no matter how often she warned her tribe members, they wouldn’t listen to someone called 'the Cursed'. And so, Zunizi the Cursed started to think of ways to prevent the oncoming event from hurting the tribe. Maybe they didn’t believe her, maybe they treated her horribly. But without a tribe to protect and feed her, Zunizi wouldn’t be alive today.

The day came. The nomadic tribe had moved into goblin territory, something that the residents did not appreciate. With shouts and blows of their war horns, both parties got ready to fight for the land they both claimed. Zunizi was an adult by now, hardened by a tribe that wouldn’t believe her. With her greataxe sharpened, the half-orc got ready to fight. In the back of her mind, she still heard voices. Warnings. Today there would spill blood all across the field. As the tribe was ready for the fight, Zunizi tried to call upon the spirits one last time. If they’d help her fight this battle, she’d help them find peace in return. They agreed. And with that, the war began. But the goblins didn’t expect what was about to happen.

The Spirit Caller

With a roar, Zunizi summoned spectral orcish warriors by her side, all with their own spectral weapons. When she raised her greataxe, the warriors saw that as an invitation to help in the battle, fighting as much as they could. The spirits couldn’t harm their victims - they were still incorporeal - but they could distract them. And the orcish tribe took this opportunity to charge into the attack, while the other goblinoids stared in confusion at the sudden appearance of spirits.

When the fight was over, the orc tribe was victorious. Zunizi was no longer called ‘the Cursed’, but got the nomer ‘Spiritcaller’, as she called upon her spirits for aid. Finally, the tribe acknowledged her and her connection to the spirits. But Zunizi had made a promise: the spirits helped her, so now she was going to help them in return. Most of the spirits just wanted to cross over and finish their unfinished business. And Zunizi couldn’t help them with that while in the wilderness of Ilyas. She was going to have to visit one of the big cities, like Griffinsburg or Lumivaara. And because Lumivaara was closer, she decided that this city would be her next step.

A new world

The tribe was not very happy with this idea of Zunizi leaving. Now that they saw Zunizi's potential, they wanted her to stay and help the tribe. Therefore, she couldn't just walk off, as this would enrage the tribe. To get away, Zunizi had to sneak out at night, grabbing only the most necessary items she could find. She hid her tracks, making sure that finding her would be harder at least.

This prompted a long journey, involving a lot of glances over the shoulder. Zunizi was accustomed to the wilderness and knew how to defend herself. Finding food and shelter was not an issue. The issue was being alone in this new world. In Lumivaara, Zunizi promptly experienced a culture shock. Instead of trading goods and livestock, everything was centered around gold. No longer could she sleep under a tree, she had to pay to have a roof over her head. She had to get a source of income if she wanted to find out how she could help the spirits. And so, Zunizi decided to become an adventurer and enlisted at the Adventurer’s Guild. On her days off, she went to the Crystal College for information.