Ilya Nyaago (Tav)

Ilya has never not been an orphan, an unknown little street rat surviving on scraps. Survival meant screwing people over, and being screwed over in turn was just how the world worked. Friendship, companionship at all, sounded as much like a fairy tale as heroes and feasts and warm beds. Ilya's greatest strengths were his confidence that he could do whatever the fuck he set his mind to, and a talent for illusory magic. His biggest scheme was after he'd reached adulthood; hard work had never gotten him a stable roof over his head, so he left for Baldur's Gate, and introduced himself to a rich magical family as Ilya Nyaago.

The Nyaago were a famous and powerful family of wizards, long thought dead, but Ilya had a magically-sealed document confirming the validity of his bloodline. Any noble wizards would be delighted to have the Nyaago name added to their roster, and so Ilya was married to their son, Samuel. The document and the name were forgeries, of course, Ilya was every bit the nobody he'd always been, but the scheme worked and he had himself a comfortable life for a while. In fact, no one ever discovered his lie. The person who killed him had other reasons.

As he lay in his grave, unquestionably dead, a voice slithered into Ilya's ear. She hissed her promises, her demands, and without a second thought, Ilya accepted his pact. Nidhogg, better known as Dendar, was an eldritch snake monster whose goal was to eat the sun. She saw Ilya's unstoppable confidence, and she knew he could help her reach her goal in exchange for his life. Once he was brought back, Ilya cut his long hair short, changed his clothes to something less fine, and he ran to a new life. Nidhogg's influence had brought him back from the grave, but she also had something else in store for him: She liked to eat nightmares. For Ilya, with the snake nestled in his brain, that also meant eating certain parts of him that brought him those nightmares. She ate his depression, his misery, his lack of trust. She made him a genuinely happier person just by eating the parts of himself he didn't like. And then he got tadpoled.