Q'arlynd Melarn

Q'arlynd Melarn was a drow wizard. Originally from Ched Nasad, he was a capable battle mage and the only surviving male member of Ched Nasad.

Description
Q'arlynd sported a slightly crooked nose due to a childhood lizard riding accident, which left it broken. In spite of this fact, he was still handsome enough to hold the attention of most females. His shoulder-length white hair was worn in a contingency clip which rested at the back of his neck. As a highly skilled battle mage and master of the College of Ancient Arcana, Q'arlynd's style of dress was fitting for a drow of his stature.

As a member of Eilistraee's faithful Q'arlynd bore a crescent-shaped scar on his right palm from when he took his Sword Oath.

Personality
Q'arlynd, despite his education in Ched Nasad, could never be truly evil; he was unsure of the Surfacers when he first made his way out of the Underdark, but began to accept the goodness of Eilistraee. He was well aware of his good looks and charms and used them when the occasion requires it, but his first and foremost love was for the arcane.

History
As the elder brother to Tellik Melarn, Q'arlynd grew up with Halisstra Melarn in House Melarn until he was sent to the Arcane Conservatory. There, he trained to become a battle mage. It is known that during his youth, he betrayed his brother to his mother, Matron Mother Drisinil Melarn, who sacrificed him to Lolth for being a secret worshiper of Vhaeraun.

In 1372 DR, after leaving the Dangling Tower in the midst of the destruction of Ched Nasad at the hands of duergar and the Jaezred Chaulssin, he led his sister Halisstra and her group (led by Quenthel Baenre) to a portal in the Dangling Tower that would help them escape the city. In the process, he was attacked by a golem and fell from the tower. He nearly died, but survived, to watch his home city fall into ruins.

Bereft of hope for House Melarn to rise again, he served House Teh'Kinrellz, a minor noble house for a while, working as a scavenger. Chance led him to the surface, where he eventually swore an oath to Eilistraee, although it was not entirely sincere. He later made his way to Sshamath, where he joined the College of Divination and sought patronage to start his own school, The College of Ancient Arcana. It was during this time that he learned the true purpose of faerzress and its origin, as well as his heritage; he was, in fact, not of the Ilythiiri, the elves who were active in the Crown Wars, but rather one of the Miyeritari, those who were wrongly forced to partake in The Descent. This meant that he did not have Wendonai's Taint within him, allowing him to use the Selu'kiira of his ancestors.

This discovery and Selu'kiira allowed him to achieve his two greatest accomplishments; he effectively destroyed Kiaransalee by erasing her name from all memories, even Kiaransalee herself's. With no worshippers, Kiaransalee could no longer maintain existence. He also transformed the Miyeritari back into who they once were, brown-skinned with black hair, true dark elves, and forever severing their ties to the faerzress and the Underdark. He now resides in Rhymanthiin, the City of Hope, along with his fellow transformed mages.

Accomplishments
Q’arlynd was notable for having discovered the true purpose of the magical radiation faerzress: that it was a form of High Magic created by the victorious elves of the Crown Wars to bind the drow to the Underdark.

Q’arlynd also discovered a way for drow to cast High Magic themselves. One High Magic ritual he devised erased the name Kiaransalee from every being's memories, banishing the goddess from Realmspace. Another was when he engineered (with the aid of Eilistraee) a ritual that transformed all drow not tainted by Wendonai's blood into brown-skinned dark elves.

Possessions
Q'arlynd's piwafwi was made from the blue-black fur of a displacer beast. Another of his items was the clear quartz crystal that hung from his neck on a silver chain, which granted him the ability to see anything that had been disguised or rendered invisible by magical means. The only true affect from his past that he wore other than his crystal is a worn leather bracer on his wrist with an adamantine disk in its center that had the insignia of House Melarn on it.

Of all of his personal items Q'arlynd's most important was with him at all times. More often than not rendered magically invisible as a safety precaution, Q'arlynd wore a Selu'Kiira on his forehead filled with the sentience of all of his ancestors that have worn the stone before him since before dark elves were branded Dhaerow and forced into the Underdark.

Q'arlynd possessed a unique form of spellbook: his belt. The leather was inscribed with tiny runes -- Q'arlynd's spells -- which only become visible when viewed through his seeing crystal. Q'arlynd also possessed a set of master and slave rings. Anyone wearing the master ring was able to both read the mind of and physically control anyone wearing the slave ring. Q'arlynd utilized his rings on his personal servant, Flinderspeld.

Novels
War of the Spider Queen:
 * Insurrection (minor)

Lady Penitent trilogy:
 * Sacrifice of the Widow
 * Storm of the Dead
 * Ascendancy of the Last