Tulrun

Tulrun of the Tent (pronounced TULL-run) was an uthgardt weretiger archmage who was, for a time, cursed into the form of a tiefling.

Description
When Tulrun was a weretiger, he was tall and powerfully built, with pale skin that was covered in fine red and white hairs, striped like a tiger's. He had bright blue eyes, and wore his red hair long and unkempt with a red goatee beard that stretched beyond his chest.

When he was a tiefling, Tulrun was instead a short, slender man with fine features, red scaly skin and short white hair. His hands had turned into talons.

He tended to wear a thick, wolfskin jacket and bearskin leggings along with a woollen kilt. He was most often seen bearing a roughly hewn ironwood staff shaped like a large cat, a necklace of totems and a pair of mithral bracers in the shape of tiger's heads with sapphires for eyes.

History
Tulrun was born Tallrunner Tigris to Chief Tawnclaw Tigris of the Red Tiger Uthgardt tribe and "the Mother Tiger", a shaman of Chauntea. Tallrunner was a natural weretiger, a condition that he inherited from his father, but grew fascinated with magic, which was frowned upon by his barbarian fellows.

As a young man in 659 DR, Tallrunner discovered a golden scroll while exploring the lands surrounding Beorunna's Well and, against his father's wishes, travelled to Silverymoon to demand an audience with Ecamane Truesilver. Tallrunner offered his scroll to Ecamane in return for apprenticeship to a powerful wizard. Ecamane accepted the trade and sent him to Myth Drannor to study in the Incanistaeum. Tallrunner was apprenticed to Mentor Wintercloak, one of the Seven Wizards there and when the elves mispronounced his name (calling him TOOL-roon-AYE), Tallrunner adopted Tulrun as his new name. Tulrun was adept at his craft but struggled to find peace in Myth Drannor, instead quenching his wanderlust in Anauroch to the west, taking as his travelling companion a crystal dragon named Krustalonos, who also hailed from Tulrun's ancestral lands. Tulrun also tried his hand at teaching others, and was one of Elminster's tutors.

While travelling without Krustalonos in the centre of Anauroch in 692 DR, Tulrun rediscovered the lost Abbey of the Moon and encountered one of Selûne's Shards, who led him through a portal to Ysgard, where he spent more than a century.

When he returned to Faerûn in 811 DR, he discovered Myth Drannor in ruins and Krustalonos seemingly vanished. He spent most of his time as an insane tiger in the north for the next quarter-century until he met Lynnàsha Nharimlur, who calmed his bestial spirit and became his lover. The two lived in Silverymoon together and, after a failed attempt to resume teaching at the Lady's College, retired to a tower outside of the city. They thereafter both accompanied Elué Dualen and her apprentices to the Outer Planes to battle a tanar'ri lord with designs on northern Faerûn but Lynnàsha was killed in the fighting, leaving Tulrun inconsolable. He transported himself to the Beastlands and resumed his life of bestiality as a tiger.

An avatar of Selûne appeared to him to once more calm his spirit in 937 DR and he returned again to the Material Plane but refused to go near Silverymoon again. Instead, he decided to search for his lost friend Krustalonos, a search that took three years and ended in the discovery of his friend's skeleton in the lair of Sneighfanglen, a powerful white dragon. In a rage, Tulrun slaughtered the Spawn of Auril, her mate and all but one of their children, a hatchling named Arauthator, who managed to evade the furious archmage.

Tulrun retreated to the Cold Wood to study transmutations for the next three centuries and created his famous tent until finally being drawn out of seclusion by the battles between Alustriel Silverhand and Shaloss Ethenfrost in 1235 DR. Tulrun led an army of orcs to Alustriel's aid in the Battle of Tumbleskulls and aided in Silverymoon's reconstruction once Alustriel had consolidated her rule. Although he refused to join the Spellguard, Tulrun was a reliable ally in the face of danger for the next four decades until suddenly, in 1279 DR, Tulrun severed all contact with his friends and allies. Two weeks later he repelled the first of a decade's worth of attacks against his tent. Despite offers of help from Silverymoon against the waves of foes he faced, Tulrun faced every one alone and won, fearful of bringing harm to the city. In 1289 DR, Tulrun contacted the one he had long known was responsible for the attacks, Arauthator, now a mature adult dragon who hoped to remove the danger posed by the one who'd killed his entire family. Face-to-face with his foe, Arauthator agreed to leave the civilised parts of the Silver Marches alone if Tulrun extended him the same courtesy.

Tulrun later took to exploring Anauroch once more but triggered a powerful curse that transformed him into a tiefling. He retreated to his tent, cutting himself off from the world and becoming a reclusive hermit, his only companions, a trio of beautiful flesh golems.

In 1374 DR, Tulrun numbered among the many powerful mages Khelben Arunsun brought together in order to restore the denizens of the lost city of Miyeritaar and cleanse part of the High Moor. He also regained his true nature as a weretiger.

Appearance
Blackstaff (novel)