Bareris Anskuld

Bareris Anskuld was a human bard. . As a bard he worshipped Oghma and Milil. During the war of Thay he was transformed into an undead being.

Appearance
Though Bareris was truly Thayan, he stopped shaving the wheat blonde hair from his head. He could move with a duelist's catlike grace. During the war of Thay, Bareris began to neglect himself and his personal hygiene and wore a gaunt face and a cold stare.

The Dream Vestige's Aftermath
During the encounter with Szass Tam's dream vestige Bareris absorbed some of the energies of undeath that bound the entity. He now has most abilities of an undead sentient being. His skin and hair turned chalky white and his eyes turned midnight-black.

Possessions
Bareris's weapon of choice is the sword which he wears at his hip in a worn leather scabbard. He also possesses a silver-stringed yarting slung across his back. and carries a small dagger.

Bareris later gives his yarting to a band of gnolls as fee for their help in his pursuit of Tammith's captors.

Bardly Magic
By singing a quick phrase and sketching an arcane figure in the air with a free hand, Bareris can call forth a plume of noxious vapor to cloud an opponent. He can also sing a floating orb of light into being to light his way.

Bareris had mastered a variety of bardic songs or spells, such as:
 * a battle-cry infused with the magic of his voice thus sending vitalizing surges through his body, calming and clearing his mind,
 * a song that can transport a single person several yards in a random direction,
 * an enchantment of speed,
 * a charm to augment his force of personality, letting him appear a shade taller and handsomer, thus more likable and trustworthy,
 * a battle cry with thunderous boom, capable of bruising flesh and cracking bone,
 * a song forming an empathic bond between him and an animal, such as his horse,
 * a song of universal tongue, enabling him to understand and speak any human or beastly language.

During the war of the zulkirs, Bareris finds out that his music could reanimate dead bodies.

Personality
Bareris was gentle and compassionate, which are very un-Thayan traits. This showed in his desperate journey to find and rescue his love, Tammith Iltazyarra. His effort to help a child in the streets of Bezantur almost got him killed by the undead child-thing and his partner warrior.

After the transformation and loss of Tammith, Bareris achieved an obsessive nature revealed in his cold stare, gaunt face, somber dress, and indifference to personal hygiene, charms of healing and solace not coming as naturally as they once had. .

Background
Bareris is of Mulan descent. He spent six years abroad, working as a mercenary, fighting dragon worshipers, hobgoblins and reavers of every stripe. During his wanderings Bareris evolved his knack for bardic magic into a genuinely formidable talent. He became a powerful bard and a strong swordsman, his reflexes honed from countless battles and skirmishes.

Bareris loved Tammith Iltazyarra since his childhood.

Return
After his traveling years, Bareris returned to Bezantur only to find his love Tammith had sold herself into slavery. He found Tammith in the captivity of the Red Wizards Muthoth and So-Kehur, moving towards Delhumide. His first attempt at freeing Tammith failed. When he tried to flee from the Red Wizards, gnolls found and hid him. Bareris convinced the gnolls to help him get into Delhumide where he hoped to find and rescue Tammith. They found a portal in one of the buildings through which Bareris reached an underground fortress. The bard located Tammith in a chamber, already transformed into a vampire by the undead creature Xingax, and almost got bitten by her. Xingax caught the two and forced Tammith to drink from her former lover. Bareris escaped by injuring Tammith and her master, fleeing into the mountains. He encountered a ghost named Mirror and the gravecrawler Quickstrike who helped him hide from his pursuers. Mirror became his guide through the mountains. At the Pass of Kazahr they encountered the warmage Aoth Fezim and followed him to the camp of the armies of Nymia Focar and Milsantos Daramos, whom Bareris told of his findings at Xingax's fortress. He uncovered that the order of necromancy was behind the undead invasion. When it came to a fight between the southerner's armies and the undead horde at the Keep of Thazar, Bareris met Tammith again, obviously recovered from her injuries. The vampire attacked and tried to bite him again but Bareris incapacitated her, this time hacking her to pieces in an attempt to release her from her undead nature. Bareris felt responsible for Tammith's demise and turned into a bitter man, swearing vengeance upon Xingax.

Ten Years Later
The war of Thay had been taking toll on the land and it's inhabitants. The people were split into those supporting Szass Tam and his necromancers and another faction opposing them with all their might. Among them the legions accompanied by Aoth and Bareris. After years of war, Aoth confided in Bareris his thoughts of abandoning the cause and leaving Thay altogether, but Bareris, in his strife for vengeance, realized Aoth's important role as captain of the Griffon Legion and used his bardic magic to persuade his friend to stay and fight. . When Aoth was affected by the Spellplague, he saw an illusionary image of Bareris dangling a marionette, twitching its strings to make it dance - a marionette resembling Aoth himself. The mage realized the meaning of that illusion and confronted Bareris with the truth about his decision of not leaving Thay. Aoth was so disappointed and hurt that from now on he shunned his former friend.

During a meeting of the zulkirs after the Spellplague hit, Aoth rejoined with Bareris, the two tentatively refreshing their friendship from then on.

The council of zulkirs decided on using the magic-crippling aftermath of the spell-plague and attack Xingax's fortress in the Thaymount, with Bareris's griffon riders and the Burning Braziers at the front. But Szass used the powers bestowed upon him by Bane and through summoning a dream vestige turned the chances into his favors, chasing the zulkirs and their legions all the way to Bezantur until the zulkirs only chance to survive was to flee onboard vessels. Szass did not give up the chase though, summoning all kinds of undead aquatic creatures to defeat the zulkirs. When that proved quite hard, he finally summoned the dream vestige again. Tammith's nemesis Tsagoth also joined in the marine fight seeking out and finally facing up with the vampire again, determined to kill her. After a short fight the fiend had her heavily injured and incapacitated. Then Bareris, Mirror, and Bareris's griffon Winddancer joined the fight to defend Tammith, turning the chances in their favor by almost killing Tsagoth. In a desperate move, Tsagoth grabbed Tammith and together they broke through the reling of the ship and plummeted into the sea. Due to her vampire nature, the water immobilized Tammith completely slowly dissolving her body like acid. Bareris and Winddancer followed them into the water resuming their attack on Tsagoth until the find was forced to translate himself through space into safety. Though Bareris hurried to get his love out of the water, he didn't make it in time and Tammith perished, dissolved into nothingness by the water of the sea. After Tammith's death Bareris no longer cared about his own well-being. When Aoth told him of his findings about the nature of the dream vestige Bareris set out in a dinghy to confront the entity. He began to sing of his love for Tamith and the pain of osing her over and over again. The dream vestige grabbed him with one of it's tentacle-like arms and engulfed the singing bard. Bareris song had an effect though, inflaming the dream vestige's wrath and self-hatred until it was strong enough to burst any constraining force and dissolve the fog-like entity. Aoth later found him swimming in the sea face down. He rescued his friend believing him drowned. It turned out Bareris survived the encounter with the dream vestige. The toll he had to pay was his life - being transformed by the energies of undeath that bound the dream vestige. After that battle was won, the zulkirs and their forces feld into exile at the Wizard's Reach. Bareris and Mirror decided to return to Thay and resume opposing Szass Tam's regency.

The Griffon Legion of Thay
By wish of Bareris, Aoth assigned him to the Griffon Legion, providing him a riderless griffon to make his familiar. Over the course of the war, Bareris was the master of Vengeance, who died in 1385 DR fighting an undead skeletal serpent. His second steed, Murder, died in a fight with one of Xingax's undead creatures. His current steed is Winddancer.

When Aoth was hit by the Spellplague rendering him blind, he proclaimed Bareris captain of the Griffon Legion for the duration of his blindness. Aoth resumed his position as captain after his eyes were healed by Mirror.

Confrontation with Szass Tam and death
In 1478 DR, a temporary alliance of Bareris, Mirror, Aoth (with his familiar Jet), the remaining zulkirs of the Wizard's Reach (Nevron, Samas Kul, Lallara, Lauzoril), and Szass Tam defeated Thayan zulkir Malark Springhill, who was intent on unmaking all existence. Minutes afterward, Bareris was destroyed when the temporary alliance had a final confrontation with Szass Tam.