Bareris Anskuld

Bareris Anskuld was a human bard. . As a bard he worshipped Oghma and Milil.

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.

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

Bareris later gave 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 could call forth a plume of noxious vapor to cloud an opponent. He could also sing a floating orb of light into being to light his way.

Bareris had mastered a variety of bardly 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 likeable and trustable,
 * 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 found 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 worshippers, hobgoblins and reavers of every stripe. During his wanderings Bareris evolved his knack for bardly 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.

History
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 find and hide 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 catched 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. During the following 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 bardly 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 dissappointed and hurt that from now on he shunned his former friend. During a meeting of the zulkirs after the spellplague hit, Tammith 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.

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.