Adiris Samanû

Yuan-Ti / Cleric

Submitted character story

*Based on Dead by Daylight killer- the Plague*

Archetype: The Poison Saint – She carries beauty where others saw rot, and turns suffering sacred. "You are the cleric who chose the Blackfen and the patience of the Shadow Investigator because abandonment taught you to survive unseen. What brought you back was a goddess who named your pain holy instead of hideous, who saw worth in what Sune discarded. But you still flinch when prayers go unanswered, still wonder if devotion is just another word for disposable. You are the healer who sanctifies disease, and every table will remember the goddess who found you worthy."

Adiris had parents that became ill from an unknown ailment at age 10. They consulted a half-elf priest of Sune (goddess of love and beauty) in hopes to live. After they died from the unknown disease, the priest took Adiris on as his apprentice. So she grew up in the Temple of Sune, working her way up to become a high priestess. She was recognized by her fellow acolytes for her empathy and devotion, even praised as a blessing of beauty and grace from Sune herself. 

Then Adiris began to show signs at age 25 of the same ailment her parents died of. Dry, rotting skin with boils and rashes. It made its way across the left side of her body, deteriorating her beauty and twisting her grace; she was then looked upon in horror and disgust. Her prayers to Sune were met with silence and pain. The High Priest feared this illness would spread to himself and anyone else who entered his temple. He dismissed her from her duties and forbade her from reentering. Adiris had been abandoned by her master/surrogate father and her goddess.

With broken faith and broken heart, Adiris made an agonizing trek back to where she grew up. She had hope that the Jungles of Chult would kill her before the disease did. Instead, she met a decrepit beggar woman with golden eyes. The woman wondered what she would do if she could live past her illness. Adiris declared that she would want to prevent anyone else from suffering this illness, gain some form of revenge on her former master, and angrily ask why the goddes of beauty and love abandoned her after being so devout. “I want mine and my parents' pain to be worth something.”

The woman revealed herself as an avatar of Talona: the goddess of poison and disease. She offered to aid Adiris with her power if she devoted herself to studying the natural beauty of poisons and diseases. Adiris felt her pain had been given purpose, so she surrendered her faith happily. Talona also gifted a flail that doubles as an artifact: the Censor of Plagues. From then on, Adiris lived as a wandering cleric of Talona, traveling across the world with the guidance of her diseased blessing. She would learn more about a variety of illnesses to better understand her own. Although she remains dedicated to Talona, there is still a flickering doubt. Her greatest fear is that she will be abandoned again; she may never gain further knowledge of her disease and just be a tool for the gods to throw away.