{
  "character": {
    "id": "5cf9278a-7cdf-489e-beda-030159b91fff",
    "slug": "zezza-the-12th",
    "name": "Zezza the 12th",
    "race": "Bee Hive",
    "character_class": "Fighter",
    "jan_favorite": false,
    "is_ff_portrait": false,
    "profile_url": "https://framedfantasy.com/pages/hero?h=zezza-the-12th",
    "character_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/zezza-the-12th",
    "character_json_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/zezza-the-12th.json",
    "character_markdown_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/zezza-the-12th.md",
    "original_image_url": "https://obadckrukccwkjgpbsxa.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/portraits/1783477443554_b8w30l.webp",
    "image_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/images/zezza-the-12th",
    "thumbnail_url": "https://obadckrukccwkjgpbsxa.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/portraits/1783477443554_b8w30l_thumb.webp",
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    "story_excerpt": "Wendrelian the Eccentric was a gnome wizard, oh, some centuries ago. On the eastern fringes of Glimmerdrift, he came across a long-abandoned country estate of some deceased nobleman, and he and his many pets moved in happily. Wendrelian kept raccoons, peacocks, pigs, rabbits, songbirds, and quite a ",
    "story": "Wendrelian the Eccentric was a gnome wizard, oh, some centuries ago. On the eastern fringes of Glimmerdrift, he came across a long-abandoned country estate of some deceased nobleman, and he and his many pets moved in happily. Wendrelian kept raccoons, peacocks, pigs, rabbits, songbirds, and quite a few other creatures, whether as pets or companions no one could say. The rare visitors to his home always said that it seemed they could all talk to each other effortlessly. The old gnome lived his days in contentment, crafting spells and potions, writing journals and treatices and all manner of things. The old manor house had become overgrown with weeds long before he'd come upon it, but the fusion of nature and civilization suited the gnome just fine.\n \nThe fields around the manor were rich with wildflowers, and it was essentially inevitable that the wizard would eventually become acquainted, then enamored with bees and beekeeping. Wendrelian experimented in the apiary arts, finding, and sometimes rescuing, queens and setting up his bees in a variety of different homes in the old grand hallway of the manor house. This way they could look out over the southern lawn and the hills beyond, and he would periodically release a new queen back into the wild when he felt it was what they wished. Many of the hives in the hall were situated near an old suit of armor, greatsword and all. The wizard never knew if it had belonged to the previous owner, or was mere decoration, or something else, but the suit was very much a part of the manor house, and though mundane, it still conveyed an aura of protectiveness. Perhaps that is why on a rainy day in which a walk outside was unappealing, the wizard he cleaned up and enchanted the armor and sword just to spruce them up a little.\n \nIn time, Wendrelian passed to the Golden Hills, where he and his animals are said to live on at the side of Baervan Wildwanderer, forever happy in the realm of the eternal woodlands. The manor house then, once again, stood empty, and over time nature reclaimed it more and more.\n \nBut the bees remained. New queens created new hives, the population eventually outgrowing the available boxes and homes, yet the manor hall remained an attractive, safe location. New queens sought new places to build their hives, in the rafters, in the walls, and...elsewhere. To one young queen, the old suit of armor—dark, solid, with so many interesting shapes and spaces—seemed perfect. After a time, the entire suit of armor filled with her thousands of offspring and a complex maze of honeycombs, and became a home for a generational hive and its succession of queens.\n \nThe natural magic and easy animal-speech of Wendrelian lingered long after his passing. It lingered in the armor and, over time, infused the bees that made it their home. Instead of fading as enchantments do, the animism and vibrancy of the hive made it grow. Bees and armor became interrelated, and then inseparable. The spirits of each successive queen remained a part of the armor, and perhaps the spirit of some long-ago warrior, perhaps the manor's original lord, remained and became part of the mix as well.\n \nOne day, in a fit of frustration, the queen of the armored hive—known as Zezza as usual—wanted to explore the flowers of the nearby forests, but shunned the difficulty of leading her entire hive there, as it was quite a distance away. Somewhere in her mind, which had over the workings of time and enchantment had come to far exceed the capabilities of  mundane bees, even queens, she *desired*. She wished for the ability to take the entire established hive with her, to simply walk there,– as she had seen the other beings do. \n\nAnd the suit of armor moved.\n \nSluggishly at first, learning to combine will and movement, bees and honeycomb and metal, the queen and her closest advisers managed to make the suit of armor move, and step, and walk. It became impossible to discern where the spirit of the queen ended and the new entity of armor-and-hive began, but this was a question for the sages in any event, for the bees and the armor neither knew nor cared.\n \nMore movement followed, and the new creature moved its legs, its arms, its head, and its hands to accomplish… whatever the hive - whatever Zezza wanted. They found new flowers and explored new glades, releasing daughters here and there to found new hives. Queens came and went, but the hive-armor spirit lived on as an entity to itself.\n \nThe day came when Zezza—the armor, the hive, and the queen combined—recalled, or uncovered the shadow of memory, of the kindness of the old wizard, and knew desire for companionship. It, or they, or  *she* decided to seek other beings like Wendrelian. She realized a longing to find another wizard to care for and learn from, and knew it would have to be just the right kind of person. It was hard at first, but Zezza learned to make a chorus of her swarm's buzzing sound enough like speech, and was able to understand the strange vibrations and mental images that were the speech of  non-bees. Most of the speech, and the people, she encountered were fearful and distrustful at first, though Zezza did not know that. Many generations old, she was still a child in the ways of interpersonal interaction. But Zezza persisted, and learned. \n \nZezza, her lineage at least, has lived for quite a few years, though she really doesn’t know for how long.\n\nOne can estimate that queen honeybees live up to 5 years, but enchanted creatures live longer. 12 generations of Zezza have lived perhaps a century, each daughter receiving at least some of the accumulated experience and knowledge of her predecessors. She has developed something of a personality as well, and Zezza the Twelfth has found friends who treasure her for what she is, though they can only guess at Zezza’s background. She herself cannot fully describe her own history – a tangle of images and memories for which she does not have the words.\n \nWhile the memory and enchantment handed down through the generations is still strong, the Hive has begun to wander, even to seek adventure for its own sake, righting perceived wrongs which are most often creatures that would seek to harm Nature – especially the cycle of bloom and flower. Still, the vision of a fine field of wildflowers and memory of a caring and cared for wizard hover in Zezza’s memory - perhaps someday she will find those things again.\n \nOver the years the hive has collectively gained experience and skill, and has learned to move and operate more effectively. Zezza has joined in the battle against goblin hordes after they overran and destroyed the small farming town (and its accompanying fields) that hives familiar to her had spent two generations living in. Zezza had not found a Wizard, but had, after some months of mistakes and parlays, become something of the town’s resident ghost and guardian. Had things continued undisturbed for another generation or three, Zezza might have altered to this life permanently, but with the destruction of the town – and the death of many who knew the hive as a singular person, or even a friend – Zezza was driven briefly mad with grief and vengeance, which has now been sated.\n \nAnd that leaves… what? The memory of an old wizard friend, the drive to find a person and place to be at peace – as well as the comb-deep hatred of those who defile nature and the agrarian life.\n \nCharisma 10 reflects extreme socialization skill learned over the course of a century. Normally a hive of bees in a suit of armor would put anyone off, but Zezza is so polite and so suprisingly inoffensive (when not fighting) that most people treat her as a completely average person (Notable exception: Bears and other honey lovers).\n\nZezza can't see per se. Each bee of the hive can, in their own way, see, but Zezza as a whole functions as a creature with blindsight. She also is, in so many ways, completely alien to individual humanoids, and even after interacting with the world of humanoids for years, is still learning the cues and tendencies of those around her."
  }
}