VORRETH THE UNMOORED
ElementalsFormer Diplomat and Navigator; currently a drifter and unlicensed current-guide
"They called it justice when they cast me out. I called it justice too -- at the time. Now I call it what it was: a convenient silence, purchased with my name.""
Identity
- Residence
- Nomadic -- moves between the outermost edges of the Great Sapphire Trench and the uncharted open ocean
- Civilization
- Elementals
Appearance
• Clothing: The remnants of a once-fine ambassador's cloak of tide-woven sea-silk, now salt-stained and threadbare, clasped with a tarnished coral pin bearing the crest of a dissolved diplomatic mission. • Distinguishing Marks: His eyes are the only part of him that retains deep oceanic blue -- intensely vivid against his otherwise dulled form, giving his gaze an unsettling clarity.
Personality
- Traits: Bitterly perceptive, darkly humorous, honour-bound despite everything, haunted by guilt
- Mannerisms: Quotes diplomatic protocols from memory with mocking precision, keeps his distance from others as though his condition might be contagious, unconsciously straightens his ruined cloak when addressing anyone of rank
- Voice: A weathered baritone that was clearly once polished and commanding, now roughened by centuries of open-ocean solitude, carrying the faint echo of formal oratory.
Backstory
Vorreth was born through Confluence Birthing at a deep-current Nexus Cradle and rose quickly through Water Kingdom society on the strength of his intellect and eloquence, eventually serving as lead diplomat to the Air Kingdom. Eight centuries ago, he negotiated a treaty that was meant to end a border conflict -- but the treaty contained a clause he failed to scrutinize, and its exploitation by a third party led to the destruction of a neutral Naiad settlement. Though technically not at fault, Vorreth accepted full responsibility. He was stripped of rank, expelled from the diplomatic corps, and declared Unmoored -- the Water Elemental term for one severed from communal currents. He has wandered the ocean's margins ever since.
Daily Life
Vorreth drifts along the Trench's outer perimeter, surviving by selling his navigational expertise to smugglers, outcasts, and the occasional desperate merchant who cannot afford a licensed Navigator. He knows the open ocean's current-paths better than anyone alive, having spent centuries mapping them alone. Between jobs he haunts the borderlands, observing the kingdom he can no longer enter and compiling a private record of diplomatic failures across elemental history -- a work he calls "The Ledger of Broken Words."
Secret
Vorreth has spent eight centuries investigating the treaty disaster and has finally identified the true architect of the Naiad settlement's destruction -- not a foreign power, but a high-ranking member of the Water Kingdom's own council who manipulated the treaty to eliminate the settlement and seize its resources. He possesses documentary proof hidden in a sealed current-cache in the open ocean, but exposing it would trigger a political crisis that could fracture the Water Kingdom. He is paralysed between the desire for vindication and the fear of causing even greater harm.
Story Hooks
- 1 Vorreth approaches the party with his evidence, seeking allies with no political ties who can expose the council member without destabilizing the kingdom
- 2 The council member learns that Vorreth has proof and dispatches agents to find and destroy the current-cache -- Vorreth needs help reaching it first
Narrative Value
Vorreth is a walking political thriller -- a disgraced insider with the knowledge and contacts to reshape Water Kingdom politics, held in check by the same conscience that accepted exile in the first place. He provides espionage, diplomacy, and moral-complexity hooks, and his outcast status makes him an ideal patron for morally grey campaigns. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════