Seph - Healer of Eros
(Picture made from this generator)
Seph's Stories & Writing
Seph is the main protagonist in my in-progress novel/story "In the Cards",
but at the moment he can also be found in:
Calling in a Favor
About Seph:
Name: Zodóseph ("Seph") Stauler
Race: human
Home Country/Region: Zet
Birthday: November 26th, 671
(23 years old in "In the Cards", 41 in Calling in a Favor)
Astrological Sign: Sagittarius
Tarot Card: Knight of Wands
Height: 5'9"
Appearance: disheveled dark blond hair, short beard,
purple eyes with no pupils (usually hidden behind a blindfold)
Occupation: Healer (priest) and once-warrior
Alignment: Lawful Good
Highest Stat: Constitution
Weakest Stat: Dexterity
Favorite Hobby/Skills: fiddle, martial arts
Favorite Color: red (had been before becoming blind and remains because it's a color
he can sort of see through the heat vision granted by his blindfold)
Detailed info:
Zodóseph Stauler is a healer-priest of Eros, the god of truth and healing. He's from Zet, a country on a subtropical island to the east. The other patron deity of Zet is Ares, which can be explained by the fact that they have been at war with the neighboring country of Goth for two centuries. Eros likely started out with other duties, but now the main purpose of His followers is to heal the Zetene soldiers affected by the fighting. Considering that Zet is getting its collective butt kicked, the healers are an important commodity.
Seph didn't originally intend to be a healer. From the age of ten until he was eighteen, he trained to be one of Zet's "Bravos", their elite swordsmen. He was quite good at this and was just shy of making it into the group officially when disaster struck. His fiancée took gravely ill and soon after died, leaving him completely at a loss. No longer able to put his heart and energy into something as arduous as the Bravos, he made the decision to leave- but to do what? He could not become a regular soldier because he was now strictly forbidden to even pick up a sword, and after so many years of training, that was all he knew how to do. Adrift with no goal and being disowned by his family and shunned by almost everyone he knew due to their intense disappointment, he decided to travel to one of the mainlands to become a mercenary far from home with the deciding factor for direction being a coin flip. However, before he could leave or truly figure out what to do with his life, his god snatched him up to become one of His healers. Once people saw that Seph's eyes had shifted to purple, the sign that he had been marked by a god, he and they realized that he had another important job to do. This was at least a viable career path, so he was left alone by anyone who would have been offended by him leaving the group of fighters who had needed his skill. "Left alone" had its downside, however, as it meant that Seph no longer had any contact with anyone from his previous life. His slate was cleaned and he was given an entirely different path than he had walked for his first eighteen years.
Entering the priesthood gave Seph a new lease on life; as a healer, he could now prevent anyone else from falling ill or dying from wounds or sickness, which he decided to make his life's sole purpose. He threw himself into this new career with as much gusto as he had previously devoted to becoming a warrior and quickly became a powerful healer as his god began to funnel stronger and stronger magic down into him. Eros had his reasons for singling Seph out, but this has been as much curse as blessing. Seph's brethren as a whole have little to do with him, thinking that his tendency to keep people at arm's length is because he thinks he's better than them, not realizing that it's because of past hurt and the expressionless stoicism he was required to learn as a Bravo. His once-apprentice Sprout is really the only person on the island who knows him well, but he tries to keep even her at a distance. As he has gotten older, his god-granted magic has only gotten stronger and because of his drive to use that power for good, he's earned himself a level of fame with his people. This is also something of a mixed blessing because he feels that his only worth is tied into his ability to be better- not to be better than anyone else, but to constantly keep outdoing himself. Needless to say, this is not a cycle that can continue forever. (Eventually he'll burn out and crash...)
Although just as blind as the other healers in his order, with the aid of his blessed blindfold he's able to "see" heat and detect lies and deception. (Seph wasn't always blind; like with the rest of the healers in his order, his god took his sight when he reached his ordination, trading this out for Truth-sensing abilities.) Along the way he also picked up an overly talkative fox who becomes a sort of mentor and companion; Seph is still on the fence about whether this is a help or a hindrance. Despite his tendency to be rather stoic and keep to himself, Seph will always try his hardest to help people, even to the point of placing himself in harm's way. You can take the healer out of the Bravos, but you can't take the Bravo out of the healer.
Other than a short time spent on the southern continent where he met Raff (who became his best friend despite being Gothi by heritage) and the scant few others he has come to call friends, he has remained in Zet doing his part to aid his people in their war. Helping others is what he wants most from life, but often at the back of his mind is the thought that this isn't where he really belongs. Darned if he knows what his actual path was supposed to have been, though. Warrior? Healer? If ever a man needed to find himself, it's Seph.
CONVERSATION