DOSSIER

Tall, broad-chested, and muscular, Meridian is a tower of a viera, usually fully armored, and often masked. He cuts a formidable, off-putting figure; even when unmasked, his perpetual scowl and prickly demeanor seem specifically designed to repel any who might think to approach. His voice is low and rasping, guttural, like stones scraping at the bottom of a ravine. A spectral blue glow burns in his scarred left eye, and he has a tattoo of blade-like patterns on his right cheek. His tongue is barbed; his teeth shark-sharp.If none of that turns people away, his personality does the trick - or tries to, anyway. He is deliberately rude, withdrawn, and sometimes crass or vulgar, especially if he thinks that might disgust someone talking to him. The persistent may find that much of his behavior is a facade. A weary soul lies beneath, a man who’s convinced he’s already dead, and who thinks it a kindness to keep others at arm’s length. In a Garlean experiment gone horribly right, Meridian’s spirit was forcibly fused with a powerful voidsent, and that voidsent is slowly consuming him from the inside out. He means to carry on until he’s gotten justice for what was done to him and his family, and then he means to die.

✦ NOTABLE FEATURES ✦

THE HAUNTED EYE

Meridian’s left eye burns fully blue from sclera to iris, with a faint white pupil if you look hard enough. Though he’s not blind, he often keeps the eye covered with a patch even when not wearing a mask, as it’s photosensitive. And creepy. Staring at the uncovered eye for too long reveals a shadow skittering in its depths, something dark that fixates uncomfortably on any observers.

THE BLOODLETTING TONGUE

Meridian’s tongue can sprout sharp barbs, similar to those that cover the trunk of a kapok tree. Great for stripping flesh from bone (and eating kabobs in the most grotesquely off-putting way).

THE FLOWERING VINES

Thorny vines studded with flowers burst from the wounds on Meridian’s body. When the flowers bloom, they can emit a debilitating miasma that chokes and weakens whatever it touches.

THE RIVEN SKIN

Fractures run through Meridian’s face as through a dropped vase. Though the rest of him is unnaturally cold, a strange and humid heat radiates from these fractures, and sometimes thin green tendrils and small jasmine flowers poke up from the dark. His body is otherwise heavily scarred, particularly on his back. The letters LVII are also marked in white across Meridian’s sternum, sometimes visible when his armor gets torn up in a fight.

HOOKS

MONSTER WHO HUNTS MONSTERS

Meridian is a voidhunter; in particular, he takes jobs where voidsent are actively threatening Spoken settlements, harrying travelers, and the like. While he believes all voidsent should be escorted to the Lifestream (himself included), he’s not likely to hunt one down just for existing. But if there’s excess blood spilled, if average villagers are disappearing to slake a monster’s thirst, then he’s not going to tolerate it. He also works as a mercenary and a bodyguard in general, though he is more reluctant to take these jobs as his own condition progresses and leaves him increasingly unstable.Rumor has it that Meridian’s got a particular interest in certain powerful voidsent that occasionally appear in Gridania and nearby environs - voidsent who, in their humanoid forms, bear some resemblance to Meridian himself …

PIT FIGHTER

Meridian spends a lot of time in public fight clubs, much to the confusion and dismay of many. He approaches it like a compulsion: he seems to take little pleasure in victory or loss, or in the endeavor as a whole. He fights most often in grim silence, and he fights viciously, with clear intent to draw blood. At times, it’s obvious that he’s struggling through his matches, as though fighting both his opponent and himself at the same time. Nevertheless, he always follows the rules of a given match to the letter. He stops when the bell rings, and he strikes to wound, not to kill.

CORRUPTION LIKE KUDZU IN THE SOUL

Anyone with even a middling ability to perceive aether can see it: this man is unwell. For those with a fine-tuned sense of souls, what they see is dense spiritual energy laced with dark, choking vines, like kudzu running rampant. Over time, the vines multiply and their grip tightens - however, continued monitoring suggests that, inexplicably, there are occasions when the spirit seems to fight back, and the hold seems to loosen.

CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN

Meridian has a clear Golmorran (that is to say, Icelandic) accent - a breathy lilt that comes through even with his otherwise guttural rasp. He was born in those forests and lived in them for over a century, but he knows he can never return, and this bitterness manifests as a hostility towards other viera (perhaps missed on account of his general hostility to everything). He’s particularly adamant against any viera claiming him as kin in any way. Yet, there is a yearning that muddles these feelings, a longing for home that can’t ever be fully extinguished. He’s hard on those from his homeland, but he’d shield them from danger if they needed it.

BOOK BURNING

There’s a rare book in circulation. A treatise on fusing together souls of voidsent and Spoken. Written by Nina lux Fulgentia, titled ‘Void Fusion: Methods and Applications’, this slim volume details a number of experiments on Garlean prisoners and the mixed, but promising, results. Meridian wants every copy of this book found and destroyed. Though searching for copies personally, he’ll outsource the job to people with greater expertise when he can - however, if anyone thinks they’re going to keep or copy the tome, it’ll be the last thing they ever do.

INSATIABLE

Meridian is always starving. No matter how much food he eats, no matter what kind, he's never sated - because the real hunger is for aether, and that hunger is bottomless. If someone's offering something to eat, he likely won't decline - and it's not a bad way to engage him peaceably - but he will never be satisfied.(Drinking blood fresh from the vein or consuming the essence of voidsent, however ...)

Enêpsigos (all/any pronouns) is the voidsent crawling their way through Meridian's soul. Initially, their physical manifestation was limited to skittering in the shadows of Meridian's spectral eye - the cold fire glow, hidden by an eyepatch or a mask, was (and is) the locus of its visible presence. However, her influence has continued to strengthen over time, such that she's becoming more capable of directly expressing herself, including occasionally overtaking Meridian's body completely.They speak in sweet and arcane tones, seemingly sociable and friendly, interested in everyone and everything around them. But make no mistake: he's a creature of hunger and hatred, and his earnest desire is to devour everyone in Meridian's orbit - and beyond that, too.Where does it sit on the hierarchy? What is its true form; its original name and shape? Those who can speak to these things are missing, dead, or - if Meridian has his way - about to be.What is known and true: Meridian will claim he has no friends. En will claim, on the contrary, that they're the best friend you'll ever have - right before sinking their teeth and claws into your veins.

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