Tupuk

Tupuk was originally a Tan Muark witch, from the days before & during Aryk and Apocoli (VERY approximately during the early part of the 18th Age). His great hoorah with the Muark was as their Shakra, when he summoned a Dao (earth elemental) to assist them in defeating the Madrek at the Battle of Blood Sands. Not long after this he mysteriously disappeared.

What the Muark do not know is that Tupuk attempted to summon a Nilazi elemental spirit to talk & learn from them (a method not uncommon for Muark witches). In fact, he was among the most learned and skillful at such tasks, perhaps moreso than any witch in the old Muark tales of the day. But, he grew impatient with his learning from the beings on the other, more well known, elemental planes. So, in the ongoing quest to find ways to free Verra from her prison, he got in over his head, and found out the hard way that beings from Nilaz do not succumb as easily to the same mental or magickal tricks as beings from the other planes. He lost in his attempts to control the summoned Nilazi (known to him only as Lazni).

In turn, Lazni decided to take Tupuk back with her, partly as punishment for his arrogance and partly to attempt to utilize Tupuk's established links to the other elemental planes for her own devices. This largely failed, and she left Tupuk adrift to be tormented in Nilaz, where he spent the next 150-odd years. This time had several lasting effects upon him:

a) profound sense of loss & loneliness, both of his people and the links he formerly had to the Life plane (and likewise thru the Life plane to the other planes)

b) he slowly formed methods of protecting what remained of him from the torments of the Nilazi beings, in the form of unique mental barriers -- the Nilazi beings (DEMONS TOO) thrived on his feelings of loss

c) he came to believe the Nilazi beings had some foul purpose for him, the only reason he was allowed to exist/survive in their void; thus he remains paranoid about them finding and reclaiming him.

d) a swiss-cheese memory; after his eventual escape, he is profoundly amnesiac, and chose the name "Shasil" to go by -- he has no realization that the Muark are his people, although Verra recognizes him

When the Great Rift was opened by the Conclave & Muark, Tupuk was able to utilize this event to 'slip' planes -- rather than attempt a direct escape out via the rift, he used the event to move from Nilaz into Drov. From this point he began to recouperate and attempt to strengthen himself -- eventually allowing him to slip into Whira. When the Conclave was attempting to recover someone from the Nilaz lattice which was growing in Lanthil around this time, he used the opportunity (and their somewhat wayward magickal attempts) to use them to draw him into the Life plane at last.

Now he runs around the world trying to avoid being drawn back into Nilaz, re-establishing links to the other elemental planes, and being an extremely eccentric old not-quite-human magicking geezer. His methods are what one could describe as "preserving" -- not a defiler "bad guy" type, by any means. He has been known to pop in on people and sit down for a semi-philosophical chat, or occasionally teach them things, or simply wander by with a staff and no clothes.