#cursed alchemist || jarik

[cavasmortem]

Jarik, the alchemist

Jarik Sjöberg was the alchemist responsible for Cullrik’s creation. He lived in the early 17th century in a village in northern Sweden, near a vast forest. He had two younger sisters, Linnéa and Juni, and an older brother, Peder. His family name was “cursed” with misfortune; each Sjöberg was fated to disappear or die in terrible ways. For this reason, Jarik developed an intense fear of death. This fear only worsened as he grew up and watched his family members disappear one by one around him.

His youngest sister, Linnéa, died when she was nine and he was 12. She fell through the ice in a frozen lake. His brother, father (Hans), and uncle (Greger), died when he was 14. Wolves killed some of their sheep, and they went into the woods to hunt them, only to fall prey to the creatures themselves. His mother, Susann, vanished when he was 17. She went to fetch water from the river and never returned.

Jarik and his other sister, Juni, went to live with their grandparents, Sven and Wilma. Sven died from a heart attack on Jarik’s 18th birthday. Feeling as though he was somehow responsible for Sven’s death, Jarik ran away. He moved into their old family cabin in the woods and decided to live there on his own. He refused to return to Wilma and Juni.

Jarik took on a job as a shoemaker’s apprentice in the village to earn money. He was quiet and withdrawn, silently struggling with his constant fear that the curse would catch up with him. He rarely visited his sister and grandmother. He interpreted the fact they were still alive as encouragement to stay away from them. Perhaps, he thought, tragedy would only strike if they were together.

He discovered alchemy when he was 19 in one of his father’s old books. He became fascinated with the subject and sought out more and more knowledge, traveling to nearby villages to find books to study and tools to practice the craft. He always returned to his cabin to live in solitude. Although self-taught, he was diligent in his studies and practice and gained remarkable skill in alchemy over the years.

Meanwhile, his grandmother passed away from old age. His sister continued living in the village. Jarik’s fear that tragedy would inevitably strike down either him or his sister at some point turned into a sense of dread. Rather than fading as time passed, this dread sharpened. His fear began to overwhelm him.

Plagued with uncertainty that kept him scared and sleepless, he resorted to årsgång (year walking) when he was 26, an ancient form of Swedish divination. He walked through the winter forest one night, seeking reassurance they would escape the curse. Instead, he glimpsed a vision of his own death. The vision foretold he had less than a year to live.

Terrified, Jarik put all his time and energy into finding a way to prevent his own death. He found a means of gaining immortality in one of his alchemy books; a forbidden, dangerous experiment. Deciding any chance at surviving longer was better than none, he began preparing for the experiment. It needed to take place on the night of winter solstice, a time associated with death and rebirth. It required an animal sacrifice. He chose a black ram.

When he finally tried the experiment, something went terribly wrong. His soul splintered, and a himortuus came into existence from the ashes. The prophetic vision was self-fulfilling. At the same time, he succeeded in gaining immortality in a twisted sense. His splintered soul lived on in the himortuus.

[cavasmortem]

The thing about Jarik when I was first developing him was like, “okay, he’s proud, defensive, secretive, self-destructive, a workaholic, isolated, and eccentric,” and then now it’s just “yes, those are still true to an extent, but he’s also scared.” And that isn’t an excuse for his isolating behavior; it’s a partial explanation. Like, I genuinely want him to be happy. He’s thoughtful, ambitious, diligent, conscientious, and determined. And he does care about his family, he just expresses his compassion in a different way because of his nervousness about the “curse.” He has the potential for greatness. He just has trouble not letting his fear and uncertainty overwhelm him.

[cavasmortem]

Jarik’s immortality experiment started consuming him long before it was even finished. His hands, for one, started turning an unnatural pitch black, which spread down his wrists and crept up his arms more and more the longer he continued to work — the same pitch black color as Cull is now. This also happened with his feet and legs. He also gradually felt less tired, even though he was losing more and more sleep. Himortua have no need for sleep.

In a sense, the alchemist saw his fate coming long before it caught up with him. But he continued working anyways, so desperate to escape fate that he willfully ignored the warnings of what would happen in the end. He bandaged his hands to hide the damage on the rare occasion he went into town. He kept the bandages on as often as possible, even alone in the cabin, so he wouldn’t have to look at it.

His death, forseen in his year-walking vision, truly was self-fulfilling. It was only in the moment of terror before his soul splintered that Jarik truly realized what had happened, and what he had done.

[cavasmortem]

𝐭𝐚𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞

[cavasmortem]

Tagged by: seen on @funontherox Tagging: anyone who wants to try!

NAME: Callus Cull ALIAS: Cullrik, Cull AGE: over 400; physique-wise, his alchemist (Jarik) died when he was 27 SPECIES: himortua (hollow god)

PERSONAL ! MORALITY:  lawful /   neutral   /  chaotic   /   good   /  neutral  /   evil (depends on perspective)  /   true. RELIGION: indifferent; technically atheist. SINS:   greed   /   gluttony   /   sloth   /   lust   / pride  /  envy  /   wrath VIRTUES:  chastity   /   charity /   diligence   /   humility   /   kindness  /   patience  /   justice KNOWN LANGUAGES:  English, Swedish, some Latin. SECRETS: he cannot experience the same true fear as humans, but in terms of what he can experience, he fears death and his own existence. he also envies humans and other creatures who can experience genuine joy, though he will fiercely deny this.

PHYSICAL ! BUILD:  scrawny  /   bony   / slender  /   fit  /   athletic /   curvy   /  herculean  /  pudgy  /  average. HEIGHT: 6'4’’ SCARS   /   BIRTHMARKS: no distinct scars, but his right horn was broken off ABILITIES   /   POWERS: soul consumption; soul (presence) sensing; quick healing/regenerative ability; traveling between worlds ( ‘veil-stepping’; mostly beyond his control, but he can travel in and out of Nulcin at will); essentially immortal. RESTRICTIONS: must consume at least one human soul (or its equivalent in animal souls) each month to sustain his form; can sense the presence of souls, but cannot sense their nature (whether they are human, animal, etc.); completely color-blind (greyscale vision); cannot feel genuine joy or other positive emotions, and the rest of his emotions are limited to shallow echoes of human feelings.

FAVOURITES ! FOOD: cannot taste normal food, so unless souls count, not applicable; if he could taste, he would like swedish pancakes (with lignonberries), crisp bread (knäckebröd), and perhaps steak. DRINK: does not drink anything (like with food, he can technically consume drinks, but he cannot taste them, so he considers it pointless); if he could taste anything, he would like ice water and lavender tea. PIZZA TOPPING: not applicable COLOUR: black, grey, white (he can’t see colors; personally, I also associate him with garnet red and purple-blue, the color of forget-me-nots) MUSIC GENRE: classical (piano in particular) BOOK GENRE: horror, mystery MOVIE GENRE: indifferent SEASON: winter CURSE WORD: doesn’t curse SCENT(S): he cannot truly smell, but in terms of smells I associate him with: freezing air (that accompanies snowfall), lavender, and pine trees

FUN STUFF ! BOTTOM OR TOP:  not applicable SINGS IN THE SHOWER:  not applicable (no) LIKES PUNS: no, he finds most of them intolerable

[cavasmortem]

Do you have any NPCs for your muse’s world or story? If yes, can you tell us something about them?

asks for oc writers - accepting

Yes, I have a few! The main one is the alchemist who (accidentally) created Cullrik (i.e. the original owner of Cull’s splintered soul). I’ll actually be posting a longer backstory for the alchemist very soon. He has more of a concrete and significant past than Cull himself. I’ll likely make him a minor muse on this blog soon as well. For now, in terms of sharing a fact about him, I’ll say that the alchemist had an intense fear of dying (thanatophobia, or death anxiety).