Tarlu Uitlender

[Unka_Oogie]

First Name: Tarlu
Last Name: Uitlender

Appearance:
Race: Human
Age: 25
Height Ordinary
Weight: Ordinary
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Long, single braid.
Facial Hair Style: Beard, combed but otherwise natural.

Personality Profile:
General Health: Excellent
Deity: Ilmater
Initial Alignment: Lawful Good
Profession: Enforcer for Ilmater.
Base Class & Proposed Development: Monk, taking up Cleric and Sacred Fist.
Habits/Hobbies: Wanders and people-watches. Does frequent taverns but does not have strong drink. Many days he is at the temple of Ilmater, doing laundry, cleaning, lifting. Prone to healing people without warning (but those kits can be pricey).
Languages: Common, Cormish, Mulhorand.
Weapon of Choice: Empty Hand

Background: When he was quite young, he accompanied his merchant father from Mulhorand to the barbaric and outlandish West, through Cormyr, all the way to Baldur’s Gate. Baldur’s Gate being what it is, his father was killed and he was left an orphan. He quickly learned to put his background to use, becoming quite adept at “negotiation”. Of course, talking didn’t always work, so he got to be good with his fists. After one attempted scam went sour, he was locked up and sentenced to convict labor. As fate would have it, the labor turned out to be scut work for the priests of the Triad, who assigned him to Ilmater’s shrine. Unlike most of the other convicts, Tarlu didn’t harbor any resentment, it was regular food and a safe place to sleep. If his “freedom” was limited, that wasn’t really any different from living on the street, where he had no freedom, either, just a slave to barely eking out a living.
He probably would have served his sentence and been released had he not witnessed a strong-arm robbery. He had always been protective of the weaker street urchins, and his health and strength had increased greatly under the plain but plentiful fare of Ilmater. Before the priest could stop him, he’d sprung across the street and delivered a beating to the would-be thief.
The priest dashed over and was about to put a stop to it when he was caught up short. Tarlu was not only handily defeating the miscreant but was also delivering a sermon on suffering and mercy. The boy had been listening. The priest took Tarlu to the temple of Tyr so a decision could be made. Tarlu was subject to several examinations.
The boy wasn’t suitable to be a paladin. While he understood the necessity of law, he also was prone to skirting it for a “greater law”. Likewise, he was too prone to that whole “thinking” thing and had no more leadership potential than a greengrocer. While he certainly had the insight that would make a good priest, he had an obvious need to give physical expression to his devotion. It was decided that he would become one of the monks of Ilmater. Some adherents of Ilmater hold that mercy at times has to include defense, not of the self, but of others. Putting one’s own life at risk for the sake of others, even in physical combat, is as merciful an act as powerful healing magic. Of course, doing so quietly, without relying on weapons or magic, is to be preferred. Tarlu was sent away for training.
This happened about six years ago. He has now returned to Baldur’s Gate.

Goals: To become a priest and a sacred fist. Eventually, to found a chapterhouse/orphanage that will attract those who wish to help the helpless but aren’t suitable for the more conventional outlets of paladinhood or regular priesthood. He doesn’t see it as being free-standing. He is thinking along the lines of an auxiliary to some extant organization.
He also wants to find out where he’s from. He can speak Mulhorand, but all he can remember is bits and pieces from a childhood that is far away. He doesn’t even know if “Uitlender” is his actual family name or just a mispronunciation of “outlander”.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts: Tarlu is the most relentlessly cheerful monk that anyone has the misfortune to meet. Those who don’t know him often decide he’s remarkably sarcastic. Those who come to know him realize he’s far worse--he really is as chipper and chirpy as he seems to be. Nothing seems to get through his thick, happy skull about the misery of life. Then he will look you in the face, smile broadly, and say something like “Life is simple. You are born. You suffer. You die. Thus, happiness.” Since he hasn’t been booted from the temple, at least somebody thinks there’s a use to seeing the bright side of anything.
He is currently known to the temples of Ilmater, Torm, and Tyr. Known as a juvenile delinquent, a thief, a con-man, a troublemaker, chronically workshy, flippant, and disrespectful. After all, that is what was written about him by the court that sentenced him. However many years ago it was written might or might not matter. Even though he managed to satisfy the monastery that trained him, he’s still essentially “on probation” within the Baldur’s Gate temple--this guy is a monk? If there’s a problem, he’s on the short list to blame. If there’s a favor, he’s last in line to get it. His irritating cheerfulness doesn’t help. He appeals to the temple? They toss him a mop.
To make social interaction with him even more frustrating, Tarlu’s “naughtiness” and cheerfulness are a direct result of having embraced emptiness and nothingness. As a child, an orphan and foreigner, he became a convicted criminal and was shipped off to a monastery under a god he really didn’t know a thing about. So he learned: strive for stillness. The suffering of others disturbs stillness. A death too soon disturbs stillness. Thus, to preserve life and ameliorate suffering is to spread stillness. Eventually, when there is no suffering and no sorrow, all shall be still and all shall be nothing. Only the void of emptiness shall exist, and then there shall be true happiness. Those who destroy only disturb stillness. Laughter annihilates grief. Love annihilates loneliness. Building annihilates want. Comfort annihilates desire. It is the clown, the lover, builder, and the comforter who will bring about true universal annihilation, and only then will there be peace of the soul.
So love, laugh, dance, and be at peace, for peace is the way to nothingness.

[DM Golem]

Reviewed, pending answering of (minor) questions for reward

[DM Golem]

Approved, XP Pending