- **Race/Class:** Human/Dhampir Cleric of [[Saenrae]] - **Born:** _Unknown_ ([[Geb]] records are… inconsistent) - **Status:** (_Alive- to his parents’ continued disappointment_) - **Faith:** **Sarenrae, the Dawnflower** (_Chosen. Slowly. Deliberately._) - **Alignment:** _He tries not to think in those terms._ - **Height/Build:** Average height, lean build (_learned early how to take up less space than expected_) - **Overview:** Zephrael was born in the small coastal city of [[Sallowshore]], in [[Geb]], to [[Aurelian Calderon]] and [[Roselyn Calderon]]. His earliest memories are orderly ones: contracts signed, guests received, business conducted without haste. That sense of order ended the night he witnessed his parents casually murder a human family for sustenance during what was, to them, a routine transaction in the foyer of their manor. There was no anger, no urgency, only familiarity. Zeph fled that night and never returned home. He survived because [[Bonewick]] took him in. Operating out of [[Sallowshore]] under the quiet authority of [[Skab]], alongside [[Penny]], [[Rattle]], and [[Chalk]], the undead goblin crew lived by theft, courier work, smuggling, and violence kept deliberately *small*. When Zeph was young, he blended in easily; as he grew older and taller, he became harder to hide. [[Bonewick]] adapted... They taught him [[Necril]] and sent him farther afield, assigning him work in [[Mechitar]] where his ability to pass among the living made him valuable. At twenty-eight, Zeph was contracted to steal a shipment of unique and ancient blood from the docks of [[Mechitar]] for a set of vampire clients. When he delivered the cargo, he found his parents waiting for it. He abandoned the shipment, fled the city, and severed all ties with [[Geb]], [[Sallowshore]], and the Bonewick crew that had raised him. He did not explain himself. He did not ask forgiveness. He simply left. He traveled north to [[Sothis]] in [[Osirion]], where over the course of several years he converted to the faith of [[Saenrae]]. His devotion was not immediate and never effortless, but it endured. In time, he became a respected cleric and quietly devoted his work and earnings to sustaining a small orphanage known as [[The Children of the Dawnflower]]. The effort was not an attempt to erase his past, but to ensure that survival would not depend on cruelty or coincidence. At thirty-seven, messengers from [[Geb]] found him. His parents, aware that he still lived, demanded his return and offered to turn him into a full vampire, binding him into their blood trade empire. Zeph refused. He said farewell to the clergy of [[Saenrae]] in [[Sothis]] and fled again, carrying only the tools of his former life in [[Bonewick]] and the clothes on his back. He crossed the [[Inner Sea]] to [[Qadira]], traveled for a full year by foot and caravan across [[Casmaron]], crossed by boat to [[Goka]] in [[Tian Xia]], and spent what little coin remained to be taken as far inland as possible. He ultimately settled in [[Willowshore]], in [[Shenmen]], renting a small room on the third floor of a modest building. The distance was intentional. The obscurity was deliberate. Zephrael did not flee in search of peace, but to place enough world between himself and [[Geb]] that the past would have to work to reach him.