Za’karStudent of the Scroll

Za’kar – Student of the Scroll

A Lionfolk that was purchased as a slave by a Sudd Tohsti scholar. Za’kar was one of the few of his kin that could read and write, and was thus used as a scribe and translator, until his freedom was brought about with the untimely end of his master. Chance would then bring Za’kar to the University of Canos after, as the institution desperately sought students after Dragonblight tore through its ranks. He is the only one of his kind to ever attend there, and may be the only one for decades, if not centuries more.

Za’kar, in his homeland, was considered an archivist. A record keeper used to chronicle the tales of his people, be they mundane or grand. When his clan was defeated, and he was sold into slavery far across the sea, Za’kar was appointed as a scribe and translator by his scholarly master. Many of the pieces he wrote were spell scrolls, learning to imbue them with Minera’s Breath just as any masterful scribe might. Whilst his position was as a slave, he was treated more akin to a loyal servant, having his own quarters separate from the other slaves, and eating the same meals as the servants themselves, much to the contempt of the labouring slaves that worked the fields. Still, it did not spare him from the whip in the times that his works were brought in late, or he erred in his writings.

Fortune would smile upon Za’kar, however, for the social hierarchy within the lawless lands of Sudd Tohst is turbulent at best. For five years he served under his master, until he was slain in a petty feud with a rival scholar, who razed his estate and took many of the slaves for himself. When he saw Za’kar among them, he saw no need to bring another scribe into his midst, nor trusted the beastman, and left him to perish in the sun-beatan savannah. Za’kar endured, however. The savannah was not unlike his home in Zandoriel. For the first time in years, he was free, unchained, and journeyed north through the desert, in hopes he might find sea. In Dornat Al Karit, he instead found two professors of the University of Canos, who had journey afar in search of students following the suffering Draksborne had endured in Dragonblight.

The pair were fascinated by Za’kar, offering him a place at their University, in exchange for his services as a scroll scrawler. Whilst he was hesitant at first to accept such a role, and return to the same life he had only just escaped, he now did so by his own will. So he pays his tuition in services rendered for the University, spending each evening translating and inscribing spell scrolls in the Library. A year on, he has become accustomed to life at the University; even the gawking stares. Whilst those within the University tolerate him and his novelty, those in the city beyond are more frightened of the Lion-man than anything.