Need a character background written up?

[Tawmis]

Alright, got a bit of an exotic one for you this time:
An Aetherborn (extremely short-lived creature made by an accident of magic, from Plane Shift: Kaladesh) that was accidentally pulled into the world by a Planar Ranger, now is a Celestial Warlock. I want to really encapsulate their racial hedonism, short-lived aspect, and find a good patron for them, I was thinking something phoenix-thematic. Do you think you can help with this one? If it's too exotic, that's alright. Continue being your wonderful self. :)

Knowing NOTHING about Magic The Gathering, or the Aetherborn, or their entire world and how it was all set up...
Made this one of the most challenging ones to date. The PDF you linked was VERY useful; and I borrowed from things said in there to put it into the story (not only for myself) but for anyone else who might not be familiar. I wanted to explain that world (for as much as I managed to understand it from the PDF). I didn't start my "Writing Clock" until I finished reading the PDF to begin writing this background.
That said, because it was SUCH a challenge, I really, really loved doing it. I wanted to see if I could write something I was COMPLETELY unfamiliar with and make it ... make sense!
And then being able to do a little nod to some other backgrounds (Bar'garius)... AND find a way to tie in a PHOENIX ... AND explain how you become a Celestial Warlock...
It was a rough journey not knowing what I was writing and wondering if it was going to come out...
But I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy it, and actually, kind of like how it came out...
Hope it works for you - please be honest if you don't like it! I'd love constructive criticism if that's the case!
Or if you like it - please tell me too!
Enjoy!
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When all you are given in this thing called “life” is a fleeting moment, there is no time to worry about the past or even the future. The past has already happened and cannot be changed while the future may not exist beyond this moment; the present; the now.

I am what they call Aetherborn; alive, for lack of a better word, due to the Aether refinement process. If you find yourself asking what Aether is, allow me to elaborate. Aether is a form of volatile magical energy that fills the space between the various planes of existence; seeping its way into where I was born, Kaladesh.

An inventor by the name of Avaati Vya developed a way to refine this chaotic energy called Aether into a form of very potent and safe fuel.

One day I did not exist then the next moment, I did and immediately could sense my own self being torn apart; the Aether that composed my body disintegrating to return back to the heavens and repeat the cycle of being refined once more. Though we possess humanoid characteristics; we do not need to eat, sleep, and have no sexual characteristics.

Now, because I said we do not eat, sleep or have any sexual characteristics, does not mean we don’t enjoy them. Our lives as I said are fleetingly short but rather than be sad about it, we tend to find as much enjoyment as we can out of every second of every moment.

I just happen to be returning from one of those moments of hedonism; a local brothel run by the Renegades (but make no mistake, gets plenty of visits from Consulates). It was here where I enjoyed the restless company of both male and females, since I have no gender of my own; I simply embrace the pleasure brought by both. Part of that hedonism is the “drug” called Bio-Aether. It’s essentially what Avaati Vya did to make Aether fuel, but more compressed; and when released, deeply inhaled which heightens the body’s sensitivity to everything where even the most gentle whisper was sheer ecstasy throughout the entire body.

I was cutting through the same alleyway I always did when someone collided into me just as I rounded the corner, sending me flying backwards.

I remember falling.

And falling.

And falling.

Then the impact of ground.

Hot, coarse sand.

How? I was in the middle of the city? There was no sand for miles?

That was my thought just before the wind was knocked out of me, or the equivalent for an Aetherborn and I lost consciousness.

I opened my eyes and gasped as I sat up. Nothing looked familiar. As I slowly lifted myself to my feet and tried to get my barring I began to notice the sky looked vastly different; even the air – the air itself tasted different. I looked at my hands and waited to see… waited… waited… The energy… the Aether… it wasn’t seeping off of me. I looked around again, more confused than ever.

My state of mind had been in a drastically altered state from the Bio-Aether drug I had inhaled; tracing my memory back was nearly impossible. I sat on the hot ground, in the middle of this barren wasteland and tried to find myself. I peered inside of my mind, moving through the mist and haze; the bodies tangled together, the passion, the contact, the experience; I moved forward, down the stairs, walking; hood over my head, covering my eyes; I kept walking; walking; the alleyway, the gear-cat; kept walking, rounded the corner; a man, dressed in green leathers, a sword in his hand, shouted a name, “Bar’garius!” Then there was a flash of light behind me; a portal? The man collided into me; sending us both falling.

I wandered for days, watching the searing sun rise and set. I couldn’t tell if I was walking in circles in this wasteland; at times I could have sworn I was walking over my own tracks from just hours ago. Everything about this place was distorting and confusing. Wandering aimlessly was nothing short of Hades, when all I knew was constant pleasure. I was wasting precious moments of my life.

I do not need to eat or drink but the sun’s relentless heat can have a bearing on my mental stability. I say that because suddenly the sun moved out of the sky and began to speak to me.

“You are not from this Plane,” the voice said, the sphere of fire spinning in circles in front of me.

“Where am I,” I asked the sun.

“You are on Faerûn, Stranger in a Strangerland,” the fiery sun replied. “Where do you hail from, stranger?”

“I am from Kaladesh, from a town just outside of Ghirapur,” I replied.

“I sense that before you came here you were dying,” the sun noted aloud.

“I was,” I confessed, “but that is the way of the Aetherborn. Our lives are short.”

“And now, cut from your world, that which had made you, and had been killing you, has been cut,” the mysterious sun observed.

“It would seem so,” I nodded.

“You were reborn,” the sun seemed amused, “in fire.” The sun suddenly burst and took the form of an enormous fiery bird in the sky. “I am a Phoenix. I symbolize Rebirth, such as what you have experienced. It would seem, at one time, you were forged in this Aether that I sense at the edge of your mind; a form of magic that birthed you and began destroying you. What if I offered to bind you to my magic, where you would not wither, but rather, continue to be strengthened and reborn anew here in Faerûn?”

“At what price to me,” I asked.

“Only that you will bind your magic with mine, and become my weapon on this mortal plane,” the Phoenix replied.

The fiery bird continued to watch me as I pondered this before sighing, “I accept your offer.”

The Phoenix changed into a massive arrow and seemed to pierce my body, once again, sending me into blackness. When I awoke, I was on the edge of the desert wasteland, near a wonderful lake. Apparently, for having touched the corner of my mind, the Phoenix did not realize I do not need water. However, bathing in the cool, refreshing spring felt nice.

As I dried myself off, I could feel it in my body; it was energized with energy and magic like I’d never felt before.

I had been… reborn.