Erevis Cale
Encyclopedia
Erevis Cale is a fictional character in the Forgotten Realms series of books, which are published by Wizards of the Coast
and based on the Forgotten Realms
campaign setting
for the Dungeons & Dragons
fantasy
role-playing game
. He is first introduced in a short story published in "Another Name For Dawn" (Dragon
#277), and then appears in the short story "Resurrection" in the collection that formed the first part of the Sembia series, The Halls of Stormweather.
Erevis's story is told in the fantasy
novel
s of Paul S. Kemp
, including The Halls of Stormweather, Shadows Witness, the Erevis Cale Trilogy, and the most recent trilogy The Twilight War.
. He is described as being tall, slender, and pale skinned with a shaved bald head. He normally wears leather armor and wields a longsword
. After Cale accepts the gift of the Fane of Shadows
, his pale skin becomes dusky gray. Wisps of smoke leak from his body, and he is always sheathed in shadow. His eyes also undergo a transformation, with the whites of them changed into black and the pupils changed into yellow. They glow in certain twilight.
Mask
. He is very faithful to his friends, though he frequently faces an internal struggle with his darker side.
, Paul Kemp once judged Erevis's character levels as:
Shade
- Rogue
6, Fighter
3, Cleric
of Mask 11, Divine Agent 2.
He is also the Chosen of Mask, which gives him powerful abilities that have not yet been fully explored.
. The abilities he has gained from being a Shade only function in areas of shadow or darkness; they include increased strength, the ability to heal rapidly, shadow walking (a form of short distance teleporting from shadow to shadow), and a regrown hand with superior strength that is only manifested in darkness. He can also create portals to the Plane of Shadows at his will. In addition to his Shade abilities, Erevis is a highly accomplished divine spellcaster. As the first chosen of Mask, he has access to Mask's full attention when casting spells, which has in the past bolstered his spells when facing uncommonly difficult enemies.
Before his new-found loyalty to Mask was formed, Erevis doubled as an assassin. The death of Thamalon marked the end of Erevis's service at the mansion, but not his loyalty to the rest of the family. He is especially protective of the second of Thamalon's children, with whom Erevis was once in love.
Erevis was once a primary rival of Drasek Riven for the attention of the leader of their assassins guild in Sembia. They both operated as the first and second Chosen of Mask, of which there where eventually be five. They have also been referred to as the right and left hands of Mask.
Erevis and Drasek completed a quest to steal back a portion of their god's essence, which was stolen by an evil half-god by the name of Kesson Rel (a previous Chosen of the now deceased god Mask)-bent on destroying all of Toril with the Shadowstorm - while at the same time attempting to stop the take over of all of Sembia by the Shadovar, an ancient race of Netherese dedicated to the worship of the goddess of the void, Shar.
Mask had stolen some power from Shar when he was born, and from that piece of Mask's, Kesson Rel stole a piece, and from that piece, Erevis Cale, Drasek Riven, and the shade Rivalen Tanthul split into three pieces amongst themselves. So in reality, they were only receiving a third of a piece of Shar's divinity, and that Shar and Mask's powers were the same.
Cale promised a portion of divine essence to both his god and to his adventuring companion's Archdevil father Mephistopheles. He made this arrangement in order to get back the missing half of Magadon's soul which was ripped from his friend's body. He was killed by Mephistopheles, when he made good on his promise. It is revealed in the end of the Twilight War series that Erevis had a son, which Mask had transported to the future to save, for reasons known only to himself.
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
and based on the Forgotten Realms
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
for the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. He is first introduced in a short story published in "Another Name For Dawn" (Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#277), and then appears in the short story "Resurrection" in the collection that formed the first part of the Sembia series, The Halls of Stormweather.
Erevis's story is told in the fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s of Paul S. Kemp
Paul S. Kemp
Paul S. Kemp is a fantasy author most known for his Forgotten Realms novels. Some examples of his work include Resurrection, the final installation of War of the Spider Queen series...
, including The Halls of Stormweather, Shadows Witness, the Erevis Cale Trilogy, and the most recent trilogy The Twilight War.
Appearance
Erevis is a humanHuman (Dungeons & Dragons)
Humans are a race available for player characters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although short-lived by comparison, humans are the most populous of all Dungeons & Dragons races. They are renowned for their diversity and ambition, and although they lack specializations like...
. He is described as being tall, slender, and pale skinned with a shaved bald head. He normally wears leather armor and wields a longsword
Longsword
The longsword is a type of European sword designed for two-handed use, current during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, approximately 1350 to 1550 .Longswords have long cruciform hilts with grips over 10 to 15 cm length The longsword (of which stems the variation called the bastard...
. After Cale accepts the gift of the Fane of Shadows
Fane of Shadows
The Fane of Shadows is a temple that journeys the worlds on the currents of the secret Weave, in the fictional setting of the Forgotten Realms campaign in Dungeons & Dragons. The place has many names in many tongues, and is also known as the Temple of Night or the Umbral Shrine...
, his pale skin becomes dusky gray. Wisps of smoke leak from his body, and he is always sheathed in shadow. His eyes also undergo a transformation, with the whites of them changed into black and the pupils changed into yellow. They glow in certain twilight.
Personality
Erevis is usually quick to anger and is more than happy to act out of revenge. When first introduced, he was scornful of religion, but over the course of the book Shadows Witness he found his faith in the Forgotten Realms deityDeity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
Mask
Mask (Forgotten Realms)
Mask is a fictional deity from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign setting. His portfolio includes Shadows and thievery. Mask is a Neutral Evil Intermediate Power whose symbol is a black velvet mask tinged with red...
. He is very faithful to his friends, though he frequently faces an internal struggle with his darker side.
Class
According to a post on his LiveJournalLiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
, Paul Kemp once judged Erevis's character levels as:
Shade
Shade (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, shades are humanoids who have merged with the essence of the Plane of Shadow. In Third Edition, a shade is created by applying a template to a humanoid creature.-Publication history:...
- Rogue
Rogue (Dungeons & Dragons)
The rogue or thief is one of the standard playable character class in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A rogue is a versatile character, capable of sneaky combat and nimble tricks...
6, Fighter
Fighter (Dungeons & Dragons)
The fighter is one of the standard playable character classes in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A fighter is a versatile, weapons-oriented warrior who fights using skill, strategy and tactics....
3, Cleric
Cleric (Dungeons & Dragons)
The cleric is one of the standard playable character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. In the game, clerics are versatile figures, both capable in combat and skilled in the use of divine magic. Clerics are powerful healers due to the large number of healing and curative...
of Mask 11, Divine Agent 2.
He is also the Chosen of Mask, which gives him powerful abilities that have not yet been fully explored.
Abilities, skills
Erevis Cale was an extremely proficient rogue and assassin before his transformation into a ShadeShade (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, shades are humanoids who have merged with the essence of the Plane of Shadow. In Third Edition, a shade is created by applying a template to a humanoid creature.-Publication history:...
. The abilities he has gained from being a Shade only function in areas of shadow or darkness; they include increased strength, the ability to heal rapidly, shadow walking (a form of short distance teleporting from shadow to shadow), and a regrown hand with superior strength that is only manifested in darkness. He can also create portals to the Plane of Shadows at his will. In addition to his Shade abilities, Erevis is a highly accomplished divine spellcaster. As the first chosen of Mask, he has access to Mask's full attention when casting spells, which has in the past bolstered his spells when facing uncommonly difficult enemies.
Weapons
Erevis's main weapon is a longsword called Weaveshear which can absorb magic spells. Weaveshear was only a slightly magical sword before Erevis sliced it through a rare and extremely powerful artifact, granting its absorbing effect.Biography
Erevis Cale was originally trained as a thief and assassin by an organisation called the Night Masks. However, when they were destroyed, he moved to Sembia and joined the Night Knives. This organization placed him in with the wealthy merchant Uskevren family as the head butler, a placement he created by murdering the previous butler, as a spy for potential thieving operations that may arise in the Uskevren estate. Because of the speed and intensity with which Erevis became friends with the patriarch of the Uskevren family, Thamalon, his loyalties split. He spent much of the decade that he worked for the Uskevren sending misinformation back to his guild and feeding them information about merchants other than the Uskevren themselves.Before his new-found loyalty to Mask was formed, Erevis doubled as an assassin. The death of Thamalon marked the end of Erevis's service at the mansion, but not his loyalty to the rest of the family. He is especially protective of the second of Thamalon's children, with whom Erevis was once in love.
Erevis was once a primary rival of Drasek Riven for the attention of the leader of their assassins guild in Sembia. They both operated as the first and second Chosen of Mask, of which there where eventually be five. They have also been referred to as the right and left hands of Mask.
Erevis and Drasek completed a quest to steal back a portion of their god's essence, which was stolen by an evil half-god by the name of Kesson Rel (a previous Chosen of the now deceased god Mask)-bent on destroying all of Toril with the Shadowstorm - while at the same time attempting to stop the take over of all of Sembia by the Shadovar, an ancient race of Netherese dedicated to the worship of the goddess of the void, Shar.
Mask had stolen some power from Shar when he was born, and from that piece of Mask's, Kesson Rel stole a piece, and from that piece, Erevis Cale, Drasek Riven, and the shade Rivalen Tanthul split into three pieces amongst themselves. So in reality, they were only receiving a third of a piece of Shar's divinity, and that Shar and Mask's powers were the same.
Cale promised a portion of divine essence to both his god and to his adventuring companion's Archdevil father Mephistopheles. He made this arrangement in order to get back the missing half of Magadon's soul which was ripped from his friend's body. He was killed by Mephistopheles, when he made good on his promise. It is revealed in the end of the Twilight War series that Erevis had a son, which Mask had transported to the future to save, for reasons known only to himself.
Anthologies
- Realms of War (edited by Philip AthansPhilip Athans-Biography:Philip Athans was born in 1964 in Rochester, New York, but was raised in Chicago. Athans grew up reading Marvel comics and Starlog magazines, and watching Star Trek...
) - The Halls of Stormweather (edited by Philip Athans, February 2007, 978-0-7869-4244-2)
Sembia: Gateway to the Realms
- "Shadow's Witness" (Paul S. Kemp, April 2007, 978-0-7869-4244-2)
The Erevis Cale Trilogy
- Twilight Falling (Paul S. Kemp, July 2003, 0-7869-2998-7)
- Dawn of Night (Paul S. Kemp, June 2004, 0-7869-3225-2)
- Midnight's Mask (Paul S. Kemp, November 2005, 0-7869-3643-6)
The Twilight War
- Shadowbred (Paul S. Kemp, November 2006, 0-7869-4077-8)
- Shadowstorm (Paul S. Kemp, September 2007, 978-0-7869-4304-3)
- Shadowrealm (Paul S. Kemp, December 2008, 978-0-7869-4863-5)