Note that much of the stuff you’ll see in this profile will be better explained once you understand his race. Tharfor, I recommend reading the “Race” section first, as much of the terminology in this will only be explained down there. Man, I love Treeworms.
Name: UZ (That’s pronounced “ooze”, if you were wondering!)
Age: 27 years young.
Race: Treeworm (See “Race” below)
Sex: Manly man.
Hair: No hair.
Eyes: Since treeworms don’t have Irises, white w/black pupil.
Weight: 95 pounds. (Or 5 lb. per foot of body length, plus the head, about average.)
Height: 16 feet long (2.5 feet are normally out of his hole.)
Weapon: None in the normal sense, as he does not carry any weapons with him. His usual weapon lies in the landscape surrounding him. Due to his enhanced TPP, (compared to the other worms his age) he can wield normal objects from 10-20 feet away from him at most, although he cannot lift more than 45 pounds, (40 pounds is a stretch for him) as he has little strength for one with such well toned TPP, due to his still being considerably young. He also can wield some basic magic.
Strengths: UZ has incredibly good hearing, and can detect slight discrepancies in any sound, making him incredibly difficult to be snuck up on. UZ, being a treeworm, has TPP and all the advantages that comes with it, as well as being able to withstand sword and arrow attacks using a quick contraction of all his muscles. He also obviously has no bones, so trying to crush him will not be nearly as effective as it would on any other race.
Weakness: UZ cannot use his TPP to his full advantage if he cannot concentrate, which effectively removes all of his ability in battle. Being a treeworm, he is rather susceptible to most elemental spells, since he wears no armor. If he is crushed long enough (around 5 minutes), he goes unconscious due to a lack of blood flowing through his body. If he is tricked into using a spell or forced into battle after using all of them for the day, he cannot regain any magic back. And, obviously, if he is on a barren battlefield with nothing there to speak of, he can’t very well wield any objects to fight with, can he?
UZ also has an incredibly acute case of Belonephobia, the fear of needles. If he gets even remotely close to a needle, he begins to break down in fear, losing all concentration and making it almost impossible to use his TPP or spells. (His muscles are totally contracted at this time, making swordplay almost ineffective, however.) If he is actually stabbed by a needle, he goes numb and it takes him a few minutes to regain his composure.
Skills/Magic: UZ has access to only a few basic spells, and can only cast 5 spells a day, due to his never finishing magic training. Slowly, his magic skills are evolving themselves without training, and he is getting better at using stronger magic more often. He is, however, forever stuck with the 4 spells he knows now, without the aid of a proper mage to teach him new ones. To cast a spell, he utters the name of it while concentrating. High concentration isn’t required, just enough for him to focus enough on exactly what he wants the spell to do and where he’ll aim it. The 4 spells are as follows:
* Blaze: Blaze is one of the most basic fire spells ever seen. It simply releases a small orb of flame (about the size of a ping-pong ball) and sends it quickly flying at the opponent, causing small burns at the point of impact. Since the impact point is so concentrated, it will do a decent amount of damage to the hit area, and will easily cause 3rd degree burns. However, UZ loses control of the orb after releasing it and cannot guide it, making this an easy attack to dodge.
* Haste: Haste is a speed spell which only affects the caster, and cannot be cast on anybody but UZ. (So he could not, for instance, hit a friend with it to give him a speed boost.) It allows UZ to move himself 2 times faster than before. The difference may be small, but it is an ample amount of speed if you happen to be chasing someone with nearly the same speed as you or to dodge an arrow coming at you. In UZ’s perspective, he is moving the exact same speed as he was before, but everyone else is slower. This makes it so he can maneuver himself as well as he could without the spell. He can call off the spell at any time, and it wears off naturally after 3 minutes of use.
* Quake: Opens a 1 foot x 1 foot hole (up to 12 feet deep) in the ground anywhere UZ wishes, providing it is within sight of where UZ is. The hole takes about 2 seconds to open, so if someone is getting it opened beneath them, they have just enough time to jump out of the way if they aren’t distracted. The ground makes a soft crack when it is opening. The hole will automatically close up after 10 minutes, and UZ cannot reduce nor extend the open time. So if someone is stuck in the hole and does not get out before 10 minutes has passed, they will be buried alive. It is not a perfectly smooth hole, so the person has a chance to climb out if they are able to grip what handholds there may be. The hole takes the same amount of time to close as it does to open, and it refills itself with dirt during the process.
* Heal: A healing move, and the spell that UZ is least proficient with. This can heal minor scratches and scrapes, but not deep wounds. It can also stop bleeding. It is also only able to be concentrated on a 1 foot area or smaller. So it would require UZ 3 spells in order to heal his entire out-of-hole body if it was all injured. This spell CAN be cast on others, but it slightly loses its potential when cast on anyone but UZ, as his skill with the spell is severely limited. This is the spell that UZ works on improving himself in the most.
Appearance: UZ is (at first appearance) a 2.5-3 foot tall orange Treeworm with no hair. He is about 2/3 of a foot wide at his body, with a 1.5 foot long head. About 2 feet down his body, a large yellow spot in the shape of a 2 pronged lightning bolt can be seen. He wears no clothing or armor, and almost always has a sarcastic smirk on his face. He has large eyes which take up almost 2/3 of his entire head. Almost 1/3 of the eye is made up of the large black pupil, which almost never changes size.
Picture: My current siggie has a pretty good picture of him in it.
Personality: UZ is a somewhat shy treeworm, who dislikes having too many people around. He is a decent conversationalist when he’s talking one on one with someone, or in a small group of 3 or 4, but when a large group is talking; he rarely chimes in to the conversation, simply listening in. UZ does have the willpower to not speak for days if the need never arises, yet can talk for hours on end if he is in a particularly good bout of conversation. He quickly makes friends when he talks to people, due to his engaging and witty style of conversing.
UZ enjoys music, so much that he has gotten an amazing sense of hearing out of it. He plays a green wood-stained mandolin that he keeps inside his hole. He often somewhat jokingly refers to the Mandolin as if it was a real person, and he has named it “Beatrice”. He is the only treeworm known to play the Mandolin. His skill with Beatrice makes him one of the greatest non-human or elf players of the instrument in the history of music, and some musicians actually consider him a virtuoso. He spends at least 1 hour a day with Beatrice, although his practice sessions can stretch to 6 or even 7 hours if he is feeling the music. UZ refers to Beatrice as his “one true love”, which is somewhat true, due to his lack of feminine companionship.
UZ is against the human/treeworm rift that has kept the 2 species apart, and actually enjoys human company more than most treeworms would, although he does occasionally make fun of their policies and abilities as a species. UZ considers himself somewhat of an ambassador for the Treeworms, and as such tries to make friends with all species if possible. He is a pessimist, and sees the darker side of most situations, often out loud, much to the dismay and annoyance of his companions. He almost always talks with a small hint of sarcasm on his words, and utilizes dry and sometimes dark humor in even the grimmest situations, again often to the annoyance of his compadres. Impressions are another specialty of UZ, and he can imitate a wide variety of accents with flawless accuracy.
UZ does enjoy a good fight, although it isn’t really a daily desire of his. He sees battle as a place to enhance his always growing powers, and a chance to a have a bit of fun whilst doing so. His battle strategy is to always keep moving unless he is setting up an attack. He is also the type to exchange witty (or hell, even non-witty) banter with his opponent, even if the fight is to the death. UZ’s entire motto on life is “Just for the fun of it”.
Race: The Treeworm is an old and odd species that began evolving around the same time as man. The original treeworms were strange animals that hardly resembled the modern animals. Treeworms were set apart from other species in that they were born with innate psychic powers and the ability to access other dimensions. Soon, some worms figured out that to better survive; they could use the powers to hide themselves in other dimensions entirely. Evolution kept the ones with the strongest powers alive, breeding, and furthering ideas of how best to survive until eventually the modern Treeworm was born.
Treeworms are normally between 13 and 20 feet long, and normally weigh around 75 to 110 pounds, depending on their length. Treeworms have no bones, and other than organs and teeth, are consisted entirely of muscle. Each foot of body contains around 3-5 pounds of muscle, while the head contains around 10. They can contract this muscle incredibly tight to make themselves hard as a rock, which is their only natural form of defense. They have somewhat thick skin (almost 5 cm thick) which insulates their entire body from both heat and cold, keeping their internal temperatures regulated. They all have some sort of spot on their body about 2 to 3 feet down their body, which normally is an indicator to where the worm will feel most comfortable in its hole. Exceptions are rare.
Treeworms have immense psychic powers. They can manipulate objects just as if they had hands and arms, (Think Homestar Runner) and can do it from quite a good distance away from the objects. Most humans and treeworms refer to this psychic power as “TPP”, which rather boringly stands for “Treeworm Psychic Power”. TPP in all treeworms is rather weak and can only grab small objects from a few feet away at a young age. It grows with the treeworm. Some worms master the use of their TPP so they can do things most worms wouldn’t dream of, such as moving huge boulders and collapsing walls. All treeworms live in an odd dimensional hole. The hole leads into a separate dimension, (each Treeworm has their own) where the entire body of the treeworm sits in a dark matter that keeps them upright. The hole ends in the material world at the same point where it begins, meaning that the worm can sit anywhere, including on top of someone, and the hole will not interfere with the world around it. The hole also moves with the treeworm due to a process the Treeworm itself initiates that is as natural and innate to the Treeworm as blinking is to humans.
Treeworms learned to speak all manner of languages through observation of other species speaking at the beginning of their evolution. Thus, most well educated treeworms know several languages, although English and Elvish are the most common for them to learn. Treeworms have never created a language of their own. Treeworms also come in several colors. Genetics seemingly have no effect on what color the children are born as. In fact, it seems to be entirely random, but some do occur more than others, the most common ones being orange, red, and green. No treeworm has ever been black, and white ones are extremely rare.
Only about 4000 treeworms compose the species at any time, thus most Treeworms know each other, even the ones who are across the globe. Treeworms breed only every 100 years, thus they must have a long life span. An average treeworm lives 250 years, although some have lived 400 or longer. Mating takes place on the first day of the year every hundred years and involves a process that I’m not going to get into right now, ‘cuz that’s kinda icky. Eggs are produces after the… um… mating, (normally 1-4 eggs per mating session occur) which take anywhere from 2 months to 6 years to hatch. Legend among treeworms is that if the child is born quickly, he will be a fighter, and if he is born later, he will be an intellectual.
Treeworm culture has generally been loose, interesting and almost happy-go-lucky. They often name their children obscure, strange and humorous names like E-Unit, El-Jonno, and PoX. All treeworms are run by the same king, who is chosen through a vote every 50 years. Treeworms are traditionally skilled in all manner of different subjects, and the species has given out many amazing artists, mages, and writers. Most of these topics were originally introduced to the worms through human culture, and the worms continued and often improved the human methods over the years. Treeworm digestive systems are very resistant, and thus they can stomach all kinds of food from all cultures. Treeworms main diets consist of special leaves found on trees that the worms build their colonies on. The leaves are edible by humans as well, and are starting to find their way into human cooking.
Treeworms are considered children until age 10, when their education begins. They are equally educated in many areas of study until age 20; when what they call “Internship” begins. At age 20, treeworms are expected to pick 1 or 2 different areas of study they are interested in mastering, and are given a “master” that specializes in the area or areas picked. Until age 30, they are trained in those areas exclusively, and are also taught the arts of battle. At age 30, they are considered a full adult treeworm, and can continue and do as they please with their life using the knowledge they have gained.
Treeworms and humans traditionally have had a good relationship between species, although one event changed that. A group of human scientists captured and killed 16 treeworms in a vain attempt to find out more about the creatures. This caused an enormous riff in the relationship between the species, although many humans and some treeworms do not agree with the problems that said riff is causing. Even so, both species fear war between the man and worms, even though the chances of that ever happening are miniscule. Groups of Anti-Treeworm humans formed afterwards, as well as anti-human worms, only furthering the fury. Some treeworms are being broken off of their masters early, as the King has decreed that as many worms as possible should be ready for battle when needs be. The official Treeworm military requires 10 years of being broken from the colony, for the purpose of gaining real world experience, before being able to fight.
Biography: UZ is one of the worms that were sent off early to train and better themselves in case of war between them and mankind. Although he doesn’t believe in the hype of the wars supposed coming, he decided to leave anyway, and has never looked back. He was told not to return for at least 10 years, if he was going to return at all, so he’s got time to kill.
UZ was born decidedly average. The older of 2 children, he was an average height, an average weight, and even had an average color. It almost seemed as though he was the worm that the gods had created simply to base the averages on. After his brother REB was born, (5 years after he was, him being born only 4 months after his egg was produced) REB got almost all the attention in the family. He was rather tall, rather heavy, and he was a white treeworm, a rarity among the species, and the first white one born from any treeworm in 7 generations. After that news came out, UZ was all but forgotten by his family, just another random member of the household related to them. UZ successfully ignored all of the hustle and bustle of his brother’s charmed life. Amidst all the attention about his brother, UZ was discovering music.
His first instrument was bought for him by his mother at age 8, when he saw one of the masters of the colony playing a lute. He loved the sound that was being made and demanded he get a chance to make music himself. Intrigued with his curiosity of the arts at such an early age, she bought him a used instrument. That instrument was a small 1.5 octave xylophone and a pair of cruddy old looking rubber mallets. The xylophone was really just the top 1.5 octaves of an old xylophone that had long ago been trashed and broken up, and the mallets hardly made any noise when they hit it, but UZ was overjoyed. By age 9, he had already composed his first song, and learned all the basics of musical theory by sneaking to the local school building and taking notes while spying on the classes through the window. By age 10, he had more knowledge than some 20 year olds.
At 10, he entered school himself, all but ignoring most of his classes, excepting music. One other class did catch his eye, however. Magic class. During his 5th year in regular school, he pulled as many strings as he could to wind up with just magic and music, quickly becoming his two loves in life. Meanwhile, REB had just entered school, and was doing miserably. He simply refused to work, and when he did work, he got almost everything spectacularly wrong. UZ, on the other hand, was becoming the top student in the colony. He already had amassed a rather impressive of instruments, including a xylophone, marimba, piano, and ocarina. He had even started building an instrument that treeworms never played, a mandolin. This mandolin would eventually be stained green and named Beatrice.
By age 20, UZ had mastered every instrument he owned, and continued to learn new ones. It was also at this time that UZ began noticing his TPP was a bit different from other worms his age. He was able to manipulate objects almost 10 feet from him, while most others were stuck at 5 feet or 6. His master, Z’eed, noticed this and began to train him in the arts of TPP use, putting magic to the side in favor of this new phenomenon. As a result, UZ had to stop his magic lessons for almost 6 years. REB was now garnering attention all over, but no longer for a good reason. He had been studied by a leading doctor, trying to find the cause of his horrid school habits. It turned out that REB’s brain was refusing to accept information that was beyond it. As a result, REB’s brain was forever going to be 10 years old. UZ had become the upstanding member of the family.
At age 26, UZ had become almost as good at handling TPP as some 50 year olds were, although he was relatively weak, maxing out at 40 pounds of weight before he gave in. It was at this time that the horrid incident involving the human scientists killing “the 16” occurred. Z’eed, fearing the worst and recognizing a bad thing when he saw it, quickly informed UZ that he would need magic lessons again, and quickly. Z’eed did not want to lose his best student to a simple battle. Confident in UZ’s TPP skills, Z’eed crammed 3 years of magic study into 1 year. Of the 20 spell set that the Treeworms base their magic culture on, UZ had only enough time to learn 4.
UZ’s 27th birthday was an incredibly sad day for all. REB wandered off in a childlike haze of imagination towards a gang of anti-treeworm humans, not realizing they were there. His personal teacher, Thrix, was the last person to see him. He was never seen or heard from again, and it can only be assumed that the humans murdered him. Also on that day, Z’eed was informed that he would have to serve as an ambassador to an elfish kingdom far to the east, to protect him from any random human attacks. Z’eed and UZ shared one last teary good-bye between master and student, and UZ promised him he would get one more lesson in someday. Still, UZ and Z’eed have yet to meet again. UZ himself was informed later that day that he was being forced to leave. Disgusted with what had happened in the last day and, yes, the last year, UZ quickly grabbed the only thing he cared for anymore, his mandolin, and set off, not knowing if he would indeed return at all…
Inventory: UZ doesn’t carry a whole lot in his hole, but he does have a select few items always with him.
* BEATRICE: A well worn, green stained Mandolin that UZ built himself in his teenage years. She’s his favorite instrument and also his most portable. He practices with Beatrice for several hours a day.
* MUSIC ORB: An orb which contains about 7 minutes of music recorded at a pub UZ visited during his time at the dome. It was a duet with a woman named Emir, who happened to have a flute on her. He enjoyed the recording so much that the man who recorded it, Felenor, gave the orb to him.
* THIRD EYE SAPPHIRE: A small sapphire found on UZ’s first day at the dome in a treasure chest. It grants the wearer a sort of sixth sense as well as clearing their head and allowing them to concentrate for longer periods of time. It is worn on the forehead.
UZ'S ADVENTURES (so far, and now in chronological order!)
Older Training (The Dome - Complete... but only cause it was forced to stop.)
Training (The Dome - In progress)
The Big Test - UZ vs. Wisp (The Dome - In progress)
The Shadow Games (BA - In progress)
Controllers (Fiction - In Progress)
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