Entry 4


Name: Shin
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Occupation: Missionary (Ordo Emeritus)

When first meeting Shin, Shai was reminded of a man in her old village that ate nothing but lemons and sour fruits. Her brother assured her that Shin was a valuable man to know, but she was still skeptical. Who was this weird man, with his silly mustache and strange accent?

If you can get past his personality, Shin is a gold mine of knowledge. A tall, wizened man, Shin gives off an aura of unjustified arrogance. His clothing is humble and unremarkable among Shai’s people, but it appears garish and pretentious just by Shin wearing it. Not just anyone can look elitist in tribal leather vestments, leather moccasins, and a simple rope belt. A brown woolen cloak completes the ensemble.

Shin is a missionary, a representative of the Emeritan order. In other words, a traveling teacher. He enjoys his job, which primarily consists of correcting people and saying “I told you so.” His explanations of Emeritan logic and philosophy will leave half your party asleep and the other half with severe migraine headaches. As you can imagine, this has left him with very few friends, in a land he is quite unfamiliar with.

His hair is disheveled and appears to be falling out. This is possibly due to stress or a hereditary condition. His long grey-flecked handlebar mustache is an oddity in the region.

He carries racks upon racks of scrolls with him, enough to start a small library, because “you never know when you might need them.” While not a man of violence, the many scrolls he has aren’t just for afternoon reading. Some of these scrolls are at his school in Valt, others are wrapped around his chest or strapped onto his body.

His pockets hold most of these scrolls, pockets that seem to be bottomless. Every manner of object can be found inside, from live frogs and oddly shaped rocks, to gears and cogs of various sizes. Shin appears to have every object imaginable in his pockets somewhere, except the critical item you need to solve a puzzle, of course.

Eccentricities:

Shin is always talking about how great things are at home, and how miserable they are here.

Shin tells long, boring stories, usually at critical moments when time is a major factor. However, each of these stories has relevance to the situation at hand if you pay close enough attention.

Listening to Shin means that he will be willing to share more of his Emeritan engineering skills to you. That means more gizmos and more gadgets.

Shin talks often of his family at home, and how he misses his wife and daughter. It’s possible to meet them over the course of the game.

He twirls his mustache sometimes.

Background:

The word Emeritan comes from the word emerre in the old language, meaning wanderer.

The Emeritan order, or Ordo Emeritus, is a group of teachers, scholars, and scientists who have resolved that education should not be a luxury of the wealthy. They travel to downtrodden villages and teach them about the arts, sciences, and humanities, for no charge other than room and board.

Many people resent their influence and the changes they insist on implementing in the name of advancement. While these Emeritans have great faith in mankind, they are not naive or stupid, and have developed special devices to defend themselves.

Similar to:

Jerry Stiller's character Arthur Spooner in "King of Queens."