A guide to different versions of Karsus and the source material I took reference of (even with references they are still heavily self-interpreted , sorry for nothing). This series may get an update, because i still have a few works in stock, or not.
🔺My headcanon Karsus
Mantle`s magic effect and Karsus`s stats are from Netheril: Empire of Magic, His Sigil K and white stork being the guardian of Eileanar is from the Netheril Trilogy by Clayton Emery. Netheril`s fall mentioned that high netherease favored exquisite accessories that generates shinny magical effects. Others i made them up.
🔺Trilogy Karsus
Karsus in Netheril Trilogy, described as below:
The young wizard wore an expensive but rumpled and frayed robe embroidered in green-blue and white lace. By contrast, his hair was a rat’s nest, his fingernails cracked, gnawed, and filthy, his chin stubbly, his bare feet black with grime. And he needed a bath. Yet his eyes were golden, like melted gold swirling in a vat, and arresting. He smiled in a cockeyed way and waggled the fingers of one hand.
🔺 “That famous pic” Karsus
That image appears everywhere but for sometime I couldn`t find a source, after doing reverse image search I found out that it was commissioned by Os Últimos Dias de Glória, a Brazilian fan based community. The artist is Enrico Tomasetti (he has a deviant art page) and, actually, there`s another piece too! SHOUTOUT：i like these arts a lot, they conveyed Karsus`s spirit (bright and shinny, but utterly stupid) well. Also the spiky hairstyle, can`t find anything that suit him more. (For copyright reasons I feel like not posting them here but do check them out 👍)
🔺The original Karsus
inspired by 1981 dragonquest campaign the Enchanted Wood written by Jennell Jaquays, who is the character`s original creator. In the campaign Karsus was an ancient god who fought against a serpent monster, but ended up with the serpent cursing the land, drowning Karsus`s people in a flood of blood. The god was so heart broken that he turned into a giant rock with ever pumping heart. Jaquays got to merge the storyline and a few characters (Karsus, Wulgreth, Jingleshod, etc. ) into FR settings when she wrote the AD&D 1st edition book Savage Frontier. many settings were lost through editions but the giant butte and the bleeding heart stuff remained. (The heart-shaped tattoo…? What is going on)
🔺 Godhood Karsus
According to the trilogy again Karsus wore a white robe during the ritual when he casted the Avatar spell.
Karsus was surrounded by apprentices, as usual, but also a trio of tailors with needles and thread in their mouths. The mad mage wore a startling white gown embroidered with silver thread. Someone had cleaned his face, scrubbed his neck, even combed and trimmed his hair. He stood with arms out as the tailors closed seams and smoothed pleats. Karsus giggled all the while.
🔺 Lich Karsus
Karsus was said to embraced lichdom when he realized the Phaerimms life drain had made their longevity spells stopped working (Netheril: Empire of magic), however the same book gave him a human stat block. In 5rs new book Netheril`s Fall， Karsus uses lichs stat block, but was specified to be a humanoid and doesnt have a phylactery.
🔺 Roman Karsus
I made this up because official arts` visual interpretation of Netheril is heavily based on Roman Empire.
The thought that lives rent free in my brain: what if Sam and John get to have the tavern basement honeymoon but their relationship cools down a bit before the Gambit (cause Sam's falls hard and deep in love and it scares John), then in the pogrom Sam loses not only his home and people (which is already horrible) but also his faith in something... very personal, quite childish and extremely important. He fails as the main character of this fairy tale that his mother spun about his father and so his dream of "normal childhood" could be no more.
And this loss makes Sam's final decision even more desperate.
(But boys are both wise enough to talk after the siege. And then kiss and re-steal Wenceslaus 🎉🎉🎉)
Some cringe jam agenda under the spoiler:
On the one hand, we have Sam, the best boy ever. It's obvious that he is a cp2077 streetkid (he is natural at lying when he sends Henry to "anti-semites" and when he asks about the sword) but he also is a goody-two-shoes (he quotes the Torah, doesn't get Devil's racist joke, worries about his mom). He takes the best of both worlds for survival.
At the same time, Sam takes a terrible risk when he wants to know about the dad whom Sam thought he let go a long time ago (re:dialogue with Godwin). And my boy gets drunk from stress in Ratbož, which is... understandable but VERY unreasonable. And Sam's post-pogrom thoughts about his dad are pure letters from Delululand. Okay, Martin gets to Prague, what next? The only option where they could all be together is the baptism of Sara and Sam, and this is... wow. Sam, I'm sorry.
And all of Sam's revenge is sooo naive. If he thought about it with something other than his heart (at least, with the Torah) he would have stayed in Kolin* to really help "his people" and not stupidly hoped that christians would let Sam, a jew, kill a nobleman??? (separately, we can twirl a lock of hair around our finger thinking about Sam choosing Zizka's order. Such fatherless behaviour...)
And this is understandable. Sam's position has always been shaky, ambivalent. He's a jewish princess a rabbi's grandson but kids-with-fathers know that Sam is also rabbi's dirty laundry (re:dialogue between Sam and Jehuda after the attack on Ratbož). And there's a whole world out there where he has to wear the yellow hat. He feels out of place. Restless. Incomplete.
With a past like that, Sam can be one of the most loyal and intelligent dogs in the game, if someone finds the right way to scratch behind his ear. But without this Sam will be stormed trying to find everything that could make him feel grounded. He will taste all sins of his mother or heroin
On the other hand, we have John aka everyone's OC. We know a few facts about him: he personally destroyed Sigismund's support in Hungary, while dodging assassins (i.e. he's terribly competent as a wily basement rat), he likes wine (and possibly sex re:he suggests a sullen Henry to have a drink and to visit the bathmaids), and he, firstly, cooperates with jews (open-minded as hell!!), and secondly, he helps them (which, by the way, to me doesn't seem to be so unprofessional? I feel this act is sincere but in the long run it goes into John's portfolio and turns him into the top 10 best employers in Bohemia). A crazy character in canon and in my fanfic where I give him injuries so he fits Sam perfectly...
Thinks about it, it's a Tasty Concept: Sam seduced by a character like John (christian daddy issue meets a real person who loves to listen, knows how to order people around and enjoys that, it's craaaazy) vs John who seduces Sam (a cute Other (I mean a concentrated philosophical Other) with a sharp mind and a sharp dagger turns out to be paradoxically close in spirit and... the perfect complement to everything in himself).
One of the best toys in the store!!
*on the thousandth playthrough of Exodus a sneaky worm of doubt crept into my unshakable confidence that Sam could have been sent by Jehuda. But even in that paradigm, a stealth mission with Sam is just... well, bro...
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