History of Galen the Blessed

[TavMonkey]

Hope it's not presumptious to post a history for a drop-in character, but I've enjoyed reading the others on the site and wanted to get in on the fun! Plus, I hope to play again with y'all occasionally, and since character's memories are better than player's, having something here will help maintain continuity if you see Galen again.

In-game descriptor:

Galen possesses an unearthly, androgynous beauty. His face and physique are so perfect that seems like a statue carved from glowing alabaster by a master sculptor and then animated by a wizard (who might have overdone it: Galen is always in motion, even tossing and turning when he sleeps). He dresses plainly and practically, with no adornments except for the winged caduceus that marks him as a disciple of Hermes, but his clothes and hair are perpetually rumpled despite his constant attempts to straighten them. There is also something peculiar about his gaze. The typical male might scan a woman’s body as if assessing their promise as a lover, and size up another man’s potential as an enemy. Galen’s eyes move erratically over you, seeming to measure the distance between your wrist and elbow and the space between your eyebrows. As he looks at you, his ink-stained hands fidget and he mutters under his breath as if reminding himself that it is impolite to prod and palpate people’s anatomy without their permission. For all his beauty, most people find Galen disconcerting rather than attractive.

History:

Galen is one of the Blessed, but he is uninterested in the celestial circumstances of his birth or the mundane details of his upbringing. He is only concerned—one might say obsessed—with the life of the mind and his career as a physician, philosopher, and physiognomist. Among sages, he is best known for his monograph “Some Observations on the Skull of Maepo, the ‘Goblin Genius’: Proof of Cranial Morphogeny,” but he has also written on a wide variety of topics, including surgical procedures, natural history, and the effects of cross-breeding intelligent species. He is devoted to all aspects of Hermes, but particularly honors his god’s affinity for knowledge, medicine, and travel.

Galen’s reverence for the healthy body makes him abhor violence, to the point of being a devout vegetarian. When there is no alternative to combat, however, he fights as bravely as befits one who does not fear death, and his knowledge of anatomy sometimes lets him deliver crippling blows. He is quick to treat his compatriots’ wounds, and has even been known to tend to fallen enemies simply for the joy of exercising his gifts as a healer.

His most recent project was a commission to the army of Grimdeth, in which he sought to demonstrate the utility of certain measurements of chin size as a predictor of ambition and competence. He left in disgrace when an officer who was promoted on his recommendation proved to be involved in a plot to assassinate Grimdeth; the wizard declined his offer to develop another physiognomic index that could be used to measure loyalty. He has come to Sith with the idea of writing a treatise on the difference between lizard-men born into slavery and those born free, which he believes will be reflected in their physical proportions.