Empty is the Chef of the House of the Wandering star. He is a massive, imposing figure of a gnoll with a monolithic, a frightening mask that calls to mind the horrors of the darkest depths, an immense serpentine tail, and 8 powerful spider-like limbs that grow from his back. The Silent Butcher of the House of the Wandering Star knows his way around a knife.

Empty silently and stoicly prepares meals at the Villa for his lord Anizhar with no complaint. He seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of how to use almost any ingredient to its fullest effects, and keeps more exotic ingredients, like paralytic venom and memory altering oils, for special occasions.

---

Before his life at the Villa, Empty was the enforcer of a powerful tribe in the Mana Wastes, known simply as the Silent Butcher. He cut a nightmarish silhouette - 8 spider legs emerging from the back of a muscular gnoll, a winding serpent's tail, a razor sharp knife clutched in either hand, and a pair of searing white eyes that gazed into your very soul.

The other gnolls of his tribe feared him because of his empty eyes, the frightful mask he wore, and his terrifying skills with a knife. His tribemates kept their distance, staying as far as they could from the silent and emotionless monster that served as the right hand of the chief except when necessary. In private even the chief feared the 12 limbed horror he kept on a tight leash.

Empty's mutations left him unable to speak, unable to reach out to his tribemates, completely alone in a sea of people - a gnoll's worst nightmare.

One fateful day while returning from a successful raid with his warband, a primal magic storm surged into their ranks. Sand and rocks whipped around violently while gnolls yelped in pain and called out for eachother in the carnage. Even with the roar of lightning strikes and the howling of the winds, gnolls managed to find each other... All but one.

Empty wandered blindly through the tearing gale, clothes torn and bloodied by whipping debris, straining vocal cords that didn't exist to shout out to any of his tribemates for help... but nothing came out. As he slumped to his hands knees, resigned to being lost and forgotten in the storm a lone figure began to take shape from the swirling debris. A cat-man dressed in rugged but fine adventuring gear held out a malformed, backwards hand to the gnoll like an angel and said the words "I heard you calling for help."

Empty questioned it exactly once before letting the cat drag him to a small cave, shielded from the storm, nearby.

Now that he'd found someone who could hear him he could find no words to express himself. Instead, he let himself to be vulnerable, quietly, in a kind stranger's lap.

In the morning, once his wounds were bound, the kind old cat helped him look for his tribe, but after searching for hours he couldn't find any trace of them. Instead of wandering the wastes alone, the cat offered for Empty to come home with him instead. With his fate uncertain, Empty obliged the old man, and so began his life at the Villa.

Empty found the comforts of The House of the Wandering Star to be strange at first, far removed from the caves and hides of his life in the Mana Wastes, but the lavish comfort of the villa was nothing compared to the warmth of its staff. Most of the villa staff were gnolls, but unlike his old tribemates they were warm and social, treating him immediately like a brother, instead of a tool of murder.

The skills he once used to end lives would translate surprisingly well to enriching them. His knife skills made him a master of cuts, able even to fillet a blowfish effortlessly without risk of poisoning his patron. His multiple limbs enable him to multitask much more efficiently than those with two arms, able to manipulate tools and ingredients with his spider paws as well as his fingers. The rest came easily with time and teaching, and the warm feeling of pride that filled him when he watched someone enjoy a meal he'd prepared was more than worthwhile.

The one part of him that still inspires fear his his mask. While it may seem horrifying to some, it allows him to feel normal. The mask, shaped to resemble a beast's jaws clamped around a scroll, hides the hideous deformity of his muzzle and remains as the final tie to the tribe he lost.

---

If you enjoy my work consider supporting me monthly on Patreon
Or sending a one-time donation by Buying Me a Ko-Fi

Posted using PostyBirb