The day after his thirteenth birthday, Samray started as an apprentice court wizard for a local lord named Sternwall. Trained as a seer and a scrier, Samray quickly became distinguished, showing himself to be remarkably adept at making sense of seemingly nonsensical omens and visions. In addition to his scrying ability, Samray also showed unusual wisdom from a young age, quickly becoming a favorite of his lord and even becoming appointed as his personal advisor—all before the age of eighteen.
One day, as fate would have it, Lord Sternwall purchased a palantír from a passing charlatan, mostly for a laugh. After arriving back at his manor, he tossed the crystal ball to Samray.
"See what you can scry with this, boy," he ordered, without telling Samray that it was a fake.
Except it wasn't a fake. Unbeknownst to both the lord and the charlatan, the palantír was an ancient artifact nearly seven thousand years old, a remnant from a time six ages past. When Samray picked up the orb, he instantly felt its magical power, and began to scry deep into the future.
When one scries the future, one hopes for good omens. Samray would have liked to have scried a long life for himself and his lord, and perhaps a comely maiden in his future. Samray did indeed scry these things, but when he tried to scry the end of his life, he found that it didn't. His life thread kept going on and on further into the future, stretching interminably towards something that first confused and then horrified him. He foresaw loneliness and suffering for himself, intertwined with millions of branching decisions. At the end of most of these trails came enormous destruction and mayhem, followed by petrifying terror as entire galaxies of life were drawn towards a single gaping maw belonging to a horrific nameless entity. Only then was there silence. Samray felt sick to his stomach.
But there was hope, too. Scattered among the paths of darkness were twinkling hopes of an eternity whose wondrous beauty was just as beyond words as the darkness had been horrific. People were laughing, drinking wine, and making love. There was no more war or famine or disease, but more importantly people genuinely loved instead of exploiting each other. Samray saw that this beauty could happen not just for himself, but for every conscious being. He was astonished, to say the least.
Lord Sternwell laughed awkwardly as he saw Samray's pale face. "You all right, boy?"
"Yeah. I need a drink," was all he said.
Over a mug of ale, Samray explained what he had seen, and calmly informed his lord that he needed to take his leave—not for a few days or weeks, but for the rest of his life. In order to avert the crisis seen within the orb, Samray would have to make a series of difficult decisions, of which leaving his comfortable job was only the first.
Today, Samray is obsessed with preventing the future he witnessed, though he rarely tells anyone exactly what that future contains. His magic revolves around manipulating chance, arranging coincidences, and nudging events toward outcomes only he seems to understand. His path has indeed led him through suffering and loneliness, and he has made many difficult decisions indeed. But just like the future he witnessed, Samray's life is sprinkled with hope. For one, he has found love in the form of a certain gray-skinned girl with violet eyes named Octicia. Though some regard her as a monster on account of the tentacles sprouting from her back, Samray has come to love her deeply, as he identifies with her attempt to avert her own personal fate. They haven't married yet, but the futures in which they wed are Samray's favorite to behold.
In retrospect, Samray often wishes that he'd never seen his terrible vision within the palantír. He also wonders if the vision is even real, or if it may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. In any case, the power of the ancient artifact is beyond doubt, and it has correctly predicted many smaller and less certain things with great reliability. Moreover, Samray has learned that sometimes there's no middle road between heroism and villainy. And so, Samray tries to play the hero whenever he can, as a simple act of charity towards the billions upon billions of beings who depend on him to avert the horrible fate he once beheld.