Kingsley Tealeaf

Kingsley Tealeaf is a tiefling inhabiting the same body as Mollymauk Tealeaf and Lucien. He is played by Taliesin Jaffe.

Appearance
Kingsley has the same body as Molly and Lucien, and thus presumably the same overall appearance. He is a lavender tiefling with red eyes and curled horns. Multiple tattoos adorn his body, starting with a serpent tattoo that curls all along the length of his right hand and up his arm, then winds into a floral piece on his shoulder, and then into a peacock with tail feathers that run up the side of his face. Between his shoulder blades rising towards the hairline, he has tattoos of an eye within a pyramid, illuminated by another eye above it. Flanking and connecting through it like a mantle, he has a moon and sun tattoo on the back as well.

However, Kingsley does not have the red eye tattoos that Mollymauk and Lucien had.

Personality
Kingsley was eager to find out more about the world and about himself. He seemed to think highly of himself, choosing the name Kingsley because he felt like a king.

Background
The original inhabitant of Kingsley's body was Lucien. He grew up in Shadycreek Run and later joined the Claret Orders, before splitting up and forming the Tombtakers, a small group of mercenary blood hunters. In 833 PD, Lucien acquired a tome that allowed him to gain powers and knowledge from the Somnovem, an ancient group of mages ruling a living city in the Astral Sea. Drawn in by the promise of power, Lucien attempted to complete a ritual to reach the Somnovem, but was double-crossed by the mage he hired to perform the ritual, and his soul was broken and scattered. Believing him to be dead, his allies buried his body.

Some time after, a fragment of Lucien's soul still present in the body awoke and dug his way out of the grave. He was in a catatonic state, with no memories of his past, only able to say one word: "Empty". Soon after, he was taken in by Gustav Fletching, the leader of The Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities. He eventually developed a new personality and began using the name Mollymauk Tealeaf. Molly traveled with the carnival for two years, then joined the Mighty Nein. A few months of adventuring later, he was killed by Lorenzo while attempting to rescue his kidnapped friends.

An old ally of Lucien's, Cree, had previously met Mollymauk. Upon hearing of his death, she headed to his grave site and successfully resurrected Lucien, who did not retain memories of Mollymauk's life. After gathering the rest of their group, the Tombtakers headed to the ruins of Aeor to attempt to reach the Somnovem through different means. Eventually, the Mighty Nein heard of this, and traveled to Aeor, then to the Astral Sea in an attempt to stop Lucien's plans. Lucien successfully merged with the Somnovem, then with the rest of the city. During their fight with Lucien, the Mighty Nein began to call out to him as if he were still Molly. This seemed to cause Lucien pain and prevented him from taking additional attacks, strongly suggesting that Molly's memories and personality still existed within him. He was eventually killed.

After Lucien was taken down, Caleb attempted to bring Mollymauk back to life. The ritual initially failed, but through Caduceus' Divine Intervention, the tiefling came back to life. He initially seemed confused and child-like, repeating the word "Empty" over and over again, but seemed to recognize the Mighty Nein.

The tiefling was brought to the Blooming Grove, where he spent the rest of the day wandering around and seemingly not knowing who the others were. After Jester cast Greater Restoration on him, he regained full control of his body and mind, but didn't retain many memories of his past. He mentioned a woman wearing a red coat, and felt that Yasha was familiar to him. After the Mighty Nein described Mollymauk to him, he declared that it wasn't him, and chose the name Kingsley, keeping the surname Tealeaf.

Kingsley expressed great interest in traveling and discovering more about himself and the world, embarking on the Nein Heroez with Jester and Fjord. He eventually got his own ship, re-christened the Mollymauk, headed to Darktow Isle and joined the Revelry.

Kingsley's dreams recalling his confinement and escape from Lucien included memories of strange black chains invisibly woven through Cognouza breaking, the sound of them shattering between worlds, and "the angry, unknowable, primal, ancient cry that [he] could never forget." This represented a now-broken connection between Cognouza and Tharizdun.

Mollymauk Tealeaf
Kingsley's first impression of Mollymauk was that he seemed pretty weird. He stated that he didn't enjoy the name Mollymauk or his flashy embroidered coat. However, he was intrigued by these memories, and decided to regard Mollymauk as a brother, taking the same last name. After a few years spent figuring out who he was, Kingsley finally learned about Molly's life through Beau's journal and the stories told by the Mighty Nein.

Fjord
Kingsley sailed on the Nein Heroez with Fjord as his captain for many years, and learned a great deal from him.

Notable items

 * Black Coat (created by Jester)
 * Inescapable Lash
 * Flask of Perpetual Booze

Behind the scenes
While talking about developing Molly in, Taliesin discussed the concept of mermaids (in many tales, creatures without souls) and of the blank slate (tabula rasa). He said that the foundation of Molly's personality was "gather the rosebuds" and to make the most of life while one had it. He always intended for the character to come back as a fresh start and "very specifically kind of just take the very base notes of where he had been before". That being the basis of the character meant that it "would have been wrong" to bring him back. Bringing the character back as Kingsley was about that core idea and not related to helping others accept Molly's death and move on in their grief.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 2