Danior Herne
Danior’s family came to
Lastwall a few generations ago. His great grandfather built a business on
importing the weapons and armor that the crusaders needed to defend the line
from the orcish invaders. His grandfather and father would continue the
tradition. It was assumed that Danior would as well, but his father passed on
before he had grown into a man.
The business passed on
to his father’s partners, which was all well and good because Danior didn’t
have a head for it. Pricing and inventory was not the boy’s strong suit. Anything
with numbers was beyond him, as the younger Herne turned out to be more than a
little slow. Being a trader was never something the boy wanted anyway. He
dreamed of being one of the knights he saw daily heading to the front, or to
guard some other location important to the region’s defense.
It wasn’t just the
knights. One of the things that Danior’s father left him before he died was a
small shield that had been enchanted. The boy would use it to play knight every
chance he got. Even though his mother told him that his father wasn’t one of
the crusaders, Danior always imagined his father as a knight in a full suit of
resplendent armor.
Not all the warriors
on the front were knights. Some of them were mercenaries, hired to fill gaps in
the defenses. One of them took a liking to the boy and started training him at
an early age. He taught Danior how to swing a sword and carry a shield. The
sword-for-hire also taught him how to make a deal for his services, to always
be fair, and to always uphold your end of the bargain.
Things changed for
Danior around his thirteenth birthday. Some tieflings are born with the outward
traits that expose them as such. In Danior’s case he lived a normal childhood,
but when he hit puberty his body changed. Whether it was from his mother’s side
or his father’s, the blood of some abyssal creature flowed through his veins,
deforming him.
At first Danior
covered his body. He thought that if he could conceal himself in a suit of
armor like the knights he could just pretend this wasn’t happening to him; that
he was as perfect as they were. That never really worked, so eventually he ran
off. He was turned away from the knighthood so he joined up with one of the
mercenary bands.
Danior was only a
decent fighter but he had a certain presence about him which helped to motivate
others. And his visage could be quite intimidating, which he used to his
advantage when he wasn’t trying to hide it from the world. But he was young and
impressionable as well, and not every group of sellswords was like the man who
showed him how to use a weapon back when he was a kid.
The mercenaries were
nominally working for the government of Lastwall, usually doing missions that
the knights saw as beneath them. The group had been tracking down an item that
was deemed too dangerous to be left about, and it was in the hands of a young
and reckless sorcerer. Danior was tasked with stealing it from the man, which
he did, but no matter how he played it out after it always felt wrong.
Eventually, though,
Danior’s talent and dedication to his homeland got noticed. A group of
crusaders not officially tasked by the government approached him. Their order
has been working to keep the creeping evil of the whispering tyrant locked away
and thwart those who would try to unleash his power or follow in his footsteps.
Danior joined with the
order and swore to defend Lastwall and the world from the insidious evil. But
even with their acceptance, he is never sure he really belongs or even deserves
that honor. He works hard to make them proud, but in every step he has his own
doubts.
What became of your
tiefling? What class do you think his life and stats led him down the road to?
How did his father die? Why did he steal an object from a spellcaster? Who was
his mercenary mentor?
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