PLAYED BY: Xak Hawkins
CHARACTER NAME: Keeper Tristan
GENDER: Male
PRONOUN(S): He/Him
CLASS: Cleric
AGE: Late-30s
RACE: Human
HAIR: Black
EYES: Blue/Green
OCCUPATION: Battle Cleric of Nythara and North Seat for Knights of the Ebon Veil
KNOWN SKILLS: Keeping secrets.
BIRTHPLACE: Faedrun
APPEARANCE: Black on Black on Black
NOTABLE TRAITS:
RELATIONSHIPS: unknown
BIO / BACKGROUND HISTORY: Tristan’s early years were suffocated by the zealous devotion of his parents to Arnath. Every corner of their household reverberated with the deity’s teachings, paving a pre-ordained path for Tristan as an unwavering cleric of the faith. Yet, as the world outside their home began to unravel, Tristan’s yearning for freedom intensified.
The undead scourge on Faedrun was a nightmarish reality that no one could escape. The once-vibrant cities and towns lay in ruin, and a shadow of fear blanketed the land. As the undead horde advanced, swallowing everything in its path, the Fist of Arnath began to teeter in its resolve. Despite his parents’ rigid beliefs, they recognized the looming threat and made the heart-wrenching decision to leave everything behind and board a battle barge to the new lands which the Fist promised to hold their salvation.
This mass exodus was a defining moment for Tristan. He watched the familiar shores of Faedrun fade away, replaced by the uncertainty of a new land. By now, the Fist had established the fortress city of Starkhaven, and it was here that he and his parents settled in. There was a frantic push for the training of new clerics to replace the fallen in Faedrun and bolster ranks against the Ulven threat on Mardrun. There was no time for processing what all had happened – every waking moment was spent in the library studying Arnath’s glory. It was pressure that placed another crack in his already crumbling convictions about his god’s efficacy. If Arnath was so powerful and just – why would he let this happen to them?
Here, amidst the chronicles of old and new worlds, he chanced upon a hidden treasure—an obscured book that would reshape his destiny. Nestled amongst scriptures venerating Arnath in an unassuming leather tome was the alluring tale of Nythara, a seemingly forgotten Goddess of Secrets, Darkness, and the Unknown. Tristan had never heard of this religion before but he quickly felt enraptured by Nythara’s enigma.
Where Arnath’s teachings felt confining, Nythara’s words danced with freedom, self-reliance, and the power of secrets withheld. As Tristan embraced this newfound faith, he secretly began to worship Nythara, finding solace in her teachings and becoming obsessed with every aspect of her. He was suddenly a rising star among the clerical ranks, but secretly – it was Nythara’s name he whispered in prayer, not Arnath’s.
Secrets however, have a way of emerging from the shadows if they are not closely guarded. When his father discovered his hidden shrine to Nythara, it sparked a confrontation not just between father and son, but between two clashing ideologies. Tristan returned home one day to find his father in a rage – the Nytharran tome in one hand and parchments of “art” Tristan had drawn of Nythara in the other – many of which lacked clothing. The resulting tussle ended with his father bleeding and unconscious and Tristan standing over him, a bloody statuette of Arnath clutched in his hand.
Tristan left that night and never returned. He wanted to be as far from Starkhaven as possible and resolved that it was time for him to finally shake free from Arnath’s stifling embrace. Nythara was his true and only love. She was his true and only future.
He prayed for many nights to her seeking guidance, but he knew an answer would never come. Nythara respected self-reliance and a true prayer to her would be Tristan forging his own way forward. He drew upon the only resource he now possessed – Strength.
Strength of will. Strength of mind. Strength of Conviction.
The following years are not something Tristan speaks of lightly. He ended up in the settlement of Oarsmeet working at a tavern named “The Longpig”. When Oarsmeet burned down and was eventually rebuilt as the town of Haven, Tristan was known to frequent it. He considers this time period to be his “secondary education”, but when asked about this portion of his life, he usually becomes quiet in reflection. He now spends his days proselytizing Nythara’s tenets to lost souls who need her.