Rel Dhaedd

Special Equipment:

Anga's Bracers

Appearance:

Rel Daedd appears to be around forty years of age. He stands well over six feet tall, and is heavily muscled. His bald scalp and weather-beaten face bear several scars and other souveneirs of hard-won battles. He is commonly dressed in simple leather armour, and wears distinctive silver bracers on his forearms. A razor-sharp greatsword is worn across his back, a gladius on his left hip and a finely-crafted dagger on his right.

Background:

Dhaedd was once a young warrior in the desert kingdoms of the East. He showed great promise, exhibiting formidable skill with the blade combined with unmatched loyalty and courage. He was selected, in the summer of his eighteenth year, to serve in the Queen's personal guard. He protected the Queen for many years, defending her from innumerable attacks. At last, he was promoted to Captain, and led her personal guard from the front line.

At this time, in the far south of the kingdom, a great evil was rising. The foul necromancer Anga was creating an undead army that he would use to conquer the entire desert region - and he knew that the Queen's armies would be his only opposition. In an audacious attack, he led an elite unit of his most powerful servants into the Palace, seeking to slaughter the Queen and reanimate her as his unliving slave.

The conflict raged. Dozens were dead, and each fallen comrade was reanimated as a deadly foe. Rel Dhaedd was pressed, unable to win the battle. Finally, in a desperate attack, he broke through the skeletal legion and stood face to face with Anga. The necromancer unleashed his most powerful spells, but Rel Dhaedd withstood the assault and, in a suicidal lunge, stabbed the necromancer through his black heart.

With his dying breath, the necromancer gripped Dhaedd's forearms, his foul lips twitching in an evil incantation. Rel Dhaedd screamed, his leather bracers burning into his arms like a blacksmith's forge, then passed out.

When he awoke, he found the battle had been won, and the undead horde had been crushed. The Queen was safe, and the necromancer dead. Dhaedd's bracers, however, had turned into finely-etched silver, and seemed to be attached to his skin. Moreover, in the back of his mind, he could hear the soft hiss of Anga's voice, tempting his with dark power and untold wealth. He understood, in a moment, that the dying necromancer had transferred his soul and powers into the bracers, bonding himself with Dhaedd for all eternity. His wounds would heal, his injuries would fade, and he would live forever - until he surrendered his will to Anga, and submitted to the darkness.

Now, cursed with eternal life and tormented by the insidious hiss of the necromancer, Dhaedd wanders the world seeking salvation and hope for the future. It has been two centuries since the death of his fair Queen, and in that time he has come no closer to his final rest.

Roleplaying Notes:

Rel Dhaedd is a tortured soul. Apart from Anga's constant whispers, he knows that everone he meets and cares about will die, leaving him alone in a barren world. He can be bitter and bad-tempered, but these are only defences which protect the kind, valiant soul of the man. He will, if asked directly, go to any lengths to protect the weak and innocent. He also, understandably, has a passionate hatred of the undead, and of their dark masters in paticular. His prowess with the sword has grown in the years of his curse, and he is surely one of the finest warriors who has ever lived.

He is torn between the hope of a cure for his condition - ultimately, death - and the knowledge that his curse enables his to do much good.

And besides, if Rel Dhaedd dies, Anga will again be released...