Description
Before you stands a young duergar with skin the color of ebony. His hair is
cropped, and his facial features seem often creased in consternation. He is
well muscled and in shape that suggests a daily regiment of excercise. He
carries himself with millitary poise and looks about with an aura of command.
His eyes seem aglow with a clever light as he takes everything in. The
armor is an assortment, the common thread being the ability to either protect
or do great harm in battle. The only ornaments to be seen beyond the useful
is a variety of finely carved bone jewelry such as rings, earrings, and the
latest statuette being carved at his side.
Role
Keviatalon Rockreaver (Part I)
Added Wed Sep 7 19:40:04 2005 at level 7:
Mushrooms and bone is how it all began. Keviatalon Rockreaver was of course
of the Rockreaver Clan. Like most duergar, their home was far down deep in
the dark reaches of the underdark. The clan might be said to be more
pragmatic than most, but like other duergar clans, Keviatalon was taught the
basics of survival and how to avoid the underdark dangers close to his clans
home territory.
It should not surprise others then to learn that even though he had
just barely come of age, Keviatalon found himself outside his clans caves
gathering mushrooms, a favorite treat, and bones. Why bones you ask?
Keviatalon loved to carve bone. He could carve a variety of things, from
jewelry and ornaments to useful items such as cases and bone instruments.
Scavenging was an important part of this art, as the materials were needed
from which to carve. Like most duergars, Keviatalon had little societal
reservation whether this came from creatures or humanoids.
It was on a day such as this, a day like any other day of mushroom and
bone scavenging that Keviatalon came across a threat that was much too
advanced and formidable for his young training and prowess: Dark-Elves. Now
in heroic tales, a bard would have some grand story of how a young duergar
with only the beginning of training in physical combat fought off an advanced
patrol of drow warriors whom they themselves had hundreds of years of
fighting experience. But this is the real world and in the real world of
Thera, Keviatalon was much too young, his fighting training a mere shadow of
what he would achieve later in life.
What does such a young duergar do in such a case? What any pragmatic
young duergar of a pragmatic young clan would be expected to do: live. And
so Keviatalon Rockreaver found himself far from his clans home, a prisoner
of the Dark Elves, spirited away to their Drow City. Historically, there
have been many occasions where Duergar and Dark-Elves have worked together.
This expectation should be stricken though when given the need for specimens
for mage experiments. With this in mind, Keviatalon found himself prisoner
in a cell amidst the School of Magic in Teth Azeleth.
Duergars like their surface cousins are highly resistant to magic.
It is for this reason that they are coveted subjects for experiments and
further advancements in the art. This allows them to be used as test
subjects over and over again without dying as fast as many of the other
races, much to the fortune and misfortune of Keviatalon.
(Continue to Part II)
Keviatalon Rockreaver (Part II)
Added Wed Sep 7 19:45:10 2005 at level 7:
(Continued from Part I)
It is no wonder than that Keviatalon begin to hate his tormentors. Duergar
are easily given to such an emotion and combined with his clans distrust for
magic to begin with, Keviatalon fostered and developed a revulsion and enmity
towards wielders of magic that would only grow throughout the rest of his
life. The time ticked by unknown while Keviatalon Rockreaver remained
prisoner and only two things helped him maintain his sanity. The first were
the bones from those many that fell while he continued to survive the
suffering of the Dark-Elf magical experiments. They let him continue his art
and brought a distraction to a situation that was forced upon him. The
second was his planning and plotting. He knew he could not do much now, he
was shackled, gone was the chaos of chance, the daily wonderings of
adventure. Here he was encased and confined as a prisoner, devoid of
freedom. He planned, he plotted, and he determined his lifes course to
oppose all such mages. It mattered not if they called themselves good or
evil, mages to Keviatalon were like the most wicked of family clans. They
all claimed to use their magic for different things, but each passed down
what they had learned to others so that they might continue to use it.
Better that the magic should die with each of them unable to be passed on.
Ironically, Keviatalon would escape due to the fortune of those who
spend most of their life hunting duergars like himself. It was not a rescue,
but a crossing of fortune that brought opportunity to Keviatalon. One day in
a long string of many torturous days, a party of good-hearted adventurers
came in training to lay low the inhabitants of Teth Azeleth. It was during
this opportunity that Keviatalon Rockreaver was able to escape.
Keviatalon was forced to make his escape in their wake, and let them
do the work against the Drow Patrols. It grated at him that he could not yet
strike out in vengeance himself, but he vowed to return one day to exact his
own vengeance when he was stronger, without the lightwalkers doing it for
him. It was fortunate that Keviatalon was able to follow in the wakes of the
lightwalkers as they cut down the creatures of the underdark. For while
Keviatalon was taught to survive near his clans home, there were many Cave
Fishers and fiercer beings that Keviatalon could not yet overcome, but swore
again one day to overcome with his own savageness and strength.
Keviatalon Rockreavers escape came to pass and the plotting and
planning for the war to follow commenced. It would be a personal war, one
fought his whole life, struck out alone with only his own courage, savagery,
and wisdom. Yet Keviatalon realized that a war must also be fought with
others if great changes were to be made, and so did the young duergar
Keviatalon Rockreaver set out to find the Village of the Battleragers.
Wisdom within must Guide First
Added Sun Sep 18 02:37:26 2005 at level 35:
It was an honored day to be the first of the new villagers after
the Commander and Drillmaster were selected, but many lessons
were learned this day. The commonality of both was that while
I should always look to the leaders of the village and follow
their commands, one must always be guided by their own wisdom
and strength of spirit first.
In the case of Commander Dolza, it was more serious. I had fallen
to those of the fortress. While I have never asked for any to fight
my fights for me, and still I have not, I gave scouting reports, which
did nothing to discourage the Commander's attempt at a vengeance
killing toward non-mages. He is my commander, and it takes balls to
speak up and do something when saying nothing is a greater crimes.
With the village, we must have such, even...nay...especially, if we think
that what is happening by the commander is wrong.
Never again will I do anything, even if scouting, that could encourage
others to be fighting my war for me.
With Drillmaster Iasolar, it is more trivial, but important none the less.
The wisdom of Great Bear Ordasen supercedes nearly all. Specifically,
I was asked by the Drillmaster to speak with applicants. There are only
three I would do so with based on what I already know. Zeosan whom raided
the chasm then asked for an interview, and asyka and morim both of which
I've traveled much with, even when I was young and allies were few. Both
seeked the village.
Asyka I have not seen again yet, Morim needs learn more in the Lyceum.
Zeosan I spoke with at his request, and reported all he said in a scroll
in great detail. It is with Ordason's teachings though, that it is told
I am too young to the village to offer recomendations.
In light of this, I will strengthen and focus on the war more first.
In all this I shall remember to be letting my own wisdom guide first