GM Cody Age of Ashes

Game Master Codanous

As the years passed, Baeranor's dreams of knighthood led him to the distant lands of Lastwall, leaving Greyson behind to tend the family's Ironworks alongside their aging father. Amidst the trials of daily life, Greyson found solace in the company of his sister, Kiara, and the memories of his brother's laughter echoing through the halls of their home.

Yet, tragedy struck when news arrived of Lastwall's fall and Baeranor's untimely demise, leaving Greyson to bear the weight of grief and responsibility alone. As his father's health declined, Greyson's resolve was tested, his path obscured by shadows of doubt and despair.

Unable to sustain the Ironworks alone, Greyson made the difficult decision to merge the family business with Tuskhead Stoneworking, led by the skilled dwarven mason, Rorsk Axebane. Together, they forged a new alliance, combining their crafts to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

As Greyson navigated the challenges of their merged enterprise, doubts and uncertainties often plagued his mind. In moments of solitude, he sought solace in the quiet depths of the family crypt, where the spirits of his father and brother lay at rest.

Amidst the silent marble halls, Greyson found a sense of peace, his father's wisdom and his brother's laughter echoing through the shadows. In their presence, he found strength to carry on, their memory a guiding light in the darkness that threatened to consume him.

Though the road ahead was fraught with obstacles and trials, Greyson remained resolute in his determination to honor his family's legacy and carve out a future worthy of their sacrifice. And as he stood amidst the hallowed halls of the crypt, he knew that their spirits would forever watch over him, guiding his steps on the path to greatness.

2. What emotion does your character evoke in others? How do others react to you? Intensity is what others feel when first meet him, as he seems to stare through you and he seems to choose his words with great care, as if everything he says is the most important thing he needs you to know. This naturally weirds most people out. The only time they might see a different side of him is when he's working with his hands, as it helps him to relax.

3. What does your character need most? If your character had everything he or she needed, why go on an adventure? More than anything, Zoralyen needs a good night's sleep. He believes the solution to his recurring nightmares is to travel to the town he has seen in them and prevent the horrifying destruction of it he has seen in his dreams.

4. What is your character's goal in life? Zoralyen seeks to overcome the shadow of Dahak that has lain over him since childhood, protecting those, mastering the flame within him to protect those he cares about and destroy those who would harm the innocent.

5. How does your character believe this goal can be accomplished?
Zoralyen has turned to faith and tradition to cope with his nightmares and fiery power. His father taught him the arts of the forge, to turn fire's destructive power into a force of creation and change, that it can be controlled. His mother taught him of fire's ability to cleanse and heal, how a forest fire clears dead-wood for new life to grow, that it is part of the cycles of nature. These beliefs led him to find inspiration in both the dwarven god Torag and the elven goddess Yuelral, who he worships as two sides of the same divine magic: metal and wood, stone and gem, all shaped and harmonized through fire.

7. When did you grow up? Zoralyen grew up all too early, when he came to realize the truth of his nightmares. How the smoke from the destruction followed him into the waking world, how dry grass or pine needles would ignite when he was stressed, and how the dark shadow that always circled high above in them resembled a dragon's wing. He was barely 10 at the time.

8. What values does your character hold? Control, especially of the self and emotions, is the value Zoralyen holds above all others, believing a roiling flame exists inside him that would burn the world if he was not careful. This in turn makes him believe firmly that both magic and might are things that must be understood and wielded responsibly so they do not bring harm to the innocent or unaware. What he loathes, more than anything else, is the destruction committed by the careless and cruel, making him seek to set himself between those who would do such things that the people and things they'd harm, as solid as any dwarf in a shield-wall. And if they do not break against him, he is prepared to turn the full force of his fire upon the truly irredeemable. Making things with his hands is deeply important to Zoralyen as well, as he believes a person can live on in the things they have made and passed down to their kin and community, whether that's a tool they use, a pieces of jewelry they wear, a book they read or a wall that protects them. If he had an alignment, it'd be Lawful Good.

9. How does your character dress? Zoralyen likes to combine elements of both dwarven and elven fashion in his outfits, sturdy angles interweaving with graceful curves, colors of flowers and gems shining out from earthen hues that make them all the more noticeable. This even extends to his armor, where he has incorporated dwarven plates into elven chain, to create something that marries light and flexible with hard and unyielding. He styles his copper-colored hair into three braids behind his head, and maintains his beard with a mustache whose tips hang longer than the beard itself, creating a similar three points.

10. What are your character's means? At the moment, Zoralyen's means are limited, as this is the first time he has left home on his own, so he has very little beyond the clothes on his back and the tools in his pack. He is hoping to make a home for himself in Breachhill once he has answered its Call for Heroes, and put his skills to use for the community and earn his way as a smith, sage, whatever the town might need.

12. What are your character's opinions? Zoralyen is generally accepting of most goodly faiths, because his own faith is important to him, but he dislikes preachers who get pushy in enforcing orthodoxy or evangelizing. He tries very hard to be tolerant of most other peoples, since his parents instilled in him the belief that everyone has something they can offer the world and not to judge people based on what they are, but WHO they are. He generally likes wizards and other mages, but finds ones who flaunt their power to get attention or impress others obnoxious at best.

13. What is your character's comfort zone? The places Zoralyen feels most comfortable are the forge, the library and the temple. He continually tries to be productive in his spare time, there's always some project to work on. If something in the forge needs time to sit before being worked again, he can conduct research for new techniques both magical and mundane. In the Toragdan faith, the act of forging is itself a prayer, and to Yuelral a spell cast is as much a hymn, but Zoralyen finds that sometimes actively praying, focusing on the words and the gods they address, helps him center himself and calm the fire within.

14. Who has had the biggest impact on your character's life? The two greatest influences on Zoralyen's life are his parents, a dwarven cleric of Torag and an elven wizardess. The pair met as part of an adventuring group and married shortly after their adventures had ended. It was Zoralyen's father who first discovered how his son's nightmares were making his days miserable, and tried to use the forge to show his son fire was not something to be feared. Father and son worked together regularly, and he also drilled him in traditional dwarven fighting techniques. His mother, on the other hand, taught in a different way, seeking to make sure her husband's methods didn't render Zoralyen stony and inflexible. She gave him a broad and varied education, letting him indulge whatever curiosities he might bring to her, and it was through this that he discovered his appreciation for arcane magic and the control over mystical power it represented. She also taught him traditional elven herbalism and swordplay, which he incorporated into his lessons with his father. Eventually, the two began to teach together, seeking to show Zoralyen that there was no one way to wisdom, and that a problem could be approached from many different angles. All have some wisdom to offer, even if they don't know it, and Zoralyen could then take these wisdoms and combine them into a newer, deeper truth all his own. While the nightmares persisted, Zoralyen was comforted by this, feeling he'd been given the tools he'd need to find answers on his own, and he proved this when he discovered an image of Dahak and recognized it from his dreams, setting him off on his current journey.

15. What are some of your character's unexpected quirks? Zoralyen has a good ear for music, though he will be the first to admit he is no bard. Instead, he uses his sense of it to "tune" the metal he works with, especially weapons, so when it strikes in battle it rings with just the right note. He also will make specific notches and holes in the blade to make it "sing" as it's swung in the air and resonates with the strikes.

17. What role does your character fill? Zoralyen is very much built as a defensive gish, looking to get to the front lines and letting the enemy break upon him while he prepares his spellstrikes to burn them to ashes. Out of combat, I sort of envision him as a sage and crafter for the group, given his training in various knoweldge skills and his focus on Crafting. His Free Archetype is going to be Oracle, specifically the Flames mystery, to add some divine spellcasting and more fire, and more importantly to reflect the continual presence of Dahak's evil in his life that he has to strive against.

18. What should the other players know about your character? In terms of roleplay, Zoralyen's probably going to seem goal-oriented but standoffish, as he's a stranger to Breachhill and the rest of the PCs but ideally once he gets to know them better and becomes a fixture in the community, he'll open up somewhat. He needs some help coming out of his shell, as he's rarely interacted with strangers outside his own family, and part of his intended arc is learning to build a new support system for himself and becoming more his own man.

19. What is your play style? I would consider myself very interested in the story and character aspects of RPG play more than the battle side of things. I had the character concept for Zoralyen rolling around in my mind for at least two years like a gem in a tumbler before I ever decided on his specific stats. I thrive in long conversations with other PCs or NPCs and love a description of a scene cinematic enough that I feel compelled to eat popcorn while reading it.

20. How do you want your character to die? Ideally I'd want to see Zoralyen die of old age, surrounded by people who care about him and the next generation, looking upon what he's built and having found peace. I want his fire to gently flicker out because it's no longer needed, rather than to explode in a grand conflagration.

Finally the Forever Tree gifted her with a vision to ‘go beyond the big water’. After a long and perilous journey, Loam arrived in Isger, where she learned about Breachill’s Call for Heroes. Finally! At long last, Loam will learn what it means to be a hero.

The weather-beaten captain sizes up the small animated bush before replying in a careless drawl. “Sure I can help—if ya got coin.” His eyes narrow. “Yer a long way from home, aren’t ya? Whaddya want to cross the Inner Sea?”

Loam’s leaves rustle cryptically in reply. “Forever Tree vision hunt many moons. Many clues, false and true. Sunflower seeking sun I be. Sunset rest, sunrise hunt. Hero meaning always seeking.”

“Gnome-animal big help. Teach many things. Teach other-animal want not plant want; teach better stick better killing; teach better stone better standing.” Reaching within her branches, the leshy produces a motley collection of coins. “Teach money help. You I help if you help me. New fruit each day.” A berry quivers conspicuously. “No food I need, but another mouth I feed.” Loam offers for the prospect of a long voyage with limited supplies.

Despite leaving Breachill, he didn’t stray far. Velus created a new home just outside of town in a distant part of the Crimson Tide Wood. Over time, he became quite the huntsman and started supplying Winthrop Finney with furs, and any extra meat was given to Renatta Gilroy to help feed the town’s poor at the Lamond’s Lament. Day after day, week after week, Velus followed the same routine: check and re-bait the traps, a short trip to town with furs and meat, forage for fresh berries and mushrooms, and, most importantly, look for signs of dreams coming true.

One night not so long ago, Velus saw, for the first time, a recognizable city in his dream. To his horror, he saw Breachill utterly consumed by fire. Velus is now all-consumed with a new purpose - to save Breachill from destruction.

His clothing style blends the styles of his two peoples, angular dwarven elements intertwined with flowing elven ones, gold and gray robes accented with blues, greens and reds, especially the glory ribbon he wears around his neck. He also enjoys gold and jewelry, any gems left uncut when set into the gold, as Yuelral demands, to best display their natural beauty. His armor and weapons are kept fastidiously clean, lovingly polished after battle.