Balduin's page

Balduin was born Balduin Rogarsun. His father, Rogar Evergleam, was the head of the tattered remains of what was once one of the proudest families in Highhelm. But when the gods vanished and took their countless clergy with them, so too disappeared a great many of the Evergleam family, and a religious tradition passed down for generation upon generation was lost.
Entering the world forty-six years after the Worldwound was sealed, Balduin never got to see the mythic world that existed when magic still permeated in the air. He heard many stories from his relatives: of how magic could once move mountains or send a men across nigh infinite distances, of how the gods once spoke directly to their most faithful of clerics, and of how though the world was filled with such terrible horrors as demons and worse, there were always heroes who could face them. And they knew it to be true: they had all lived in those times. They had seen miracles.

The first seeds of doubt appeared in Balduin's mind when a cave-in in the mines took the life of his young cousin and a dozen other workers. He felt doubt, too, when a particularly tough disease swept through the Five Kings Mountains and took more lives. And when his bride to be fell ill with an illness that had no cure, some disease they described as "terminal," he prayed long and hard to Torag and to all the dwarven pantheon for help. He prayed dearly for them to bless her, to save her from death.

His prayers were unanswered. She died of her illness within a year. Balduin's faith died with her, and something in him stirred: a boiling, frothing anger. At first he simply stormed off at his sister's insistence that all was part of a divine plan; but before long he was growling out the doubts he had harbored so long publicly. But when his father demanded that the young dwarf remember his place in the family and honor their traditions, Balduin slammed his fist in anger and renounced his ties to the Evergleam family.

So at the young age of fifty-five, against the wishes of those he once called family, Balduin set out into the world on his own. The dwarf never intended to be a warrior; indeed, he had planned to simply travel to Andoran and work as a laborer there until he could found a business of his own. Putting on some old armor and signing on as a caravan guard just seemed like a better alternative to paying a travel fee.

While en-route to Bellis, Balduin's caravan was attacked. It was an easy fight; the bandits underestimated the defenders and were swiftly routed. But one of the merchants in the caravan saw a talent for combat in the young dwarf, and after they passed through Bellis and entered Almas he offered Balduin a better-paying contract to escort another caravan to Taldor. Before Balduin knew it, he was traveling around the Inner Seas, doing mercenary work for whoever offered the most coin.

Balduin eventually fell in with a band of mercenaries that called themselves the Lucky Bastards. An unruly lot, they proved to be a new kind of family to Balduin, teaching him rough lessons in an unforgiving world. He learned a lot about fighting dirty, military tactics, and who the best paying generals around were. He fought in a few skirmishes with them, and he became a competent sword-for-hire.

The first true test of Balduin's mettle came when his band was contracted to support a Molthuni garrison during a brief rebellion against Andoran. An army from Andoran laid siege to the town, bringing all manner of siege weapons with the intent of starving the garrison out. When food supplies ran out, the townsfolk were eating rats; and when the rats were gone, the cats and dogs were next. At one point Balduin was chewing on the leather of his boots to keep from starving, and people all around him fell from starvation and disease. Things got so grim that a few folk were starting to discuss eating the dead.

Eventually, the defenders attempted a desperate sally against the Andoran forces, but they were quickly repelled. Balduin barely escaped that fight with his life. Afterwards, the Molthuni garrison surrendered, and they and the Lucky Bastards were imprisoned for the rest of the war. They were released afterwards, but Balduin would never forget that siege. To him, it would always remain proof that though the miracles of the old world were gone, the horrors yet remained.

Yet somehow Balduin found he still had stomach for war. He stayed with the Lucky Bastards as they replenished their numbers and traveled south to find safer employment while they trained their troops. He also saved up a considerable sum of gold with which he purchased his armor: a spiked, menacing black suit of plated mail. He took on the name 'Blacksteel' as his family name, and served in the Bastards for twenty more years. He was eighty-five.

Word came to the Lucky Bastards of lucrative work to be had in what was once Cheliax. It was there that Balduin met his wife, Marelle, a beautiful dwarven woman from a respected family. They had a son together, and though Balduin was on the road frequently with the Lucky Bastards, he nevertheless proved a good and supportive husband. He sent plenty of gold to keep Marelle and their child in good health, and wrote frequently to his family before finally settling down for ten years. But in that tenth year Marelle found Balduin sleeping with another woman.

The marriage was ended, and Balduin's furious in-laws cursed his name. His own son, twenty-three years of age, came to hate him. So he left again, signed on with a new mercenary company, and began to see more of the Inner Seas again.

The dwarf would settle down only once more in his life: when passing through Taldor and finding an old flame - a Qadiran woman he had shared many tender moments with while stationed in Cassomir - she introduced him to a girl she had named Safiyya. The young girl clearly had some dwarven blood in her, being of sturdier and stockier breeding than the other children, and the woman told Balduin she was his daughter.

Seeing this as a chance to make up for past mistakes, Balduin helped raise Safiyya. He never married her mother, nor did they ever live together, but he doted over the girl and taught her how to protect herself. But eventually, as she neared her twenty-third birthday (and seemed to become more a woman than a girl), Balduin felt the need to wander stir in him again. So he wished his daughter goodbye, leaving her with the majority of his life's savings and with a house to her name before setting out into the world again.

Now a hundred and thirty six years old, Balduin Blacksteel has kept his boots on the road for five years since leaving his daughter in Cassomir. He may not be a young man anymore, and he may not be a legend by any stretch, but old Blacksteel is a cunning, reckless warrior and a terror on the battlefield.

APPEARANCE

Balduin stands at just a little past four feet tall (four feet and an inch to be exact), but he's got a lot of muscle and some fat to cover it with. He definitely looks strong - and he is - and he's got scars aplenty to prove that he's been through a lot of rough times. His black beard is carefully braided, but it and his hair seem a little disheveled. His brown eyes twinkle with a certain kind of wisdom: the kind you earn, not the kind you're born with.

The middle-aged dwarf wears spiked, black full plate with a helmet adorned with ram's horns. He brings to bear a shield, dwarven waraxe, throwing axes, a longbow and a spiked gauntlet.

PERSONALITY

Balduin is a grim, somber dwarf. He has a lot of regrets - such as cutting his ties with his father's family, destroying his marriage, and leaving behind a son that hates him - and feels a need to make up for those mistakes somehow. The blood he's spilled, too, weighs heavily on him; yet despite that he finds himself drawn constantly to war. Battle is where he belongs, it seems. Everything else seems so strange and foreign to him.
Though brash and impulsive as a youth, Balduin has grown to be patient and cool of head. He prefers to have time to himself to think through the day's events, using a smoke pipe and a bit of dwarven stout to ease his nerves. But when battle is imminent, his tone becomes sharper and his decisions quicker. He takes on the air of an old sergeant and begins giving orders to those around him before throwing himself recklessly into the fray.

Though he isn't the friendliest of men, Balduin finds solace in helping teach others the tricks of his trade. He treats younger warriors as pupils, taking them under his wing and doing his best to protect them in battle. He takes pleasure in sharing old war stories around the campfire, and has even developed a bit of a storyteller's tongue.

Balduin believes quite firmly that the gods are dead. To him, there is simply no other explanation for their absence and the terrible things he has seen. He puts his faith only in his armor and the courage of his companions.

The dwarf has family in Highhelm, and although he has not seen them in almost a hundred years, Balduin travels to dwarven settlements in that region from time to time. His daughter Safiyya owns an inn in Cassomir. He avoids traveling to the town in Western Andoran where his ex-wife and son live. He also has some old friends from the Lucky Bastards, though that mercenary group has long since disbanded.