Darsis Valdane's page

Born to a happy little family, Dari had an idyllic early childhood in Daveryn, he rarely saw his father who worked a great deal, but the few reunions they had were joyous. Then the masked men came, and that boy, a happy little animal sucking at life's teat, died.

At age six Darsis Valdane was rescued from a maddened cult of demon worshipers after being forced to torture and slay his two older brothers, his sister, and his mother. His father, Baldan Valdane, an Inquisitor of Mitra who had foiled the cult's schemes previously, tried to beat the darkness from his son, but only managed to impose a code of sorts.

Baldan Valdane was an arrogant man, who believed there were animals and there were people, and being born a thinking creature was not sufficient to warrant personhood. A person Baldan believed shaped the world, while an animal reacted to the world. An animal caught in a bear trap would gnaw off its own foot, or surrender, a person caught in a bear trap would endure the pain, and feign unconsciousness, waiting for the trapper to come and then taking its chance to slay them once it was freed. This he told Darsis again and again, hammering the lessons home with his belt.

Darsis grew loathing his father, and harboring dark thoughts, and found that killing relaxed him, and made him feel something other than numbness. Eventually his father discovered his collection of animal tongues under the floorboards and beat him viciously, making him spend virtually all of his time at the local Church praying for Mitra's guidance and absolution.

Then his father began to drink, perhaps sickened by his only remaining child's depravity. And as Darsis watched him descend into addiction his respect for the man withered and died, as did Baldan's right to be treated as anything but an animal, an animal who had hurt him...

So Darsis set a bear trap inside the privy. And when the old man was caught he doused the privy in oil and burned him alive inside it. A person would have found a way out of the situation, but the animal that was his father did not. Killing animals is not murder it is slaughter, and a persons right.

Darsis sold their home, took ship, and enrolled at Blackblades's fighter training school in Ghastenhall. His money ran out more swiftly than he could have imagined, but he found work at an abattoir, learning to kill and cut meat which he found soothing - and informative. He proved an adept warrior and swiftly mastered a signature style of fighting that involved careful use of blade and scabbard in conjunction. In his two years at the school he dispatched a dozen human animals, refining his techniques there to, and taking to soaking a piece of red silk in each victims blood and stitching it into the lining of his fathers cloak. He was forced to flee Ghastenhall after he saw the Watch breaking down the door to his rooms, and took the first ship he could afford - to Matheryn.

In Matheryn he quickly found work as a bodyguard and enforcer, for a local money lender named Gerrius Dreel. Dreel had him do some terrible things to debtors, animals who could not meet their obligations, but the man was an odious glutton whose stench offended Darsis. Then one day Dreel lost a huge sum in a card game, and did not pay Darsis on time, he could have paid after making a few collections of course. But fair is fair, a loan shark should know the consequences of not paying when owed. Darsis slew Dreel's other two bodyguards before they had a chance to react, tied the glutton to a stake and slow roasted him over his own fire place - with an apple in his mouth. Honing his blades to razor sharpness in rhythm with the pig's squeals.

Three days later he was arrested in his rooms. He is not sure how he was caught, he butchered the meat making it virtually unrecognizable and sold it to a sausage maker. Nobody saw his deeds that he is aware of and he was not known to have any enemity towards Dreel. But a person adapts and Darsis Valdane is no animal, he is a person, he is a butcher.

1. Darsis has a code, he despises those who let life dictate to them, and especially those who fall prey to addictions and cannot control themselves.
2. His father was an Inquisitor of Mitra and taught him that she is a weak goddess whose laxitude and sympathetic ways lead to people becoming spineless animals.
3. He literally regards his prey as animals to be slaughtered at his whim, and has trained himself to properly butcher these human animals.
4. He does not think like other men, he is distant and predatory, and tends to play out how he might kill a man in his mind even as he talks to them. People can tell he is a off, and when the powerfully built creepy fellow keeps staring at your jugular with blank emotionless eyes its hard not to get creeped out. Plus he thinks most people are animals, below him with no rights or worth and this tends to come across in small ways. Hence charisma 7, though he is not unattractive.
5. He has never come into contact with the Church of Asmodeus, but its likely he would approve of a great deal of its doctrine and he might become a worshiper in game.
6. Darsis likes to think he has his emotions sealed firmly away because they are of little use. But really he is just so badly damaged that he is forced to suppress them lest they drive him mad.

1. Retrieve his cloak. It reminds him of his deeds, each blood stained strip in the lining telling a tale.
2. Punish those who have stripped him of his freedom and temporarily taken his decisions out of his own hands.
3. Find out how he was caught.
4. Destroy the Church of Mitra which is helping cause people to atrophy into animals.

1. Darsis's sister and mother were still alive when the Inquisitors of Mitra stormed their hidden temple. Bound an gagged their eyes accusing eyes cut at him, he could not stand those eyes so sobbing he cut their throats, while telling them he loved them.
2. The man who reported Darsis's murders to the Talingarde authorities was the sausage maker Hollard Wence. Wence is an escaped Chelish galley slave who was aboard the Thruneclaw when it was caught in a storm and left without sails and oars adrift for two months. He and five other men survived the crew of two hundred, all knowing the taste of long pork. With that it was easy to put together the rumors of Dreel's disappearance and his body guards sudden sale of three hundred pounds of unspecified meat.

1. Benkhal Blackblade. The man who taught Darsis the blade has earned his most profound respect. Darsis wondered what path he would have taken had this man been his father, and almost overcame his dark urges for a while during his training. But for all his promise Darsis was just another student to Benkhal who although a good man cared more for martial skill than friendships.
2. Eleen Treel. A troubled young thief and whore who witnessed Darsis butcher two men who had been about to rape her, because they owed Dreel money. Despite Darsis's assurances that saving her had nothing to do with his killings Eleen became fascinated with him and often followed him around.
3. Captain Rodal Farris, the officer who arrested Darsis and gloated long and loud about how Mitra's justice comes to all. Darsis has plans for him.

1. Looking at peoples throats instead of their eyes.
2. Pausing for a long moment before responding in conversation.