Hardan Vorbis's page

In the year 4693 in the later stages of the Asmodean purges Inquistor Baldan Valdane lead a raid upon an underground Asmodean Cult calling themselves The Brotherhood of the Beseeching Eye. Three dozen cultists were put to torture and burnt at the stake, but, perhaps reminded of his own children Baldan spared the life of a fair haired toddler with the group judging him too young to have understood the vile faith of his parents and blameless in their crimes. Valdane deposited the child with The Blessed Order of St. Macarius at their monastery.

Hardan was named for two of Mitra's lesser know Saints and raised with love and affection by the kindly priests and their servants alongside many other orphans. He was a sunny and likeable child, quick to laugh, and make friends. He cared deeply for his fellows, and began to help out in the Church hospice at five years old, working diligently, and brightening the patients days with his youthful exuberance and earnest concern. Whenever a patient he had bonded with died he would weep for days, never able to reconcile a laughing living friend with the cold dead thing that had taken their place.

His best friend was a shy little girl named Seraphine, a willowy ephemeral girl who did not speak for six months after arriving at the monastery aged seven. Hardan took her silence as a challenge and proceeded to fill it, following her about telling her silly made up stories until she smiled, then laughed, and finally spoke. The two were rarely parted after that, always together always holding hands.

Hardan took to to the religious teaching of Mitra, a promising student who embodied the virtues of compassion and love. As he matured he was made aide to Cardinal Julius Arnetti, a pious, but ambitious man who saw great potential in the bright handsome youth and sought to polish him for high office.

But unbeknown to his friends and teachers Hardan had come to have a terrible fear of his own mortality. Nightmares haunted his sleep, he saw the faces of patients and friends turn suddenly cold their flesh withering away to show brittle bone. He began to see snatches of his life from before the Church, his mother and father, bloody corpses, lying still on the floor in a spreading pool of crimson gore, and then just as the horror threatened to overwhelm him an angel would come soothing his woes even as her perfection crumbled and she deteriorated into a skeletal form that held him close and told him everything would be alright, he need never die, all he needed to do was serve and she would teach him mastery over death.

Life continued on as normal, working in the hospice, taking lessons, working for Cardinal Arnetti and attending services, but more and more Hardan's faith was become a hollow lie. Mitra's followers had taken his parents from him, but they had also shown him great compassion. he was torn, was the three aspected god really worthy of his devotion? Could he hate The Fire Undying and worship The Beneficent Sun? So in his head he began to replace The Fire Undying and The Shining Lord with the name of his angel - Mahathallah.

In 4710 a plague spread through the nearby village of Nestle, and many of the victims were brought into the monastery's hospice for treatment. The priests who could heal diseases were left exhausted and their magics had to be saved for those closest to death to preserve as many lives as possible. Seraphine, working beside Hardan as ever in the hospice caught the plague. Hardan terrified of loosing her tended her and begged the priests to remove her affliction, but their magics had been expended for the day. Hardan stayed by her bedside, telling her silly tales, and as she drifted off he begged her to stay with him forever, asked her to marry him as he clutched her burning hand,

"Oh Hardan, I love you, of course I will marry you, but don't be afraid if Mitra takes me, you are the best man I know you will never be alone. I promise..."

She fell into a fitful sleep then, and after a time he awoke kneeling by her bedside to find her gone. In her place was a beautiful cold thing, Mitra had taken his Seraphine. Broken he wept, and vowed in his heart that Mitra would pay for taking his love when they had done nothing but serve.

Years passed and he learned from his new Mistress insinuating himself at the heart of Mitra's Church. He fed news gleaned from the Cardinal's correspondence to the followers of Mahathallah and Asmodeus, helping them evade the Inquisition and strike at Talingarde's weaknesses.

Finally his angel came to him in another dream, holding him in her embrace as she asked,

"You would do anything for me would you not Hardan Vorbis?"

"Anything Mistress."

"Then I need you to serve a man named Mikhail Halancoun. Restore him to his rightful seat in the name of Asmodeus."

"As you will Mistress. Where do I seek this man?"

"You must be consigned to the Branderscar Prison my child."

"I will not fail you Mistress."

The next day he issued letters in the Cardinals name, expertly recreating the familiar signature and using the man's own seal. he requested Sir Balin of Karfield and his men to put Arldin Abbey to the torch, claiming certain that they were followers of Asmodeus - his Mistress assured him the place would reek of evil. Then he issued documents transferring five hundred thousand gold pieces of the monastery's yearly budget into commissioning a huge statue of the beautiful angelic herald "Hallah" and commanding that the building begin in earnest to be completed within six months.

Arldin Abbey burned with many of Mitra's most faithful trapped inside. Nothing happened for three weeks. Hardan, almost ready to take up a blade and try to murder some poor fool, was hugely relieved when the lumbering beast of bureaucracy finally discovered his deeds. He was tried swiftly, protesting his innocence all the while, and finally hauled off to the Branderscar to await a life of hard labor in the salt mines.

There waiting for him was the man he was destined to serve and see elevated to greatness...

1. Hardan's greatest fear is being alone, he has seen too many people he cared about abandon him to death. So now he seeks mastery over it so nobody he loves can ever leave him again.
2. Hardan's love for Seraphine one bright and beautiful has become twisted, he wants to rip her from Mitra's grasp and have her by his side again forever. He would dearly love to retrieve her body and animate it to be his corpse companion, working on restoring her sentience.
3. Hardan is a caring man too sensitive to others plights and quick to invest in people. These traits remain and he would still find the idea of killing anyone he knew deeply disturbing. While he does not believe Asmodeus would truly be any better a god for Talingarde he believes in his Mistress's compassion and loathes Mitra's hypocrisy.
4. Hardan's connection with Mahathallah is deeply personal, he loves her as Mother and Mistress and identifies with her. She fled Pharasma's service to join Asmodeus after the goddess of death showed her a vision of her own death, and so shares Hardan's terror of death and desire to master it.
5. Hardan hates Inquisitors of Mitra with a passion and would gladly go out of his way to cause one pain. He would love to reanimate such men and turn them against their precious Mitra!

1. Restore Seraphine to his side, and find a way to live forever together in the service of Mahathallah.
2. Serve Mahathallah's will and see Mikhail Halancoun take the throne of Talingarde and place the Asmodean faith in its rightful primacy.
3. Kill and reanimate any Inquisitor of Mitra he can.

1. Hardan is not aware, but his parents were actually devout priests of Mitra who had been captured by The Brotherhood of the Beseeching Eye and sacrificed. Hardan himself was going to be sacrificed to Mahathallah.
2. Cardinal Arnetti never believed Hardan responsible for the letters, and is still unable to believe the caring young man could casually order the slaughter of innocents. He is endeavoring to exert his influence to help his former acolyte.
3. The Plague that killed Seraphine was engineered by Mahathallah seeking to tip Hardan over the edge and into her service.

1. Seraphine: His deceased love is buried in the graveyard at the Monastery of St. Macarius.
2. Cardinal Julius Arnetti: This powerful man has no spell casting abilities, but is a consummate politician, and still somehow a good man. He believes in Hardan's innocence and would help him redeem himself if possible. He is highly ambitious and wishes to become High Cardinal. In his late thirties he is one of the youngest Cardinals in history.
3. Sir Balin of Karfeld: Knows that Hardan was responsible for him slaughtering dozens of pure followers of Mitra and has been pressing for him to be tortured to see what caused the Abbey to reek of evil. His efforts have been countered by Cardinal Arnetti.

1. Hardan likes to touch people as he speaks with them, resting a hand upon a shoulder or arm in an unobtrusive way.
2. Hardan is scared of the dark, he keeps a candle burning while he sleeps if possible.
3. Hardan does not like committing acts of physical violence, or even seeing them performed.