About Raevis RogarviaBackstory:
Born as the fifth son of Ravelm Rogarvia, Raevis never had much of a prospect of inheriting the throne. Still, as a part of the ruling house of the nation of Brevoy, he was an attractive spouse and a good pawn to forge stronger ties with for the weaker houses and outside countries. He was a proverbial carrot dangled in front of them for years, pushed this way and that by his father. Perhaps predictably, as he grew older, he started to despise the way choices were made for him – what he was allowed to study and not, who he was allowed to see, how much he should train and even what he could eat. More and more he became a dissident, rebelling in the slightest ways of etiquette at first and more openly as his skill and confidence grew. He questioned the teachings of the Aldori swordlords, one of them his own teacher, refused to be betrothed to anyone and openly became involved with the church of Cayden Cailean – among commoners, no less! To say nothing of the time he actually discarded his dueling sword and took up the Taldan Falcata and STILL claimed himself a Swordlord! Many a duel was fought over this slight, (often with his teacher, Lothar, standing in for him since ‘If you die, all those years I spent drilling a TINY bit of common sense into your skull would be wasted!’). Yet, somehow, even if the more experienced man didn’t jump in, he always seemed to win. By the time he’d reached adulthood, his reputation among the court as a troublemaker was solidified. He was a rebel dreamer, more interested in philosophy and esoteric swordplay than anything else. Too honest to make good use of his wits, some claimed. Too much in love with a sickly childhood friend -Or even commoner? A dwarf from that last diplomatic visit to Brunderton?- and not enough sense of duty to put it aside for ‘the greater good’. Wild rumors speculated that he even moonlighted as a lowly pathfinder! Yet, for all his perceived flaws, he compensated with commoner popularity. To the outside world, he could pull of the act of the lovable buffoon quite well. It was said that a visit from young Raevis with a bottle of good Andorran wine (or better, a keg of Dwarven ale) could solve any dispute. And there had been other incidents that subtly implied that he was more skilled at this house game then he let on, when investments and undertakings of his enemies tended to mysteriously yet unfailingly meet utterly disastrous results. When confronted with this, he only ever gave his mysterious s@!%-eating grin, followed by a polite bow as was the custom. For a while, things seemed to be working for him, and that his eccentric behavior became more accepted. Still, he knew deep down that something strange was happening in Brevoy. His father was becoming increasingly restless, withdrawing more and more into himself and away from Brevan high society. He was never truly focused whenever they still met.
All of the above at once? But there was nothing – allegedly. That didn’t make his father’s actions any less strange. More and more, money from the treasury was spent on exclusive parties – normally never a priority. More and more gifts for expensive maitresses from this race or that, something his father hadn’t truly indulged in since his wife’s death to poison. Extremely expensive clothes and jewels for a normally reserved and frugal ruler. Then, he started sending his sons away to different corners of the world on the vaguest of missions…. And Raevis knew he’d be next. He just didn’t expect how, or how severe his own dispatchment would be. Perhaps it had been based on an excuse, when he’d rejected a courtship from a girl who by his very conservative estimates was *completely crazy*. Seeking to have all the Surtova‘s murdered and blaming it on a convenient third party her family had a regional dispute with was not something he’d sign for anytime soon, no matter the material benefit. But Honors were slighted, and the other party had put forth an Aldori Swordswoman named Jamandi Aldori. It was slaughter. His teacher refused to stand in for him, and this opponent was far beyond any he’d faced before. So far, that even during the duel, he’d started to wonder just how many of them had LET him win, just because he was a prince, and realize that he wasn’t nearly as good as he thought he was. He got crushed, and the final stroke of the swordlord cut deeply into his dominant right hand, which never fully recovered. It might have, with powerful enough magic, but such wasn’t offered to him anymore. Instead, he was brought before he father, claimed to be an embarrassment to the family, disowned and exiled from the court. That was mere days before the Vanishing, when suddenly the entire rest of his family and their servants seemed to disappear into thin air. Perhaps, now exiled to the stolen lands below, the then sixteen year old Raevis, should have counted himself fortunate to have been exempted, but he’d been too busy trying to cope with suddenly losing everything, including the function of his swordhand. But it was also a turning point for him, and as he found refuge in a small temple of Erastil, he’d slowly began trying to atone for his earlier cockiness and overconfidence, and being a better man. To pick himself up and learn how to fight again with his other arm.
While initially he held out some lingering ambition of eventually reclaiming his family’s heritage and lands, as he matured, he knew he’d never be able to achieve it and would just throw his life away, even if he could prove he was a surviving heir. Instead, he married a local huntress he’d fallen in love with, Elena, and life was simple, but good. …Until the day came when he found her dead, along with signs that his cottage had been raided by bandits belonging to the Stag Lord, which he soon realized was a fight he couldn’t hope to win by himself. The man had too many bandits in a land still too unknown. Thus, in order to still chase revenge, he first heads north, hoping there was truth to these rumors that an expedition against him was being formed, one to drive this ‘Lord’ out of his lands… Personality:
Raevis is normally a more reserved, intelligent swordsman. At least, that’s how he likes to think of himself now. As a foil to his younger self, he now prefers to carefully study which fights to pick and when, and only result to direct confrontation if there are no better ways to do it. An early life among the court and good teachers have taught him the values of flattering words, a smile and implied rewards for avoiding bloodshed. Currently, he is mostly set on taking revenge and partly in mourning, and his courtly manners and subterfuge have mostly given way to honesty and the commoner’s straightforwardness. Were these skills ever to resurface, such as if he ever regained a position of leadership, he would calculate how to present himself for the best results of each situation. The position he liked to be in is one where he was underestimated, and he wouldn’t be above deliberately giving wrong impressions or appeared to a duel ‘drunk’ to lure his opposition into a false sense of security. That said, while the distance to a potential throne has grown extremely long, he still feels a genuine connection to the people of Brevoy and a sense of duty to protect them. To him, the drinks he once shared with his friends in the Local pub or temple of Cayden Cailean (usually after bribing the guards to let him go, or simply offering to take them with him and pay for their drinks) were more real and treasured than the days upon days of calculating what the Look noble X gave noble Y and what hidden agenda’s could be contained within. In the past, he often took it upon himself to sabotage nobles who grew a bit too power-hungry for their own good. Not out of a sense of personal gain, but rather to spare the people as many bloody disputes as possible. To achieve this, he once worked on local connections with the merchant families and conglomerates of New Stetven to bring about financial ruin of these troublemakers. Nothing drained your wallet faster than having your iron and copper trading rights revoked due to a ‘contractual error’, having the alternative shipments bought out before you could deliver on your customers, and having your imported exotic spices never arrive. Without money, there was no war. He found the average noble could care less of the possibility of hundreds of his serfs dying, but the prospect of losing money tended to scare them off. Funny, how that worked. However, there was always the danger that if he *did* regain his earlier life of leadership, importance and perchance luxury, that he would fully regress from the more sober huntsman into the party animal and he’d once been… While he attempts to hide his lineage, he sometimes gives away that he knows too much for a simple farmer, usually either from political knowledge or from comments about swordfighting techniques. I can see him often quoting passages from the real life Art of War book, for instance, if asked for advice on something.
Appearance:
At a first glance, he is a handsome, if somewhat rugged, Human male in his mid-twenties with a well-trimmed beard and short, reddish hair. Set against his younger self, he intentionally cut his hair short so the chance of visual recognition is lowered. He walks with a confident smile (not before the Stag lord dies – then it’s more of a determined frown) and a distinct confidence of sorts that sets him apart from the average traveler. He wears a Falcata in a holster on his right, which is also the arm his buckler is strapped to. Longer observation reveals that he doesn’t use his right hand that much and vastly prefers his left for everything, but a pair of leather gloves hide the explanatory deep scar from view. (His injured right hand is also a RP explanation for having slightly below average strength as an ability score.) He travels with a Horse named Shayenne, which he named after his first love from his previous life – a slightly older servant girl with faint elven heritage who was removed from the castle when it became clear the two of them were involved against status. In combat, he prefers graceful and precise cuts over brutish swings, often chosing to deflect hits and suddenly striking perceived weaknesses in the stances of his enemies. Goals and Potential plot hooks:
-Short term goal: Take revenge on the Stag Lord. Raevis is convinced it were his men who raided his cabin and killed his late wife (though the evidence might have been planted by someone else, of course, and it might have been an assassination attempt on him instead?). -Long term goal: Rebuild the influence of House Rogarvia, if a true opportunity arises, and potentially find out what happened to them/if any of them are still alive. I picture this mostly as a gradually growing desire. It could start with definitively accept that being disowned was something his father did as an attempt to try and save him from the vanishing, rather than a punishment, something that Jamandi Aldori might have been in on, too. This would cause him to forgive his father’s actions, and then he will seek out revenge for whatever happened to his family, potentially also against those who took advantage of the situation when his family disappeared (such as house Surtova if the kingdom ever becomes hostile towards them). -Motivation for starting a kingdom: See above. -On further plothooks: His major first and foremost potential plot hook is around his heritage from the disappeared Rogarvia family. He could technically be recognized by anyone who interacted with the Rogarvians in the past (king Irovetti or his servants?), to say nothing of how his father’s family vanishing might be related to the eventual BBEG (redacted in case someone reads this who doesn’t know the book 6 villain). The reaction of said faction who identifies him can play into the story however you like. My personal headcanon for the Vanishing is that it somehow involves the eventual BBEG. Here are some other ideas, too:
-His right hand was permanently injured in a duel with Jamandi Aldori just before he was exiled from court. While he mostly accepts his former behavior as unfitting and attempts to be a better man, the strength in it still never fully returned. The constant weakness might give rise to growing resentment, which could flare further if the Kingdom ever became at odds with the Aldori, for instance. On the other hand, this event did shake his confidence in his skills and he starts out mostly fearing being discovered by and/or dueled by her again… which is at odds with her being a sponsor for the southern expeditions. Whether she recognizes him and offers him a chance regardless is up to you as the GM! -Raevis, despite being in his mid teens back then, was a bit of a womanizer during his Court stay and might have a bastard child of his own somewhere, which could come back to bite him in the ass when he least wants it to. Such as, perhaps, if his identity were revealed and he were to rise to an important post, primed to re-marry someone? -He was a bit of an adventurer in his teen years, too, and might have snuck out of the castle on adventures here or there. So if the ramifications of one such ‘caper’ would be fun to include in the story, I could think of a few. He might have gone on a few adventures with Maegar Varn back in the day, which his father may or may not have known about? Stat Block:
Raevis Rogarvia
Traits: Pioneer, Fate’s Favored. Skills: Acrobatics +0 (-4 to jump), Bluff +6, Diplomacy +6, Ride +4, Knowledge (nobility) +5, Perception +6, Sense Motive +6, Survival +2 (+4 to avoid becoming lost when using a Mapmaker's Kit as you travel), Swim +0
Slashing Grace (Falcata) Treat chosen weapon as 1-handed piercing weapon and can add Dex instead of Str to dam. Swashbuckler Finesse Use Dex for att with light/1-hand pierce wep. Use Cha instead of Int for combat feat pre-reqs. Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at https://www.wolflair.com
Build and party role in and out of combat going forward::
Raevis intends to multiclass into an inquisitor of Erastil at level 2 and will remain an inquisitor from there. He intends to take the sanctified slayer and optionally tactical leader archetypes if allowed, which enhance his social abilities, make his damage more reliable, and allow him to share teamwork feats with friends. The overall flavor will be a somewhat rogueish swordwielding ‘ranger’ who can also hold his own in courtlife. For combat, he will have good ac (medium armor + high dex + buckler + spells if given time), and along with limited access to Swashbuckler parries he should make for an excellent tank or tanky melee damage dealer. On the damage side he fights with a one-handed 19-20/x3 weapon, which combined with the inquisitor’s plethora of buffs (Studied target, slow sneak attack progression, Bane, Spells, Teamwork feats) should make pack quite a punch! (though it will take a few rounds for him to activate all said buffs, as is common for inquisitors) He also gets an animal companion from Erastil's animal domain at level 5 (his former house cat, who escaped the attack on his cottage), who can help out a bit on what the party needs. When ranged damage is needed, the same buffs and class features allow him to shoot a bow decently well, though he doesn’t have the feats to really be good at it. Out of combat, he has a large amount of skillpoints each level (10-11 including background skills) which I intend to spread between social skills, some knowledge skills for monster identification and many skills for wilderness survival and exploration. I expect him to excel in social situations especially because studied target (which he gets in return for judgement through sanctified slayer), adds to all his social rolls in out of combat situations too, and inquisitors naturally get half level to sense motive and intimidate or diplomacy depending on archetype. For kingdom management, the roles he most easily qualifies for are spymaster (using potential old contacts from his court days) and marshall (using his survival skills), though I could buy a headband or take a feat and get his wisdom or charisma up to 16 for any of those other positions. While a small part of Raevis still covets the throne, he might prefer marrying to an existing ruler rather than immediately claim it himself, since that will probably cause less political backlash. |
