Urias Lastwaller's page

Urias was born in the small town of Three Pines Ford in the south of Lastwall, along the Tourondel River. His family, the Lastwallers, take their name from their ancient association with the crusader state. The Lastwaller family has a generations-long tradition of providing soldiers for the crusades of Lastwall, and have even had the honor of being inducted into the ranks of the Knights of Ozem on occasion. The family’s claim to fame is the prevalence of aasimars, sorcerers and other plane-touched that are born to them. It is Lastwaller tradition for the men to seek out brides with planar blood, or from families known to have such. Further, it is the Lastwaller way to have as many children as they possibly can, to better contribute to “the cause”.

Urias has many siblings. He has two older sisters, an older brother, a twin brother (now deceased), a little brother and a little sister. His parents run a smithy in Three Pines Ford, making weapons and armor for the soldiers of Lastwall. Both his older sisters are clerics of Iomedae, and his older brother is a paladin of the same. All three of them are normal humans. Urias’s twin brother was a tiefling, but otherwise identical to him. His name was Uriel. Urias’s little brother is an ifrit and his littlest sister a slyph. They are an unusual family, to say the least.

Growing up in the middle of a pack of so many siblings, Urias and Uriel were always trying to stand out from the crowd. They weren’t old enough to be given responsibility, and weren’t young enough to be doted on. During their teenage years this lead to straight up rebellion. Both boys ran away from home, and fled across the Nirmathi border into the Fangwood. They fell in with a group of brigands who robbed any travelers they could find. The twins stayed with the gang for several months.

During this time Urias met Elmoyra, a half-elven beauty and fellow brigand. She was an orphan, much older and less naive about the world than Urias was. Elmoyra took him under her wing, and showed him the ways of love and manhood. Urias fell desperately in love with his “Bandit Rose”. For a time at least his passions for Elmoyra blinded him to the wrongs that he and his brother were committing in the name of “free living”.

One day, while they were robbing a river boat, Uriel lost control of the darkness within him. He murdered one of their victims in cold blood. Thievery was one thing, but murder of merchants quite another. Rangers were dispatched to track down and take care of the brigands. It wasn’t long before they captured the whole gang. Uriel was sentenced to death for his crimes, and hung. So was Elmoyra - divinations revealed her hands were far from clean. Urias was sentenced to a public flogging of thirty lashes and a week in the stocks. The punishment was brutal, as were the losses of his twin and first love. The events left Urias scarred, both mentally and physically. After these experiences, Urias lost all desire to be an outlaw.

He returned home, changed. He was cloaked in sadness and defeat. He told his parents what had happened. He begged their forgiveness. His mother seemed to be willing to try to forgive him, but his father’s scorn was too much for Urias. He left home, vowing that he would become a Knight of Ozem, no matter the cost - if he did enough good, maybe he could make up for all the bad. His quest lead him across Lastwall to Vigil, where he enlisted in the army. With a bit of training, his natural talents as a warrior manifested themselves readily, and his stoic charisma lead the other recruits to look up at him as a leader.

Shortly after finishing basic training, Urias’s unit was sent on border patrol to the west of Vigil, near Castle Firrine. They came across a hamlet that had been raided by an orc warparty mere hours before. Urias’s commanding officer vowed to the people of the village that the orcs would pay for this outrage, and set the unit to tracking down the orcs. The hunt lead them across the border, along the River Esk into Belkzen. The orc warparty’s trail lead back to a nomadic camp where they were busy enjoying the spoils of their raid. The cries of the villagers taken as slaves boiled the blood of the soldier’s from Lastwall, but their canny officer insisted they wait to attack. For hours the soldiers crouched in the brush, listening to the grating sounds of the guttural orcish revelry. Finally, when the sounds died down the commander signaled it was time. The unit streamed as silently as their armor allowed into the warcamp, passing the drunk and dozing orc sentries with ease. With a blast of the commander’s trumpet the men of Lastwall laid into the orcs with righteous steel. Urias felt a dam break inside him, and all the rage that had been pent up with his grief came roaring out. His hammer ignited with flame, and he raved with glorious laughter as he brought justice to the wicked orc raiders. The memory is but a blur of flame, crimson blood and screams (both his own and others) for Urias, but it unlocked something primal within him.

Despite the favorable conditions of the ambush, more than half of Urias’s unit was killed. They managed to kill all the orcs responsible, and to rescue the half dozen people that the orcs had taken as slaves. Urias’s commander nominated him for a medal a valor for his conduct when he singlehandedly defended the life of a human captive against three orcish warriors, and was badly wounded in the process. He received the medal back in Vigil, and with it a promotion to Corporal. After recovering from his wounds, Urias immediately put in an application for the Knights of Ozem. With a recommendation from his erstwhile commander, he was able to make it into the program, and is ready to start his training as a scrub. Urias is driven by guilt and rage to repay the world by eliminating chaos and evil he comes across. He understands that to do this best, he might have to skirt the line of darkness himself at times. He is willing to risk his own peace of mind and purity to protect those of others and he knows that sometimes fire is best fought with more fire.