138) Endurance the Ashen, Knight of the Breach [Tiefling (Zariel), Oath of the Watchers Paladin]:
In a certain land, in a bygone age, a magical calamity tore open a breach, connecting the material world to other planes. From this tear - what the common folk call the Breach - monsters of every shape, size, and kind leak through. It is here that the hero of great renown - Bartoat the Banisher - stood beside other great heroes of yore, resolute against the tide of aberrations, elementals, and fiends. Bartoat and his ilk are gone, now, but the Breach remains, as do the countless brave folk who take up that baleful vigil.
The Tiefling called Endurance is the latest of a long line of defenders. A line that spent so long standing knee deep in the blood of planar creatures, the taint of Fiends seeped into their bones and marked their family forever. Nothing unusual, for the Knights of the Breach include many Tieflings, Genasi, and those touched by Fae, Far Realm, and chaotic Limbo. All the same, the people of their land are wary of the defenders who bear the marks of planar magic, forming a pecking order between them and those of purely native blood.
Just such a rivalry exists between Endurance and a human Knight named Albrecht, called "The Beautiful", descendant of storied heroes. Albrecht always looked down on Endurance, calling him hellspawn; "little better than the fiends from the Breach". When the occasion came that Endurance volunteered to seek the lost magic sword of the hero Bartoat - called Explusion, the Banishing Blade - Albrecht became incensed to the point of conniptions. How dare the hellspawn seek such a hold blade of legend?
The two Paladins race across the world and even across the planes, trying to find any trace of Bartoat's sword. Will they survive to lay eyes on it? Will they have the strength and fortitude to claim it, without losing their honor in the process?
These questions weigh heavy on Endurance, for whom the taint of the lower planes is a constant source of self-doubt. Can he be trusted to resist temptation? Is his will strong enough? Endurance the Ashen is a melancholy soul, prone to hiding his gray skin and horns beneath a hood, so tired he is of the gaze of normal folk. To him, the root source of his motives and actions is of great importance.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Albrecht the Beautiful, who has never doubted, questioned, or self-reflected. He would do anything to get what he wants. Even stab his fellow knights in the back. After all, what's one more devil added to the pile?
In a certain land, in a bygone age, a magical calamity tore open a breach, connecting the material world to other planes. From this tear - what the common folk call the Breach - monsters of every shape, size, and kind leak through. It is here that the hero of great renown - Bartoat the Banisher - stood beside other great heroes of yore, resolute against the tide of aberrations, elementals, and fiends. Bartoat and his ilk are gone, now, but the Breach remains, as do the countless brave folk who take up that baleful vigil.
The Tiefling called Endurance is the latest of a long line of defenders. A line that spent so long standing knee deep in the blood of planar creatures, the taint of Fiends seeped into their bones and marked their family forever. Nothing unusual, for the Knights of the Breach include many Tieflings, Genasi, and those touched by Fae, Far Realm, and chaotic Limbo. All the same, the people of their land are wary of the defenders who bear the marks of planar magic, forming a pecking order between them and those of purely native blood.
Just such a rivalry exists between Endurance and a human Knight named Albrecht, called "The Beautiful", descendant of storied heroes. Albrecht always looked down on Endurance, calling him hellspawn; "little better than the fiends from the Breach". When the occasion came that Endurance volunteered to seek the lost magic sword of the hero Bartoat - called Explusion, the Banishing Blade - Albrecht became incensed to the point of conniptions. How dare the hellspawn seek such a hold blade of legend?
The two Paladins race across the world and even across the planes, trying to find any trace of Bartoat's sword. Will they survive to lay eyes on it? Will they have the strength and fortitude to claim it, without losing their honor in the process?
These questions weigh heavy on Endurance, for whom the taint of the lower planes is a constant source of self-doubt. Can he be trusted to resist temptation? Is his will strong enough? Endurance the Ashen is a melancholy soul, prone to hiding his gray skin and horns beneath a hood, so tired he is of the gaze of normal folk. To him, the root source of his motives and actions is of great importance.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Albrecht the Beautiful, who has never doubted, questioned, or self-reflected. He would do anything to get what he wants. Even stab his fellow knights in the back. After all, what's one more devil added to the pile?
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