Adon

Adon (surname unknown), is the supporting hero of the Avatar series of novels set in the D&D world of Forgotten Realms, and the main character of the short story The Curse of Tegea.
He was a narcissistic cleric of Sune, goddess of love and beauty, before a crisis of faith during the Time of Troubles led him to become more humble and convert to the worship of Mystra, goddess of magic. He was the adventuring companion of Kelemvor the fighter, Midnight the mage and Cyric the rogue.
== Appearance ==
Adon was in his mid 30's at the time of his tragic death, of average height and build, and has fair skin, light brown hair and green eyes. His looks are quite plain, his most noticeable feature is the scar that runs on his cheek to his jaw. 
He dresses well, keeps his gear clean and works to maintain his armor and shield polished.
== Personality ==
Early in his life, Adon was vain, verbose, foppish and lecherous, and boasted that he could seduce any woman, including powerful rulers like Myrmeen Lahl. However, the events of the Time of Troubles changed him greatly. 
Now, as a high ranking priest of Mystra's church, he is kind, humble, caring and selfless. While he suffered a long crisis of faith, he has overcome it, and he is wiser and more confident in himself and his connection to the goddess of magic.
He can, however, still be wordy. Kelemvor once described him as using 1000 words when 10 would suffice. Perhaps that may be a side-effect of being someone who preaches for a living. But it is forever a quirk of Adon. 
Adon always seek to do good in the name of Mystra/Midnight. He'll always help those in need, even if he doesn't know all the circumstances, as he trusts his goddess and friend to lead him where he is needed. 
Adon is one of the very few people who remembered Mystra's former identity as Midnight, the two still considered each other friends, and she would occasionally visit him when she was seeking a mortal perspective beyond the narrow concerns of the gods. 
Adon's primary goal was the promotion of the church of mysteries, one of the names the cult of Mystra was known. After gaining new confidence in himself, Adon is a devoted opponent to the forces of evil. Just as Mystra is opposed to Cyric's foul schemes, so is Adon and the church he leads. 
== History ==
Adon was raised as a devoted worshiper of Sune Firehair. He grew up in a environment of comfort and pampering, and his parents observed him to see which of their best qualities lived on in their son. They were disappointed in almost every way. Adon lacked ambition as a kid, he realized early that there was little need to apply himself when everything he wanted was given to him. Also, he failed to inherit any of his parents' attractiveness. 
On the night of his 15th birthday Adon had a dream where the goddess Sune came to him and promised to make him her consort. The next day he swore to become a crusader in the service of Sune, and at age 18 he became the youngest person to become a cleric of that goddess. Within a year, he was assigned to the temple in the city of Arabel. While there he met Cyric, Midnight and Kelemvor. Together, these four adventurers were pivotal figures in the Time of Troubles.
=== Shadowdale ===
Shortly after the Time of Troubles began, Adon and his companions were hired by Caitlan Moonsong, a young girl who stated that her mistress was held captive in Kilgrave Castle. In truth, both Caitlan and Midnight had been invested with a portion of the goddess Mystra's power, and the mistress Caitlan wanted to rescue was Mystra herself, who had been imprisoned by another fallen god: Bane, the lord of tyranny and strife. 
Bane and Myrkul were the gods responsible for stealing the Tablets of Fate, the event that led to the overgod Ao to banish all the gods to the Realms. The party freed Mystra and defeated Bane, though only temporarily. Mystra merged with Caitlan, and she sought to return to the planes to tell Ao who stole the Tablets. Helm, the god of guardians, was tasked by Ao with preventing any god from returning to the planes. Wanting to return to her home, Mystra attacked Helm, and Helm destroyed Mystra by punching through her chest, causing a massive explosion. Before dying, Mystra told Midnight to go to Elminster in Shadowdale.
Moving on toward Shadowdale, the party stopped in Tilverton. It was there that Adon was wounded in the face with a knife by a lunatic. With the gods walking around the Realms, there was no clerical magic to heal the wound, and a long scar formed. 
Upon reaching Shadowdale, the party learned that Bane gathered an army of Zhentarim and was leading them to attack the town. The party aided with the defense of the town, with Adon and Midnight assisting Elminster in his tower, as the old archmage was working to conjure a creature that could help defeat Bane. The dark god noticed this and attacked at a critical time just as Elminster was casting a spell to contain the creature he planned to summon through a planar rift. Bane and Elminster battled, and the god drove the wizard into the rift he had opened. Just then, the magic elemental Elminster had summoned arrived. The elemental dragged Bane through the rift and the tower exploded.
The Zhentarim forces were defeated, but from the wreckage of Elminster's tower, only Adon and Midnight emerged. In the aftermath, the two were accused of murdering Elminster.
=== Tantras ===
Feeling abandoned by Sune, and seeing other gods moving around Faerun, Adon suddenly felt as if he had done something terrible and deserved to be punished (as evidenced by his scar). Having lost faith in himself and his goddess, Adon sunk into an almost catatonic depression, and only Midnight tried to help him while Cyric wanted to get rid of him for being dead weight.
Although an impromptu trial sentenced them to death, Adon and Midnight were rescued by Cyric (who would soon turn to evil). The three fled, pursued by Shadowdale soldiers, including Kelemvor.
Having learned that one of the Tablets is hidden in the city of Tantras, Adon and Midnight decided to go there, while Cyric got separated from the other two and was forced to join a company of Zhentarim riders. Meanwhile, Bane returned in a new giant form, and led his forces to attack Tantras to get the Tablet. There, Adon met Torm, the lion god of loyalty and valor. Adon told Torm about his party's mission of recovering the Tablets of Fate, and Torm advised Adon not to lose himself in self-pity and he should focus on helping his companions and save the Realms. Soon after, Adon and Midnight spotted Elminster alive and well after his ordeal in the planar rift.
The two fallen gods, Bane and Torm, fought in a behemoth battle over the Tablet in Tantras. The two gods ended up destroying each other. Adon, Midnight and Kelemvor gained the first Tablet of Fate and learned that the second is in Waterdeep, the city of splendors. Cyric, by this time, fully turned to evil and became the leader of the Zhentarim forces pursuing the heroes. 
Adon had taken Torm's words to heart, and pledged himself to stand by them. He had been shocked to see how most gods cared little for their worshippers, and so he began to focus his devotion to what was really important to him: his friends. 
=== Waterdeep ===
The Realms-bound form of Bhaal, god of murder, was stalking the heroes as well, trying to get his hands on the first Tablet. The party continued to flee, as their pursuers drew ever closer.
In a decisive battle near Boarskyr Bridge, all the players came together. Bhaal fought Cyric over who would take possession of Midnight and the first Tablet. Using an enchanted sword called Godsbane, Cyric managed to kill Bhaal, but was badly wounded in the process.
Adon, Kelemvor and Midnight sought Dragonspear Castle, not knowing that Myrkul, god of the dead, had laid a trap for them there. In truth, the second Tablet wasn't in Waterdeep but in Myrkul's Bone Castle in the Realm of the Dead. Because the gods were stuck in the Realms, none of them could travel across the planes and retrieve the Tablet. Myrkul's plan was to trick Midnight into going to Bone Castle and get the Tablet for him. After several trials in Hades, Midnight recovered the Tablet.
The heroes came together again in Waterdeep, where the third and final Tablet was located.
As a distraction, Myrkul unleashed hundreds of Demons and Yugoloths from the lower planes into Waterdeep, so that the city's armed forces would be too busy trying to repel them, leaving only the party and Elminster to protect the Tablets from the lord of the dead. After an attack from Adon and a griffon rider, Midnight managed to kill Myrkul with a Disintegrate spell.
Cyric took the opportunity to attack the exhausted heroes, trying to get the Tablets for himself. Cyric killed Kelemvor, wounded Adon and Midnight, and fled with the Tablets. Adon and Midnight pursued Cyric to the top of Mount Waterdeep, where Cyric presented the Tablets to Lord Ao himself.
The overgod then elevated Cyric to godhood, giving him the spheres of influence of Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul, and also offered Midnight to replace the deceased Mystra as the new goddess of magic. At first she refused, but Adon told her she was needed to oppose Cyric. And so, Midnight walked the celestial stairway alongside her archenemy Cyric.
Adon became the first cleric of the new goddess of magic. Since then, he had worked to strengthen Mystra's church. He also fended off periodic assassination attempts from the cult of Cyric.
=== The Curse of Tegea ===
One event that helped reaffirm Adon's faith in himself and Mystra occured in Tegea, a small town in the southern reaches of the Storm Horn mountains. The Duke who ruled Tegea had turned insane during the Time of Troubles, cursing the gods for abandoning his town. The effect was that no cleric while staying in Tegea would be able to contact the gods and recharge their spells.
The Duke, now a hideous mutant, used his magic to inflict a curse on the women of Tegea when one refused to marry him: all of the women were made as ugly as he was.
Adon travelled to Tegea with a initiate cleric, Corene. They attempted to help the object of the Duke's base desires, a spirited girl named Serafina, who had repeatedly refused the Duke's advances. Adon learned that the Duke believed himself to be handsome and confronted the mad ruler. With Corene's help, Adon showed the Duke his true visage and defeated him. His curse was lifted, and all the women regained their regular appearance. A new temple of Mystra was built in Tegea.
=== Prince of Lies ===
When Cyric sought to create the Cyrinishad, Mystra came to Adon for advice. In the course of their conversation, she showed Adon an asylum for those who had been driven mad by misfired magic, and explained to Adon that the gods see the world through their spheres of influence, comparing them to the asylum's inmates. 
Adon decided it was the church of Mystra's duty to help these people as much as possible. 
=== The Trial of Cyric ===
To spite Mystra, Cyric tricked Adon into going insane by making him gaze into the mad God's mind. This caused Adon to see everything as horrible and twisted as Cyric did and falling into despair after seeing Mystra as a hideous monster, and committed suicide.
In the process of Cyric being put on trial by the other gods, Kelemvor opened his own soul to Adon, making him see Mystra as he saw her. Adon finally saw Mystra as she truly was. His mental health was restored and was received into Mystra's realm of Dweomerheart, his soul was saved.
== Trivia ==
* Some time after the Time of Troubles, Adon became something of a celebrity, as his likeness was used for the "Avatar Set" of toys made and sold by Aurora's Emporium, appearing alongside his traveling companions and the Elminster.
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