Hubris

Hubris Vainglorious (born Hugh Crofton), the Knight of Mist and Shadow.
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==Early Life==
=== Childhood ===
His real name is Hugh Crofton. He is the third of four children. He has two older sisters named Evangelina and Eloise and a younger sister named Eglantine. His parents were Hannah and Edrick Crofton of the Araime clan. His family eked out a meager living in a small settlement where his father worked another man's farm. Even though poor, his early childhood was quite happy.
When Hugh was five, his father was conscripted into a clan regiment and left to fight on a distant border of the clan's lands against some goblinoid invaders. His mother supported the family by working as a seamstress while his father was away. Three years later once the fighting was over his father returned a bitter man haunted by his memories. His father uprooted the family and moved away from neighbors and friends and traveled some distance from clan settlements to live a solitary existence on a plot of land they cleared for farming and the raising of sheep. Times were hard. His father was moody, remote and often drank to excess. His mother was often heard crying to herself through the walls of his bedroom.
Hugh and his younger sister Eglantine escaped together in play-acting and games where they pretended to be figures of legend and lore. At night, Hugh would escape even further in dreams where he imagined himself a knight on bold adventures but the harsh realities of the day always came.
When Hugh was nine, his father was digging a new well beside their farm and discovered an ancient barrow which proved to be a mass burial site. The bones of vaguely humanoid creatures and broken weapons and armor of obsidian were heaped together haphazardly. Unrecognizable runes adorned some of the fragments. Nothing of value was discovered and Hugh was made to help his father rebury the remains and a new well site was picked on the other side of the farmhouse.
This discovery was ill-timed falling as it did on the 20th of Eorgaen and for the next ten days the moon Lornon waxed high in the heavens. Its hue growing steadily more crimson until truly appeared a "bloody moon". Strange occurrences plagued the family through these days. The sheep came down with a strange wasting malady, the family ox stumbled and broke a leg on clear even ground, crop came up deformed and inedible, Evanglina fell from the hayloft hitting her head and could not be roused for hours, Eglantine's pet kitten was found dead behind the barn with its neck apparently wrung, and several other near tragic mishaps were averted.
Hugh's parents became troubled and argued through the night. On the morning of Lornon's Eve, the eldest sister Eloise was sent to ride to the neighboring settlement a day's ride away to petition the cleric there to come and bless the farm in an attempt to drive away any lingering influences in the area. Hugh's father was sullen and began drinking early. To escape his violent outbursts, Hugh and Eglantine left the farmhouse to play in the barn.
During a game of Hide and Seek, Eglantine hid under the hay in one of the horse stalls. The day was severely overcast. So much so that Hugh lit a lamp to help him search. As he was looking through the barn, a tremor passed through the ground shaking dust off the rafters and spooking the horses. Hugh heard a cry from the stall where Eglantine had hidden herself and looked in to see his father's horse rearing in a frenzy, the animal's eyes rolling madly. Eglantine was in danger of being trampled and was curled against the far wall crying out. Hugh tried to reach her but kept being driven back by the rearing horse. Hugh's father responded to cries from the barn, and appeared in the doorway. He ran to the stall and drunkenly pushed Hugh aside to enter in an attempt to save his daughter. Hugh fell to the ground and dropped the lantern, its oil spilling and igniting the nearby hay. The farm was quickly engulfed in flames. Hugh's father was able to duck beneath the maddened horse to get to his daughter and picked her up calling to Hugh. He then threw Eglantine into Hugh's arms at which time the horse whirled crushing and pinning him against the side of the stall. Parts of the building were coming down in fiery debris by this point, and Hugh heard his father yell out in a dying pain-wracked gasp for Hugh to leave him and get Eglantine to safety. Hugh with tears running down his cheeks, made his way out through the smoke and flames. As he and his sister staggered away from the wreckage behind, they turned to see green spectral shapes dancing amidst the flames as the sun set revealing the moon Lornon in its blood red glory.
The next day, after the flames had died, Hugh and his mother sifted through the ruins of the barn until they found the blackened and crushed corpse of his father. As Hugh was burying his father, his sister Eloise returned from her trip with the priest from the nearby settlement. In the waning light of day, the priest prayed over the grave of Hugh's father and performed a ritual to consecrate the ground where the ancient barrow had initially been found. That night, Hugh prayed to the god of dreams to deliver his family from the horrors of the past half-score days. When his sisters and mother awoke, they found Hugh and the priest with the wagon loaded and waiting to take them back to the settlement. The sad family left the farm and never looked back.
Once back in the small settlement, Hugh's mother again supported the family by working as a seamstress and Hugh did whatever work he could get, doing labors far beyond his years.
During this time, a frequent visitor to the town was a traveling magistrate. In the smaller and more isolated towns that were not large enough to support their own courthouse or constabulary, a magistrate would travel through the year and sit in judgement over their cases and disputes when he came through town. He would also serve unofficially as a source of news for the towns and a scribe. It was only in this manner they learned of the greater goings on outside their borders. The magistrate in question was an elven man of advanced years.
The elf befriended the poor Croftons and would school Hugh in his letters when he would come through town. Hugh loved to hear the man's stories of distant lands. One day the magistrate came to the mother with an offer to take Hugh on as his apprentice. The magistrate produced a princely sum in gemstones and gave it to Hugh's mother as representative of a percentage of Hugh's future earnings. This figure was far beyond what Hugh would ever have earned or even what a simple magistrate could have acquired through the years. For the sake of her remaining daughter's futures and dowries, Hugh's mother agreed.
=== Young Adulthood===
Hugh traveled for years with the magistrate and was taught many things more in keeping with the schooling of a young noble including swordplay of which the elf was a master and knightly rules of conduct. While it was strange for an elf to be a magistrate in mainly giantman lands, Hugh never wondered at the curiousity. Although, he did begin to suspect something was amiss when the magistrate would go out of his way to avoid other elves, even going so far as to leave towns under the cover of night when other elves were spotted or rumored to be traveling through the area.
When Hugh was in his late teens, he was traveling with his master through a rather larger town then they were used to, as his master needed to resupply his stock of high quality vellum that he used as a scribe. Hugh's master was accosted in the square by a group of three elves with darker coloring who drew swords at the sight of the magistrate. They battled and the magistrate yelled for Hugh to remain out of it. Two of the attacking elves were handily dispatched in an amazing show of swordsmanship but the third caught the magistrate with a vicious slash. The magistrate crumpled to the ground and as his attacker raised his sword to deliver the coup de grace, Hugh rushed in an ran the attacker through with a thrust of his wooden practice sword. Hugh gathered up his dying master and they fled the town.
Once some distance away, the mortally wounded magistrate confessed to Hugh, that he was of the royal line of house Ashrim and that his attackers were members of a secret order of Faendryl assassins who were dedicated to ensuring that the Ashrim line remained dead for all time. As the magistrate lay dying, he ordered Hugh to stand before him and with his last breath he knighted Hugh as a Knight of the Ashrim. Hugh buried yet another father figure and then fled as a fugitive hunted by the same forces that had killed his master. Hugh went into hiding and after a time decided that he had best travel under an assumed name so that his enemies could not strike at his family in order to strike at him. Deciding to hide in plain sight, Hugh traveled for month and months over land and water to coming to Wehnimers where he was known as "Hubris Vainglorious" a son of nobility from a distant island nation. Hubris was a jesting vain popinjay far removed from the steadfast humble boy known as Hugh that lived behind his eyes.
=== Adulthood ===
With his facade firmly in place, Hubris quickly found a place amidst in the frontier town of Wehnimers where all manner of folks were welcomed. He fell in with a crowd of fellow warriors and formed a lasting friendship with a fellow knight named Trystann who embodied many of the knightly virtues Hubris had been taught by his mentor. Meanwhile Hubris played up his chosen character to an almost ridiculous level. He began to be known as an outlandishly dressed fop enamored of his mirror, a ladies man who enjoyed the chase more than the finish line with a winning smile only equaled (but never bested) by a lass named Heathyranne and a quick wit matched by few. Through his early days in Wehnimers, Hubris still was wary of those elves who bore the mark of House Faendryl but pursuit seemed to be a thing of the past.
In time Hubris came to think of Wehnimer's as home and the simple people who populated it as almost family but every family has its disagreements. One day, while Hubris was meditating in a quiet corner of the temple's storeroom where he often went to pray to his patron Ronan, a vision came to him of a changeling named Laramaraellen. She appealed to Hubris as a favored of Ronan to aid her and related her story.
Years ago, the lass, who bore the ability to change into a wolf, had been pursued romantically by a young sorceror named Sekarda. Her rebuffing of Sekarda's advances had triggered a twisting of his desire into a need to possess her no matter what the cost. Sekarda's studies grew dark and he was determined to bind her to him. Laramaraellen finding herself without a means to escape her pursuer prayed to Ronan to grant her sanctuary. Ronan heard her prayer and hid her in the dreamlands away from Sekarda's sight but not before Sekarda split her essence in twain and trappped one part of her spirit in a enchanted cube.
After a span of many years, Laramaraellen left the dreamlands on occasion appearing in her wolf form. Without the part of her spirit that Sekarda possessed, she was unable to resume her female form in the actual flesh but occasionally was seen in visions. She appeared to many in the lands as a helpful figure. In time though, Sekarda, still alive after all these years and now possessed of great power, discovered her re-emergence into the lands of men and again sought her but now to destroy her and sacrifice her to his dark patron.
Laramaraellen asked Hubris to help her regain that part of her essence held by Sekarda, so that she could be complete again. Hubris vowed to aid her in whatever manner he could. Many in the days following took up her fight against the dark sorceror but not all stood on the side of right. A few in town actually consorted and bargained with Sekarda outside the town walls for reasons of power or greed. One was named Kylin, a despicable dark elven ranger who treated most he encountered as beneath his contempt. Wave after wave of foul creatures were set against the town's defenses by Sekarda aided by his dark magicks. With Ronan's advice, a way was found to breach Sekarda's stronghold on the coastal cliffs and he was defeated and driven off and the cube recovered despite the interference of Kylin and his band of evil conspirators. Laramarallen now re-unified chose to remain as a wolf once restored.
As a reward for his unwavering faith and vow, Laramaraellen came to Hubris with a gift from Ronan, a enchanted claidhmore (which is on the display to this day in the Museum of Modern History at the south end of Erebor Square).
But in the aftermath of this happy conclusion all was not well. The foul betrayals of many of the town's residents came to light and rather than being shunned or punished for their misdeeds, Kylin and his ilk were still befriended by many Hubris had considered his friends as well. Hubris could not understand how this could be and the seeds of bitterness and doubt were planted. For if such evils could be so easily forgotten, how could good ever prevail?
Hubris wandering near Sekarda's destroyed lair finds himself stumbling on Onar's shrine, where his bitterness and disappointment in the behavior of his fellow townsfolk leaves him susceptible to mind influence by Onar, who traps Hubris' soul in a mirror while an avatar of Onar possesses Hubris body. Hubris/Onar remains firmly in control for months and several murders follow ultimately leading to his original plan of luring Laramaraellen under the cover of her friendship to Hubris to a secluded spot where Sekarda finally sacrifices her to Onar. Following an attack on the town by Sekarda's forces later, he is finally destroyed.
Later, the warped mirror in which Hubris is bound is discovered and the townsfolk destroy the mirror and help to drive the avatar of Onar from his body and restore Hubris to his own form. Hubris is mortified when he finds that "he" has lured Laramaraellen to her doom and leaves town becoming a virtual hermit for a long while and renounces any claim to knighthood during this time.
Sometime afterwards, the krolvin take more of an interest in raiding and occupying Wehnimers. They are aided in their plans by an adventurer named Aedrik. A much darker Hubris threatens to kill Aedrik if he ever has first hand evidence of his complicity with the krolvin. He observes Aedrik's dealings with the krovin and later kills Aedrik, springing from ambush without warning to do so. Aedrik takes offense claiming that Hubris acting without honor to which Hubris claims, "I am no knight". After an occupation of Wehnimers by krolvin forces where no street is safe, they are later driven out.
Hubris returns to his hermitage and is visited in dreams by Ronan who tells Hubris that "redemption is not a gift, it is a decision". Hubris comes to realize that his salvation in in his own hands. He returns with a new fierce determination. Ronan favors Hubris and graces this reborn dedication with the granting of a measure of his power and duties in the hinterlands as a very minor functionary in the land of dreams.
== Shadowdeath Conflicts ==
Hubris styling himself "the Knight of Mist and Shadow" returns to town. Notable conflicts during this time include the rise of the Shadowdeath threat and forbidden knowledge coming to fore amidst the Order of Voln that risk it being torn apart by dissension of a rogue element that wishes to resurrect an ancient militant order of Warders. Hubris stands firm with Kormis on the side of those who wish to keep the Order intact and keep this offshoot only in history where it belongs as memory only of a failed experiment. They are opposed by Myke and his adherents who in emulating the Warders seek to take Voln's mission beyond undead itself but to those who might employ them. Luckily a Codex of the Warders later found is stolen from the museum where it is stored and the wisdom (if any there was) of the ancient order is lost again.
During the Shadowdeath conflicts, many weapons forged of souls are recovered including a flamberge that Hubris briefly purifies with a contest of wills in the spring of cleansing that lies before the gates of the monestary. He promises to see that the soul (an ex-warder) trapped within is released. He keeps his promise by destroying the flamberge when the dark tower and source of the Shadowdeath scourge is invaded. During those raids, Hubris also finds a set of special vambraces imbued with the dark power of the Shadowdeath. Hubris refuses to give the vambraces up to those who claim they "deserve" them and uses their power to travel to a an extra-dimensional plane where he battles a shadow beast standing guard before that entry to the inner sanctum of the dark tower. Once Hubris destroys the beast, the wards on the entry dissolve and Jaired and his forces enter to destroy the remaining demon. Later once the threat is gone, Hubris battles the will of the vambraces that seem to have little power to win him to their influence since Hubris' Onarian possession. He bests the vambraces and discards them where they find their way into other hands.
== Rise of the Ur-Daemon Cult ==
Hubris watches from the shadows and invisibility (his newly preferred modus operandi), and observes several newcomers to the Landing. These include a priest named Quillian, who along with Ephelysse and Brinret appear to worship the Ur-daemons who once almost destroyed this very world and were driven off only by the combined powers of the Drakes and the Arkati. They seem to wish to restore the Ur-daemons to this plane. Hubris believing that if such a goal was achieved it would mean the apocalypse opposes Quillian and informs him that he will be watched and action will be taken if he ever moves from mere preaching to actual action. Quillian assists the sorceror Thenjhar in summoning a greater demon who goes on a rampage until it is defeated. Hubris then enlists Krystic to trick Quillian into attuning a summoning ring to himself. This device allows Hubris to teleport Quillian to him whenever he wishes. Having "belled the cat", Hubris continues to remain a thorn in Quillian's side until Quillian leaves for parts unknown. Many (including past friends) consider Hubris actions excessive during this time but he is unmoved, knowing that he can no longer rely on others to remain as dedicated in the fight against evil. He knows he fights alone.
== Faendryl Conspiracy ==
:For a different version of events from another perspective, see The Faendryl Takeover.
Hubris becomes more grim as time passes, smiling and laughing rarely. Although still prone to jest on occasion, he does not seem to share in the laughter that even his own wit produces. His last trace of sincere humor dies when he is forced to take action during the Faendryl conspiracy. Apparently several Faendryl amongst the town's populace including Mithogras, Firenze, Raidek and Ephelysse knew of or took part in smuggling operations with the mayor of Wehnimers receiving a cut. Supposedly his demands for a larger share was met with a decision to kill him and place Firenzes in his place as his chosen deputy while he was "away" on a trip. Hubris recognizing the mayor's signature as a forgery (due to an old writ the mayor had given to Jura as emissary during a prior town matter)and realizes something is amiss. Along with Kormis they investigate. Hubris attempts to enlist the help of the militia and its leader Jaired but they remain frustratingly neutral. Realizing that he is again alone, he brings Firenze to his dimensional pocket of the dreamlands where she denies her complicity time and time again. Hubris kills Firenze and keeps her soul and body prisoner and himself a virtual prisoner as well as her jailer for many days. During this time, the Faendryl manufacture a new forgery and their forces occupy town to enforce martial law and several of the soldiers commit atrocities on the townsfolk (including the death of a young child) that finally rally the people against them. Raidek is particularly brutal during this brief period of Faendryl "rule". Meanwhile Hubris has many conversations with Firenze' spirit and his time standing watch beside her corpse both pains and hardens him. His endurance failing, he restores Firenze to life and lets her return to the mortal plane. Hubris also returns and helps to lead the prosecution against the Faendryl after they are removed from power and banished outside the walls of Wehnimers for months. Most of that family reallocates while still pleading altrusim and playing the victim to Rivers Rest, but the mayor's body is never recovered and due to their machinations he is never restored to life. Somewhat symbolically, Hubris takes to wearing a collar that hides his face, and his smile becomes even more firmly a thing of memory.
Since that time Hubris remains a voice for reason, speaking from the shadows.
Category:Platinum Profiles