Rolen Boeseraven

Rolen Boeseraven

RBR is about 6', 150 lbs. lithe-athletic build, dark brown hair with a silver/gray
streak and a beard. Kind of wild-eyed but friendly-looking. Appears as a
warlock in his black studded leather armor with Abysm symbol on chest, face covered by
hood/cowl. Still working on drawing.
(Sir?) Rolen Boeseraven Character Background
(He's a noble so it says he should have some sort of title? Maybe read on and
something will come to you?)
Rolen was born a bastard of Lord Boeseraven, the capable and benevolent head of a ruling
family in some minor northern portion of the kingdom. Let's say they rule an area of prosperous
farms and woods large enough to have a decently-sized town with walls and a modest castle.
Rolen's mother is an elf maiden about whom he knows little. Lord Boeseraven had a soft spot
for his bastards and put Rolen in the capable care of a steward, or something. Rolen was brought
 up outside of the castle but Lord BR kept tabs on him. Lord BR saw an early version of himself
in Rolen: bright and cunning, a natural leader, tempered with striking half-elf features. Lord BR
made the decision to bring Rolen into the castle ultimately to be a positive influence on his own
heir, Horace. Rolen is slightly older than Horace maybe 10 or 11 to Horace's 8 or 9. Rolen is
brought in as sort of an unconventional bodyguard/paid friend. Rolen's good looks and ease with
 nearly everyone made him a natuarul hit at court in spite of his bastard status. Though he lacked
martial training, Rolen excelled
in many athletic pursuits (won archery competitions, bullshit). This pissed Horace off. Horace
truly counted Rolen as a friend but Horace was super jealous of Rolen because Horace was a
plump, weird dude. He shunned the sort of pursuits that brought you social relevance in favor
of study of faerie tales and the arcane. Time passed as it does and the two half-brothers went on
in this way. Rolen honed his ability to persuade, intimidate, and smooth over as Lord BR less and
less (with age) would leave his keep and more and more rely on Rolen to be his voice (emissary,
ambassador) in negotiations with other aristocracy. On Horace's 18th birthday, Rolen was named
Honor Guard of the Lord Prince and made officially a Boeseraven (revoking his bastard status).
The Lord Prince would leave the keep on a mission of good will or conquest but all understood
that it was Rolen who spoke and acted with the authority of The Lord BR. Again, this was largely
due to the fact that Horace rarely appeared in public at all for even a moment- even the closest to
him (even Rolen, probably) assumed that Horace preferred Rolen as the frontman.
Eventaully, the Boeseravens run afoul of some super aggressive new nobles in an adjacent kingdom.
 They're conquering and seizing land in this portion of the kingdom using necromancers and shit.
Bad hombres. They promise to lay seige to the Boeseravens and kill them and shit. The
Boeseravens are pretty confident, though, because their town is walled and pretty seige-ready and
 they have a pretty strong army. Lord BR is alive but ill and it's clear that he has little time left to
 protect his people. Rolen knows that with the threat of these necromancers looming, he has to
talk some sense into Horace and get him to accept the mantle of leadership. But Horace isn't
hearing it. Horace (a 28 year old man at this point) begs Rolen to accompany him down to a
long-forgotten section of the castle that passes beneath and into a nearby cliff. All Horace can
talk about is "harnessing some ancient power" or some shit. Rolen indulges him to an extent
but they reach a dead end in this creepy half-dome chamber with a diamond-shaped spiral
carved into the floor and Horace begins pouring over weird runes on the walls. Rolen is nearly
disgusted with his half-brother for his lack of seriousness and essentially drags Horace out of
the chamber and back to the castle proper. Within a week this necromancer army will advance
on the gates of the town. Rolen has to get Horace to lead his people. Rolen begins making
preparations with Lord BR's guidance. A couple of nights later, Rolen's awoken by the clang
 of steel. He puts on his guard armor quickly and steps out of his chamber with katars at the
ready (katars are punching daggers). He sees murdered servants and armsmen in the hallway
and he frantically searches for Horace who does not seem to be in his chambers. He encounters
 and carves up a few Death Dealers, assasins that run with the necromancer army. Rolen's
runnning throughout the castle but can't find Horace anywhere when he has the odd sense to
check the creepy chamber from a few nights ago. "Maybe he's hiding in there?"
Rolen arrives in the chamber to see Horace kneeling with his back to Rolen in front of what
looks lik e an ever-growing swirl of shimmering, black smoke emanating from the spiral
carved into the center of the room. Horace is bloodied but uninjured and is entirely
transfixed by the horrifying cloud/thing before him. Rolen is transfixed, too as a thousand
terrible, distorted, reverby voices cry out and coalesce into the phrase, "We, Abysm."
Suddenly, Rolen understands everything. He stares into the shimmering black magic smoke
and understands that it is representative of a long dead or trapped god-like deity, Abysm.
Rolen sees ancient magical beings that inhabited and likely were the original builders of
this very spot. That they built this chamber under the mountain, perhaps as a temple.
They were all simultaneously wiped out in an awful (unjust?) event and their souls coalesced
into Abysm after death. Abysm is a multi-faceted, maybe insane deity, and Rolen gets the
impression that Abysm may or may not be aware of he and Horace but that being in this
facsimile of Abysm's presence was enough to force this awareness on him. Rolen looks
at Horace and understands. Rolen, for the first time, understands Horace's hatred and
jealousy of him and he sees the events leading up to this moment: how Horace and he had
 first come down to this strange chamber and Horace had translated a spell of summoning
for Abysm from the runes. The spell required (amongst other things) a "prince smeared
with the blood of his people" and Rolen saw how Horace had met with agents of the
necromancer army and conspired to secretly allow the Death Dealers into the castle as
precursors to the invasion of the main army. Rolen saw that Horace sought to harness
the ancient power of Abysm to defeat the necromancer's army and lead his people but
was twisted in his logic by his jealousy of Rolen. That somehow this was all to get back
at Rolen. Rolen understands the power and the madness that has touched him and can
see how it has destroyed Horace. Rolen understands that he has never truly been free.
That he has always been saddled by obligation and identity. That Rolen only desires freedom
 but that he can only be free if all are free. That Rolen despises oppression and those that
would impose it, like the necromancer army. Rolen understands that his desires match those
of the Abysm. The power. Freedom. The power. Freedom. Destroy. Freedom.
The eternal moment ends, the smoke and visions
disappear and Rolen is left holding an odd smoky purple crystal (his arcane focus, if you
stare into it you can see the spiral thing that is the symbol for Abysm, The Schismed). Horace
is blubbering and muttering, "it chose you?... it chose you?..." From this point on, Horace
is enfeebled (the family blames it on shock at seeing the violence of the attack that night,
only Rolen is aware of the truth and aware that Horace was the indirect cause of the violence
in the castle that night). Rolen goes and uses his new warlocky powers to whoop ass on the
Death Dealers, then Rolen rallies the troops. The role of the Death Dealers was to weaken
the Boeseravens' defenses by murdering key targets and then ultimately opening the front
gates so that the necromancer army can march on the city. Rolen understands this and
goes out and challenges the lead necromancer, Disonant Whispering him to Shitsville just outside the
city gates. Rolen is a hero to all (he kind of already was, the commoners see him as a benevolent noble
and an admirable leader though also one of them given his modest early upbringing- Rolen
would be famous locally for winning tounaments and shit). Lord BR survives the attack but is
still in failing health and Rolen (with Horace pretty much a vegetable) is poised to be Lord
BR's heir, especially now with the rep as the defender and savior of the city. Rolen has
everything he's ever wanted but, now, doesn't want it. Rolen only wants to be free. For
all to be free. Rolen is terribly disturbed by the dark secret of what Horace did and it
drives him from the castle. Rolen understands that this brush with The Abysm has changed
him and that pact magic is forbidden. At the same time, Rolen has now witnessed firsthand
the good this power could do to fight evil and oppression. Rolen decides to leave the
castle and the Boeseraven lands to 1. seek out and destroy oppression and evil 2. understand the
entity The Abysm and more about his newfound powers, etc.
This all occurred about 3 years before the campaign takes place. Roland is 33 now and bounces
around from town to town and place to place basically being the reverse of a stereotypical worm-
tongued warlock. He uses his natural and learned powers of persuasion, intimidation, leadership,
etc. (and magic powers) to gain influence in courts and small council meetings across the land to
fight oppression and do good on the peoples' behalf. He maintains the identity of Rolen
Boeseraven and is careful to dissociate magic use from Rolen because he understands that being
known as a warlock would forever keep him out of noble privlege and influence (and maybe burned
at the stake, instead). Rolen's careful to never use magic (if he can help it) around society members
and those whome he perceives as more powerful magic users for fear of being found out. He may use his telepathy
or prestidigitation to aid in intimidating if he feels he can get away with it. Dressed
as a noble, RBR might be recognized on the street by commoners or nobles alike in his geographic
region of the kingdom- the stories about him would be about his benevolence and his bravery against
the necromancer army and he takes advantage of this reputation to achieve his ends or gain information.
Rolen maintains a sort of dual identity by disguising himself beneath a hooded cloak. He would likely
come to a town and mingle with commoners for the first few weeks to gather information about local
nobles then might approach the nobles as Boeseraven, having already found out enough about said
noble for Rolen to be effective in gaining trust (usually through eloquent flattery...). The end game
for Rolen might be a lowered tax or the removal of occupying troops or even the disgrace or
mysterious death of a particularly nasty aristocrat. Rolen doesn't stay in one place for very long
and is careful not to burn his bridges. Though he frequently has access to stay in noble accomodations
 he usually prefers to stay out in the wilds or more secluded parts of town as he wishes to keep his
arcane research and exploration of his powers a secret. This rough living does provide him opportunity to
 use his more combat-based powers from time to time. Publically, Boeseraven is likely to reach for his
katars as his weapon of choice. He is known as a skilled fighter (and is a skilled fighter) but is not seen
as (and is not) a soldier.
Rolen is unsure if all of his actions of late are not completely motivated by his
brush with The Abysm. In game terms, maybe you could say it shifted his alignment form lawful or
neutral to chaotic good, though this was maybe just an indulgence of his elf side, anyway. Rolen spends
a great deal of time staring into his arcane focus, can't help but frequently prestidigitate The Abysm symbol onto things
he passes by, and is occassionally prone to unpredictable behavior and moods maybe due to the multi-
faceted nature of The Abysm. Rolen's dreams are sometimes haunted by Horace and The Abysm (or, like,
the genocide that led to the creation of the Abysm, or some shit). In spite of all this, Rolen still enjoys
competition, art&music, a drink and a good conversation and maybe some pipeleaf. He sees these things as the
jewels of freedom and takes them pretty seriously as such (in terms of their neccessity). He, for the first
time, has no structure or precursor to his actions and he enjoys that, though he deeply fears that perhaps
all of the impulses he's following come from The Abysm. He is unsure of the nature of The Abysm but he
is uneasy...

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