Dwan Theidrum

**Dwan Theidrum-Ascedor** is a humanoid of foreign origin, and not in the traditional sense. Originally of unknown origin, he joined the starting Archius crew with incomplete documents, as a bartender. He would go on to become one of the most influential yet controversial characters in not only Journey, but in the whole series.

## Appearance

Dwan is 143cm tall, making him one of the shortest members of the Archius crew, only being a head or a head and a half taller than Otso and about 12cm shorter than Yanim. He is red-headed (closer to orange) and has a full head of hair and a big beard. Although unnoticeable, his left hand is barely larger than his right hand. He also has several skin-deep voluntary scars, mainly consisting of large amount of contusions over his body. His eye color changes depending on emotions (normally copper brown; goes khaki yellow when scared/distressed, ochre orange when mad/frustrated, black when in shock, and rapidly changing color when doing something incredibly intensive or under strong influence).

In Journey, Dwan's beard was realistically braided, and he wore several attires - his bartending uniform (dark blue vest, regular grey shirt, brown pants, gumshoes, two barrel cuffs; left one in the same color as the vest, right one the same as the pants), his casual wear (black pants, white t-shirt, brown shoes) which he has worn during training too, and in combat he wears the LWA KUAS. When using the flamethrower mode of his howitzer, he wears goggles. During the first half (prior to the meteor), Dwan wore short slicked-back hair. During the second half (after the meteor), he's largely seen with shaggy-looking hair, and on Duroma he's seen wearing a neck-flapped hat. Following the State Security encounter, he's seen wearing a a variant on the clothes worn by Metal Gear Solid V's Revolver Ocelot (a brown coat, a grey sweater and a blue scarf). During the Battle of Zeruel he would acquire a new voluntary scar between his right hand and right arm in the form of much paler skin, and his big beard was shortened to a normal beard during the battle with Folter.

In Scoundrels, Dwan's beard would appear unbraided and unkempt, with his hair now being messier and longer. Alongside his Ocelot-like attire and LWA KUAS, he would be shown in his home clothes, both regular (a matching pair of pants and shirt, sport sandals) and for training (undershirt and shorts, bare-footed). During his stay on the Aurikha, he would be shown wearing a pair of black pants, a grey shirt and brown shoes, a bit of a mix and mash from his bartending attire and non-working attire.

## History

### HarkArk Corporation

At the start, aboard the Archius, Dwan seemed very aloof, even with his brief quip. He settled into his new working place quite quickly, elevating the floor behind the counter in order for him to be able to stand at a level height with the rest of the crew. Quickly, he would discover an unfinished room behind the bar, closed off with a shelf that could be pushed to the side. He would make this secret room his quarters, and very few would know this, such as Pyrovik and Byron.

He would slowly begin to interact with the crew members as they came for drinks, starting with Tussor and Heilburg. In between serving drinks, he would begin unpacking, revealing his personal arsenal of weapons and a selection of 'exotic' drinks. His interactions with the crew would grow exponentially during the encounter with Colonel Bruta and his frigate, and it would continue to do so for the rest of the journey.

As time went on, the early aloofness would dissipate into the background, as Dwan grew to become one of the most pro-active members of the crew, despite only being a mere bartender. He would grow to have close relations with most of the crew, especially with Lion and Yanim. Despite this, while Dwan grew to be more active, his background would remain a mystery for most of the former half of the journey.

It would be on Duroma when Dwan finally revealed himself to the one person he could trust most, Lion, who would keep the truth behind him a secret. He was a foreigner to this world; to be specific, he was a transversal being, using thaumaturgy (magic, or as Dwan called it at the time, caldiur) to travel between universes. With an explanation, Lion came to accept Dwan's true identity.

However, things would slowly go downhill from here with the latter half of the arc, and just sharply slam the ground by the end of the State Security encounter, leading to, what the crew believed to be, the deaths of both Dwan and Lion. However, as a safety measure, Dwan had used his powers to ensure his and Lion's survival. He would've never returned to this universe if Lion hadn't convinced him. Unfortunately, their return following the disastrous battle against the Auditors on Kumoro would lead to Yanim, unable to accept their explanation for their survival, to leave the crew and go down the path of mercenarihood.

After the second meeting with Harken Saw at Termina Central, Dwan would end up revealing his true nature to Saw as well, after he revealed that he too was an outsider to this universe. Unfortunately, the embellishments he decided to do would end up making him seem worse than he was once Saw sent the footage to Yanim during the Battle of Zeruel, which he recorded with his eyeball.

The end of the Oracle War and its controversy, culminated with the now well-known battle on Zeruel, would reveal the ugly truth about the Crimson Son, in actuality the Crimus, to the crew, a truth that would hit Dwan the hardest, as a result of the mechs he decided to bring forth into this universe, believing like everyone else that Zeruel was only the military HQ of a supposed mercenary group, not the home world of a hidden civilization which had been at war with Saw for many, many years.

A week after the conclusion of the war, Dwan attended the memorial ceremony on Mars, made to honor those fallen in the fight against the Crimus. After letting Lion make one last goodbye to Valerie via holoprojector, he interacted with Viper one last time before presumably leaving this universe.

### Post-HarkArk

Following the end of Journey, Dwan didn't make much of a reappearance. He was remembered coldly by Yanim and Rask at the start of Scoundrels, the latter as a result of Dwan point-blank blowing the head of one of his colleagues right next to him during the encounter with State Security, the former as a result of both personal betrayal over his untruthfulness and because of the footage she received from Saw of the conversation the two had. But it wouldn't be too long until a disturbing discovery was made.

After departing this universe, Dwan began investigating many convergent timelines as to view what had really happened during the Battle of Zeruel, and during this period, he discovered that Saw had shared the footage he secretly recorded with Yanim. Assuming she had looked at it during the battle, he began investigating before ending up in a divergent timeline where the escape procedure didn't initiate as it did originally, prompting a bewildered Yanim to go rouge. In an attempt to escape, he would accidentally save her right as she was about to die. This would later prompt the reveal of the truth to this different Yanim, and she would live with him for the time being as things get figured out. She would eventually convince him to allow her into the prime universe, to deliver the truth to his Yanim. Free from his sight, and free to use the incredibly apologetic dwarf, she began raising terror donning both a false identity and a new moniker - Beta.

### Belladonna Company

Dwan would first find himself involved directly once more following the Battle of Vostokrebh, as, during her encounter with the crew of the Terika-Belladonna company, Beta had dropped a crystalline-looking phone in the style of some antique 90s phone. This was in fact a special device designed to contact Dwan. Once it was mentioned that something resembling blue fire appeared during Beta's escape, Yanim came to realize that Beta had some sort of connection to the dwarf.

Assuming the worst, they called Dwan and immediately realized that something was wrong as Dwan's responses didn't match their expectations at all, as he was confused by their accusations of sending an assassin, and they by his claims of a drive. As the discussion grew tense, Dwan elaborated on the circumstances that had led to this point on his end, and both parties came to realize what had happened. Yanim finally realized what had truly occurred with Dwan two years ago, and just as the two had finally come to peace, Yanim passed away, leaving only a depressed and furious Dwan on the other end. Dwan would use the emotions boiling within him to train extensively, so extensively that even he wouldn't be able to stop a deadly mistake.

A couple of weeks later, Constantine, Neasha and Arkadam would call Dwan once more, to convince him to join the Belladonna Company as to assist them in regards to Beta and to clean up the mess he had made. After some discussion, with some indication of the impact of Beta's presence around him, he ultimately chose to join with the condition of keeping his secret a continued secret, naming himself Dvajn Karlsson.

He would join the Muramasa II on the Starvis Mission as security. At the first Vigil confrontation at the canyon, when faced against Beta, she revealed her new suit, the Velkratkammik or “the infernal machine,” revealing why it is named as such - the ace in its whole, the Zhukamangana or "the Eater of Nonsense," utilizing Dwan's own research into thaumatics against him as it repelled his thaumatic abilities. A device of Yanim's making, and of Beta's refinement with the knowledge he had gained from him, it could subvert at minimum his portals. After receiving nanites and mechanized battle suit simulation training, he and the rest were ready for the second and final confrontation.

At the second Vigil confrontation on Starvis, during the aerial combat, Dwan's mech would be among those shot down, and with a cabin pressure leak near his feet briefly, he would get tunnel vision and be unable to prevent his damaged mech from slamming the ground, flinging Dwan out at high speeds. After remembering something from his past, he would awake from his unconscious state, and would board Abraxas's mech as to join the fight once more. During the land battle, Beta's Infernal Machine would see itself destroyed, and as Beta retreated, Arkadam had taken a photo of the inside of the Flying Buzzard. After realizing the purpose, he feigned exhaustion and activated the autopilot, as he worked to open a portal and infiltrate the Buzzard.

After just having managed to escape his mech under rocket fire, Dwan managed to get into the portal and briefly prepared for the infiltration and his upcoming confrontation with Beta. Carrying with him one more weapon, a creation of Beta's, a plasma saber she had dubbed Kiskermishi, or 'Yours Truly,' now dubbed Krekhedarkup, or 'After the End', he initiated Operation Inanition. After some stealth, he was discovered by those aboard via camera, prompting Beta to go confront him herself.

Their confrontation would put Dwan immediately on the back foot, forced to retreat as he formulated a plan to reverse his fate, with the electric mode of his howitzer's electromagnetic field shield reversed to function as an EMP instead. After having just managed to convince Beta that she had convinced him of her ideals, he implemented his plan. While failing to simply shoot her down, he had crippled her means of retaliation, forcing her to retreat as he pulled out the plasma blade and closed in on her. While in disbelief she had managed to retreat, he healed himself one last time and gave chase, their final dual approaching. Both wielding plasma blades, the two were prepared to take one another down. And just as briefly as it started, it was over, with Dwan having managed to reverse the odds, and kill Beta.

Liberating Yanim's old computer pack, and a brief confrontation with Specter, Dwan portalled out of the Flying Buzzard and returned to the battlefield, where developments regarding Starvis had come and passed. Looking just like someone who had just barely survived a lethal mech explosion, as if led by Starvis himself, he returned to the crew and entered the Diamond Cutlass, having won his personal battle.

## Media

In lieu of a proper image for Dwan at this time, this "memetic" image is used instead despite not being an exact match to his bio.

Head Command: Jeremy Spacehawk
Security Personnel: Viper Solari • Lion • Varn Merner • Sledge • Lemmy Kilmister • Zarbon Lezardo
Science Personnel: Arthur Beasley • Squish • Joseph Heilburg • Jordon Freeman • Khaen-suas • Nycho Shayus • Jeb Jackson
Engineering Personnel: Yanim Sidikan • Kr'fernir • John Riker • Turatko • Dolosus Zushiki • Iska Volgrim • Pippin Falk • Issac Devol
Food Personnel: Otso Rottal • Michelle "Mic" Oscar • François D'arragant
Basic Personnel: Pyrovik Bjordizane • **Dwan Theidrum** • Saint Tussor • Byron • Zach Bringer • Colin Oxfon
**Staff Members and Others**
DomeEval • Sheila • Andronicus • Skada • Hercules