Damian

Art by Colin

### Relatives

Mother - Rebecca Trueblade (Status Unknown)Father - Connor Trueblade (Status Unknown)

## Physical description

### Weight

170 lbs. (Out of armor)235 lbs. (In armor)

## Appearances

#### *Appearance*

Trueblade carried a toned figure that, while he did not tower those in height, made up for itself in a fearful appearance. He has muscle, a good amount of it, but mainly scars on scars. His hair is always tied up in a ponytail, with his beard always a bit ragged but it seemed well kept at the same time. His right eye is missing, often times not even covered just to scare his enemies and, perhaps, his allies.

#### *Personality*

Damian's personality varied depending on how close one was to him. To those that were close to him, he would die for and aid without much hesitation unless it was clearly awful. To those that were new, he would have difficulty opening up and letting them in. He had a rather negative view of anything non-human, but he has successfully kicked it thanks to the heroes that are taking a stand against Dire. When it comes to his downtime, he normally could be found with his steed or can be drinking in a bar. During camp, he will either be keeping watch to keep an eye out for an ambush or, if someone else takes his spot for keeping watch or he is exhausted, he will be found praying quietly before resting or writing to pass the time, enjoying the solitude that a paper and quill gave him.

#### *Armor and Weapons*

Damian respects one thing constantly in life, and that is his armor. However, as one ages with their armor, the armor tends to not age all too well and Damian was no exception to such a rule. With his gear being rusted and beat up, it has clearly seen better years and is something of an heirloom he'd be willing to pass on if he wished to, most likely of course. His shoulder pads have scratch marks on each side to remove something and the marks seem to originate from a knife, but if one were to know how Dire armor looks like untouched, it would become clear he removed the emblems of Dire from his armor. Damian's weapons seem to be always along one line, and that is something with reach. Halberds are his weapon of choice and, whenever he could, he'd customize the appearance of it to match his very first one, nicks and knacks included. Along with normal means of dealing damage, he has a select amount of spells, some drawing from his faith in obtaining retribution which allows him to call upon powerful smites or some means from friends, such as his friend Lex teaching him how to toss a bolt of fire at foes too far away.

## Silver Spoon Turned to Silver Blade

As a young child of Dire, and more importantly born into a rich family, Damian had a rather simple and easy upbringing. As the child of Dire's more wealthy circle, he was destined for great things due to the way Dire ran their city, a destiny that was all too dark for the young man to realize until he would meet his future party.

While growing up, he seemed to be a bit more drawn to writing and wishing to play instruments, even enjoying the company of another noble's child named Diana Lighttouch, whom would tease him for being a walking contradiction due to always putting on a more tough act yet wanting to enjoy the simple and calming things of life, but they'd always play and enjoy the river that ran through the city that had some aquatic life in it, especially some frogs that Damian would claim he was the king of with a stick that he'd call his sword.

When it came to his academics while growing up, he seemed to be above average at most if not all things he did, which drew some attention from those that ran Dire, and would determine his destiny later in life. Upon finishing his schooling, he was given the opportunity that every youngster wanted to have, which was to serve and to protect Dire from the evil that was around them always. Like a young, naive and foolish child, he agreed in a heartbeat and began to train with the rest of the common knights, further proving that he was exceptional at what he did, which was fighting and leading units through harsh conditions, which ended in Dire realizing they could have a useful tool for the future and, after this realization, recruited him for the Dire Elite unit.

## The Dire Elite and Dire Situations

Upon becoming an elite, Damian would be forced to go through the toughest challenges yet but, sadly, that was to be expected of anyone even thinking of coming a Dire Elite as they were the best of the best and would kick the rest to the side if they even failed. While training, he would bond with his fellow initiates and be given the command to go to Hell and slay one demon, which he went into with seven other initiates that were willing to prove themselves capable of being elites. As the eight young men went into Hell, only one would return with nightmarish images flashing through his mind.

As the young men entered Hell, they were careful to take their time until they felt something breathing down their necks. As one man turned, he was instantly pounced to the ground by multiple imps and clawed into, his eyes and throat being opened up before anyone can save him while another man was given a swift removal of the head by an axe wielding demon. Damian, Ron and Johnathan, three of the remaining six, would quickly focus on slaying the imps as they realizing they were a deadly threat as a pack while the three others focused on the axe wielding demon and what was breathing down their necks...a gigantic demonic ogre. The three men who focused on the imps would quickly slash them down with their blades and go to focus on the axe wielding demon, whom had already slaughtered the others but was clearly wounded. Damian, being as protective as he was, ran straight at the demon to draw their attention and get into a spar with them so his friends may flank, which was working for a time as one was chased by the ogre, the other preparing to strike the axe wielder. Damian would parry the blows as much as he could until he was knocked to the ground and forced to use his blade to hold off the axe's head while the demon used its other hand to claw at Damian's face, even ripping the eye out of his head while scarring his face. While in so much pain that it felt numb, Damian was barely holding off until Ron impaled the demon on his blade, stopping short of the one eyed lad before helping him up. Upon getting up, they saw a sight most horrific.

Damian was bleeding out of one eye and Ron would be in a rather healthy state until they saw the ogre pick up Johnathan and begin to squeeze on them so hard they could hear the bones cracking from sixty or so feet away, Johnathan unable to move and barely alive moments before his execution. Once he was dead, the ogre tossed him to the side but was bleeding from the face and chest region heavily. Ron and Damian knew that an elite should never retreat and rushed at the ogre to try and finish it up, each lad knowing they had to be swift and quick with their blows unless they wanted to be crushed under the ogre's might. They were successful for a while until Ron was caught and picked up by leg and swung around like a flail to try and hit Damian away, whom would get a few more slashes in until he was knocked to the side by Ron's flailing body. As he was laying on the ground from the previous swing, Damian looks up to see Ron get held up over the ogre's head and have his arms and legs held in separate hands, in which Damian had little time to try and save him. Trying as he might, the initiate could not get up and land a killing blow by ramming his blade through the ogre's heart fast enough, coming moments too soon to save his friend that was split in two. With the blood of his comrade on him and the ogre's blood staining his blade, he stood up slowly and would hold his empty eye socket, tears slowly working their way out of the other one as he walks away slowly. He knew the cost of entering Hell to become an elite but, more importantly, he knew that the death of the others were not his fault. However, he felt failure and guilt for being unable to protect his fellow comrades as they were just like him, and he was just lucky enough to survive and be given the title of elite.

## Broken Heart and Broken Mind

Years after becoming an elite, Damian would constantly feel himself losing his humanity with each blow he struck against anything, but he was always told it was for the best and for Dire's interest, but a shadow of doubt and pain would constantly crawl its way into his mind, especially when he was around Diana, whom would become increasingly more distant from her once best friend. However, despite such distance, they would constantly remind one another that things were going to be alright until the day Diana felt like it would be best to leave Dire and aim to find a new land to claim as her own and have her own name in. Despite feeling like a piece of him is leaving him, along with the hand that kept him from drowning in the negative thoughts, he would aid her with her leaving despite the fact many questions remained unanswered between them and many things left unknown, leading to Damian becoming more focused on his mission and trying to not drown in the thoughts that would make a Dire Elite weak.

All that would change five years and some days later, on the day of the execution of a powerful leader's son. The Dire Elite had one mission, a mission to kill the son of Kostas in front of the Dwarven people to keep them under Dire's heel. Damian was very much so tempted to prevent the execution by speaking up, but he felt like couldn't, knowing he'd be killed instantly if he did so. Instead, he would try to stop the execution during the course of it but, alas, he failed at this as well. He felt his body lock up as he held back Kostas as they both watched the boy's head get removed by the ever so infamous vorpal blade with a swift slice, the blood of the young boy splashing onto the executioner, Kostas and Damian. Feeling all of the sins crawl up his back and the dead screaming at him to be their retribution and vengeance, he would leave his camp that very night with his horse Eliza. By the time they noticed, he was already crossing the desert to head to Burasapna, a land that was merely a rumor for him but he felt drawn there. He knew of heroes that were traveling the world, and he had one of three things as an option. Die in the desert on his way to Burasapna, die like a martyr to take a stand against Dire or to possibly ensure that the heroes survived until they could stop Dire. Whatever it was, he knew he was bound to just be one thing, a mere weapon but, instead, wielded by those that were slaughtered, the dead, the damned, and the innocent. He took up an oath with his bloody Dire emblem as proof, the only remaining physical object of his former loyalty.

## Meeting the Heroes of Klaventia

Damian was a mere man waiting for the heroes that he has only heard about, the ones that stood against Dire for most of their journey and felt the urge to stay in Burasapna as the voices told him to remain as well. Eliza, sadly, perished on the way over but her own spirit remained by his side to remain as a loyal steed, even after death. While waiting in the bar with the two monks, he would look over to see the heroes and realized that they weren't humans to take a stand, in fact, not a single one was fully human. He wanted to help them ever so badly, but the memories of being told other races are below him would make it difficult at first to open up to the others to them for the first few trips, only seeing them as a means to an end at that time. He opened up slowly to Ash, Dia and Goriah, the three he was able to somewhat relate with to some degree, with Ash being half human, Dia being a bit ditzy and most willing to forgive him for his past sins and Goriah being an outsider, something he was never informed of even existing. Alas, the entire party aided in making him see them as equals and began to see the party as a close knit family of sorts, something he must protect at all costs.

## Effects of the Journey + Aftermath of Klaventia

Throughout his travels with the party, he began to learn more about himself, such as realizing that his voice could hold weight in a debate, especially after the party slaughtered three of the top Dire Elite soldiers that were going to attempt the assassination of Dao's parliament officials, in which he was able to give the Elves of Garenwald and the Dwarves of Nedanjarda much needed aid to hold off Dire's forces while putting off the Humans of Litore due to the distance they have from Dire. He also learned that he that, sadly, always feel the shadow of hopelessness and feeling like a monster due to his past, despite the fact Reia said he has earned his place with the party and Kostas was grateful for bringing the heads of his son's other assassins in. The biggest impacts, however, were the actions of the party's rogue, Ash, being able to help him move on from his racist upbringing and allowing him to see that Dire was wrong about many things and the fall of Morir, which brought him great satisfaction to see the shotcaller of all the voices in his head that screamed to avenge them fall to the ground into nothingness, becoming nothing more than dust.

After seeing Morir's fall, he decided that it could possibly be best for him to remain behind to help with the rebuilding of Dire and maybe even stand in as a temporary ruler but, due to Chris being able to handle things in Dire and the other rulers willing to help pitch in, he saw that his destiny was to remain on the road with the party and to keep them away from harm until his body won't let him. However, with everything finally done and a day going by since the very nature of the world was threatened, he woke up without any sort of terror or pain in his head. He felt like he did his job and avenged the dead, and for the first time in forever, he could breath the air without feeling choked out.