Harper Swyn

Marduk

The Grand Pantheon

Harper Swyn is a perpetually awkward, sort-of outcast paladin of Marduk, a god of justice in the Grand Pantheon. She has a complicated history with Tarian, the Gold Wyrm.

## History

Though she was born into a low-born family, Harper's parents entrusted her at a very young age to a convent, where she was raised as a nun, and lived a peaceful life of humility and dedication to Marduk. In her duties and meditations, she became a modest gardener, a decent singer and poet, and an enthusiastic scholar in the philosophy of justice.

She was one day taken under the wing of Sir Bren Crestfire, a friend of the Mother Superior and one of the Empire's foremost knights. Inspired by his mentorship, she trained in combat to become a champion of justice. Though she never had much of a talent for it, she was loath to disappoint her uncle Bren, so she assured him in her letters that she was becoming quite the proficient warrior. One day, she became friends (and eventually, lovers) with a local villager -- a tiefling mystic named Shay. As this was forbidden by the rules of the convent (servants of Marduk must remain chaste), she kept the relationship secret. When it was finally discovered, the secrecy only compounded the scandal (a love affair with a villager -- and a demon-blooded witch, no less!), and so Harper was cast out of the convent in disgrace.

## Knight of the Golden Order

Ashamed but not disillusioned, Harper resolved to carry her meagre skills with the blade to further her service to Marduk as a paladin of the Golden Order. And so, she travelled to the newly restored Golden Citadel, where she worked mostly as a labourer, building walls and digging trenches, as well as joining the occasional patrol into the Red Wastes. She dreamed of becoming a hero of the downtrodden, but out here in the desert, and with her seemingly lacking prowess, she feared that dream would never be realised. Less than a year later, as the Citadel's restoration neared completion, she was entrusted by Bren to join a band of adventurers on a mission into the Wastes. And so began her long and complicated friendships with Laurie, Alina, Morgrim, and Demeter (and the acquaintance of the ogre Agan).

After the Golden Order was disbanded, the Order's paragon, Tarian, now freed from his long service in the mouth of the Abyss but fearing his declining health, sought a successor -- someone who future heroes could be inspired by as he had inspired heroes of the past. Much to her (then and continuing) disbelief, he selected Harper, bestowing her a portion of his power and a magical guide.

## Free Agent

When the Triumphant Legion learnt of Harper's new status, they saw this "new light" as a challenger to their influence over the remnants of the Golden Order, and sought to snuff her out. They eventually struck a heavy blow when they captured Aura, knowing that someone as self-righteous as the scion of the Great Gold Wyrm would never abandon a friend to the clutches of an enemy. Joke's on them, though; Harper was too scared of them. She spent much of her time hiding from Triumphant knights and bounty hunters between what petty heroics she could muster.

She eventually accepted Laurie's invitation to join the Drakevakt (where she was mostly sent on scouting missions to keep her away from the Crusader's reach). However, after some soul-searching, Harper decided she couldn't pursue her purpose as a hero in this capacity. She couldn't keep hiding, even behind the mercy of a concerned friend, even from the most powerful military force in the Empire. So, she resigned from the Drakevakt.

One day, a nosy Alina elbowed her way into a conversation with Tarian, where she learnt that the power he'd granted Harper was slowly destroying her. Aghast and dismayed, she convinced Harper to finally speak with Tarian about this whole soul-corroding situation. Initially, Harper was reluctant to give up the power -- she didn't want to disappoint the Wyrm, after all, and feared she'd return to the nobody she was before his patronage -- but after a difficult situation, she came away disappointed. Was Tarian really a hero? What had he accomplished in the past few millenia since he'd commited perhaps the greatest atrocity in the Empire's history?

Regretfully, she returned Tarian's power to him, and resolved to forge her own destiny.

## Freedom Lady

During a secret mission in intrigue-torn Newport, Harper learnt of Newport's burgeoning slave trade under the stewardship of the Three. Horrified, she pledged to destroy it and see all the slaves freed. Along the way, she was gifted a powerful sword named Ingo Los by a legendary warrior, unexpectedly reunited with Aura, and made plans with a few errant paladins to build a heroic organisation of her own. Finally, after a messy uprising in the streets of Newport and an arduous exodus through the Wild Wood, Harper and her companions led the freed slaves to Santa Cora, where they were entrusted to the care of the Priestess. The refugees hailed her as a hero. Had she finally realised her destiny?

The sudden influx of thousands of new inhabitants has been turbulent. Determined not to let her heroics turn to tragedy, Harper stayed in the city to offer what help she could. She still returns to Santa Cora from time to time to do community work.

## Downfall

During the final battle against the resurgent devils, as Harper and her companions infiltrated Karhozat in stolen devil bodies, a dark presence slowly crept from the shadows. A wave of liquid destiny in the heart of the devil fortress plunged the heroes into a dream well, where their lives and the very history of the Dragon Empire were rewritten. Through all this, Harper alone remembered the world as it truly was -- a harbinger of her fate, as it turned out.

When the heroes were eventually freed from the dream well by the freshly resurrected Aster, Harper's companion Aura suddenly grew to many times her originally tiny size, and produced from nowhere Limina, the sword that had been used to restore Tarian's power. The now huge Aura offered the sword to Harper, who felt compelled to take it. Through the blade, a piece of the Lich King's soul rushed into her and forced her to fight her companions. Though she was suddenly empowered by the Lich King's possession, the rest of the heroes managed to subdue her, though they were forced to flee by the arrival of unexpectedly hostile Imperial forces.

Harper was taken in by the benighted Empire, now labelled a champion of the Dragon Emperor and serving as one of his foremost knights. Under the Lich King's dread influence, she wields the dead blade Limina, and represents a mockery for everything she once stood for.

## Appearances

* Wasteland Empire
* Soul Survivor
* The Devil You Don't
* Death on the Rocks
* Window of Opportunity
* Comeback Tour
* Monster in the Well
* Masquerade
* Perfect Match
* The Tomb of Nazerick
* Trial of the Century
* Very Very Frightening
* Last Supper
* Gazing into the Abyss
* The Harrowing
* If Only
* Scavenger Hunt