Efrem Chatham

Name: Efrem Chatham

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Occupation: Paladin of the High Order

Location: Cardend, Venago

Born to a peasant family in a small shack house on the border of the northern border of Venago. His childhood was quiet and secluded. His father worked for a nearby log processing company on the Kelmaquik River, leaving Efrem to be raised by his mother who was also his only friend. His mother wanted nothing more, she loved the time with her son, often being scolded by her husband for coddling the boy.

When Efrem was 11, he started going to work with his father to earn the family extra coin. It was hard work for a child. His father was on the team who would cut down trees and send them down the river, but Efrem was a part of a team who went into the water and pulled the logs onto the shore. Children were seen as better workers for this, as they were usually nimble enough to squirrel themselves back above the water if a log pulled them underneath the water. The days were long, and the work was back breaking.

After awhile, the boy his mother had known, the caring, the quiet, the happy boy was gone. He was a hard, chiseled, cold man now. Around the age of 17, Efrem began to speak of the idea of a military career, something his father was exceedingly supportive of, but his mother hated. Soon after, he was recruited by the Paladins, and traveled to the Grand Cathedral in Romulus to begin his training.

By the age of 25, Efrem had turned into a fine warrior, gaining the title of Grand Inquisitor. He traveled as the head of a small team who traveled town to town, questioning, judging, and executing witches and heretics. It was then he had the freedom to travel free from orders from the church.

Because of this, he returned to his home for the first time since leaving. He found his mother had built a shrine to him in an attempt to turn tides of fates, and keep him safe. She told him that each night she prayed for his safety, and every so often sat all night attempting to send him pleasant thoughts. Upon hearing this, Efrem had his mother burned alive at the stake for practicing witchcraft. He stood front and center to her execution, witnesses say he did not shed a tear, he just stood blank faced as his mother cried in agony, and begged for her son as she slowly burned to death. He had his childhood home destroyed, and arrested his father, who was sentenced to 30 years in the Antioch Dungeon in central Venago, for hiding a witch.

The next year, his whole world was turned upside down. The merge had happened, and when it did, the building his team was staying in merged with a small halfling mound. His whole team was killed, and his leg was severed in the merging. In response, he hobbled up, used a broom stick as a crutch and then went and slaughtered the few halflings that survived.

After hobbling to a nearby village that was only semi-decimated, he passed out from blood loss and was quickly saved by a gnome artificer, who also built him a new robotic leg in the few days he was unconscious. For thanks, Efrem let that man and his family live, a decision he to this day considers a mistake.

In the following years, he was part of the main force that traveled and killed entire villages of magical races. He was also at the Grand Cathedral when it was overrun and destroyed by the New Rangers. After the destruction of the temple, while digging through the ruins, Efrem found his sword: "Redemption". A greatsword made entirely of light that can cut through almost anything with ease, and never dulls or dims.

Efrem saw this as a sign from Dovien. He was to use this sword to rebuild and reunify the Paladins, with himself in command.