Marcus Roland

Marcus Roland was a Zantine noble and paladin. By his wife Lygia, he fathered Marena Roland.

## Appearance and Personality

Marcus is tall and powerfully built. He has dark curly hair (now gray with age), dark brown eyes, an aristocratic nose, and a stern mouth. His skin is tanned and leathery after years living under the hot desert sun, and his face is lined with wrinkles which tell the story of a life filled with both joy and hardship. He still dresses in the quaint styles of his youth, paying no heed to changing fashions over time and across continents, and wears his gold wedding ring on his left hand. His battered sword hangs from a sheath at his hip.

While he puts up a formidable front of stoicism and rugged masculinity, beneath the surface Marcus is highly vulnerable and deeply flawed. His decisions are more often than not made by his feelings, and his sense of duty and responsibility is frequently at odds with his love for his family, creating a powerful conflict that rages within him. Yet this is also the secret to his strength and his courage - he has something worthwhile that he is fighting for.

His violent passions often have violent ends, and he is not without a dark streak. Given time and the opportunity, he showed no mercy to those he had come to hate, even seeking to exchange a hated life for a loved one. He considers it a foolish and wrong act now, but at the time he was absolutely convinced of his own righteousness.

He is also a bigot. He despises magic and looks down upon the people who use it with merciless hatred, and he often makes disparaging remarks about other people. He views the Exekians as beneath contempt. But he is not a racial supremacist; rather, he is a culturalist. His reasoning for his beliefs is always rooted in either personal experiences or ancient animosities - he identifies himself as a "son of the slave kingdoms" as an explanation for his disdain of the Exekians, and points to the brutalities visited upon his people as the source of his biases against certain groups. His resentment of Apicartans, for instance, is considerably less intense than his hatred of the Iskirrans.

Though a staunch conservative, he is shown to be willing to break with tradition in special cases. His love for his daughter came into conflict with his instincts and beliefs, but ultimately his desire to make her happy silenced his reservations. He suspected that she was using magic, yet he allowed himself to continue on in ignorance of the truth. He fears the thought of condemning those he loves, and the plea for peace in his own home often permeates his prayers to his god.

## Biography

### Origins and Childhood

In the last days of Zantium, Marcus Asher Roland was the eldest child born into the wealthy noble house of Roland. His father Decimus was a war hero and his mother, Stella Matuzek, was a princess. He had one sister, Eunice. At the age of ten he was sent to school to learn how to become a paladin, as was the long-standing tradition in a family which could trace its lineage back to Edric Chanticleer himself. In school he befriended Dimiter Yen, who would remain his closest companion into adulthood.

### Marriage to Lygia Agravain

Eventually he met Lygia Agravain, the eldest daughter of the disgraced Agravain family. He was immediately smitten with her, but his parents urged him not to marry her as her family clearly had an agenda. Despite his parents' reluctance and her family's blatant greed, he continued to pursue her without conditions or reservations.

During their courtship, the young couple attended a festival held at the Agravains' estate. In the midst of the celebration, the police barged in. Lygia's younger sister, Livia, was arrested and later banished from Zantium for practicing witchcraft. Her family was publicly humiliated by the scandal and began pressuring Marcus and Lygia to marry as soon as possible in an effort to restore their standing. They were wed the following autumn, settled in the capital city of Kynaston, and had one child, Marena.

### Flight From Zantium

During the invasion of Zantium by the Iskirrans, he fought in battle until his entire troop was eradicated by the invaders, including his sister Eunice. The defeat forced Marcus and Dimiter to flee for their lives. He rode to his home and the family managed to escape on board a boat leaving Kynaston, accompanied by Dimiter. As they sailed away, the city was burned and consumed before their very eyes.

They wandered through various lands for three years, encountering bigotry and animosity virtually everywhere they went. After one of their companions, Rhys Sioned, was killed during a racially-motivated fight at Neroga, Lygia convinced Marcus to return home to Kynaston. There they lived in a brand new magic shop run by Livia, who had returned to Kynaston after the Iskirrans took over and set up shop as a witch.

### Ten Years In Melekess

As a devout Zantine, Marcus had developed a deep loathing for magic, which he found abhorrent. The idea of living with a witch drove him crazy, yet he found little sympathy from the people around him. Unable to serve openly as a paladin in a society which tolerated witchcraft, Marcus found work as an antique salesman, collecting and selling artifacts salvaged from the ruins of Zantium. Dimiter meanwhile gave up being a paladin in order to become a priest at the Zantine chapel in Melekess.

While living in the magic shop, Marcus and Lygia were in constant conflict with Livia, who flaunted her magic. To make matters worse, Livia befriended Marena and began to secretly encourage her to study magic, gifting her with a tarot deck. Eventually, Marena ran away from home. Marcus and Lygia were devastated to discover she had been accepted into a magic academy in Iskirra as part of a scholarship.

Lygia died during a plague epidemic that hit the city. While the Iskirrans had the technology to help save lives, they denied care to practicing Zantines. Grieving and enraged, Marcus murdered Livia. For his crime Marcus was arrested. At trial, he was sentenced to the galleys.

### The Last Paladin

After spending five years as a galley slave, Marcus was able to escape after his ship sunk. He managed to swim to the shore, eventually winding up in the city of Melekess. There he found his old friend Dimiter, who had become a priest.

Marcus immediately agreed to take her on as an apprentice, despite the concerns of his friends. He treated the girl roughly in hopes of preparing her for the difficulties of life as a paladin, only showing pity and care after a particularly brutal mission which left Marena scarred and traumatized. In the end, Marena was repelled by Marcus' methods and the two were briefly estranged. Their reconciliation only came about after Marena had forged her own path and Marcus had realized the error of his ways.

### Reunion With Marena

With Marena having completed her training, Marcus moved into a house in the desert that he had built. Within a few months, he had a chance encounter with Arcturus and an amnesiac Marena. After separating her from Arcturus, he gave Marena a protective belt and explained as much as he could to her about her past and the dangers of magic. While he allowed her to leave with Arcturus, he returned to Melekess for the first time since the death of his wife and daughter, determined to keep tabs on their whereabouts and activities.

As the situation became more complex, Marcus learned that Marena had been injured by the ghost of King Luther, and Arcturus was being charged with the king's murder. While Marcus took Marena to the arena in order to attend Arcturus' trial, Dimiter stayed behind to investigate the supernatural energy hanging over the palace.

The two did not meet again until after the trial had concluded, as Marcus convinced Dimiter to hide the real Arcturus in Nykara Chapel while Adrian Vandiir, disguised as Ardath, faked his execution. Dimiter reported his findings to the others, revealing that a ritual had taken place years ago in the king's private dining room. The participants had each made bargains with an evil spirit, and these bargains resulted in the death of the king, along with who knew what else. Marcus was emphatic that the palace needed to be exorcised and the ritual undone, but this was impossible until they knew the identity of the spirit.

Unbeknownst to him, Marena had already learned this information from Arcturus. While she relayed the identity of the spirit (the Magician) to Dimiter, she initially refused to tell Marcus the truth about the bargains made, not knowing how he would react. She had plans of her own, which she could not afford to have disrupted.

While Dimiter went ahead with the exorcism at the palace during the masquerade, Marcus was unaware of what would happen. The expulsion of evil sparked a chain reaction with far-reaching consequences, among them the death of Dimiter at the hands of an enraged Adrian. When Marena's body disappeared and Luther was resurrected, Marcus initially blamed Arcturus. Upon learning the truth, he became determined to save Marena at any cost, even if it meant traveling to the Arcane Realm.

### Death in the Arcane Realm

Accompanied by Arcturus, Marcus astral-projected into the Arcane Realm. There they found Marena's spirit battling the Magician. With her memory restored, she was properly reunited with her master and husband, and the three conspired to outwit the Magician.

However, the Magician claimed that he had a right to Arcturus' soul, based on a bargain Arcturus made. Marcus urged Arcturus not to fall for the same trap twice. Marcus couldn't bear the thought of either of them being trapped there, because he loved them both and wanted them to have a chance to live their lives. Therefore, he chose to sacrifice himself, remaining behind while they returned to reality.