Edward Highwater

## Doran (Edward Highwater)

* Main art
* Art by Ksu

An official art made by Alex with the help of Midjourney

An official art by Ksu (blackthornwine)

**Edward Highwater**, mostly know by his chosen name **Doran**, is a human warlock and a member of The Unholy Tempest. Has a frog.

## Description

### **Appearance**

At the beginning of the story Doran is a young man in his mid-twenties. He is slim and of average height, has aristocratic facial features, pale skin and shoulder-length wavy black hair.

He has a tattoo of a tentacle wrapping around his right arm. The tattoo is a "gift" from U'thuun and it lights up with greenish blue light when Doran is using magic. He also has another magical tattoo, made by Spark – a small moving wave, running on his left wrist.

Doran usually wears light leather armour and simple but expensive-looking clothing: a well-made white shirt, dark pants, rather elegant leather boots, and a black cloak with intricate decorations. On his chest hangs a medallion looking like a silver coin with a sickly yellow eye.

He sometimes paints his nails black and he wears a silver earring in the form of seagull in his right ear.

### **Personality**

Despite being born a noble, Doran is actually quite bad at it. It is very uncomfortable for him to communicate with people of high society, as he doesn't feel – and doesn't want to be – a part of it. He gets very stressed in formal situations but forces himself to keep the calm demeanour. He has learned to put on a mask of confidence a long time ago.

As a child, Doran didn't get too many chances to socialize with peers, so it is often hard for him to communicate with new acquaintances. That, and being too used to the lies and intrigues of the high society, was probably the reason why it took him quite a long time to get comfortable around the party members and open up a bit more.

Doran's charisma is quiet, he is not much of an orator, but he is rather good at convincing others to take his intended course of action. He has his own moral code and only follows the rules that he agrees with, being generally averse to violence. He usually means well but can be quite snarky, mostly out of habit or as a defence mechanism. Really doesn't like being mocked, and will retaliate.

At the same time, his adventurous spirit and rebellious nature force Doran to make rash decisions. He tends (or acts) to be overconfident in his abilities to tackle any issues and handle any consequences – or, more often, he rather doesn't think about them at all. This might or might not have something to do with his desperate need to prove himself (to himself).

He is dramatic. Standing-under-a-stream-of-stinky-lake-water-pouring-from-the-dimensional-door-right-above-your-head dramatic.

## Biography

### **Background**

Born into one of the wealthiest families of Waterdeep, Edward was the older or two sons of Lord Francis and Lady Eleanor Highwater. Before taking on a new name and leaving home, he was being brought up in the high society circles. He received a classical education and was supposed to take part in the family affairs, being the Lord's heir. However, since young age he has grown a distaste to the ways of the aristocracy and dreamt of becoming an adventurer, like his favourite uncle Theodore, who had graced the boy with stories about his travels.

### **Friendship with Valandir**

    When he was about 10 or 11, a new person appeared in young Edward's life. A new cook, an elven woman called Lyndra, moved in to the Highwater house, together with her young son Valandir. The boys, being about the same age, immediately befriended each other, quickly becoming inseparable. When Edward didn't have lessons, they spent all the time together and used to sneak out of the house and wander around the city, often getting to the docks to watch the ships, dreaming of one day sailing away together to faraway lands.

The family, however, wasn't taking this lightly, especially Lady Eleanor, who didn't believe a commoner boy was a proper company for a son of the lord. At some point she forbade Edward to spend that much time with Valandir but the boys who were becoming rebellious teenagers did not think to obey and continued their friendship in secret. But secrets tend to come out, and one day the Lady learned of this, which was followed by a huge scandal, resulting in both the boy and his mother being sent away from the house and, apparently, from the city. Edward tried finding Valandir but his attempts proved futile. The boys were around 14 years old at that time.

Even 10 years later, Doran still thinks about his best friend and recalls those few years spent with Valandir as the happiest time of his life.

### **Uncle's demise and Making the Pact**

A few months before the beginning of the story things back at home got especially bad. The family received the news of Theodore Highwater's demise – a message about him mysteriously dying at sea, followed by a strange package arriving at the door, a heritage from Theodore. Devastated, Edward tried learning more, but his parents seemed unwilling to discuss these matters. Lord Francis became very secretive and soon started to behave strange and paranoid, deepening Edward's suspicions about his father having something to do with his uncle's death.

Around the same time, Edward first heard a mysterious voice calling to him in his mind, promising answers to his questions. The voice beckoned him to travel to a sea cave not too far from Waterdeep, which he did and found a lockbox with a necklace in it, a silver medallion looking like a coin with a closed eye engraved on it. As soon as he touched it, the yellowish eye on the medallion opened lit by a lightblue-green glow. Edward's mind became filled with images of a mass of tentacles writhing somewhere deep below the sea, and a thundering voice spoke telling him that the answers he wanted were not hidden at home but all around the world where his uncle had travelled. If he wished to figure out what happened to him and what he was protecting, Edward was to pledge his loyalty to U'thuun, The Voice of the Deep. And so he did.

### **Leaving home, Wargrave and escape from Waterdeep**

Soon after making the pact with U'thuun, Edward made up his mind and left his home, leaving behind the name he was known by in favour of a moniker **Doran**, determined to find his answers and a name for himself.

Navigating the streets of Waterdeep proved difficult, with no money on his person and Lord Francis keeping sending people to bring his son back home. On one such occasion, trying to avoid one of the father's spies, Doran accidentally found himself in the middle of an underground club owned by the infamous crime lord Raphael Wargrave. He offered Doran a way out of the city – for a price, of course. Not being able to pay 1000 gold there and then, Doran became indebted to the man, who fulfilled his promise of escape and made sure to point out to Doran that *he always gets paid* *back.*

Then, having travelled to the city of Daggerford, Doran started looking for odd jobs in order to earn the money to pay back, and got involved with a small local gang led by Lloyd "Shank" Berrek. Not necessarily bad people, the band members did not exactly form a friendly team, but they also did not ask questions. The money part was going slowly because, apparently, a thousand gold is far from being a small sum for a simple person, which came to Doran as somewhat of a surprise.

## Relationships

### **Family**

Doran's relationship with his family is strained and complicated. He never spoke of them fondly and seemed incredulous when told by Spark that his father was protecting one of the Eochairs. Doran told Kai that he never told the party his "real" name because he wanted nothing to do with a name that his parents gave him.

The only person that was close to Doran was his uncle Theodore, and Doran was devastated when he learned about his demise. Theodore has been the biggest influence on him and someone to look up to. Most of his fondest memories were about uncle Theodore.

The details of Doran's relationship with his family and the reasons for such feelings are unknown to the party at the moment.

At the same time, upon learning that his family is in danger and possibly taken hostage by Wargrave, Doran did not seem to hesitate about having to come back to Waterdeep to save them.

### **The Silver Gull**

Who doesn't like a good old "childhood friends to strangers to lovers"?

## Character information

### **Goals**

Doran's main goal upon starting his journey was finding the truth about uncle Theodore's death. He since has learned that Theodore, called by some people The Guardian, was protecting one of the Eochairs, that is now in possession of his father Lord Francis Highwater.

## Trivia

* Out of the story, the name *Doran* is of Irish origin and means *"stranger", "exile", "warrior", "wanderer"*
* In the story, *Doran* was formed by Edward from *"Theodore"* and holds a sentimental meaning