Nalan Balcard

## Nalan Balcard(*Grey Order*)

Nalan of the Grey Order

Nalan at the beginning of the Grey War

Nalan with the Mithourge

Nalan contemplating pain

**Nalan Balcard** is one of the founders of the Grey Order. He was originally created to be used as a weapon by the Marydian Republic as a weapon to destroy Ocyria and all worshippers of the Warring Triumvirate.

## Abilities

Nalan is a paragon, a being created to be of a almost demi-god like stature. As such, he is twice as strong as most mortals, three times as fast, can endure twice as much pain, and possesses a divine fortune that makes him exceptionally favored in all of his endeavors. He is an especially potent sorcerer with very powerful blood that he uses as his source of manifesting the dark winds. This potent blood also allows him to heal fast, with wounds sealing shut in the blink of the eye. He is immune to nonmagical weapons, resistant to fire and cold damage, and possesses both magic and legendary resistances.

## History

### Assassination of the High Priestess

Nalan was taught the means of teleportation magic as his final lesson and given a sword called *Mithourge.* Askia then instructed Nalan to teleport to the Grand Church of Ocyria and seek out High Priestess Raden Phere and kill her. This was possible because of the old halls beneath the capital city where old Marydian cult cells would linger and indoctrinate commoners into the faith. These halls warded against divination and teleportation magics unless the caster knew precisely where they were allowed to look or go. With this secret entry, Nalan entered the church from its catacombs and was confronted by holy swordsmen in the nave. The accounts of the survivors say he moved with precision and grace, a Pale Slayer that seemed to know every attack and defense the highly trained swordsmen were going to utilize before they did. He marched through the guards and entered into the priestly cloister and found the High Priestess. She tried to speak to Nalan, but before she realized she held no advantage over him, he had buried his sword in her throat.

With his mission accomplished, Nalan returned to the catacombs and exited the way he had entered. The pandemonium left in the church and then the city due to his actions was sweeping. It was immediately blamed on the new Marydian Republic and Ocyria formally declared war against the nation of Dargh. This was the start of the Grey War.

### The Esperedges

During the issue with the Black Blade, Nalan took the guise of a gray stub-tailed cat named Henry so as to monitor the largest collective of Esperedge wielders, the group called Kirgozler's Heroes.

### Battle at Rastegar

In 992 CA, the Pyramid of Souls, which had been buried underneath the city of Rastegar, vanished from reality and reappeared hovering directly over the capitol building of the city. Floating above the Pyramid was the Demon Prince Dhuron Balcard, who had power over the magics in the Pyramid and could focus them into devastating bursts of spellfire. The group known as Kirgozler's Heroes faced off against the Demon Prince on the underside of the Pyramid. Shadow was used by Gilbert in this fight. Eventually, the Choir of Blades revealed its true source of power: the essence of the divinities known as Alu'nsu-Ro and Stacia which had been bound to the Black Blade. Once they were revealed in the Material Plane, the Grey Order quickly intervened with Nalan leading a small detachment to deal with the divine incursion. The essences were obliterated and the Esperedges had their divine powers ripped from them.

### One Hundred Hands Make Light Work

The most recent and noteworthy mission for the Grey Order came about when Igaion, one of the Nine Bastards of the Warring Triumvirate, was freed into the Material Plane and began destroying settlements in the Broken Blade Coast with a direct path heading towards the metropolitan city of Nock.

## Name

Nalan Balcard was a name crafted by the magical scholar Askia Balcard. As his surname referred to a "sea of chaos" in Dargh province (the Balcard Sea), Askia named his creation *Nalan* as it meant "calmness". Askia had made efforts to ensure Nalan would be completely at his control and would execute any demand he made with no emotion, so Askia thought it poetic that this calm unstoppable force would be at the center of chaotic seas of mortals trying to bring him down.

## Appendix

### Trivia

Nalan Balcard is the insert character of the creator of the *Unending Spiral Campaign Setting*. He began as a character in Yahoo! Chat RPG in the Arts & Entertainment sections. His first name was a masculine take on the feminine Hawaiian name *Nalani,* which means "serenity in the skies". He has always been designed to closely resemble Alucard from the *Castlevania* series in physical appearance, though with brown hair instead of blonde/white.

### 3rd Edition

**Nalan BalcardPlayed by:** John Dupree
Male paragon human ranger 2/sorcerer 8/dervish\* 10/loremaster\*\* 10
\* Prestige class described in *Complete Adventurer*
\*\* Prestige class described in *Dungeon Master's Guide*
CG Medium humanoid (human, paragon)
**Init: +17** **Senses:** *true sight*; Listen +, Spot +
**Languages:** Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Eten-naunish, Etish, Infernal, Marydian, Orcish, Ndher-naunish, Vampiric**AC** 57 flat-footed 39, touch 52; Dodge; Combat Expertise; elaborate parry; Mobility; "Moonlight"Â (+6 defending everdancing keen scimitar)
(+15 Dex, +5 natural, +12 insight, +12 luck, +3 Dervish)
**hp** 780 (30 HD); fast healing 20 **DR** 10/epic
**Immune** disease, poison
**Resist** cold 10, fire 10 **SR** 55
**Fort** +29 **Ref** +40 **Will** +40**Speed:** 105 ft. (21 squares)
**Melee** *Exclambre* +64/+59/+54/+49/+64 (1d8+16/17-20) and "Moonlight"Â (+6 defending everdancing keen scimitar) +62/+57/+52/+47 (1d6+10/15-20)
**Melee** *Alu'nogh* (+5 holy power keen sonic blast scythe) +61/+56/+51/+46 (2d4+14/19-20/x4)
**Space** 5 ft. **Reach** 5 ft.
**Base Atk** +16 **Grp** +54
**Atk Options** A thousand cuts 1/day, Automatic Quicken Spell 2/day, dervish dance 5/day, Spring Attack
**Special Actions** Greater lore, lore, true lore 1/day
**Sorcerer Spells Prepared:Spell-like Abilities** (CL 15th)
3/day - *greater dispel magic*, *haste*, *see invisibility***Abilities** Str 27, Dex 41, Con 23, Int 33, Wis 31, Cha 55
**SQ** A thousand cuts, dance of death, elaborate parry, fast healing 20, greater lore, immortality, improved reaction, lore, loremaster secrets (the lore of true stamina, weapon trick, applicable knowledge, newfound arcana, more newfound arcana), slashing blades, spell resistance 52, tireless dance, true lore
**Feats** Automatic Quicken Spell (x2), Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Maximize Spell, Mobility, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Quicken Spell, Skill Focus (Knowledge [Arcana]), Spring Attack, Sudden Maximize, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (longsword)
**SkillsPossessions** Alu'nogh, Exclambre, Heward's Handy Haversack, Lighter, "Moonlight", traveler's outfit.
The Mithril Reaver. The Gray Ogre. The Pale Slayer. Scourge of Tessah. Horror of the Priestess. Dark Knight of Vermillion. Thengol the Unliving. Adrian Toranor, Lord and Master of Dargh. Endimon the Unforgiving. Merovuan the Coward. Richter the Nemesis. Destroyer of the Wall. Executioner of the Three Kings. Marianet d' Toranor. The Calmness Amidst a Sea of Chaos. Tranquillitas Inter Mare Perturbinationis. Ender of Worlds. The Bloody Saviour. The Wanderer. Death-dealer of the World Divider. Father of Aluein Ex Magare. "Son" of Askia Balcard.

A being created by the Marydian governmen for the sole purpose of destruction. "Born" Ethanim 11, 1876 AM (After the Migration). After twenty-four years of life, he was unleashed upon the rival nations of his birthplace and commanded to destroy them. The first to feel the wrath of Marydia was Bicovaria. He massacred the high priestess in her capital and left the Isle of the Goddess unharmed. He then devastated Tessah, killing nearly the entire populace of dwarves in that country. His march from Tessah to Ocyria is refered to as the Tempest's Move. Outside the city of Ocyria waited the nation's finest armies and all were decimated by Nalan in under a day. His slaughter was stopped by a valiant dwarf. Nalan's mind was freed from the control of his Marydian masters.

Given conscience but not motivation, Nalan sought out his masters' next target. It was then he fell in love with Lady Crimson. Her subjects were less than welcoming and due to the romantic drama that ensued, she took her own life to free him of their hate. He had no recourse but to take his own life for he had nothing left to live for.

A wandering mystic named Akufuu bound Nalan's soul to a soul gem and later sold it to a man named Thengol. The man imbibed Nalan's spirit, but was overtaken by Nalan's force of will. With his new body and an addiction to tobacco as an interesting side effect, he sought out the new Lady of the Crimson Coven. It was his love reborn, but wed to another man. Nalan, as Thengol, traveled a while longer on the realm of man before again removing himself from the mortal coil.

Entering Ayareath, the realm of the dead, Nalan met with the Dark God of Sorcery and Death. This entity, Alu'nsu-Ro, taught Nalan the lore of the ages and several dark secrets lost aeons ago. Alu'nsu-Ro also uncovered a means of entering the Material Plane once again, using Nalan's soul as a shell to his own, then overwhelming the soul and body with his divinity and acquiring control. But to do this, the Dark God needed Nalan's true soul, which had a sense of divinity due to his creation.

Thus, Alu'nsu-Ro bound Nalan's soul, that of his "father" Richter Toranor, Richter's father Merovuan the Coward, and the soul of Richter's true son Endimon DeLucas, into the same body. Nalan's soul quickly usurped the others in their struggle for control and with it he sought out a means to remove the others from the body before Alu'nsu-Ro could succeed in his plan.

He removed the weakest soul, that of Merovuan, by gaining aid from a planeshifter named Tak. This brought the powerful mage to the realm, who grew interested in its workings and inserted himself into the structure of at least two organizations. Tak recovered the "Priest's Tongue", a biproduct of Onio'nomen's treachery of the elder deities that grants its bearer the command of all beings created of the two deities. He commanded Merovuan to leave the body, but the other two bound themselves tightly enough to Nalan's being that if they were forced to leave the shell, it would tear Nalan's soul asunder.

Richter was removed with the power of the Moon Goddess, Luna. Nalan gained the friendship of the Champion of the Moon, Thorn Stacianodel, and he used his own divinity to remove Richter from the equation. Her powers could not remove Endimon from the shell, simply because Endimon's rage and chaotic nature conquered the power to remove, which was entirely based on Luna's chaotic nature.

So came the time of the Gods' return. The elder deities sought to return and spurned their "children", seeking to regain their lost power. The deities became weak and could grant no power to mortals. Also, their flawed spawn crawled from their prisons, no longer bound by their siblings and began wreaking havoc on the Material Plane. These abominations were fought back by Nalan and a group of heroes as never the world had seen before. Tak, Gideon Illuminus, Invellious Laire Varhuine, Thorn Stacianodel, Raden Phere, Atavus the Champion of Law, and Alacia the Lady of Crimson bound together and defeated the abominations and nominated champions of the gods to ascend their weakened forms, thus taking right of power from the two prime deities.

Nalan was nominated as the champion of Alu'nsu-Ro, another attempt for the dark god to take a omnipotent mortal form. However, Nalan destroyed Endimon's soul through will and Meke'ma, Alu'nsu-Ro's avatar given sentience all its own, took the position and cast the dark god into mortality. The new deity was named by Nalan as Aluein Ex Magare, the death-dealer of the world divider.

After removing himself from the sight of those who sought him, he returned to the realm under many guises. His only true goal is to continue to explore humanity and the worlds around him. Because of his closeness to godhood, he wanders immortally.