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Archsage Yanvalis

The latest in a line of Archsage's stretching back thousands of years, Yanvalis is the 268th Archsage of the Church. To his followers and admirers, Yanvalis leads the Church with humility, wisdom and a strong but stead hand, with his devotion to the Church and its teaching unwavering and his righteous judgement of the Church's enemies unfaltering. To his enemies, however, Yanvalis is a ruthless zealot and an aspiring tyrant, a man who has taken advantage of a weakened royal throne to consolidate his own power, rather than to strengthen any position of the Church. And it is true that, even amongst the Church's more traditionalist and conservative positions, Yanvalis holds extreme views. The Church has always been opposed to the wide spread practice of magic, due to their belief that magic was created by the demons who opposed the Gods in the war of creation (ironic really, considering that, to the trained eye at least, there is virtually no difference between miracles of the Church and common sorcery), and many previous Archsgaes have condemned magic and ordered purges against magic users. But Yanvalis' purge is unlike any seen in a thousand years, not since The Great Church Imperium of Archsage Naevaris. There are also mutterings that Yanvalis' ascension may not have been entirely legitimate, rumours of bribery and the suspicious death of his predecessor sway many. Although, one cannot be sure if the death of the previous Archsage was down to foul play due to the Church doctorine on the sanctity of the body, a law forbidding the disturbance of the bodies of deceased Archsages, laid out by Yanvalis's predecessor after his own murky rise to power. Still, Yanvalis does not heed the hearsay of idle gossips. He has absolute authority within the Church, more than enough support from its members and, most importantly, he has the ear of the Prince, who, what with his father's terrible sickness, seems poised to take the throne.

Saint Avalayn; First Lady of the Church

Known as "The First Lady of the Church", Avalayn is the premier Paladin in Doredain. Ambitious, arrogant and not above getting her hand dirty, she is fiercely loyal to the faith, taking great personal pleasure in putting down heretics with her own hands. She is also an exceptional manipulator, using guile and a sharp tongue to prize information from even the tighest lips, and resorting to torture on those whose lips do not talk. One can see her effectiveness in how she is treated by the Church. Her epithet was bestowed upon her by outsiders to the Church, but the title of Saint was bestowed by Archsage Yanvalis himself, making Avalayn the first Saint of the Church sanctified in a century. The Sainthood is the highest rank a Paladin can achieve and is only bestowed upon those who have achieve one of two great deeds. One is to have felled a great monster or foe of the Church and the other is to have performed a previously before unseen miracle. Avalayn is one of the few to have done both, she slew the captain of a pirate force that landed on the coast of Doredain and ransacked a Church holy site and her miracle is known as the Divine Spears of Judgement, upon her prayer bolts of lightning fall from the sky and strike down her foe. There have been numerous Saints in the Church's history, but the discovery of new miracles is seemingly the exclusive domain of female Saints. Despite her lofty status, it would appear that Avalayn is not so high in the Church's estimations that she is not required to do tasks she feels is beneath her, in this case she has been requested to shaperone a young, relatively new Paladin by the name of Vargas. Together, the pair are to investigate rumours of a sorcery led insurrection against the Church and the Lords, originating from the town of Wyteoak.

Simon of Alva

A former Knight of Doredain, Simon left the service of the realm upon his marriage and he and his wife settled down to a quiet life in the city of Alva. That is until his wife was abducted, stolen away in the middle of the night by unknown assailants. And that is where Simon of Alva's story really begins. In search for his wife, he tries every avenue of enquiry, utilising old contacts in both the knighthood and on the streets, but still nothing. And then the City Guard come for him. Simon is thrown in Tovon Túr, the second of the great fortresses of Doredain, now the kingdoms most famous prison. Surmising that Geoffreed, the Lord Mayor of Alva, may have something to do with his wife's disappearance (if not, he is certain that the Lord Mayor definately knows something), Simon undertakes an act of pure desperation, something no man had ever done before; he escaped the prison of Tovon Túr. Now on of the kingdom's most wanted men, Simon lives on the run, still searching tirelessly for anything that may lead him to his wife. But whilst he searches, there is one destination that he knows will have some answers. Home. Alva. And the Lord Mayor Geoffreed, one of the four Lords of Doredain.

Blacksmith Freja

The finest blacksmith in all of Doredain, Freja has made everything from a gate for a farmers field to armour and weaponry for the Legion of Baron Ilhun, and everything between. Though she is highly sought after, she is very picky about who she offers her services to. If you can pay her price then she will work, but if you can capture her attention and her enthusiasm, she may even work for free. And she won't be forced into taking a job she does not want. The Knights of Doredain have oft come to try to convince her to work exclusively for the kingdom, but have been rebuked each and every time. A fearsome fighter in her younger days (her muscles weren't just built up by hammering iron and steel), Freja knows how to defend herself and her choice of abode makes that abundantly clear. She chooses to live in the ruins of Mithren Túr, one of the 3 great fortresses of Doredain that fell in a war between the kingdom and the Legion near 200 years ago, and the tower is long rumored to be haunted by a variety of ghosts and vengeful spirits. This, combined with her skill and demenor, has gifted Freja an aura and status amongst the people of Doredain that few but the Lords would dare challenge, not that she cares much for the fame or plaudits, her only dream is to create the perfect blade.

Giant Gorom

A giant in every sense of the word, Gorom's size is matched only by his personality and heart, as well as his devious sense of humor. Though his size belies a gentle heart, it is unwise to take Gorom lightly, he is beast on the battlefield, and it is in  combat that Gorom's true heritage may come to light. The Lords of the City of Lindeloft, the greatest port in Doredain, are famous for many things, their drinking, their bravery, their golden armour and dipping their enormous zweihanders in oil and lighting them aflame before battle, a technique which could cause chaos amongst the ranks of their enemies through a combination of fear and burning flesh. It is a technique that Gorom knows all too well, though Lindeloft is far, far away from where he finds his current home, and his return is to be met by death, as decreed by Adjudicator Urael, the City's current "Lord" and steward.

Sera the Witch

Born in captivity, Sera never knew her father and barely knew her mother, as she died when Sera was very young. Raised as a prisoner and virtual slave in the castle of Foegnear, the personal fortress of Lord Alvarard, Sera's childhood was one of suffering, humiliation and pain. And then she discovered that she was a witch. Unlike most branches of magic, witchcraft is not learned (though the formal study of other magical arts is definately a way to improve ones abilities) it is innate and the ability to perform this form of spellcasting is exclusive only to women, passed down from mother to daughter. With her newly discovered powers becoming more and more powerful by the day, Sera escaped Foegnear, vowing to never return unless it was to personally put Alvarard in an unmarked grave.

Paladin Vargas

Born of a noble family in the Church stronghold of Nimloth Anor, Vargas grew up wanting only one thing, to become a Knight of the Church; a Paladin. Whilst Knights of the Realm serve the King and, by extension, the Lords, Paladins serve the Church directly and, as such, are granted protections by the Church and the Gods they worship. Paladins do the Church's duty, hunting down heritics, whilst employing special miracles to protect themselves from magic, methods taught only within the Church. Vargas trained not just his body, but also his mind, learning all of the stories of great Church miracles; from the Tale of Saint Gustav and the Dragon to the story of how Saint Elarosa cured the land of the hundred year plague, until he was deemed worthy of being named as a Paladin. Weilding the blessed greatmace, Drangul, he set forth to do the Churches work, however, he is met with disturbing realisations. He saw how those outside of the nobility and Church elite lived, their poverty and their struggle to survive and he wondered how his Gods could allow such suffering and began to question the callousness of his bretheren in allowing such disparity and, in many cases, revelling in it.