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Hail to the King baby
A Paladin's Story part 1
A little while back, I said that I was thinking of putting a few background stories of various characters that I had come up with for role playing over the years. I asked if anyone would be interested in reading them, and one person said they would. This doesn't contain any of the diary information that I'd later write down regarding the adventures, and my character's getting screwed over, to what happened to him just before we quit the adventure.

I was very happy with what I had written up, but the DM (Dungeon Master) wasn't because it was the longest backstory he'd ever read, and said it was completely unnecessary. I'm a BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth) player and GM, in that, you get bonus points (up to 5) that go towards your character if you have a really elaborate background. So I was just used to this as it was a habit of mine by now.

Anyways, here it is. I haven't checked it over since my first writing it five years ago, so there maybe be grammar errors or spelling errors that weren't picked up. I was still using Windows '95 Works at the time.

Since this is so long, I'll only be putting up a page and a bit each day until it's all up here. The background is five pages, so I might be able to get it all on here in four entries. I'll do the diary some time after that.

I hope everyone enjoys.

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The Paladin That Wouldn't Repeat History (part 1)

Born into the English royal Lockheart family, son to Lord Christopher and Lady Lana Lockheart, the destiny of Bartholomew Lockheart was plain and simple. As a male he was to go to the same academy as his father and his grandfather and become a great paladin. Afterwards he would start to look for a suitable wife and raise a strong and healthy family filled with young strapping boys and tender young girls. However, there was one loop hole that Bartholomew did agree with. It was that he was never to look at a woman that was not a sorceress. It did not really matter exactly what type of magic she studied but it was preferred that she knew white magic, she worshipped the deity Heironeous, and that she was human. The same would be if he had been born a daughter. Just that the roles would have been switched. The way this family tree worked was that the males would grow up to be paladins while the females would become sorceresses. They would in turn marry the opposite of what they were. This was just the way things were. Paladins married sorceresses and sorceresses married paladins. There were no real exceptions and since no one had ever tried to challenge this ritual, there were no known consequences. The only exception to the rule was that the person gave a vow of abstinence. This in turn allowed the men to become clerics and the women druids. So far only one man and one woman had done this. Bart's uncle Stephan Lockheart and his great aunt Katherine Lockheart.

After marriage, the newly weds would obtain the Lockheart's traditional weapons, armour, and clothes. The paladins gained a holy longsword, rumored to have the power to challenge even a ancient bronze dragon, a magic tower shield that was said could withstand apparently any wife's black magic wrath should they be unhappy and wish to take their frustrations out on the ones who caused them the unhappiness. Or so goes the fable. They would also gain for their war-horses holy armour that warded off evil and the undead. Their clothes would be made of the finest fabrics that money could buy. This was to show off their great wealth and look proper for high Lords and Ladies should they ever have to make appearances. Their clothes were always white and unlike most paladins that had just a red cross on the fronts and backs, the Lockhearts had an additional crest of a purple falcon on the top left of the cloth. It was the same as the one on their helmets and on their family rings. On the right was a purple circle with a purple lightning bolt going through it. This was the signification of their deity Heironeous. The sorceresses would gain a holy dagger which was said to rival to power of the holy longsword, a magical blessed sash would glow when near absolute evil, and a full white robe that had the properties of leather armour but didn't have any of it's penalties. On the left of the robe was a purple falcon and on the right was a purple circle with a purple lightning bolt going through it.

Not much is known to the outside of the mansions other than this. The Lockheart's weren't exactly open about everything they did or who they dealt with. They had their fingers into everything in the town. If it was corrupt they didn't know about it as it would ruin their reputations and anger their god. They did everything possible to not arise suspicion of dealings with groups if they felt it would endanger themselves or merchant friends. The Lockheart's had no enemies, at least none known to them. Then again, no one in existence has ever had no enemies. As far as they knew everyone loved them. Being a merchant family filled with paladins gave them that advantage. They could never tell a lie nor could they ever try and cheat someone out of fear of their god, Heironeous, leaving them.


During his time at the academy there were many times that he would stray away from his classes and duties. He would always be reprimanded with harsh disciplinary retribution. Being from the Lockheart family, this was looked at being very strange and highly frowned upon. Along with his changed behavior, he had also started to request that everyone call him Bart instead of Bartholomew. This was also looked at with confusion by both his peers and his commanding officers. There even times when thinking that because he was Lockheart he got so cocky that one of the lieutenants even took him aside and into anther room so that they could have a talk about his behavior and disrespectfulness towards superior officers. Bart just looked at him with discontent and disregarded anything he the lieutenant had said or was trying to say. Finally, the lieutenant had had enough of it. He walked right up to Bart and stood less then an inch from his face.

"Do you want to take a swing at me? I can tell you'd just love the chance. That'd make you feel a lot better wouldn't it? I know it'd make me feel somewhat better."

Bart just smirked and nodded up towards the lieutenant’s helmet and weapons.

"Oh I get it. You won't do anything because of my status. Well I can fix that."

With that he walked over to the nearest table and took off his helmet and began to remove his status armour. Once all off, he walked back towards Bart with his arms behind his back.

"Is that enough? Without the armour and weapons I'm just like you. I now have no status and we can be considered equals of society."

As if a reply, Bart took a swing at the man but it was easily dodged and the lieutenant retaliated with a punch to Bart's stomach causing him to fall to the ground gasping for air.

"I hope we won't have to do this again. I don't like having to repeat myself. You think that I want you to my military foot stool and that is just not the case here at all. I hope for your sake and for the sake of your family's reputation that you get your head put back on straight. Do I make myself clear?"

Finally getting a breath of air in his lungs Bart nodded, "Crystal."

"Don't feel too bad kid. You're not the first I've taken down for this kind of thing, and sure as hell won't be the last. I just hope you understand the severity of what's going on here. Maybe someday you will. I just hope that I'm still around when you do."

Slowly getting back onto his feet, Bart looked at the lieutenant. "And on that day, round two begins."






User Comments: [6] [add]
Aiyana_of_Limdule
Community Member
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commentCommented on: Tue Jun 03, 2008 @ 10:01pm
Wow! You are an awsome storyteller! I love it! heart Have you ever thought about writing a book about this character? I'm serious!~ I definately want to read about him now! You've gotta write more. whee


commentCommented on: Wed Jun 04, 2008 @ 04:33am
Pretty cool back story. I don't think I've ever written out a back story that long before. I like to keep my characters back stories a secret. I have one character who was fooling everybody in the party. In the end he betrayed them all. It threw all the players for a loop when I told them that I would get them all! Of course my chracter ran off afterwardds and established an undead tower. But there was like five of them and I was a spell-caster.

Sorry, I digress, anyway cool story. By the way this is Aiyan's husband. Will you be my freind? sweatdrop



Ledlin
Community Member
kevin video
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commentCommented on: Wed Jun 04, 2008 @ 04:36am
@ Ledlin -- Yeah, can never have too many friends. And I'm going to post more tomorrow after work. This is just part 1 of the backstory. There'll be a few more as the week progresses. I just didn't want to post all of it at once. Think of it as Chapter 1 of the Prologue.


commentCommented on: Wed Jun 04, 2008 @ 05:19am
Will return to see if you've got more to read tomorrow! blaugh



Aiyana_of_Limdule
Community Member
Gorenza
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commentCommented on: Wed Jun 04, 2008 @ 07:31am
Some one has been talking about you Mr. Kevin video.
I see what Aiyana_of_Limdule means.
I love to get into the back stories of my character but my writing is more general knowledge for the DM. This could be because I often have a problem writing dialog for the many supporting people in my characters life. I do enjoy the show and not tell style you are using. I can also see how some DM's might find this to be a bit difficult to take on. Now the NPC's they wish to use are your creation and they run the risk of not playing them to your standards. I bet would be quite awkward for a DM.


Dang...now you got me thinking about hashing out some of my characters.
Awh...*looks at stacks of papers* that will take forever. *Sigh*


commentCommented on: Wed Jun 04, 2008 @ 11:26am
Not bad, dude. Better than I was expecting biggrin



Ogawa Burukku
Community Member
User Comments: [6] [add]
 
 
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