Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Good Agnostic 10-29-05, 06:21 PM	The Story of John Keegan Keegan has come a long way from being raised on a farm breeding horses and dogs. His mother, Rachel, carries the mark of House Vadalis. His father, Adam, is a magewright who specializes in magebreeding animals. His older brother, Paul also carries the Dragonmark of Vadalis and is a natural animal handler. His other older brother, David, is both a breeder and a craftsman, constantly making improvements in and around the Ranch. John is two years younger than David, and is a year older than the triplets: Sara, Joy, and Danielle. Sara and Joy were both killed as infants during the Red Death plague. Their loss at such an early age only made the loss of Danielle even more pointed. In the final campaigns of the Last War, “Dani” was lost during a Brelish assault into Thrane. She rode with the Brelish Cavalry and received many decorations. Now, she lives only in memory, as her body was never recovered. The children grew up on the Keegan Ranch about one hours ride outside of Diamond Lake. They attended the local school as was required, but spent most of their time and energy working on the ranch. In those years, the Keegan’s sold magebred warhorses and wardogs to the Brelish Crown as part of the ongoing war effort. The three boys and Danielle helped train the young mounts by donning old heavy armor and running the horses through barrel courses. They would also put the “jaw suit” on and play the enemy to be attacked by the dogs. Luckily, John was a naturally adventuresome and charming little boy. His childhood was physically demanding and occasionally dangerous, but he was constantly meeting new and interesting people from all over the world. Many buyers from House Vadalis would stay on the farm and tell worldly tales. John had a way of quickly making friends with almost everyone, from the House buyers to the storeowners in town. One day, at age 14, John was sent into town to deliver and pick up some letters. A deafening roar came up from one of the mines. John hurried to the mouth of the mine to see what was going on. A mission of Host Clerics was in the town at the time. He joined them as they ran into the mines. Over the next few days, the young Keegan was awestruck by the clerics faith and power. In the crisis, they were a quiet calm. They healed the injured, comforted the grief stricken, and gave superhuman strength to rescuers who had to move debris from the mines. When the rescue was complete, he knew his calling was to be a Cleric of the Sovereign Host. The mission of clerics was very impressed with the young Keegan. After consulting with his parents, they agreed to take him on the rest of their mission. Keegan’s faith only deepened as the months passed. At the end of the mission, the mission elder told Keegan he would recommend a place in the next class of seminarians at the Host Pavilion in Sharn. Keegan was overwhelmed. At 15, he began his studies at the Seminary. While he was well liked by his peers and the elders, he just was not as promising a candidate as others. The selection and training of Host Clerics is very demanding. After a year, it was clear to the Seminarians that this was not the right fit for Keegan. He could handle the basics of divine spellcasting, but his potency and potential were in doubt. However, Keegan did show another promise. He was strong, he was hearty, he was devout – and he knew how to ride a horse. He had the makings of a Paladin. The Chancellor of the Seminary explained to Keegan that he had a calling, but a slightly different one than he first understood. Keegan was eager to please, and accepted the new challenge. Although, in private, his feelings were deeply hurt. This was the first real failure of his young life. He hid his embarrassment and pain behind a smile. He left the seminary and traveled with the next caravan for Wroat, the Capital of Breland. Not just the home to Brokenblade Castle, and the Kings Citadel, but to the Cathedral of Dol Arrah. The Cathedral of Dol Arrah was known throughout all of Khorvaire as the training grounds for the Paladins of the Host. With a letter from the Chancellor, Keegan joined 27 other young men and women who were about to start their training as Paladins. Their first night was a test. The Cathedral itself is a massive round building topped with a dome. Radiating off the center structure are nine shrines, one for each of the Sovereign Host. In the center of the Cathedral stands a raised dais. On the dais, the most powerful artifact of the Host outside of the Pavilion: The Hand of Dol Arrah. This Golden Longsword is said to have been wielded by Dol Arrah’s first Avatar. It was given to the first Warrior-Prophet of Dol Arrah – the paragon of future Paldins. It has been passed down through the centuries and is now the first test for an aspiring Paladin. The ritual is called “Touching the Hand.” The Relic is so powerful, that only the faithful can touch it without coming to harm. As the 28 hopefuls stood around the dais, the usual group of teachers and clerics joined them. But there was also an unusual addition. Behind all of them, Lady Catherine and her band of Templars stood. While she had a mission to accomplish that night, she was waiting until the ritual was completed. One by one, the applicants walked up the steps of the dais. They came face to face with a large marble statue of a kneeling female angel who held the Relic, hilt pointing towards the onlooker. The test was to grasp the handle of the sword and recite the Roll off the Saints. Speaking the roll usually took four or five minutes. If you could touch The Hand of Dol Arrah for that long and not be harmed, you passed the first test. Twenty-six passed (LG and Patron Host). One was not so lucky; he became sick and started to faint (NG or CG or Patron other than the Host). As the last to arrive, Keegan was the last to test. His recent failure at the seminary fresh in his mind and the sight of one applicant already passing out made Keegan nervous. With a trembling hand, Keegan reached out to the Relic. He was suddenly amazed. Not only was he holding the handle, but it felt so light, so natural, he found himself drawing it from the scabbard (LG, Patron Host, and True Believer feat). Immediately, the Cathedral was filled with daylight and the air seemed to be as pure and fresh as you would find on a mountaintop. Keegan dropped to his knees, bowed his head, held the Relic above him and called the Roll of Saints. The teachers, clerics, and Lady Catherine took note. That was not the end of the excitement that night, however. Lady Catherine was widely regarded as the most powerful living Paladin of the Host. She and her band of Templars were, at that time, charged with protecting Holy Sites, Temples, and Shrines that were threatened by battles between the Five Nations. Her duty was to protect the Holy Relics at these sites. On occasion, her mission required more power. This time, she had come for the Hand of Dol Arrah. The Hand of Dol Arrah can only be used by the Worthy and then, only for the Defense of a Holy Site or for a Quest. Lady Catherine approached the white marble Serra and said a prayer, whispering the needs of the Holy Site to her. All of the new applicants were startled when Serra moved. The hard white marble moved without a sound. She stood up and presented the Relic to Lady Catherine. Serra then took her opposite knee and put her two hands out, palms up, in a posture awaiting the return of the Relic. The following four years of grueling physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual struggle broke Keegan down to his core and built him back up again. In the end, his faith and trust in the Host had grown. The pain of failure in the seminary was replaced with the trust that the greater plan of the Host was the right one. He had, indeed, found his true calling. Finally, the day came that Keegan was made a Paladin. His first duty was to return to Sharn and serve in the Prelate’s Personal Guard at the Pavilion. Keegan returned to the Pavilion of the Host in Sharn and continued to impress his peers and elders. His first year went well, but his life was unexpectedly complicated. It was that year he was to learn that his sister had been lost in the battlefields. As a child, Keegan had prayed to the Host that they spare his sisters from the Red Death. After losing two of his sisters, he felt that his prayers were partially answered – but not fully answered because he was not truly worthy. He, like many children, took personal blame for the circumstances. He was ridden with guilt. Losing Danielle was too much. Now he felt guilty for serving here, in the relative safety of Sharn, while his sister gave her life in a land far away from home. Even though he personally detested the war, he knew that his sister had served with all good intentions. He had missed her greatly, and now had an overwhelming sense of loss, guilt, and anger. Luckily, Keegan had a mentor, a cleric at the Pavilion who saw that Keegan was in distress. With many long nights of debate and discussion, Keegan was finally able to see that things were not his fault. That each of us chooses our own path. That the Host provides us the options in our lives, but never forces our hands. His first year at the Pavilion ended and Keegan had finally come to peace with the loss of his sister. His feelings of peace were not to last. It was in his second year at the Pavilion that the Day of Mourning passed. The news struck everyone unprepared. Keegan had begun to keep a journal while training at the Cathedral, processing his own thoughts. In it, he wrote very forcefully about the folly of the hundred years war. “What a conceit it is for man to fight and kill for power and land. Surely the Sovereign has witnessed enough. We will all suffer the fate of the Mournlands should we continue to war for nothing more than greed and hate.” Shortly thereafter, he was given a new assignment: to return to Diamond Lake and take up a post in the Chapel there. What Keegan did not know is that his transfer was part of political maneuverings at the highest levels of the Church. After the day of Mourning, Lady Catherine and the Templars had a new assignment: rescue the Relics now unguarded in empty temples and Shrines throughout the Mournlands. The Templars were now rescuing Relics and Artifacts and depositing them at the Pavilion for safekeeping. The Prelate announced that the Pavilion would safeguard these valuables until the Mourning passed and the Relics could be returned to active Temples. The Prelate appointed a special Regent to safeguard the new relics, and gave him a new complement of guards – the Regent’s Guard. Keegan was assigned to the Regent’s Guard. Soon thereafter, Lady Catherine had a discussion with the Regent. Lady Catherine had many friends at the Pavilion and was usually kept informed on the goings on there. She offered that it was a waste to have someone as promising as Keegan pulling guard duty. She suggested that he be sent on quests, or, even, attached to the Templars. The Regent, while respectful to Lady Catherine, did not appreciate her meddling in his area of authority. The regent decided that he would post Keegan somewhere that Catherine did not have friends reporting back to her. However, despite his displeasure with Catherine, the Regent had grown to like Keegan. Instead of sending him to a deep wilderness outpost, he sent Keegan to a quiet, comfortable, out of the way assignment – Diamond Lake. Unknown to Keegan, that same year, the Elders in the House Vadalis sent new orders to the Keegan Ranch. They were to stop breeding the warhorses and wardogs and start breeding heavy draft horses and guard dogs. The Elders felt that peace was finally coming; which would bring an increase in trade and an increase in the demand for draft horses and guard dogs. The Elders were right. By the time the demand came, the Keegan Ranch was producing some of the finest magebred heavy draft horses and guard dogs outside of Eldeen Reach. Unfortunately for the Keegans, the real money is made by the traders in Sharn, not the breeders on the ranch. Still, they manage to pay their bills, make improvements to the farm, and take care of their family and farmhands. There was one other strange twist for the Keegan Ranch when the war ended. It starts far away on the border of Cyre. Two Warforged cavalry scouts were far out in front of their attached infantry unit. It was then that the mist wall fell, separating them. Like many Warforged, the Treaty of Thronehold left the two cavalry scouts baffled. They were told that they had to return their horses. Strangely, besides each other, the two warhorses were all the Warforged knew. The two misunderstood the direction to “return the horses.” The order meant, of course, to return the horses to the Brelish Army. The two knew that the brand on the horses were from the Keegan Ranch. They started the long journey to return the horses to the Keegan Ranch. In all of the confusion, the Army did not miss the two mounts. A month later, a very confused David and Paul stood in front of two mounted Warforged. They were much smaller and lighter than the normal Warforged they had seen in the Army. The two explained that they were “returning the horses.” David and Paul were hesitant at first, but the two (Mithral) Warforged were insistent that the horses be returned. Not wanting to argue with the veterans, the brothers took the horses into the stables. When Father returned from a business meeting in Sharn, he found the two Warforged standing at his gate. They had been there for three days – awaiting further orders. In time, Adam and Rachel explained freedom to the two Warforged. David and Paul, with a bit of sarcasm, named them after two very popular bards in Sharn – Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan came to a decision; they wanted to be magewrights who bred horses. The two are now apprentices to the House Vadalis and have become quite accomplished guard dog trainers. Half of the dogs are trained to be alert during the day and half are trained to be alert during the night. The Warforged don’t sleep, so they can train the dogs all night long. Their magewright skills are not developing very quickly, but they are diligent. Upon his return to Diamond Lake, Keegan was devastated. The Church of the Sovereign Host was in heartbreaking decline. Amongst the people of the town, the faith had all but vanished. In his absence, the old Church had been torn down and built into a warehouse by a local mine manager named Balabar Smenk. Keegan could barely contain his anger. “There was no reason to raze The Church. Smenk could have easily built his warehouse in a dozen different places in town. This was a hateful act done with malicious intent. I pray to the Host to forgive him. Let it be revealed to me: what is the greater reason for this action.” The only remaining vestige of the faith is the garrison Chapel, dedicated to the holy Sovereign Dol Arrah. Without a Church, the garrison Chapel became Keegan’s new home. The garrison is part of the Sharn City Watch. They’ve watched over Diamond Lake for centuries, protecting the countryside and town from outside threats. They refuse to allow anything to come between Sharn and the raw materials Diamond Lake provides its massive manufacturing infrastructure. Captain Tolliver Trask, an older decorated gentleman who’s seen his fair share of battle, leads the Garrison. He tolerates the Chapel in his garrison primarily because of the number of watchmen who practice the faith. The Chapel’s head is one Valkus Dun, a recent addition and bit of an activist. He believes his purpose in Diamond Lake is to bring the sheep back into the fold. His style is often blunt and plain spoken. He doesn’t seem to possess the natural appeal of his Flametouched rival at the Church of the Silver Flame, Jierian Wierus. Where Jierian brings the wayward in with a few words, Valkus drives them away. Over the past three years, Keegan has come to prefer the company of Velias Childramun, an aging priest of the Host who’s lived his whole life in Diamond Lake and sees to the day-to-day duties of the chapel. Velias is the type of man who always has time to listen and offer a bit of advice. Keegan has learned more about the Sovereign Host from him in an afternoon than in a month full of Valkus’ sermons. It was Velias that brought Keegan’s understanding of the Host to the next level – from devotion to theology. While Velias has come to look on Keegan as family, Valkus has come to favor Melinde. Melinde is an accomplished swordswoman whose stories of the Last War always end with her craftily defeating her opponent just in the nick of time. She possesses the honesty and charm that Valkus is missing. It doesn’t hurt that she’s not hard to look at either. Ever since her arrival six months ago she’s brought more followers back to the fold than Valkus had in almost two years. Everything seems to point to her taking over the chapel from Valkus one day. Keegan has deeply conflicted feelings about Melinde. On the one hand, she is the Evangelizer that the Host needs in Diamond Lake. On the other hand, she does not see the moral decay of the Last War; or the clear warning that the Host gave us on the Day of Mourning. This inner conflict makes Keegan uncharacteristically uneasy around Melinde. Over the past six months, she has figured prominently in his journal. Now, at 25, Keegan ministers to the faithful at the Garrison Chapel with Velias and takes whatever opportunity he can to help train the Sharn City Watch. As often as his other duties will allow, Keegan goes out on the most dangerous patrols with the Watch, scouring the countryside for a week or longer at a time. When he has a break in his duties, he returns to the Ranch to visit with his family and check in on Gilbert and Sullivan. Keegan feels a deep pity for the Warforged. He sees them as victims of human greed and power. To specifically create a living being to send it to kill and be killed is a heresy. Keegan is even more upset by the slavery many Warforged still find themselves in. He is happy – proud – that his family has taken Gilbert and Sullivan in and treat them just the same as the other farmhands and apprentices. Keegan has spent many late hours talking to them about the world. These past three years have also given Keegan a chance to get to reconnect with the people of the town. Keegan tries to remain modest, but also wants to set a good example – literally. Sometimes he feels drawn to listen and observe, while at other times he has an urge to argue and lecture. Up to this point, out of respect for the settled authority in Diamond Lake, he has maintained discretion. However, he is especially leery of the town Sheriff, Cubbin, and his deputies. Deputy Jamis stands out, while the six other constables generally do not. It seems Cubbin once served in the Watch in Sharn and has this position out of a long friendship with Governor Mayor Neff. Keegan has taken a look into their hearts and has seen evil. They follow and enforce the law, but they enjoy their power too much. They take pleasure in enforcing the law brutally and high-handedly; especially to those too poor to do anything about it. They relish severe punishments for simple transgressions. They have begun down the road to abuse of power and must be monitored. Aside from Smenk, the sheriff, and his deputies, only one other resident bears out heightened scrutiny: Tidwood d’Kundark. This dwarf works as a gem merchant and runs the small local Kundark bank. He is a ruthless businessman. In the past few months, Keegan has made a new friend. The Lord Mayor of Diamond Lake, Lenod Neff, has a brother who has taken in an apprentice. Keegan and the apprentice, Magnus d’Orien, have spent several evening talking about their respective travels and views on the world. Keegan finds the time he spends with d’Orien refreshing and engaging. Yet, in quiet times, while writing in his journal or deep in prayer, Keegan feels that there is another calling for him. He feels as if he is doing everything “right” and everything that is expected of him, but that some greater purpose awaits him. That purpose, however, remains hidden. Recently, however, Keegan was asked by d’Orien to join him on an expedition. D’Orien introduced Keegan to another friend of his, the warrior elf Valis. Keegan, in turn, introduced them to Tordek, the dwarven Cleric who had been keeping watch on the North most mine. The four of them began exploring an ancient shrine and ultimately found themselves in mortal combat. Keegan feels responsible for the injuries sustained by d’Orien and regrets his, in retrospect, poor decision-making. But a new fire has been lit. Keegan feels challenged, focused, engaged. He does not know if this feeling will remain or if it just the adrenaline, but if it does stay, he is going to speak with Velias about doing it more often. Perhaps questing in the name of The Host is Keegan’s true calling? Keegan does worry about one thing in the questing life: greed. Already, as he returned to town with d’Orien’s broken body, he wished he had better armor, an enchanted sword, a faster horse, and more Holy power. He has daydreamed of discovering enough treasure to buy back the warehouse and land from Smenk and rebuild the Church. He knows through his studies how many good men have been corrupted by greed, even when paired with the best of intentions. “I must be ever vigilant in my thoughts and deeds that the temptation for more does not cloud my spirit. It would be better to die a humble servant to the Host than die a King of the damned.”
Bladedancer 10-30-05, 04:06 AM	Damn good! Well thought out and engaging. I don't know much about Ebberon(Forgotten realms junkie) but this background makes me want to look into it more. That's about it for me. :clap: :clap:
karyakar 10-30-05, 04:05 PM	“I must be ever vigilant in my thoughts and deeds that the temptation for more does not cloud my spirit. It would be better to die a humble servant to the Host than die a King of the damned.” Thats signature material right there. Did you come up with that, or is it from one of the books? Very nice background.
Good Agnostic 10-30-05, 04:48 PM	Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate folks on the board taking the time to read such a long post. I really value the feedback of people on the boards. As for the last line, it's all mine. Well, it's Keegan's. :)