Damon Federico De Crozier

From Davenrathh

Damon Federico de Crozier is the son of wealthy parents, remnants of an old order of Heironious that ruled during the time of Old Aberdon. Exiled to Kelemere for fifty years during the reign of Cromwell, the family returned to Abredon broke, broken and at the edge of vanishing entirely. The only hope for the family seemed to be their son Damon, who was born showing the angelic traits of an assimar, the result of celestial ancestors in the family bloodline.

It was decided while he was still an infant that Damon would be the herald of a rebirth of the family’s fortunes, who would bring the worship of Heironious back into popularity in the lawless town of Oak Hill. Damon was carefully trained from a young age, tutored in swordplay and riding, given lessons in history, tactics and etiquette. At age three, he produced his first miracle, conjuring water for the family cat, and the family was overjoyed at this sign that Damon would be a powerful Guardian of Heironious.

In the brief space between his lessons, the teenage Damon would sneak out of the house and wander the town. His parents, afraid that he would be corrupted by the lawlessness of Oak Hill society, tried never to let him out unsupervised. Of course, it was on one of his wanders that Damon encountered one of the most lawless elements of Oak Hill, his cousins Noah and Seymour Blunk. The two siblings could not have been more different than the noble’s son. Damon had been brought up in relative luxury, his education and needs all cared for by a host of servants and his parents. Living as orphans in virtual poverty, the Blunks stole to survive, using the stealth skills their father had taught them to avoid the street gangs and de Crozier sponsored constables that patrolled the streets. It was when these skills failed that Damon became indispensable, treating injuries left by gang members and talking his father’s men out of arresting the Blunks. In the company of the siblings, Damon saw sides of the town (and of human nature itself) that didn’t fit into the world his father had taught him about. He saw how his father’s adherence to law and tradition needlessly punished people like his cousins, who had to steal only to survive, and how Lord Bear’s devotion to Heironious was largely ignored by the Oak Hill population.

Gradually, Damon’s interest in his studies began to wane. He couldn’t reconcile his father’s vision of an honourable, just, society where every man took up arms in the defence of his neighbour with the life he saw his cousins living. Misinterpreting his son’s lack of enthusiasm for a lack of stimulation, Bear decided to send his son to school in New Lukridia, where he could be instructed in magic and be properly inducted into the Service of Heironious.

Damon’s return two years later was not at all what his father had been expecting. Damon returned to Oak Hill, not clad in shining plate, but dusty robes. Instead of a longsword, he bore a walking stick, and the Book of Valour, the bible of Heironious, had been replaced with a simple healer’s kit. Damon had been expelled from the Service of the Archpaladin, under circumstances he refused to talk about. Whatever had happened, it had obviously shaken Damon’s faith to the core, causing him to cast aside all his vow to the Archpaladin. He returned home, not as the blazing knight his father had expected, but a simple healer.

Bear could not face the disgrace his son had become. When Damon came to his parents door he was met by a servant carrying just one word:

SHAME

Damon’s return to Oak Hill did not go unnoticed in the community. He had been missed by the poorer sections of the town, with whom he had done his best to provide care and food whenever he could. It was to those people that Damon turned for help, and they accepted him gladly.

For seven months Damon worked in the slums of Oak Hill, helping treat illness, build homes, and generally be a champion for a people who had no paladins, or heroes to defend them. When street gangs threatened to burn down the homes, and steal the food Damon had helped plant, it was Damon’s knowledge of tactics that turned them away when the town guard failed to intervene.

Damon would have continued serving the people until the end of his lifetime, had not Father Larkin come to Oak Hill to establish the Church of Pelor. The ex-guardian instantly took to the priest’s doctrine of unending kindness, having spent the better part of the last year living it. It was only several weeks before Damon (at many of the townspeople’s insistence) was ordained as an Acolyte of the Sun Lord. The ceremony was quiet, humble, and ended by Damon heading immediately into the slums to cure an outbreak of Spinner’s plague with his new powers. He has faithfully served the town of Oak Hill as a healer, teacher, and vigilant protector for five years since.

Damon Federico de Crozier Allies: Noah Blunk, Seymour Blunk, the lower class of Oak Hill, Father Larkin Enemies: Bear de Crozier, the Guardians of Heironious (Whatever happened in Lukridia, it evidently follows Damon still. No paladin of Heironious will so much as give Damon a drink of water, even if he were dying of thirst by the road). Strengths: Healing, diplomacy (perfect for avoiding fights), empathy, Bane vs undead Weaknesses: Merciful, not a combatant