Hammerspark Hold (Current Chronicle)
Hammerspack Hold NPCs - By B. Kellestine and S. Robles @2018 v1.0
Race: Kaal`Kor
Class: Swashbuckler
Age: 52
Description
Belra is a plump, pretty woman even by non-Kaal`Kor standards, with a round face and broad smile that lights up her warm features, forming deep dimples on her freckled cheeks. Typically, Belra is seen wearing her hair in a pair of amber braids, one pulled back behind each ear and either tied with bows or bells. She has warm chocolate brown eyes that seem to further brighten her face when she smiles, and full rosebud lips. Typically, she's dressed in sturdy wool dresses, with little ornamentation, and a low-sitting apron that ensures patrons get a full (if still suitably appropriate) view of her ample bosom as well as accentuating her well-rounded hips.
For the most part, Belra is a sweet, kind woman who is slow to anger, and even slower to react on that anger. However, those that do manage to bring out Belra's temper find she is a very different woman than her unassuming, pretty face would suggest. Indeed, her kinsmen don't need to ever worry about defending Belra's honor: she's been known to wield a skillet with great proficiency, and possesses no issue doing so even if the pan is pulled hot off of the stove.
History
The Hammerhearts are one of the oldest offshoots of the Hammerspark clan, and Hammer’s Hearth has stood nearly as long as Hammerspark Hall itself. While most of every generation of Hammerhearts heads off on journeys of adventure and discovery, there’s always a few that stick around the Hall and make sure things continue to run smoothly. Staunch supporters of the Hammersparak Clan, many elder Hammerhearts take up key positions in the Hall, including the Thane’s inner circle.
Belra herself journeyed all over Tal’rah and even Irys, though she’s always lamented not quite making it to Shalzaar. Her journeys sometimes spanned years, but the young Kaal’kor always returned home to visit with her family. Belra is one of the few dwarves who found joy while sailing coastal waters, though the nervousness of her brethren always snuck in once land was out of sight. She’s only been the Matron of Hammer’s Hearth for a decade or so, taking it over once it became apparent that a tryst with a sometimes-lover had left her with children-- the twins Solli and Reiga. The pair of girls are the eldest of 5, having been followed by two boys and another girl, with the youngest being barely a year old. Tolfhur, Bhinor can often be found in and around the forge, while little Dassa is quite frequently on Belra’s hip.
Belra never wed, though every now and again a particular soldier spends a week or two at the Hearth, and the connection is clear.
Race: Kaal`Kor
Age: Unknown. When asked, Cidwyn usually just whacks the questioner with a cane, tells them they need to respect their elders, and sends them off to do some chores. He will do this regardless of who is asking - be it an apprentice, or a Thane. More often than not, they'll listen.
Description
Cidwyn seems, at first glance, to be an unlikely fit for the role of Forgemaster at Hammerspark Hall. This gnarled old Kaal`Kor's beard trails well down to his knees, and is grey enough that one has a hard time knowing whether or not it is the result of age, or just full of soot. Cidwyn's gnarled, arthritic hands barely look capable of hefting a smithing hammer, but in truth there is nothing more at home in his grasp. Considered a legend at smithing by his peers - all of which have long since gone to sit at Kaal's table - the gruff old curmudgeon still manages to have a sparkle of mirth and mischief in his dark brown eyes, usually when least expected. A hard master, he expects near perfection from his apprentices, and has been known to be perhaps a little too quick to bap a student with his cane upon making even the most innocent of mistakes when working the forge.
This behaviour isn't, however, in any way malicious. Cidwyn is merely an old man, set in his ways and with high expectations of any under his tutelage. In truth, Old Cid Twelve-Tooth is a grandfatherly spirit, if a bit gruff about his ways, but still possesses a warm heart for those that matter to him. He is willing to lend his ear to those who need it, his advice to those requiring guidance, and his experience to any willing to listen through his old adages and anecdotes to piece together the wisdom of the ages which the man possesses.
History
Some say Cidwyn was born with a smithing hammer in his hands. Even as a babe, there was no place he was happier, no place that seemed to breath life into the child so much as the forge. As soon as he was physically able, Cidwyn apprenticed to a smith in the forge and it wasn’t long until his true talent and potential became apparent. By the time the young kaal’kor was 15, he was apprenticed to the Master of the Forge, Thakahr Hammerspark, and was a master of the craft within his own right and skill by the time he was in his early twenties. While his Master still had plenty to teach him, Thakahr sent him to the other Kaal’kor Halls to learn what he could from other smiths with different views. Cidwyn even traveled to Ishaela, and to Taijun, before he was allowed to remain home and learn to forge Runes. After mastering runes, he married a girl he had met in his travels by the name of Emerald Glitterstone. After their union, he moved her from Kalaarn to Hammerspark Hall to start a small family. They only had two children, Oghden and Topaz, and Emerald passed away over twenty years ago. Oghden became a Priest of Kaal, while Topaz became a master jeweler.
Name/Title: Lord-Templar Habwin Forgestone of Hammerspark of the Sacred Order of the Lightbearer
Race: Kaal`Kor
Class: Paragon Crusader
Age: 45
Description
Standing at a ‘towering’ 5’4”, Lord-Templar Habwin Forgestone is an impressive specimen of a Kaal`Kor. Any humanoid with an impression that Kaal`Kor are overweight would be mistaken to assume so of this Crusader of Kaal, as his broad-shouldered frame is certainly unmistakable as anything less than solid muscle mass. Though still possessing a thrice-braided beard of firey golden-copper, he prefers to keep the rest of his hair neatly cut, a little longer at top but nearly shaven off at the back and sides. At first glance, Habwin seems a no nonsense man, especially when being scrutinized by his intense green-blue eyes. However, once spoken to, it is clear that though plain spoken as many of his kin, Habwin is warm and friendly, willing to laugh and tell stories over a mug of ale, or listen to a troubled person’s woes.
Habwin dresses almost exclusively in his Knightly vestments when about the hold, a bright red mantle embroidered in gold thread settled on his shoulders atop a sleeveless, brilliant orange robe and a golden under-tunic. His rune-forged gold plated belt Mianmor, is said to give Habwin the strength of a Voraath, and allows his to easily wield Ka-Korinin, the Forgefire, his Indarium zweihander-flamberge that burns with divine fire when in the presence of Xosian demons.
History
Son of the head of Clan Forgestone, one of the older offshoots of the Hammerspark Clan, Habwin always possessed a strong sense of right and wrong, even as a child. He seemed naturally drawn to life as a Crusader as a youth, and was first taken as a squire by one of the Lightbearers at age 11. His six years under the tutelage of an elder Knight only strengthened his already strong sense of justice, producing a Knight-errant who stepped into the world outside Hammerspark Hold with a particularly black and white outlook, and a mindset that he could go to the lands of humans, elves and asyndi and either rally against the forces of evil, or smite those that would get in his way.
It wasn’t until his years on the surface that he realized the folly in such an outlook. His time among the taller races taught him that good and evil could be as often points of view as they could be well defined. After fighting alongside The Holy Order of the Flamebringer and with his Ishaelan cousins in the Second Godswar and the War of the Benefactor, he gradually began to see the world through very different eyes. His role late in the Benefactor’s War on the Meluan front earned him a seat in the Panma Dorna ri Kaaleesi, as a representative of the Hammerspark Sacred Order, as well as promotion within the Order.
After years of service to his Clan in this way, the Sacred Order of the Lightbearer’s Lord-Templar passed on to sit at Kaal’s table, and Habwin returned to the Hold to see to his duties, where he also holds oversight over policing of the underground fortress.
Vazar Morthanin
Name/Title: Vazar Morthanin, Voice of the Depths
Race: Shar`Vaire
Class: Arch-Vile of the 6th Circle / Warlock of Habakano
Age: Unknown
Description
A reserved man with a deeply pessimistic outlook on life, Vazar Morthanin exemplifies the Shar`Vaire archetype with his smoldering brimstone eyes, rich cocoa-coloured skin, and silvery-white hair. Standing a willowy 6'6'', he drapes his attenuated frame in dark robes and is rarely seen without a hood drawn him, their worn and unkempt state at deeply at odds with his forgotten Circle as a Shadowmancer.
History
Vazar's past prior to his self-imposed vassalage to the Depths is a mystery he's disinclined to share with others, but one's history isn't something that can be completely hidden away. Rumors swirl about that he was once a Shadowmancer of dreadful caliber, and committed any number of atrocities. Some even cite a compact between Vazar and the Old Wolf himself, to escape an eternity shackled by Vengeance's chains in exchange for committing his experience to the Depths' causes. Whether such a story is true or not is up for debate, and there's little evidence to suggest he was coerced into the position.
Regardless of his reasons, the willowy Shar`Vaire seems rather content with his current lot in life, and perhaps somewhat smug for the fact that the Depths' enervating effects have affected him less than the Dwarves, a thing grumbled about but accepted by the Kaal`Kor augers due to the fact he could be far more conceited. He is tasked with delivering messages and requests to the outside by the other augurs--who are scarcely able to leave after centuries in near-total darkness. Additionally, he , requisitions supplies and the like for the others, and brings matters of import to the Lightbearers' attention on the upper levels.