Devrik Askalan is the bastard son of the Kildoran patrician clan Nordaka. His father has never formally recognized him, so he has always gone by his mother’s Olvânaali clan name. Born 27 Novara 2992, the 26-year-old stand 5′ 9″ tall, with a heavy, well-muscled body weighing in at 180 pounds. Medium complected, he has dark red hair and deep green eyes, and is considered somewhat… plain. It is his voice that attracts the attention, however – deep and grating, like steel on stone, its harmonics causes discomfort to most people. He speaks as little as possible, except around friends, and even then he is abrupt and to-the-point.

He is a superb warrior, especially with the battlesword and spear, and a somewhat indifferent fire mage of the T’ara Kül convocation of Yalva. The reason for this indifference is his pyrophobia, which exists despite, or perhaps because of, his natural affinity for fire. For the past year he has been making his own way in the world as a hired sword, most recently with the mercenary company of the Hand of Vengeance.

His father is Brandis Nordaka, an Equestrian (knight) of the Kildoran Republic. He is an important landholder in the Moralo Province, a stern, humourless man who takes himself very seriously. His mother is Seria Askalan, a Kalathir (warrior woman) of the northern land of Olvânaal. She met Brandis when they were both campaigning against the Firalani tribes in the Savage Mountains. Less forbidding than his father, perhaps, she is no less demanding of her only offspring. Devrik has one much younger half-brother, his father’s heir, Ernell Nordaka. Twelve years Devrik’s junior, his birth was, in part, why his father never recognized Devrik formally. But only in part.

Devrik was born on Akenar Estate, in Moralo Province, in the Republic of Kildora, but his early years were spent in the small town surrounding Thurnok Keep. His mother raised him, with the aid of her sister, for the first 12 years of his life, instilling the hard virtues of the North into the boy… she gave him his first sword when he was 10, and her own father’s keltan (northern dagger) when he went to live at Akenar with his father and his wife.

It was with his Aunt Kathela Askalan that he sat gazing at the stars and learning the Northern constellations. His mother saw to the early training of Devrik’s body, but it was his aunt who nourished his soul and taught him that one could “look beyond the horizon” for unknown truths.

Equar Brandis seemed to be grooming Devrik as his heir for the first two years he lived at Akenar, as his wife had been unable to produce a legitimate one after a decade of trying. He was taught the Equestrian virtues and skills, and his surprising strength made him particularly adept at the battlesword. This was one of the few things the young Devrik did that seemed to please his father, although his father’s wife, Elsbet, remained cold and aloof.

Unfortunately, two things occurred around his 14th birthday that destroyed his chance at legitimacy and a future as a Nordaka: Elsbet finally gave birth to a son; and fires began to break out around the estate. The first was enough to prevent his becoming the heir, although legitimacy was still possible; but when he was accused of setting the fires, even that seemed unlikely.

When a fire broke out one night in the nursery where Elsbet and her infant were sleeping, both were nearly killed. Despite his being the one who raised the house, and carried the baby to safety, suffering smoke inhalation that forever damaged his voice, Elsbet was convinced that Devrik had purposefully set the fire. His father brought in a cantor of Korön, Kirdik Hanol, to examine his son; the man was able to absolve Devrik of willfully setting the fires, but he also claimed that the boy’s innate psionic gift for fire had unconsciously caused them. He called it the “gift of the God,” but Equar Brandis said it left Devrik unfit to be a lord of Kildora and unsafe to have around his family.

The Cantor Kirdik urged Equar Brandis to give his son to the Korönian temple for training as a warrior of the God, but his mother objected vehemently. After a tenday of arguing, during which the youth was kept in a room devoid of combustibles, it was decided to send Devrik to Kerig Chantry, in Darikaz, a joint house of the Yalva and Tykizu convocations of the T’ara Kül. Four months after his 14th birthday Devrik was shipped off, and his father made it clear that his tuition was the last gift to be expect from him. Cantor Kirdik was furious, and for years afterward he would visit Devrik, trying to persuade him to a vocation in the Church, to no avail.

Devrik spent the next ten years at the Kerig Chantry, and they were, on the whole, miserable years. For while he had a natural affinity for fire that excited his early teachers, he had developed a tremendous fear of it as well. More accurately, his fear was of the damage he might accidentally cause by creating fire; this rather severely hampered his lessons and progress as a fire mage.

But those years were not completely bad; Sorvil Wendeth was the most patient of his Yalvani teachers, and the one who best helped him tame his deep-seated fear of uncontrolled fire. Sorvil was the first person who ever believed wholeheartedly in Devrik, and even at the last claimed he would one day realize his full potential.

Ilor Kelskon, a native of Devrik’s mother’s homeland of Olvânaal, was his greatest teacher of the Tykizu martial arts. Knowing Olvânaal only through the tales of mother and aunt, he learned much about his heritage while getting his ass kicked by Vendari Ilor. The master also encouraged Devrik’s arcane studies by promising to make him a battlesword when he was able to fill it with the fire of Yalva, a task he eventually achieved. Ilor also introduced Devrik to the wise woman Mataya, known less charitably to some as the Stinky Hut Hag. She instructed him in the art of Astromancy, building on his early lessons (some of which he didn’t even realize were lessons) with his Aunt Kathela.

Devrik’s best friend during his school years was Sarno Janir, a student of the Tykizu convocation, and a native of Arushal. He started a year after Devrik, and being from Arushal, was a target for the many Darikazi students. After Devrik thrashed several boys, including the hulking bully Bazlo Dornkurl, who had been tormenting Sarno, the two quickly became best friends, and although he finished his apprenticeship two years before Devrik, and returned to Arushal, they have remained good friends, as the vagaries of the Post allow.

When Devrik reached his majority at age 25, he left the chantry to find his way in the world. Most of his teachers, while liking him personally, were disappointed in his performance, and few held out any hope that he would ever progress beyond the rank of Kolori, or journeyman. He soon fell in with a mercenary company, the Hand of Vengeance, led by Colith One-eye, and for more than a year enjoyed the camaraderie and excitement of their work, which was mainly fighting barbarians in the Blackmist Mountains.

Then, in early 3018, while on leave and drinking in a dive bar in the dangerous Northhaven Docks area of Izmirk, Darikazi, Devrik was drugged and kidnapped by pirates, seeking bodies to fill out their crew. And thus began the adventure that would propel him into a future of glory and fame…