"Look, world ending scenarios are terrifying. If the Staff of Earth or Crown of Fire fall into the wrong hands, the realm might be destroyed. Some people want to save the Crown, some want to save the Staff. But at the end of the day, these weapons are apocalyptic, and if these weapons endanger the realm, and the many children in it, then it’s the job of heroes like Maverick the Social Worker to make sure these doomsday weapons are destroyed properly." —A note given to Maverick prior to entering the Grumbar Temple
| Player Name | Jeff |
|---|---|
| Languages | Common, Elvish, Halfling, Infernal |
| Affiliations | The Ellipses, Stealth Squad! |
| Date of Birth | 442 PR |
| Place of Birth | Radarap, Pteris |
| Species | Tiefling |
| Gender | Male (he/him) |
| Height | 5' 10" |
| Weight | 165 lbs |
| Eye Color | Gold |
| Class | Cleric |
Maverick Tabernacle is a Tiefling Cleric and a social worker by trade. He was part of a team tasked with destroying the Tools of the Primordial Ancients to stop them from falling into selfish hands. He also served on the crew of The Ellipses prior to the ship's sinking.
He is the founder of the House of Tenorixion and the adoptive father of Nim, a winged Tiefling child he met during a mission in Jewelspar.
Ancestry[edit | edit source]
Maverick's grandparents were members of a nomadic cult of Pterish Humans who roamed the rural, arid deserts of central Pteris. Members of this cult lived highly regimented and disciplined lives, avoiding interaction with outsiders whenever possible and dealing with all matters of the mind and heart in a strictly democratic manner. One of the young men in the tribe completely swept a girl off her feet, but the cult voted to forbid any relationship between them, judging them to be an unpalatable match.
The girl was devastated and, during the shade of night and at her lowest point, a Devil creature appeared to her and offered up a deal that would allow the young lovers to be together "for a price." It felt like any price was worth it, so she accepted the offer and formed a blood pact with the fiend.
There was no obvious effect right away, but soon it became clear that she was bearing her lover's child. The Devil had tricked her. Offended by this supposed affront to their democratic values, the cult excommunicated the couple and their families took an oath of silence against them.
They traveled together in exile, wandering across the continent until at last she birthed a daughter. It was immediately clear, however, that the Devil blood had warped their daughter in the womb. Cursed with reddish skin and a long, serpent-like tail. She was a Tiefling. It was not long afterwards that the father left them for another woman, leaving the Human girl to raise a Tiefling child on her own.
The Tiefling girl grew up wandering the Human enclaves of Pteris with her mother before being swept away by the first Tiefling man she'd ever met. This man would abandon her shortly before the birth of their son, who she named Maverick. Unwilling to tolerate her mother's judgement, she traveled with her infant son to the continent of Amusa to start life anew.
History[edit | edit source]
"Tieflings don't have wings…do they?" —Maverick
Maverick was born in Pteris, but his mother relocated them to Amusa when he was just an infant. His earliest memories are of being raised by his mother in their rural home. She did her best to entertain the young boy's curiosity, humoring him with stories of her family's lineage whilst always skirting around the subject of his father (or any Tieflings, for that matter). He loved and revered his mother, but couldn't help but feel deprived of any connection to his Tiefling roots.
He lived with his mother in mostly isolation from nearby inhabitants, until a freak accident caused their home to catch fire and claim his mother's life. The cause of the fire was never found. One of the local churches, sympathetic to orphaned children, took him in and placed him in a program intended to help troubled youth.
Lacking any ambitions or strong identity of his own, Maverick went through the motions to get accredited by the program as a social worker and become a mentor to children facing similar issues as he had. The program had raised him to believe that his troubled childhood was due to his lack of a conventional family structure. However, his first few months of assignments all seemed to center around egregious cases of abuse or neglect from what should have been model family units, according to the program. These cases often went ignored by the church, who only seemed to take interest in reprimanding non-Human and other unconventional families. He soon became disillusioned by the church's misplaced attention and left the program on bad terms. He set off across the continent, hoping to broaden his horizons and do more good when free from the bureaucratic restrictions of the church.
Despite his newfound freedom, he seemed to face hostility wherever he went as a lone Tiefling with no impressive titles to speak of. Other Tieflings were few and far between, and he began to feel truly alone for the first time in his life. He briefly abandoned his aspirations, making ends meat doing various odd jobs and eventually falling into bounty hunting. This job would land him in the port city of Warukami, where he was intercepted by a ragtag crew who invited him to join aboard The Ellipses on a most peculiar adventure. Eager to break his cycle of perpetual struggle and forge an identity for himself, he takes off with his newfound family for new and exciting horizons.
Powers and Abilities[edit | edit source]
Maverick can access magical abilities thanks to his Tiefling heritage and being a Trickery Domain Cleric. He is particularly fond of disguising spells, as they grant him the brief pleasure of blending into a location and not being judged for his appearance. In battle, he favors duplication spells which allow him to appease his trickster tendencies.
Religion[edit | edit source]
Maverick's training as a social worker was incredibly imperfect, but it at least taught him the value of listening. Giving others the space to talk had always been the best tactic for uncovering truth. He found children to be exceptional arbiters of truth, as they have not yet been taught by the world to lie. He observed that, of all the Quelmar Deities, children seemed to most gravitate towards Garl Glittergold without any prodding. Something appealed to them about this peculiar little Gnome with the funny name. Garl was more true to them than any other Deity. Consequently, Maverick began to accept Garl as his truest Deity, as well. Perhaps an unconventional god for a Tiefling to follow, but Maverick would urge other Tieflings to not be fooled by appearances, as they could stand to learn a thing or two from Garl's trickster nature.
