| Player Name | Jeff |
|---|---|
| Languages | Common, Draconic, Elvish, Giant, Infernal, Telepathy |
| Affiliations | Band of the Iron Hawk |
| Date of Birth | 806 PR |
| Place of Birth | Jadenhill, Isonhound |
| Species | Dragonborn |
| Gender | Male (he/him) |
| Height | 6' 4" |
| Weight | 260 lbs |
| Eye Color | Emerald |
Durzibethinus Grunwald is an emerald gem Dragonborn Sorcerer residing on the continent of Isonhound during the year 825 PR. He is the son of the high sorcerer of the Court of Quartz at the Temple on Jadenhill. After a Dragon attack left his temple ransacked and robbed of gem artifacts such as the Selune Splinter, he left home to explore the greater continent with hopes of finding a way to protect his clan from new and ongoing threats.
History
Durian was born at the Temple on Jadenhill, a small community off the southern coast of Isonhound. Its population is primarily metallic Dragonborn and was settled by a clan of devout Bahamut worshippers who emigrated from Pteris in the early PR era to escape the chaos of the Cavalry Rush. The town of Jadenhill consists of little more than the temple, which is partially built into the ruins of an ancient abandoned mining project.
The temple practiced its worship in relative peace and seclusion for nearly three centuries, finding ways to honor Bahamut while they awaited his inevitable return, such as studying the Way of the Ascendant Dragon. However, they would fall victim to the Razing of Isonhound in 700 PR, flattening most parts of the temple that were not housed in the repurposed mining tunnels. Most lives were spared, but it was a devastating loss that would prove too difficult to build back from without outside help. They began tiptoeing back into the outside world to attempt trade and other forms of participating in greater society.
Blaming Tiamat's Dragons for this misfortune, they wrote letters declaring their loyalty to the church of Kragnux the Dragon Slayer, adding the god to their pantheon of deities. Around this same time, a few of the children in town had been born with brilliant, gemlike scales and proved to be gifted with psionic powers and sorcery. The origins of this gem ancestry was unknown, but the temple's priests interpreted it as a blessing from Bahamut as proof that they were on the most noble path.
This interpretation would prove regrettable as the growing church of Kragnux became radicalized against not just Dragons, but against all draconic races. The temple heard word of the Dragonborn being slaughtered in the Second Draconic Crusades and quietly dissolved their allegiances to the church, but it was too late to recluse their community again. They had rebuilt and thrived with the benefit of outside trading partners who knew of the temple and would soon be visiting in greater numbers.
The temple leaders devised a system for receiving guests, erecting a mage tower dubbed the Court of Quartz to serve as a visitors center as well as house many of the artifacts pulled from the former mining tunnels over the years, including a large amethyst gem shaped like a Dragon egg. They also appointed a high sorcerer, one of the gem-touched Dragonborn, to reside in the tower and perform an essential part of their plan using one of the few rocky relics in the collection brought over from the old continent.
Dubbed the Selune Splinter and described as a fragment from an ancient moon crystal imbued with peculiar paranormal properties, it is able to amplify illusionary magic to increase its effect and distance. Wielding this artifact, the high sorcerer could cast a spell over the entire temple to disguise its Dragonborn residents as Wood Elves, the primary inhabitants of the Woldlin region. This ruse was successfully kept up for the remainder of the century, and the monotonous high sorcerer position would be passed between gem-touched Dragonborn before reaching Durian's mother.
Ironically, the long-awaited return of Bahamut in 795 PR would also soon signal the end of this ruse. As Dragons were now free to wreak their will on the realm, the temple came under attack by an unidentified Dragon in 825 PR and the Court of Quartz was robbed of its collection, including the Selune Splinter which they had depended on for decades. Its residents were sitting ducks in a world finding itself at odds with the Dragons for the first time in over a century. How long would it be before the rest of the realm grew frustrated and turned its sights back on what was left of the draconic races?
Durian, son of the high sorcerer and presumed next in line for the position, stepped out of the temple with hopes of showing the realm that the Dragonborn are just as much victims of the Dragons' ransacking ways and are united in the fight against them.
Motivations
Durian did not ask for explicit permission to leave Jadenhill, but after the dragon attack and theft of the Selune Splinter, he felt an obligation to protect his home and find a new way of defending his people from annihilation. He wore his Wood Elf disguise everywhere early in his journey due to fears of hostility towards Dragonborn, but dropped this precaution soon before arriving in Synàra to gage how people would respond. Sensing no immediate animosity, he ceased the pretense of a disguise but still remained guarded about the hometown of Dragonborn he heralded from.
It was in Synàra where Durian experienced his first crisis of faith in the teachings of Bahamut after witnessing Sro the Silver Dragon, seemingly allied with a red and black dragon, attacking the town and attempting to abduct its mayor. Why would a child of Bahamut conspire with spawns of Tiamat to commit such a seemingly evil act? To find out why, he joined a rescue party that was on its way to confront Sro at his lair. The silver dragon was receptive to them, explaining that he was not allied with the chromatic dragons and that he had been abducting mayors in order to better prepare humankind to battle dragons again. Durian was not impressed with this answer, but held his tongue. Was it really wise to be raising armies of dragon killers only a few decades after the heedless genocide of the Second Draconic Crusades? How long would it be before a new generation of crusaders rose up to finish off the remaining Dragonborn?
Not yet convinced that fighting was the best solution for his people, he found himself in the town of Tsoljcanth where he was intrigued by the unique problem plaguing its residents: they were being rendered invisible to one another at seemingly random intervals. Durian joined a search party in following clues to the potential source of the problem: a stolen dragon egg, strange in appearance and not dissimilar to the "egg-shaped gem" that had been stolen from Jadenhill. The party tracked the egg into the forest and found themselves battling invisible monsters. In a last-ditch attempt to shake them off, Durian shouted at the monsters that "I need to protect that egg!" In that moment, the monsters became visible to him and a brilliant sapphire dragon appeared flying overhead. Durian had never heard of a gem dragon before. He called out to her "who are you, who do you follow?" before witnessing her fly off with the egg, questions unanswered. Shortly thereafter, the party heard a voice in their heads declaring them friends of gem dragons and being granted the Boon of Bleucorundum the Sapphire Dragon, a protection which would render them "invisible to any dragon who would hurt you, so long as you don't shed any dragon's blood." Possibilities raced through Durian's mind, could this boon lead to the solution for his people that he'd been looking for? What is a gem dragon, could this be the reason he looks and feels so different from the other metallic Dragonborn at home?
These questions would remain unanswered until Durian met Yggwilv, a powerful witch possessing ancient powers and knowledge. Durian asked her about the gem dragons, to which she unfurled the story of Sardior the Ruby Dragon, the lost third pillar of dragonkind. She explained that he was an ancient god of neutrality who once had a court consisting of each type of gem dragon, but that he had died sometime before prehistory. She told Durian that Sardior was his god, and that if gem dragon eggs are suddenly appearing in the realm, it may be a sign that this forgotten pillar of neutrality is needed once again. Durian left Yggwilv's Hut, unsure of what it means to worship Sardior but determined to do all he could to find out.
He spent six weeks conducting research on Sardior and the gem dragons, using bribes and favors in order to compile a list of nearly everything ever put to paper about the ancient ruby god. It was not a terribly long list, which is predictable when conducting research on prehistory beings, but Durian was confident that it was at least comprehensive. One particular find caught his attention: stories of an unknown sixth type of gem dragon. He immediately connected this sixth type with The One That Waits, a mysterious dark entity who had recently began plaguing Isonhound. Durian surmised that Sardior must have casted this sixth gem dragon out of his court and that they had returned to exact revenge on the reemerging gem dragons. He felt further supported by this claim after some other adventures turned up a gem type for this lost sixth dragon: Obsidian.
Around the same time, a handful of adventurers returned from visiting Sro with six ancient artifacts called the Tears of Sardior. Durian was shocked by the possibility of a physical remnant of Sardior still existing on the realm. He attempted to leverage his research in exchange for one of the artifacts. He soon felt guilty for withholding information and apologized for attempting that trick, freely sharing the research with the Band of the Iron Hawk as well as his theory about the identity of The One That Waits. Durian would eventually acquire a Tear of Sardior by bartering with someone outside of the guild. Being the only artifact of Sardior that he knew, he fastened it into a necklace to wear as a holy symbol in the same manner as his pendant of Bahamut.
Not long afterwards, Durian accepted an invitation from the Wold Order in Synàra who proceeded to grill him on how he was able to remain invisible to dragons. He was familiar with the Elves of Woldin, having dealt with their diplomats frequently at the Court of Quartz, but he could not discern what their intentions would be if they found out about the gem dragons. Durian pretended not to know anything, but they still asked him to join a search party to track a Warforged-Centaur back to a mine inside the Northern Snowy Mountains. Deep inside the mine, the party discovered the base of the Most Sanctified Disciples of Sardior, an alliance of Warforged bearing gem names and colors, who explained their mission to resurrect the Topaz gem dragon from the court of Sardior. Durian was ecstatic to learn of another group who shared in his goals, as it had felt like an uphill battle at times trying to convince other people that Sardior was important. He bombarded the Warforged with questions and showed them the Tear of Sardior, which they excitedly verified to be a genuine artifact. After departing the base, Durian was determined to do all he could to support their efforts in locating the missing members of the court of Sardior.
Durian spent the next month conducting research to track down the potential whereabouts of the Emerald, Amethyst, and Crystal dragons. He joined a party sailing up the Ssaphhibian River in order to follow a lead he found on the location of Feredemius, the Emerald Thane of Sardior. The expedition was contracted by Professor Wright, a psionic professor from Katharda Academy. As they arrived at the fiery entrance to an underground lair and the professor sensed the psionic activity within, Durian and the professor realized that they were both on the same mission. Durian folded his wings and plummeted straight down into the lair, soon joined by the rest of the group. They negotiated their way through the lair, encountering major illusions and conversing with the disembodied voice of a gem dragon as it picked through the party's memories. They eventually found their way to the main hall where the dragon resided, but it was not Feredemius, but rather Smargarg the Emerald Dragon. It may not have been the Emerald dragon that Durian had set out to find, but it was still the first physical evidence he had encountered that Emerald dragons still walk the realm. He found the experience both incredibly validating and intimidating. Smargarg explained that all draconic Emerald beings trace their lineage back to Feredemius, and that he could sense the psionic presence of Feredemius somewhere in Isonhound. Durian asked the dragon if he could be taught to sense Feredemius, and he promised to grant the party this power if they could return an Emerald dragon egg that was stolen from his hatchery.
A couple days later, Durian connected with another adventurer who had also been along to meet the Most Sanctified Disciples of Sardior, who confirmed that her most recent party had come into possession of the missing Emerald dragon egg. However, the egg had been damaged and possibly possessed by The One That Waits, so she agreed to bring the egg back to Smargarg in hopes that he could help repair and purify it. Upon the egg's return, Smargarg granted the party a Boon of Telepathy and tasked them with "searching the minds of men to see if you can discern the presence of the emerald Feredemius, or maybe even The One That Walks Among You, or the presence of other mental powers such as The One That Waits..." Durian accepted this assignment wholeheartedly and, now able to read minds like Smargarg, he set his sights back on assembling the court of Sardior.
Appearance
Durian is sturdily built like most Dragonborn, although he is not exceptionally strong. His scales are a shimmering emerald color with a fine, prickly texture and translucent at the surface. He has draconic emerald eyes and long head tendrils which hang down his back like a mop of hair. He also has a tail, uncommon but not unheard of amongst Dragonborn. His garbs forego the customary blue of most Bahamut worshippers, instead wearing assorted metallic hues to better resemble the metallic Dragonborn more often found in his clan. He outwardly proclaims his allegiance to Bahamut, however, by donning a conspicuous pendant with his religion’s traditional symbol and color. He also wears a handmade necklace fastened with a Tear of Sardior, symboling his mission to help resurrect the god of neutral dragons.
Personality
Durian’s prior knowledge of what exists outside Jadenhill had all been secondhand, so he looks upon the world with wondrous eyes. He asks lots of questions, seeking knowledge and solutions to problems that may not have even occurred yet. He has a deep appreciation for his own mortality, but he’ll go all in for a cause he feels is just. He tries to fall back on the teachings of his temple when confronted with a new quandary, but privately struggles to fit all things into the good/evil paradigm that Bahamut espouses. He hoped that joining the fight against Dragons would help bring clarity to his religious anxieties. However, the realities of the conflict have only further muddied his outlook.
Abilities
Durian is naturally gifted with psionic abilities, but the way he wields these powers is still lacking in finesse. Aside from communicating via telepathy, he can also psychically lash out at enemies like a mind whip and exhale psychic energy as a breath weapon. When dealt damage at close range, he reflexively retaliates with a burst of telekinetic energy to push away the aggressor. He can also summon temporary spectral wings which allow him to fly.
He can create fire at will, drawing upon the gold Dragon part of his ancestry. He was also taught a number of illusionary spells meant to prepare him for being the high sorcerer of Jadenhill, such as disguisement and invisibility. Additionally, he is very multilingual as a result of his upbringing as a courtier.
He finds new ways to utilize his innate magic abilities in order to avoid repeating previous close brushes with death. He figured out how to feather fall after being thrown from a crumbling balcony during his first encounter with Sro. After being nearly digested by Bleucorundum's phase gelatinous cube, he learned to see invisibility.
Following his reacquisition of the Selune Splinter, Durian used it as an opportunity to practice some of the ranged illusionary magic that he was only just beginning to learn before the artifact was stolen.
After tracking down the lair of Smargarg the Emerald Dragon and requesting his help in locating Feredemius, the Emerald Thane of Sardior, the dragon taught Durian the Boon of Telepathy which strengthened his existing psionic abilities and empowered him to read the minds of other creatures.
Trivia
- Durian’s family is primarily of gold Dragon ancestry, hence why his simpler sorcery spells tend to be fire-based. Exhibiting gem features seems to be a recessive gene, as Durian’s immediate family are all gold sans for him, his mother, and grandmother.
- Despite knowing that he differs from his siblings in a major regard, Durian identified as a gold Dragonborn until his encounter with Bleucorundum. Now faced with the existence of gem Dragons, he is unsure what to make of himself.
- Durian was one of very few telepaths at home and took extra coaxing as a child to verbalize his words, so he is overly eager when meeting other telepaths on his journeys and tries using telepathy as the primary means of communication with them.
- Durian was not familiar with the fruit of his namesake before leaving Jadenhill. A single durian fruit once came through the town as a gift from an overseas diplomat, but it just ended up used as a kickball.
- Durian once questioned his mother about his name’s meaning and she replied that he is “spiky on the outside, with innards that need an enlightened palate to fully appreciate.” Durian did not understand this answer.
- In 820 PR, visiting representatives attempted to scout Durian for Katharda Academy, a proposal which his mother outright refused as he "has a purpose here" and stated that the school "cannot accommodate our unique situation." The representatives spoke of the escalating dragon war but, after implying that they could see through her Wood Elf disguise, she angrily dismissed them, exclaiming "this is your fight, we're just trying to survive through it."
- While visiting the lair of Smargarg, Durian came across the amethyst dragon egg which had been stolen from the Court of Quartz. He left it alone as he could not tell it apart from any other gem egg, but ship captain Harold managed to swipe the egg and fled before anyone could see as it almost immediately hatched into a newborn amethyst dragon.
