In a previous post talking about how I was finally getting into Dungeons & Dragons for the first time, I talked about my experience in just creating a character for our group’s first session. I didn’t offer much information about the character, only my experience trying to come up with a vague background concept. So I would like to officially introduce you to Erembour Ashwalker and The Ashwalker Chronicles.
So I’ll show you what I initially wrote, on the fly, as I scrambled to come up with a character. I say “on the fly” because the setting we were playing in required that our character have died in their world and brought back to life on this new one, bringing one object with them from their old life. I had created a vague background that I thought I could flesh out as the game progressed but suddenly started scrambling to come up with something more substantial.
As someone who has a hard time coming up with names, I actually had an easy time doing it for this character. But let me share with you some of the details for this character.
“Erembour is a half-elven ranger who has lived a mostly-solitary life and wishes to establish a place where all halfbreeds, like himself, can live in peace and safety. However, he is also on a mission to avenge his mother and father.”
His physical description, as he appeared in my mind, was 5’7” in height, broader build than an Elf, with slightly pointed ears, black hair, and close-cropped beard while wearing a black cape, brown leather armor, and wielding a bow and two swords.
That was what I wrote as a quick and dirty synopsis for my character. But when told I could bring an item from his old life, I suddenly needed to come up with something that would flesh him out and give him some substance. To be fair, I probably should have done this before the planning session, but I didn’t think that I would have to do this much so soon. So, as I decided on what kind of item I would bring with me, I decided to give him a face tattoo which I’ll explain later.
Right now, here is the rough backstory I wrote for Erembour.
“Erembour’s mother, Nyana Moonmight, was an Elf who was disowned and disinherited from her family and forced to live in the wilds with her newborn child. His father, Robert Ashford, had been killed by Nyana’s father, Aefaren Moonmight, for the shame he felt had been brought upon his family when Robert and Nyana had married in secret and conceived a child.
Upon Robert’s death, Nyana recovered his body, burned it, and collected the ashes. Hoping to find a home for her newborn child, she approached the Ashford family who wanted to have nothing to do with her or the child either; even after she begged them to take her son and raise him. With no family, help, or resources except the clothes on her back, Nyana went into the wilds with her newborn son and changed her last name to Ashwalker. From then on, she would paint markings on her face that was mixed with the ashes of her dead husband.
At the age of 20, Erembour’s mother was killed by a shadow dragon called Erebus. Vowing vengeance, Erembour seeks to slay the dragon, avenge his father’s death, and destroy the Moonmight clan for their treatment of his mother and father. Over the past ten years, he has honed his skills, planned his strategies, and is preparing for the day he can exact vengeance. One such goal is to unite all the half elves and other halfbreeds to create their own country to provide a place of refuge for anyone of mixed heritage.
To honor his parents, Erembour carries a pouch that contains the ashes of his mother and father which he used a little to mix into a gray dye which he uses to tattoo a vertical line down his right eye. He then took the remaining ashes and put it into a hollowed-out scale that belongs to Erebos that he wears around his neck.
However, all his plans have been thrown to the wind when, out of nowhere, he was ambushed by Erebus while looking for the dragon’s lair. Killed in the attempt, Erembour sees this new chance at life to go back to the world of Krynn to once again try and avenge his parents.
So he will stop at nothing to find a way to return back to this world. “
Not bad coming up with this backstory and writing within 30 minutes if I do say so myself. Currently, we are six sessions into our current game and I have been fleshing Erembour out even more. But I decided that I would also try and turn our sessions into an original story as well because I am really curious about this character and how his story will turn out.
This means that I will be changing anything that is intellectual property. For example, for this D&D session Erembour comes from the world of Krynn which is in the D&D universe. So for The Ashwalker Chronicles, he is now from the world of Ishala and had lived in the country of Ebla. I’ll also have to change up anything in our sessions since one of our players created a character from the Warhammer universe. As of now, since the series of stories I’ll write has Erembour as the main focus, I don’t think we will have to learn too much about the Warhammer-esque character.
Now what is the item that Erembour will be bringing to this new world? It is a dragonscale amulet that contains the mixed ashes of his mother and father. The dragonscale is from Erebus himself and Erembour had the ashes mixed with grey dye and used to tattoo two vertical lines over his left eye. Sure, he could have brought his father’s sword or his mother’s bow, but he wanted to keep both his parents with him in some way.
Further tidbits about Erembour is that he hates the elven race, as a whole, though he has come across some good individuals, hates dragons and dragonkin, and might stop at nothing to get back to Ishala. He doesn’t care about the world of Elysium, which is where he was brought back to life, but that could change as the adventure continues.
Now, I went a bit further than I would have and had some chibi art created of the character. Found someone that was doing some cheap work and I decided why not. Especially since the artwork I was using for my token belonged to someone else and was a placeholder until I could get something else. Personally, I think the chibi art is pretty cute and not bad for what I paid for it. However, I would love to save up some money and commission an artist to do a more realistic drawing of the character. Maybe even get a touchup on the chibi art so that his hair is actually black and that his beard looks like a beard instead of a mask.
But we’ll see how things with the story develop since commissioning artwork can be expensive.
So you have an idea about my first D&D character. What do you think about his story so far and the chibi art? Do you think this character will make a good story to write?
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