“I am aware of what I am and would thank you to speak no more of it. If the measure of a hero or villain lies in his actions, then I would appreciate being judged by the same.”
-Sextus Varius
Knight-Protector Sextus Varius tel’Delian is an ancient vampire and the last surviving member of the Delian Knights, who protects, serves, and advises
Doyenne Naevys Silverwell, much to the ire of
High Overseer Therin Telamon and “his”
Palatine Guard.
In appearance, Sextus would seem to be a human in his forties, possessed of athletic build and chiseled features, though deathly pale and with a predatory glint in his eyes. He wears the same fine elven armor and heavy shield that he did during his days as a Delian Knight which, though battle-scarred, has been well maintained; and he continues to wield the traditional sword of this knightly order, which is a massive greatsword. Despite being officially denied the rank of Palatine, he wears a hooded cape and regalia bearing remarkably similar symbols, designed to designate him as the Doyenne’s one and only Knight-Protector.
Sextus travels with a
Crowlock - a species of rare psionic crow - which he has named
Cobbler, and whom shares the same curse as his master. Though he’s linked to Sextus psychically, and is completely under his control,
Cobbler nevertheless possesses a mind of his own - one that is cruel and vicious - and it is not uncommon for the crowlock to play the devil on Sextus’s shoulder, though fortunately one whose temptations fall most often onto deaf ears.
Sextus’s personality is complicated and conflicted, as one might imagine from one such as he. At his heart, he is warm and compassionate, fiercely protective, and naturally patriarchal; though he can also be cold and distant, unwilling to form close relationships due to dreading the inevitable heartbreak of one day losing them to death - just like everyone else he has ever loved or cared for. He adheres to the chivalrous codes and doctrines of the Delian Knights without question and has a moral compass that points uncompromisingly towards honor and virtue, though there are certain acts that are evil enough to provoke a reaction of sheer destructive wrath from the usually noble knight.
In life, as a youth, Sextus was surprisingly rebellious and reckless, using the wealth and privilege afforded by his noble Varius bloodline to dabble in taboo arcane practices with impunity, openly worshipping the
Raven Queen, covering his body in eldritch tattoos, and forming minor pacts with Aurom-knows-who - if only to look dark and mysterious, perhaps even a little dangerous, for the basest reason of winning friends and attracting girls.
One such pact was forged with the
Lady of the White Well, whom Sextus believed to be the
Raven Queen for it was she that he was attempting to summon and beseech at the time, mistaking the ethereal magic surrounding
the White Well to be that of a shadow crossing into the
Shadowfell. Being the daughter of the trickster, Sehanine, the Lady never once corrected the young Sextus though, in fairness, he may have used terms of address that could be applied equally to either entity. Though Sextus was still very young, he was nevertheless of good breeding and from a background of privilege, and the Lady decided to reward him with a token of her gratitude and awarded him a taste of the power a pact with her could provide.
Being the sole heir to the Varius estate, his parents - Lord Alain and Lady Ana of Avavale - were naturally worried about their son... though they need not have been, for their wayward boy turned gentleman almost overnight in the hands of a woman - an elf by the name of Elmeren. Unfortunately, for all the good that Elmeren did, the law of High Overseer Telamon I was very clear - only marriages between one human and another would be recognized by law - so, reluctantly, the Lord and Lady issued their son with an ultimatum: to find a human bride or else be disowned. The young Sextus, who was very much in love and still tremendously hot-headed and volatile despite his beloved’s calming influence, unsurprisingly chose the latter, and was a Varius no more.
Sextus and Elmeren still had one final obstacle standing between them and their happily-ever-after. In the days of old in Elturgard, bigotry between the races was common and often met in kind, and elf law was no different, though the tendency of elven script towards flowery wording and poetic phrase provided the couple with a curious loophole that would allow the two to be legally wed if Sextus could somehow become of a reputable elven lineage, and there was only one family of blood brothers and sisters that was recognized by all races - the
Delian Knights. Thus, did he become Sextus Varius tel’Delian, and Elmeren’s knight in shining armor. The two were married soon after Sextus’s initiation and bought a house with Elmeren’s dowry in Avavale - a small village that is now Old Elturel in the citystate of Elturgard - and were blessed with two half-elf children - a boy named Alain, after Sextus’s father, and a girl named Valna. Despite his duties as a Delian Knight, Sextus was tireless in his devotion to his wife, and always found time to dote on his children - and there was much happiness, love and pride in the household.
The Delian Knights were once an order of knights tasked with defending Elturgard from the many evils that would do it harm. It was founded by a half-elf by the name of Lucan Varis, the last known wielder of the mythic
Sword of the White Well, and the legend goes that he was directed to do so by the Lady of the White Well - an otherworldly being said to be of unsurpassed grace and divine purity. It was the doctrine and knightly codes of the Delian Knights shaped Sextus into an exemplar of chivalry, and his skill with a blade earned him the rank of Knight-Protector.
Towards the end of his mortal life, the land of Elturgard came under siege from an undead scourge in the form of a dreaded demon lord and his unliving army - a threat that the entire Kingdom, including the Delian Knights, would face head-on in battle. Sextus was part of a small group of Delian Knights assigned to the task of evacuating the outlying towns and villages ahead of the main enemy force. It was deemed to be of minimal risk, but nevertheless of vital importance and, with family to protect in Avavale, Sextus took the mission very seriously. Unfortunately, no one could have foreseen that, during the battle, a vampire lord would break rank to indulge his own wanton, bloodthirsty, destructive compulsions upon the innocents fleeing from the surrounding countryside and, upon descending onto the folk of Avavale, ran afoul of Sextus. The commander of this small contingent of knights,
CaptainTiberius Zither ordered his men to stand their ground while the town’s guard evacuated the townsfolk. Though they fought valiantly, Zither and his comrades were cut to ribbons. Zither himself dying to protect the last of his men, Sextus from the powerful undead abomination. Sextus knew that this was one fight that he would not survive, and that he needed to buy as much time as he possibly could with his sacrifice so that the townsfolk may live. Between his skill as a swordsman, the sacrifice of his comrades, and pure, stubborn determination, Sextus survived far longer than anyone might have expected - long enough even that his family and the good folk of Avavale managed to escape entirely unharmed - though, as the vampire lord was called to heel by his dark master, and just prior to returning to battle, the fell creature struck a mortal blow, tearing into Sextus like a ripe blood apricot, and draining his lifeblood in an instant.
War is a confusing time, and Sextus’ body was left unburied for days - long enough for his first meeting with
Cobbler to take place, who was the first scavenger to feed on the knight’s corpse and, having imbibed the same infectious dark magic that would soon reanimate the fallen Knight, was imbued with the strength to jealously guard his prize and ensure that the feast was his alone.
When the time finally came when Sextus’s fate had been discovered, his family, fearing the degrading mutilation that would befall him to safeguard against his turning, provided false witness, and he was entombed intact along with Tiberius and the other Delian Knights in a tomb just outside of town. Sextus was deemed by the folk of Avavale as a great hero, and a statue was erected in the village in recognition of his ultimate sacrifice, and in honor of all Delian Knights.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how the tale is told), Sextus arose mere nights after his burial, awakened by the pecking of
Cobbler on the door of his sarcophagus. Unwilling to put his family through the horror and scandal of his fate, and unable to face the Delian Knights in his undead form, Sextus concealed his resurrection, he abandoned his rank of Knight-Protector, and instead instated himself as Knight-Redeemer - a token rank afforded to the dishonored amongst the Delian Knights, so that they may find penance and regain their honor in glorious death in service to the greater good, seeking the greatest and most dangerous of evils and throwing themselves into harm’s way to either vanquish it, or else be vanquished themselves. Alas, Sextus proved to be very hard to kill...
After the famous battle in which the knights and paladins of Elturel rode into hell to defeat the Devil and his undead horde the Delian Knights, already a relatively small secular order, was all but wiped out. The few remaining Delian Knights were scattered to the winds and his family - tel'Delian and Varius – believing Sextus to be dead, decided to flee the country in hopes of safety and stability in other lands. There was nothing left in Elturgard for Sextus, and so he followed his wife and children, protecting them from afar as they made the dangerous journey into the lands of Rarkonir and eventually settled in what was then known as the township of Masrin. Sextus remained the secret protector of his loved ones until his children were grown and had children of their own, but the death of Elmeren - who had always worried about outliving Sextus - caused him to turn away, unwilling to stick around to witness the eventual deaths of Alain and Valna, instead he continued his self-destructive quest as a Knight-Redeemer. Sextus journeyed for centuries and through many foreign lands in search of the noble death that would restore his honor, but no matter how much damage he seemed to take, his body simply would not give up the ghost, and he was denied death every time. Eventually, Sextus despaired - blaming his inability to die on the blessing he'd received as a young man from an entity he believed to be the
Raven Queen - so he returned to the White Well and prayed for death. Surprisingly, he instead found redemption, with the Lady of the White Well providing him with a new perspective - that heroes and villains are defined only by their actions, and nothing else. With this revelation, Sextus was then encouraged by the Lady to return to the lands of Elturgard, to use his dark powers for the greater good, and to take his rightful place in current events as they unfold. Still mistaking the Lady of the White Well to be the
Raven Queen, Sextus believes that their meeting is proof of his undeath being sanctioned by the goddess of death - though this does little to quell his self-loathing, nor sooth his bitterness towards the suffering and loss he feels as a result far exceeding a natural mortal lifetime.
Barely a year after Sextus had returned to Elturgard, while exploring the area surrounding Elanion’s Tower,
Cobbler spotted a desperate skirmish involving the Palatine. Initially, he ignored the crowlock, assuming that the vicious, greedy creature was interested only in a bit of carnage and a bit of easy carrion, though the screams of a young girl persuaded him to instead join the fray. Closing in on the fight quickly, Sextus soon spotted the teenager desperately trying to elude the business end of an assassin’s blade while her Palatine were swamped by robed fanatics, and his parental instincts took over. Exploding into a swarm of shadowy bats, Sextus bypassed the struggling Palatine, and reformed at the young woman’s side, filled with paternal rage, fighting like a demon to protect his new charge. With blade, fang, and explosions of divine energy, Sextus was victorious - though only just, for a vampire is weakest in the light of day, and the terrible venoms coating the assassins’ weapons ate through his vampire flesh quicker than it could mend - and yet he was nearly vanquished for good at the hands of the tardy Palatine. He was spared at the last moment by the screamed order of the girl.
Far from being executed, Sextus was escorted back to the royal castle in Elturgard with honor and, though he was not permitted by the High Overseer to become a member of the Palatine, he was instead awarded a position invented by the Doyenne herself and named, at Sextus’s suggestion, Knight-Protector, after his rank in his previous life, long passed. The young Doyenne had given him a new purpose, and Sextus treated her as if she were his own. He hoped that, with the right guidance, Doyenne Naevys Silverwell would grow to be a fair and compassionate ruler, unlike her ancestors...
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