Johnnath Cain

Blade-Knight of the Spellbreakers

Johnnath Cain was born to a reasonably well-off farming family in a small village near Greenwall. As a child, he spent many of his days helping his father out in the fields. He aspired to become a farmer like his father, as Johnnath appreciated the simple things in life and did not aspire to much more than a comfortable living earning an honest wage. One winter, his mother fell ill and perished. His father became a recluse as a result, and the farm began to deteriorate. Desperate to salvage their livelihood, Johnnath tried to convince his father to regain his composure and join him again in the fields, but to no avail. His father got into a drunken brawl at a tavern one evening and was killed by thieves. Without the extra pair of hands, the Cain family farm fell into disarray entirely, and the land was taken away from Johnnath. Without formal education of any kind, Johnnath went where so many other disaffected young men would go, and joined the military at sixteen. He spent two years acting as a squire for a knight before his squad were ambushed by mad blood mages. He was the only survivor, and as a result, was interviewed extensively by The Spell-Breakers, who were looking to remove this particular coven as a threat. After hearing of how they successfully shut down the rogue mages, Johnnath decided to switch from military duty to becoming a Spellbreaker. As an initiate his tasks were difficult for him, especially as magical education was required and he wasn't particularly academic. However, his dedication earned him his position as a Dagger-Squire, and his first successful sortie - involving the slaying of a troll threatening a village, along with a group of other Sword-Squires - allowed him easy passage into becoming a Blade-Knight.
For several years he operated as an ordinary Spellbreaker, shutting down rogue covens, killing magical threats, and working to protect the peace in small-time rural places like his home village. It was then that he was assigned - along with a significant contingent of Spellbreakers under the authority of Spear-General Markan Gowager to the town of Klarta Dunn. A plague had gotten out of hand, and the Spellbreakers had been ordered to shut it down. Johnnath found out during this expedition - as did many of his countrymen - that the plague was not accidental, but was funded by the Spellbreaker order in an attempt to weaken the burgeoning Staldor tribes to the south. The plague had ballooned far beyond where its creators in the College had intended it to, and Johnnath was among several Spellbreakers captured by the cult spreading the plague throughout the continent. Though none of his compatriots survived, Johnnath was rescued by a band of adventurers and joined them in defeating the physical form of the Great Unclean One that had been influencing the spread of the plague from beyond the mortal realm. After this success and after a tense stand-off with Gowager, Johnnath resigned from the order in disgust at their actions and its effects, and went off on his own to improve the lives of common folk as a small-time vigilante.

Conscientious Objector

In the wake of his resignation, Johnnath fought petty criminals and the occasional band of woodland monsters, protecting some of the small villages around Greenwall. He spent some time passing down his training to the local militia of the region, but regularly faced prejudice from more religious elements who considered his resignation from the Chantry more of a mild heresy than a personal decision. Deciding he could not risk telling his own tale of Klaarta Dunn, he began to keep his head down more and more, and eventually returned to his roots as a farmhand for hire, believing his adventuring days were well and truly over.

An Ordinary Hero

At the Trial of Six Heresies, Johnnath was called to testify on the side of the party, which he did, stating how they had rescued him at Klaarta Dunn. He was then charged with accompanying them into the Abyss to destroy Baal'zurre. Whilst initially daunted by the idea - particularly when measuring himself against those he was fighting alongside - he decided to follow the group. At Ewrorin, he performed menial but valuable roles for the party, acting, effectively, as their quartermaster. He helped make their abode a little more like a home and less like a holdout; and when fights ensued, particularly in the hideouts of some of the city's cultists, he was another trained sword that could hold his own. However, as the fights progressed and their foes became more abyssal, it was clear Johnnath was out of his depth. He was no demonslayer, had no magical powers to speak of, and was not as experienced as the other Spellbreakers in the party. But still, regardless of odds or foe, Johnnath always tried to bat with the rest, in no small part thanks to Brox's encouragement. So it was that he fought his hardest against Elyria, and jumped into the Abyssal portal with the rest of the group...Only he and Crawn were spat back out of the portal, sometime, somewhere.

Lost To The Realms

No one ever truly learned the fate of Johnnath. To some, he was a man out of his depth, a boy-Knight who never truly realised the gravity of his assignment. To others, he was a brave adventurer, someone who never allowed the gravity of the situation to bring him down. He was awarded the Knight's Reward and etched onto the Tablet of Memories at Aslod, alongside other heroic Spellbreakers of the order. In the centuries to follow, he would still be immortalised as one of the Abyssal Twelve, even as whispers that perhaps he did survive would echo all the way from Eidos to Athemar and beyond...

Current Status

Unknown fate following a failed entry into the Abyss

Age

29 (by 267)

Gender

Male

Eyes

Amber, gentle

Hair

Brown

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

White

Height

6'1"

Aligned Organization

The Spell-Breakers

Related Historical Events

• 264
  The Boneplague